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
SLB
