I don’t know how to break this to you gently, so I’ll just come right out with it: I could kill you.

I don’t mean, “You just spilled red wine on my new couch. I could kill you!”

I mean this: Put a knife in my hand, I could stab you in the back. Put a gun in my hand, I could shoot you in the heart.

And — sorry to say this — so could you.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m sure you’re a perfectly charming person, give to charity, visit your grandmother every Sunday, and sandbag for strangers when the Red River spills its banks.

But no matter how well we are raised, no matter how “good” we are, there is always a danger that, with the right trigger, we will fall into an abyss and do something horrible.

That’s why in court, when a judge is told about an offender’s risk to reoffend, the best possible assessment is “very low,” not “none.”

We live with risk every day, whether it is the risk of harm befalling us, or us inflicting harm.

Which brings us to Vince Li.

Li was arrested in July 2008 after he killed, dismembered, and cannibalized 22-year-old Tim McLean aboard a crowded Greyhound bus just outside of Portage la Prairie.

Li, who suffers from schizophrenia, was later found not criminally responsible for the killing and since March 2009 has been held at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre.

Li had been hospitalized briefly for erratic behavior prior to his arrest, but had not received any substantive treatment for his illness.

On Thursday, the Manitoba Review Board agreed, as it has for the past three years, to relax a number of restrictions on Li’s freedom. Li will now move to an unlocked ward, be allowed unescorted passes to Selkirk, and group supervised visits to Winnipeg.

Li’s doctors say he continues to respond well to treatment, understands the seriousness of his illness, and if properly medicated is a very low risk to re-offend.

Critics decry any move that brings Li closer to release, arguing he can never be safely managed in the community. Nothing less than zero risk is acceptable.

Can anyone guarantee Vince Li will never re-offend? Of course not. No more than anyone can guarantee I will never run afoul of the law.

The difference here is that unlike myself, Li has had the benefit of a battery of tests and assessments to determine what kind of danger he poses to the community.

There is room for a reasoned discussion whether Li should ultimately win his release. But reason in this case has taken a backseat to emotion, with little attention to Li’s particular circumstances. The real truth, I suspect, is a lot of people don’t want to be told Li is getting better.

Li isn’t in a mental hospital to be punished, but to be treated for his illness.

The pain enveloping McLean’s family is unimaginable. But we can’t allow the horror of McLean’s death to give way to vengeance masquerading as justice.

If released next year, Li will have spent more time in custody than a lot of violent people I’ve seen sentenced. People who have killed others over a case of beer or stabbed a friend for a meaningless slight. People with no real excuse for their actions other than drunkenness or stupidity.

I know who I would feel safer with.

dean.pritchard@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @deanatwpgsun