How to proceed
 

Recently, a convicted pedophile by the name of Peter Whitmore abducted two boys, and attempted to flee. One boy escaped, and the other boy was saved after Whitmore gave himself up following a ten hour standoff with RCMP. Everyone is thankful it ended peacefully, there's no doubt. But I want to know why the hell this happened in the first place. I also want to know what you all think should be done to stop it.

Here's Whitmore's criminal record.

1993- Abduction and five sexual offences involving four young boys. He spent 16 months in prison.

Nine days (!) after his release, he abducted an eight year old girl from Guelph, and took her to Toronto. In response, he was sentenced to 56 months in jail.

He was released in November 2000. Less than a month following his release, he was found in a Toronto motel with a 13 year old boy. He got another year in jail.

2002. He's developped quite a reputation in Ontario. He's found with a five year old boy. No convictions, no charges. He flees to British Columbia. A search of his backpack finds a "rape kit" which includes latex gloves, pictures of young children, sex lube, duct tape, a sleeping bag, and zip-ties (which make great handcuffs.) He pleads guilty to parole violations.

He makes an appearance on Canada AM, claiming "I can't change the past, but I can change the future. I won't do it again."

July 22nd, 2006. 14 year old Jorden Bruyerre goes missing from his home in Brandon Manitoba. RCMP suspect Whitmore.

July 31st. Ten year old Zachary Miller goes missing from Whitewood Saskatchewan. Just last night, they are found a bit south of Whitewood, in an abandoned farmhouse. Ten hour stand off, Whitmore turns himself in.


Okay, my query is this.

The man has reoffended four (now five) times. The RCMP said they suspected he would reoffend again. Why the hell didn't they have him under such tight surveillance that he would worry about going near a school? Why the hell hasn't he gotten longer sentences?

How does the Canadian justice system make sure this situation never arise again?


My solution, while not elegant, is to sentence pedophiles who reoffend twice to life in prison. No parole. Can someone explain why this hasn't been implemented already?

That's a damn easy question, Darth. The fact is there are so much more important things to do in today's society. There's so many dangers that the dangers of aubduction by a pedophile just aren't up there in the list.

I mean, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas just needs to be the center of attention.

Yeah, and let's not forget that with the right patch, The Sims can be the perfect place for pedophiles to get spurred on... :rolleyes:

I really can't answer as to why he'd be let off so lightly in some situations. At this point, he shouldn't get anything short of life in prison.

I guess maybe it's just strange to deal with. Obviously you can't punish him as much as a murderer, and by the sound of things he doesn't sound like a violent offender. Here we have someone who's falling between the cracks of a volatile public issue. What I'm saying is that it's easier to botch the jailing of a non-violent offender, and we're more likely to make a thread about it if it's a sensitive crime. The latter isn't to downplay the issue, but in these times we should criticise the system as a whole.

But rape is a violent crime. At the tender age of 10 young Zachary Miller may have experienced a trauma that will alter the way his mind and emotions function for the rest of his life. To butcher a child's emotional health is as violent as to cut his hand off -- and in the long run it is can be just as much a hindrance to a healthy and productive life.

Now I don't know how they do things in Canada, but down here in Arkansas we have what's called sex offender notification. When a sex offender moves into our county or moves from one place to another in our county the sherriff makes his address and offense public knowledge. It goes in the newspaper. We don't picket the guy's house and we don't harrass him, but we do keep a close eye on our kids and make sure they are never alone with them.

As for why pedophiles aren't sented to life without parole (which I agree is a very appropriate sentence), I'd guess it's because prison's and keeping people in prisons both cost a lot of money. It's cheaper and easier for politicians to find band-aid solutions that make people think they're solving the problem. That's because everybody wants to put pedophiles away when they're having lunch with their friends; but at home when they pay the bills and at the polls when they vote against the prison taxes they think that sort of thing only happens to somebody else's kids in somebody else's town.

Well Im from Australia and we recently had a serious suprise at work.

I work at Big W which is a department store here as a Nightfiller.

One day when i came into work at about 6 pm the entire shopping center was full of cops and forensic investigators needless to say this was wierd because nothing ever happens around here. 10 minutes later i knew. A unnamed young male who the police knew of had raped and killed a 10 year old girl in the shopping center toilets right outside where i worked. Worse the guy had apparantly worked at the shopping centre. The guy was arrested by 6 the next morning and his name was out later that day.

This guy was known by police to be a risk to children and yet nothing, NOTHING was done to prevent him from doing anything.

Im not usually much of a violent person but all i could think about for the next few days was wanting to hurt the evil SOB severely, make him suffer.
I still can't think about the guy without getting angry.

My point is that people like this shouldnt be given the chance to offend OR worse reoffend. I realsie it's not a nice thing to say but don't give them the chance to reoffend, either life in prison or kill them. As for those who haven't been charged with anything yet but the police know are a risk. How about some stronger measures taken. Warnings given that he is not allowed within a certain distance of a school or he can be arrested. Better presence's within places where our children are most likely to be. It's all very well adding more security camera's and such but they aren't preventive measures they are only used to catch whoever did it because anyone who would do such a thing isnt likely to be put off by a video camera that may or may not identify them.

You may not, but you can't tell me there aren't people who do.

That's just crazy! I agree with you, Darth-- If a guy abducts someone after being released from jail for the same crime, not to mention within days of his release, they should have locked him up for life! Or at least kept him under max surveilance for the rest of his life!

I'm sure the government has some reason or another for the actions they've taken, but I sure can't find a good one for putting more children at risk!!

Alright, rape is higher up the offense ladder, but not as bad as murder. And the trauma of it I'm not sure we've quantified, and perhaps it's only because western society is so fearful of sex. I could see being crushed by a bus or seeing the movie jaws at 5 be a trauma too. I remember after tremor, I think, I would avoid walking on solidground for a long while.

Anyways, I think that if we have child rapists on the loose, we probably have cannibals and violent gangters out there too. Frankly, I don't see how pedofile indexes increase our safety much. They're an ex post solution for something unlikely to happen again.

I know that there are places where sex-offender registration doesn't work. There are places where harrassment and such do occur. But Baxter County is pretty small and not much manages to happen here without word getting around. Especially something as public as people protesting a sex-offender. So I feel confident in saying that sex offenders aren't being picketed or harrassed in our area. Shunned? Definitely. Outcast? Yup. Abused or mistreated? Nope.

I think part of why that is is that when the notification program started our sherrif made it clear that if there are any reports of that kind of thing the program will end immediately. The new sherrif has affirmed that policy and a notice about it appears in big bold print on every offender notification sheet they put out.

The reason I mentioned that "we don't picket and we don't harrass" is because I think sex-offender notification should be used everywhere, but for that to work people need to be adult about it and not abuse the information.