Legislative Action

I plan to write to my state legislators and to the governor about Evan's DUI arrest, and it occurred to me that other California residents could do the same thing. I have drafted a sample letter that can be emailed or snail-mailed to the appropriate people. If legislators all over the state get letters about Evan's difficulty, maybe one or two of them may be moved to act. To find out who your legislators may be (and even if you didn't vote against them in the last election, with redistricting, you may get a chance to vote against them in the next election) go here.

Dear [Gummint Person];

My [son, cousin, nephew, friend, friend’s son] Evan recently spent a night in jail because he had brain cancer as a child.

Evan was arrested on suspicion of DUI in spite of explaining that he could not pass the field sobriety test due to the brain tumor. The officer did not believe him. A breathalyzer test showed 0.0 blood alcohol, so the officer decided Evan must be on drugs. The blood test results also came back negative, but that was too late to be of any help on the night of the arrest.

Evan has a Disabled Person Placard from the DMV, though he uses it more for identification purposes than for preferential parking these days. He also went through hearings at Driver Safety and passed the more rigorous Driver Safety road test in order to get his first driver’s license last May, at the age of twenty-three. The officer should have known about the parking placard, even if the Driver Safety records would not have been available to him.

First, the officer should have listened when Evan claimed to have had a brain tumor. There were several clues that Evan was telling the truth: the parking placard, Evan’s disabled MTA identification card, the long scar running down the center back of his head. Evan may start to carry a letter from his doctor and wear a medical alert bracelet in case of future incidents of this nature, but this shouldn’t be necessary. The officer who arrested Evan claimed to be an expert on drugs; perhaps he and other officers in California need a refresher course on disabilities.

Second, it would probably help a great deal to have some kind of mark or symbol, such as the universally-recognized wheelchair person, on the driver’s license to save other disabled people from unwarranted arrests. People who have permanent parking placards, those who have had to go through Driver Safety for reasons of disability, and Regional Center clients should all be eligible. Perhaps the mark could go on the back so that it would not be obvious when the driver’s license is used for routine identification. The mark should probably also be voluntary, since not all people with disabilities would need or want it.

I hope you consider action in this matter.

Sincerely,

Obviously, you should change the wording based on your own style and opinions, but this looks like a bipartisan issue that might actually get somewhere.