A Michigan vigilante who amassed thousands of social media followers with his unauthorized hunts for pedophiles was shot and killed in a confrontation with two teenagers, police said.
Robert Wayne Lee, 40, of Pontiac, was better known as Boopac Shakur online, where he would often pose as a 15-year-old girl to expose alleged predators.
Authorities say that Lee accused one of the teens at a local restaurant of being a pedophile and punched him—leading one of the boys to pull out a knife and the other to fire a gun. The suspects fled but were later arrested.
The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office noted Lee’s unsanctioned activities—and their uneven results—in a news release about his slaying.
“His one-man crusade has led to the arrest and criminal charges being filed against several men,” it said. “He has also mistakenly identified someone as a sexual predator who was not.”
Videos that Lee posted to Facebook showed him confronting the men he corresponded with while posing as a minor in the style of the show To Catch a Predator.
A GoFundMe to benefit his daughter said Lee “dedicated his life to protecting the innocence of our children from those with malicious intentions. Through his courageous efforts, he successfully exposed 132 predators who sought to harm our community's youth.”
However, in January, police confirmed just four arrests based on Lee’s videos, according to the Oakland Press. Police had asked Lee to stop his sting operations, but he persisted and even announced classes for others who wanted to follow suit.
Lee denied he was a vigilante. “I’m a concerned citizen,” he told the Press. “A vigilante is doing police work without a badge.”
“I’m just putting the fishing pole in the water and seeing who’s biting,” he added.
I really don't understand the boner so many Americans seem to have for vigilantism
Just fix your goddamn police system - there's a reason why vigilantism is outlawed since it's too easy to misjudge or misidentify stuff and the consequences are horrible - let professionals do their job properly
Oh sure, lemme just fix the police system real quick. Give me a minute. I don't know why nobody thought of that!
Well shit if only we'd known all we had to do was fix it quick!
Silly us!
That's it? Just fix the police system?? Whoa, why didn't we think of doing this sooner?!
Why don't I just strap on my fix the police system helmet and hop in the fix the police system cannon and fire myself into fix the police system town where police reform grows on trees?
I think that's just it right there. Our police system is completely broken and for-profit. People want justice. So out of desperation they're seeking it themselves.
Fixing the police is great but I don't think that's enough to reduce child rape.
Find the causes—childhood abuse / neglect, most likely—and aggressively address these social ills. Find more reliable ways to rehabilitate and use it for those convicted. Among other things.
Policing doesn't prevent crimes.
And it was never really intended to.
Vigilantism also doesn't - what's your point?
I never suggested that it did.
I think part of it has something to do with the popularity of superhero movies like Batman and such. Honestly I think having the world's biggest movie production system has been a net negative for Americans and humanity as a whole.
The US also has very much of a "cowboy" self image
I think the cause is the other way around. We had vigilantes long before Batman. Cowboy movies weren't making this stuff up.
Cowboy movies made a LOT of shit up. The Wild West was not full of gunfights
I mean, you can visit the OK Corral and see where the bullets are lodged in the walls anytime you'd like.
Yep. That''s one.
Point is any old Western with a shootout is more likely to be totally false than even partially true.
I remember reading somewhere that the "Old West" actually had pretty strict gun control.
Iirc, the usual practice was to turn in your guns to the sheriff as soon as you got to town. You had to have a license or some official form stating you had the right to carry your gun with you, but it was still limited to basically just LEOs.
Vigilantism is not a modern invention. I am sorry not all movies are arthouse and that makes you sad.
Alan Moore, who wrote Watchmen, was trying to make this point through his media, but he also explicitly stated it in interviews. He was like, "Y'all do realize that superhero stuff is fascist power fantasy, right? You shouldn't like this stuff as an adult."
Love his work as Rasputin impersonator.