The paranoia around this kind of thing wigs me the fuck out. I’ve seen bumper stickers that read, “Pedophile hunting license,” and random Facebook groups that seem devoted to the notion that there are pedophiles everywhere among us, lying in wait. I never quite know what to say about these people, because on the one hand: Sure peodphiles are bad. But on the other hand: The obsession is creepy… especially since it tends to be connected to violent vigilante fantasies.
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Bill every caller who calls in bullshit like this. Perform emergency on-the-scene walletectomies on the guilty parties if necessary.
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One of the worst aspects is that in many localities, once the cops have been called, the whole process has to happen and is unstoppable. Child Protective Services has to investigate not only the babysitter but the parents, and better find that they are not only angels, but also entirely average and unremarkable. The least whiff of anything out of the ordinary, there will be Hell to pay. Because we can’t be too protective of the children! The situation can be totally innocent and unremarkable, but once The Authorities are involved, they have to find something.
I’m extremely fortunate to have been born to privilege. I was pretty free-range with my daughter, at least by the standards of her peers. Once, as a college kid, she said to my wife and me, “I can’t believe the stuff you let me do!” I shudder to think what CPS would have made of it. (Letting a 16-year-old girl lead a hike in a wilderness area???)
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I haven’t seen stickers, but Facebook is full of stories like: “I was a Target, and there was this weird guy, and I felt weird, so we went back to our car, and this lady picked him up in A VAN, and once they saw we were in our car they drove off. We called the police and they said that there were gangs of people stealing kids for sex trafficking.”
Or:
“I was at rest stop on the highway when I took my kid to the bathroom, and there were two women in there, and I heard one of them say, ‘The little blond girl.’ We didn’t stop to wash our hands, we just ran back to the car where my husband had parked. Out side waiting were two men waiting out side IN A VAN. We called the police and they said that there were gangs of people stealing kids for sex trafficking.”
I have even seen police departments show screen caps of posts that say, “We have no records of anyone calling us about this. If anything like this happens, you should call us, but also be aware that there is a lot of made up shit on the internet.”
It reminds of the Satanic Panic. My ex-wife is always reminding me to keep my kid near by. 
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not to defend this utter BS or the police (omg am I defending the police?!)
but if the idiots called 911, the police basically HAVE to follow up, not an option
honestly I’d rather the police have to follow up, but there also should be some kind of repercussions for the idiots who called 911
then again if there are repercussions, people might also stop calling 911 when they think they see someone breaking into your home
still, wow this is a new level of stupid
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Yeah, I’ve seen this, and worse–with pictures of the “perpetrator.” I mean if all they’re doing is giving off a creepy aura, then you’re setting yourself up for a libel suit that you probably deserve.
I’ve worked with children and the most troubling moment of that otherwise pretty routine job at a kid’s museum was when I went to the bathroom and a kid stuck his head under the stall partition and say hello to me while I was … let’s say evacuating. I shooed him (I don’t think I’d ever used the word, “shoo” before–but I was pretty nonplussed.) I mentioned it to my boss, who said that kids have done that to him before (I think it’s because the stalls were a little on the high side). But I can only imagine if one of these paranoid FB parents came along and saw it at the wrong moment–what a clusterfuck that could have been.
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I thought making false claims to the cops was a crime?
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Ok, fine. She makes all that BS up, the cop approaches guy and no signs of issue from kids. Leave that at that. Then follow up with the woman for making a false police report.
for about 18 months i worked as a housekeeper at a ranch/resort in colorado. during our busy season i made extra money as a babysitter. according to the hotel rules i was off the clock but i could only charge $5/hour. still, that was $0.75 an hour over minimum. there was a loophole to that in that if i was sitting more than one child, i could charge $5/hour per child. that worked out to be a pretty sweet deal on some nights. one evening i watched 5 kids a total of 8 hours. i dealt with 3 sets of parents on that one, two of which tipped me. i ended up with just under $250 for what proved to be an extended play-date followed by everyone laying down to sleep the last 3 hours while i read a book.
the great part though, was the reaction my walking up caused as they realized i was the babysitter. 30+ years old, hair halfway down my back, a full beard, and three earrings. the folks from the rec center kept assuring them that i was great with kids, had a calm and gentle nature, and totally knew my way around the property.
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“Oh he only eats the godless ones without a soul.” 
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So… lawyers?
In our house, “shoo-shoo” was the euphemism for feces (or evacuation of same).
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Video of the cop:
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good thing he didn’t also look threatening.
the wrong cops show up and this story could have been worse. sighs 
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Yup. In the fairly pasty white and well to do area that I currently live in, it’s not unusual to see dark brown women with pale blonde blue eyed kids in a stroller…
Genetics is sure weird huh?
(and yeah, it’s a nanny joke…)
(I’d make a “manny” joke, but he’s likely to get arrested)
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It’s “we gotta protect the white women from black men” and “gay men are pedophiles” all over again. Moral panics cherry-pick relatively rare events to generate a climate of fear and paranoia that’s then used to scapegoat a group based on prejudices such as race, gender, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, gamers, ect…
Moral panics are pure unalloyed bigotry which use the pretext of concern for innocent people as an excuse to foment hate. Then you wind up with people committing mass shootings in a pizza parlor because they were radicalized by the social media hate groups.
It serves as a gateway for people who don’t consciously think of themselves as prejudiced to nonetheless become afraid of people based on fear of the other.
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To add insult to injury, while law enforcement can’t normally be sued for failing to protect citizens (even due to gross negligence as in that case), my understanding is that citizens can be prosecuted by the state for failing to assist law enforcement in discharging their duties.
We may not have flying cars by next year, but Blade Runner got one thing absolutely correct…
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But you’re white, yes? I imagine a black guy with (say) long dreads, earrings and maybe tatts would not have gotten the opportunity to be a housekeeper, let alone the chance of babysitting kids in downtime.
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Depending on what she said, there may not have been anything false about it. “I think he’s kidnapping them” would be true, she thought that was true.
In the UK we have an offence “wasting police time”, which is aimed at exactly this sort of thing. Now it’s unlikely she’d have actually been charged for a first offence, but they’d definitely have threatened to charge her, and generally given her a talking to.
(“Did you know that if you’re charged with wasting police time you can be sentenced with up to six months in jail madam?”, carefully not saying if she is being charged, just leaving the possibility open…)
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i am white. if someone like that had applied during the 8 months i was head of housekeeping they would have had the opportunity of being a housekeeper. but i get your point.
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