Friday, August 17, 2012

Dear Deputy DA James Hill:


Pray tell, when did it become legal to drive a car without auto insurance?  You see, sir, I have been robbed by my auto insurance company.  I have been operating under this silly misconception that I was required, by law, to purchase automobile insurance if I wished to operate a motor vehicle in the great state of California.  Thus, I have been throwing money at this ravaging insurance company, who has unapologetically taken full advantage of my naivety.  If only I had known that I could drive a car without car insurance, cause a horrific accident, take someone’s life, tear apart a family, cause so much pain and sorrow that one cannot even coherently express—and still go on living my life as if nothing ever happened.  If only I had known that I could drive a car without car insurance, I could have been putting an extra $200 a month toward my student loans; or upgraded my cable to include the movie channels; maybe I could have been putting that money aside to someday buy a house.

Do you happen to know what Shapri Rene Brown was doing with the money that she was not spending on car insurance?  I hear through the grapevine that she was not spending it on keeping herself and her children in an apartment.  She was not spending it on the merchandise that she was arrested for shoplifting.  She could not have been spending all the money she was saving from not having car insurance at the Mexican meat market, could she?  Was she spending it all on her prescription for Norco?

Are we on the same page now?

Kevin Edward Medina was my big brother.

He was a handsome young man with dark, curly hair and green eyes.  He was always a good student throughout his school years, excelling at calculus and chemistry, and he was always involved with the high school theater productions.  He was the youngest applicant to ever be accepted to Chaffey College’s very competitive radiological program.  He graduated top of his class and promptly received a job at Kaiser Permanente.  He worked hard and made a name for himself, not just because of his skills as a radiology technician, but also because of his brilliant ability to fix literally any type of electronic device.  In fact, when he was just five-years-old, his father gave him a screwdriver and an old VCR player to play with, and Kevin completely took apart the VCR player, put it back together again, and had it working like new.  He was kind, affable, funny, intelligent, and a little nerdy.  Kevin was a son, a grandson, a brother, a nephew, a cousin, an uncle, a friend.

And Shapri Rene Brown?  She sounds like a miscreant. A good-for-nothing social parasite, harbored through your refusal to press charges, living out her pathetic and meaningless life, and escaping this painful base existence with Norco.

I can imagine how it must be for you—flooded with police reports and new cases every day.  And I can imagine how easy it must be for you to read those police reports and not be able to put a face to the name listed.  And I can understand the temptation to immediately dismiss yet another case in which a young guy riding a motorcycle was killed by a car.  Happens every day.  Nothing to see here.

Except that cars do not kill people.  An unmanned car did not move of its own volition and pull out in front of my only brother.  A culpable person did that.  A person with a prescription for Norco.  A person that was not wearing corrective lenses, despite having a restriction on her license that required her to do so.  A person WHO SHOULD NOT HAVE EVEN BEEN ON THE ROAD THAT DAY BECAUSE SHE DID NOT HAVE CAR INSURANCE.

Had Shapri Rene Brown had car insurance, I would not be writing to you.  Accidents happen, I know this.  But a person with car insurance is responsible, accountable, and most importantly, law-abiding.  At least as far as California Insurance Code §11580.1b is concerned.

Yes, an insured driver could have just as easily pulled out in front of my brother.  But that is not what happened.  An irresponsible and negligent uninsured motorist killed my brother.

And here is the rub: had Ms. Brown been a law-abiding person, who merely could not afford car insurance, she would never have gotten in that uninsured car on January 20th.  She would have never put the key in the ignition.  She would have never started that uninsured car and put it in drive.  Had Ms. Brown been a law-abiding person, she would have never driven down Sequoia Avenue toward Hesperia Road.  Had Ms. Brown been a law-abiding person (or if she had at least been wearing her damn glasses, as was required by her license), she would not have pulled out in front of Kevin and killed him.

Had Shapri Rene Brown been following the law on January 20, 2012, my brother would still be alive.

Unfortunately, she was not and he is not.  And Ms. Brown needs to be held accountable for her actions.  She should be made an example of for the thousands of other uninsured motorists.  Otherwise, why have laws?  Why have a justice system meant to uphold and enforce those laws?  Why bother teaching students theories of punishment, such as deterrence and retribution?

If the State cannot—or will not—punish those who willfully act outside the law, then why not dissolve to anarchy, and allow individuals to administer their own ideas of justice upon wrongdoers?

You are a civil servant, Mr. Hill.  You have been granted by society the authority to administer justice and hold wrongdoers accountable for their actions.

Public authority must redress the violation of personal and social rights by imposing on the offender an adequate punishment for the crime, as a condition for the offender to regain the exercise of his freedom.  In this way authority also fulfills the purpose of defending public order and ensuring people’s safety, while at the same time offering the offender an incentive and help to change his behavior and be rehabilitated.
-Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae

Do you believe Ms. Brown has already learned her lesson, is that it?  Granted, she did purchase auto insurance—after providing police with three false policy numbers (what moral fiber!)—following the accident.  But I would bet that if one were to inquire about that a-little-too-late policy, it would no longer be active or valid.  No, considering she already had two prior traffic convictions and that she has been arrested twice since January for shoplifting, I do not think Ms. Brown has learned her lesson and is on the road to becoming a responsible and productive member of society.

Or could it be that you cannot think of a fitting punishment for Ms. Brown?  Is that why you dropped the case?  She is a poverty-stricken welfare case, so it is not like Ms. Brown will pay any fines that you impose, right?  And she has already proved that she has no qualms about driving without car insurance, so it is not very likely that taking away her driver’s license will hinder her (“When a man shrinks not from a deed neither is he scared by a word.”), right?  And all of the big-hearted Liberals of California would never dream of sending a mother to prison (despite the fact that with the way things are looking for Ms. Brown, her children will inevitably end up in foster care anyway), right?

Or, what was it that you told my parents?  Something like, “There is not enough evidence to prove her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. . . . She did not do anything different than any other driver.”  Because the black ink in the police report that spelled out “U-N-I-N-S-U-R-E-D” is just not very compelling.  And I’m sure you shudder at the daunting and arduous task of explaining to a jury that actus reus includes negligent acts (like not wearing glasses if you are blind, driving while on severely debilitating drugs, driving when you should not because you do not have car insurance, et cetera) that caused the unintentional death of a man in his prime.

Well, Mr. Hill, if you cannot find a fitting punishment and if you will not press any charges, then you simply are not fulfilling your civil duties to the citizens of this state, nor are you honoring the dignity of the victims of these crimes and their families. Shame on you, Mr. Hill.  Shame.  On.  You.

For even if the matter had not been urged on us by a god it was not meet that you should leave the guilt unpurged when one so noble, and he your king, had perished; you were bound to search it out.
-Sophocles, Oedipus the King



In Disgust and Disdain,

SLB