This sounds strange . . . but perhaps it's not so odd, as I'll explain in a moment.
A report from Sweden states:
Criminal organisation Original Gangsters (OG) has assumed control of a Swedish website that exposes the identity of sex offenders, Crime News reports.
The gang has taken the step after the founders of the Kriminellt.com website, four concerned parents, approached them after receiving a series of threats.
"We have families to think about and the threats have recently been getting a little close to home. Call us weak if you will but the family always comes first," explained the four founders in a statement on the site.
OG leader Denho "Dano" Acar explained that the the gang "wanted to provide a community service" and underlined that taking over the site "has nothing to do with money."
"Just because we are professional criminals does not mean that we don't have any morals," Acar wrote in a statement on the site.
But the move has drawn criticism from some observers concerned that the involvement of the criminal organization might lead to an escalation of violence and an increased incidence of vigilante justice.
Many of the comments on Kriminellt's user forum are of a threatening nature with specific warnings directed towards some of the convicted rapists, child sex offenders and child pornography offenders listed on the website.
"In a democracy it is of great interest that the state retains a monopoly on the administration of justice and that there is not some form of private punishment," said retired state prosecutor Sven-Erik Alheim to Crime News.
Many of those writing on the site's open forum reason that the OG are less likely to succumb to threats and are therefore a suitable and effective means of keeping the site open. A published survey of 89 users showed that 71 percent were "very much in favour" of the new owners.
The site introduces itself by asking a series of questions: Why are convicted criminals protected by the media? Why are no convictions ever published? and Do we not have the right to know if we have a convicted paedophile as a neighbour?
Original Gangsters leader Dehno Acar has promised that the site will continue to address these concerns and will ensure that more offenders are exposed.
"We shall increase the amount of news. More and more will be exposed. We feel it is our duty to do so," Acar said in an interview with Nyheter 24.
The Original Gangsters are a real criminal gang. They even have their own Web site! You'll find a translated version (via Google Translate) here, if you're interested. Click on the 'Information' link for more background on them.
The reason I can understand this, in a twisted-logic sort of way, is because of my work as a prison chaplain for many years. 'Ordinary' criminals loathe and detest sex offenders - so much so that the worst of the latter have to be kept in segregation, for fear that the other inmates will exact revenge on them. I can actually understand a 'conventional' criminal organization like the Original Gangsters wanting to help expose sex offenders as part of their 'honor code'. Normal crooks are OK, in their book. Sex offenders aren't.
If I were a sex offender in Sweden, I'd be thinking about emigration right now!
Peter
4 comments:
Having worked with prison ministries and been a speaker at the local prisons GED and college graduations, I agree that "normal" criminals detest pedophiles and other sex offenders with a passion.
Be interesting to see if the gang in question decides to move towards blackmail and extortion over moral "rectitude".
Just in case the website doesn't make it clear enough, OG isn't just any criminal gang. They are arguably the the most powerful and worst of gangs in Sweden
The less you have, the more fiercely you defend it. This applies to morality, too- the more depraved you are, the more important it becomes to demonstrate that you're not like THOSE fuckers.
I lose no sleep over the fact that perverts often have nasty, brutish, and short lives in prison.
Jim
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