East Netherlands regional police chief Oscar Dros appealed to Dutch citizens to "stop paedo-hunting; stop detaining; stop provoking - leave this to us."
Mr Dros told Algemeen Dagblad newspaper that since July some 250 incidents had been registered involving self-styled hunters, and there were probably many more. The practice has now been banned by police and public prosecutors.
People had been forced off the road, assaulted, threatened and publicly shamed on the internet, he said.
Facebook groups have sprung up across the country, with names like pedohuntnl, and some have attracted thousands of members.
One group member told public broadcaster NOS that "we're doing this to protect children".
The Dutch police chief said such vigilante behaviour "has no effect, because the evidence these citizens believe they have is often paper thin".
No comments:
Post a Comment