The importance of the word 'dangerous'

Peter Whitmore has been sentenced to life in prison. Whitmore is a pedophile, notorious for his recent kidnapping of two young boys in Saskatchewan. This isn't his first conviction, and part of his notoreity is that the authorities seem pretty sure he'll reoffend if he's ever given the chance. His history certainly seems to bear this out.

There was a fair bit of controversy last week because the prosecution in the case offerred Whitmore a plea bargain. They had been planning to seek dangerous offender status for Whitmore, which would make it more difficult for him to ever get out on parole. They dropped that plan in exchange for his guilty plea.

Victims' advocates and all kinds of people were outraged. Surely, the argument went, this guy's the perfect candidate for dangerous offender status. We don't want him back on our streets.

And they may well be right. But at least this way the victims won't have to testify -- and that seems huge to me. And he's gotten a life sentence. That's not something you often see in cases of child molestation.

In fact, it seems to me that the outrage shouldn't be about this latest case -- it should be about the first one. The one he was sentenced to eighteen months for.

Eighteen months. Doesn't seem like enough, does it?