Alex Rosen
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Alex Rosen (also known under his online aliases Chet Goldstein and Gordon Flowers) is the founder of the
Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
-based organization Predator Poachers, which conducts
sting operation In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person attempting to commit a crime. A typical sting will have an undercover law enforcement officer, detective, or co-operative member of the public play a rol ...
s on adults who seek sexual activities with minors. By April 2025, the organization has claimed responsibility for arrests in 48 U.S. states and convictions in 41, though this statistic has not been fully verified.


Career

Rosen founded Predator Poachers at the age of 19 in his hometown of
Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
,
Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
. The operations conducted by the group generally follow the strategy of creating a fake account on a
dating app An online dating application, commonly known as a dating app, is an online dating service presented through a mobile phone application. These apps often take advantage of a smartphone's GPS location capabilities, always on-hand presence, and acc ...
, waiting for an adult to message the account and then quickly disclosing that the account in question belongs to an underage person. If the target continues to message the account, the chat is then usually followed by a staged, real-life meeting with the suspect. "We drop our age immediately. We don't give them any doubts as to how old we are," Rosen stated in an interview with Fox 40. The organization is funded by membership subscriptions and merchandise sales on its website. Most of Predator Poachers' operations take place on
Grindr Grindr () is a location-based social networking and online dating application for gay, bisexual, queer, and transgender people. It was one of the first geosocial apps for gay men when it launched in March 2009, and has since become the large ...
, an LGBT online dating application. Grindr became closely associated with Predator Poachers' brand on its
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channel, whose banner featured an illustration of a smartphone displaying a Grindr conversation. In an interview with ''
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'', Rosen stated that the reason why "we use Grindr as number one is because... I didn't have pictures of underage girls on my phone," he told the organization. "I do have a little brother though, and I did have pictures of him on my phone." Rosen told the
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that, in a 2021 operation, he had used his 16-year-old cousin as a decoy, adding that he agreed that "it was very irresponsible." A 2020 article by ''
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'' stated that, in many videos, Rosen seemed "to instigate fights, or use excessive profanity and derogatory terms", and that the language he had used on video resulted in his YouTube channel receiving two strikes. The channel was later banned from the platform due to receiving multiple community guidelines strikes. Another channel he created on the platform was deleted in 2021. When asked about the opinion of law-enforcement officials who say that such matter should be left to police departments, Rosen said that "every single department is either going to say nothing or discourage it publicly, but we've seen that departments that discourage it publicly will work to prosecute our cases". Upon being interviewed by the ''
St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the '' Belleville News-Democra ...
'' about the topic in 2019, some law-enforcement officers stated that the phenomenon of predator hunters can create a new form of mob justice and engineer chaotic situations that should be left to professionals.


Incidents

On July 24, 2024, Rosen stated that a 60-year-old man had died by suicide after Rosen and his team accused him of viewing child pornography. According to court documents, the man, Donald Anthony Letcher had been previously accused of child molestation in the 1990s in a criminal case that was ultimately dismissed by the prosecution after the
South Dakota Supreme Court The South Dakota Supreme Court is the highest court in the state of South Dakota. It is composed of a chief justice and four associate justices appointed by the governor. One justice is selected from each of five geographic appointment districts ...
overturned the man's conviction due to concerns regarding the credibility of the witnesses and another evidence-related issue that, the court stated, "severely prejudiced isability to defend" himself. Rosen and his team were detained by police during the incident.


Politics

Rosen has described himself as "very, very right-wing", as a Libertarian and as a Conservative. He runs a 475,000 followers account on X.


Confrontation with Peter Hotez

In June 2023, Rosen confronted
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
expert
Peter Hotez Peter Jay Hotez (born May 5, 1958) is an American scientist, pediatrician, and advocate in the fields of global health, vaccinology, and neglected tropical disease control. He serves as founding dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, ...
at home in Houston. The visit happened after Hotez declined to debate presidential candidate and anti-vaccine activist
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. (born January 17, 1954), also known by his initials RFK Jr., is an American politician, environmental lawyer, author, conspiracy theorist, and anti-vaccine activist serving as the 26th United States secretary of heal ...
on the ''
Joe Rogan Experience ''The Joe Rogan Experience'' is a podcast hosted by American comedian, presenter, and UFC color commentator Joe Rogan. It was initiated on December 24, 2009, on YouTube by Rogan and comedian Brian Redban, who was its sole co-host and producer ...
'' podcast. During the encounter, which happened at the sidewalk of Hotez's home, Rosen asked Hotez why he had refused to debate Kennedy and whether he believed in " vaccine injuries". Hotez responded that he was still considering debating Kennedy and said "don't come to my house" before going back inside. Later that day, Hotez stated on
social media Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the Content creation, creation, information exchange, sharing and news aggregator, aggregation of Content (media), content (such as ideas, interests, and other forms of expression) amongs ...
that he was "stalked in front of my home by a couple of antivaxers taunting me to debate RFK Jr."


Statements about LGBT people

Rosen has made critical statements about the LGBT community. According to
Texas Observer ''The Texas Observer'' (also known as the ''Observer'') is an American magazine with a liberal political outlook. The ''Observer'' is published bimonthly by a 501(c)(3) In a social-media post published prior to March 2020, Rosen called his followers to cancel a
drag queen story hour Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH), Drag Queen Storytime, Drag Story Time, and Drag Story Hour are children's events first started in 2015 by author and activist Michelle Tea in San Francisco with the goals of promoting reading and diversity. The even ...
event at an
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library. "I don't think that shit needs to be around kids, because kids are kids. They can't decide what their preferences are at that young age," he stated.


Use of racial slurs

Rosen has been recorded using racist epithets in previous videos. In 2019, Rosen used a racial slur on video, an event that he later confirmed in a 2023 interview with the
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. In the interview, in which the news organization asked him about his previous use of racial slurs, Rosen stated that he is Jewish and that "I said it, but I'm not apologizing for it. Because, you know, people say that word has power. I mean, I don't think making Holocaust or Jew jokes has any power." Rosen has said the n-word in multiple YouTube videos and livestreams. In a prank call to a
Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a Decentralization, decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and Racial inequality in the United States, racial inequality experienced by black people, and to pro ...
hotline, he reportedly used homophobic and racial slurs. Rosen stated in an interview that "it obviously looks bad" and that he had "no hatred in my heart towards any group of people".


Mock petition against H-1B visas

Amid an early 2025 anti-immigration backlash against Indian
H-1B The H-1B is a foreign worker visa in the United States that allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers in so-called specialty occupations. The regulation and implementation of the visa program is carried out by the United States Citizenship ...
workers in the United States, Rosen published a video on X in which he visited Indian-owned shops and urged ethnic Indians to sign a mock petition to stop "the spread of the H-1B virus." Rosen stated on social media that the metaphorical virus "originated from India" and its "symptoms" included "smell" and "diarrhea", adding that it was the "deadliest virus" in the country. The video garnered over a million views and was described as racist by many users on the platform, although other users supported Rosen's actions.


Activism at public events

Previously, in June 2022, Rosen published a video of himself confronting Republican representative
Dan Crenshaw Daniel Reed Crenshaw (born March 14, 1984) is an American politician and former United States Navy SEAL officer serving as the U.S. representative for Texas's 2nd congressional district since 2019. He is a member of the Republican Party. Cre ...
at the Texas State Republican Convention, calling him a "
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sell-out", until being stopped by security. In October of the same year, Rosen posted a video where Harris County officers told him that he had been banned from the Harris County Commissioners Court for being "disruptive". In October 2023, Rosen heckled
Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...
at a Houston political rally and accused her husband,
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
, of having visited
Jeffrey Epstein Jeffrey Edward Epstein ( , ; January 20, 1953August 10, 2019) was an American financier and child sex offender. Born and raised in New York City, Epstein began his professional career as a teacher at the Dalton School, despite lacking a col ...
's island "26 times". He was subsequently dragged out of the event by security.


See also

* Alex Stein *
Anti-pedophile activism Anti-pedophile activism encompasses social actions against pedophiles. It also includes acts of anti-pedophile citizen vigilantism conducted by vigilante groups, some of which have operated alongside government agencies in countries such as the Un ...
*
Anti-vaccine activism Anti-vaccine activism, which collectively constitutes the "anti-vax" movement, is a set of organized activities expressing opposition to vaccination, and these collaborating networks have often sought to increase vaccine hesitancy by dissem ...
* ''
To Catch a Predator ''To Catch a Predator'' is an American reality television series in the television news magazine program ''Dateline NBC'' featuring confrontations of host Chris Hansen, partly filmed with a hidden camera, with adult men arriving at a Sting oper ...
''


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rosen, Alex Activists from Houston American anti-vaccination activists American people of Jewish descent American vigilantes Anti-drag sentiment Anti-pedophile activism Conservative Jews Internet trolls Jewish American activists Jews from Texas Living people Vigilantism against sex offenders in the United States