This really ought to be a no-brainer.
And it would be ... except that we got lawyers and judges involved.
Lawyers and judges are to the simple resolution of human conflict what
Osama bin Laden is to Muslim/Jewish relations, or what Todd Bertuzzi is
to good sportsmanship and fair play.
In the wake of the alleged abduction and sex-assault spree attributed
to convicted pedophile Peter Whitmore, every columnist in the country
and then some had a kick at this particular can. It takes a lot to
outrage Canadians.
It was pretty clear the nation was united on this single issue as it
hasn't been since we stormed the beaches of Normandy.
I figured I'd let it alone. Face it, after you say, "Sexually
assaulting Canada's children is wrong. Let's put the monsters who do
this away," you're pretty much done, right?
Apparently not.
In a story from the Sun's Ottawa bureau, Louise Botham, president of
the Criminal Lawyer's Association, worries in the wake of the Whitmore
arrest that Crown attorneys are increasingly applying to have criminals
classed as dangerous offenders, which provides for an indefinite
sentence.
She also calls it a myth that sexual offenders are disproportionately
inclined to reoffend, citing a study out of the Warkworth Penitentiary
that suggested a 13.4% recidivism rate after five years, with rapists
tending to reoffend more often than child molesters.
Anyone who could utter such a statement -- apparently completely
unmindful of the moral horror with which normal human beings would
greet it -- is obviously beyond our assistance and counsel.
But bottom line: If, for every 100 child molesters and rapists we
release, 13.5 of them claim new innocent victims, destroying the lives
of kids and women, how about we keep them ALL locked up?
Because those odds suck.
And, let's be clear, those 13.5% who reoffend? Those are the only ones
dumb enough to get caught more than once. And no sane human believes
that the first time a child molester monster appears before the bar of
justice, that it really is a first offence.
There is usually a long line of victims in his wake, victims unavenged.
Whitmore's lawyer, Daniel Brodsky, recently said: "People pay lip
service to the concept of illness. If you really believe he has an
illness, then put him in a (hospital) ... don't play games."
Brodsky's the one playing games.
Whitmore doesn't have an illness. Sensible Canadians don't believe
Whitmore has an illness.
Whitmore just doesn't care about the damage he does to children in
pursuit of his twisted desires. His is the ultimate selfishness. He is
a thief of Satanic proportions, stealing the innocence of pre-pubescent
children who will never forget the monstrousness of his attacks upon
them.
This week in Calgary, a judge delayed sentencing of a man who sexually
abused and made child pornography of his daughters and their friends --
starting when the girls were both about 10 years old.
The judge said an earlier psychiatric assessment following the man's
guilty pleas didn't address all the issues he considered important.
"There's absolutely nothing said as to the motivation of this accused
in these offences," he said.
I'd like to respectfully suggest that the vast majority of Canadians
know the motivation of this series of crimes, even if this judge does
not.
He did it because he thought it was fun.
People have normal, healthy sex because it's fun. A very few people
have abnormal, unhealthy sex for the same reason.
Until judges and lawmakers quit using a medical model to deal with
crime, particularly this kind of heinous sex crime -- poor boy, he must
be the victim of some brand of mental disorder, he had an unhappy
childhood, his mom toilet trained him too late -- we will keep
releasing the Whitmores of this sorry world to claim new victims.
And that is our collective national shame.
Because after Whitmore and all those who have come before him, we know
better.
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