The first step is admitting we have a problem. But we can’t seem to get past the anger.
Humboldt’s headlines last week were dominated by news of Marcia Kitchen, the 39-year-old Fortuna woman accused of hitting and killing two 14-year-old girls, one of them her own daughter, in an alleged July DUI crash. Kitchen has now been formally charged and arrested in the case, and is free after posting $750,000 bail.
The scene on Sept. 15 at the Humboldt County Courthouse for Kitchen’s arraignment, a brief appearance during which she entered not-guilty pleas in the case, could aptly be described as a media circus. Almost all local news outlets sent reporters and some sent a couple. One newspaper had photographers stationed at the courthouse exits to ensure it got a shot of Kitchen as she left, and a television cameraman followed Kitchen and her attorney down the street to get some footage and press her for a comment.
The interest is understandable. Two 14-year-olds run down on an evening skateboard ride is unthinkable in and of itself. Add the maternal relationship, the hit-and-run nature of the crash and the California Highway Patrol’s two-months-long investigation, during which it released painfully little information about the case, and the community’s thirst for information makes sense.
The troubling part is what we’ve done with the information we’ve got. There’s no question that if the allegations facing Kitchen are true, she made a series of horrible decisions —criminal decisions — on the night of July 12. It would mean she got behind the wheel while intoxicated and then when she ran over two girls, she fled the scene. Nothing in this column is intended to offer an excuse for that kind of conduct because, well, there is none.
The problem I have is that we’re failing to see the forest for the trees.
While the specifics of Kitchen’s case may be more shock and horror inspiring, the underlying facts are the same as those that play out with astonishing regularity in Humboldt County. A couple weeks before Kitchen’s arrest, a 23-year-old Arcata man allegedly hit and killed a pedestrian while driving drunk. Just a few days after Kitchen’s arraignment, Kade Chandler, 21, stood before a judge who was to decide whether there’s enough evidence to hold him to stand trial on charges that he drove drunk and killed two young women, one 19, the other 21.
According to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, 622 people were booked into county jail on suspicion of driving under the influence between Jan. 1 and Sept. 1, putting us on pace for more than 940 drunk driving arrests this year. This after 19 of last year’s 28 county roadway deaths were drug or alcohol related. For the record, that’s four more people lost to impairment on the streets than homicides in 2015.
Yet we seem to be ignoring most of this data. Instead, collectively, we seem to be treating most DUIs as shrug-worthy, something akin to waking up with a dull headache after a night at the bar. That is, until something truly horrible and tragic happens — like young people with full lives ahead of them dying in the streets. When that happens, we muster our collective ire and unleash it without reflection on a single perpetrator, Kitchen being the most recent example.
As I read through online commenters calling Kitchen things like “child killer” and urging society to push the justice system aside and string up a noose, I couldn’t help but think back to 2007. I was a new reporter in Humboldt County then, when Cody Baker had too much to drink, crashed his car into Ruth Lake and killed four of his young friends, tearing Ferndale apart in the process. I covered his trial a couple of years later and reported on the multi-faceted tragedy, the bitter anger and the heart-wrenching loss.
Now, I wonder what we learned. It seems Baker’s case — as much as it was splashed across headlines over the course of more than three years, as much as it crushed the families involved and made us all take notice — did little to bring about a real community conversation about the dangers of driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
The cold, hard truth is that, as a community, we have a problem that we all need to own. That means recognizing that the difference between driving after a couple of glasses of chardonnay and picking up your keys after a full day of drinking isn’t as stark as we’d like. It means planning ahead for a safe way to get home if you’re going to drink and expecting the same of your friends. And it means confronting those around us who don’t abide by those simple rules. I wonder how many people were out with Kitchen having a good time after Rodeo on July 12, and how many of them had unspoken doubts as they watched her head for her Jeep that night?
Stemming the tide of this epidemic means having real and difficult conversations with our kids, teaching them never to get behind the wheel while under the influence and never to ride with someone who does. Perhaps more challenging, it means modeling that behavior for them, showing them how to plan for a sober ride home and how to speak up when you see someone who is about to put lives in danger.
In a county that’s more than 4,000 square miles and has two taxicab companies, it also means pushing our local governments to do what they can to increase transportation options — whether it be recruiting Uber drivers, expanding bus routes and hours or investing in shuttle services — to make sure locals have easy, safe options when they don’t plan well or a night gets out of hand.
We can continue to vilify the Kitchens, Bakers and Chandlers of the world. There will most assuredly be more of them, and it obviously gives us as a community some reassurance that we’re OK, that our having a few glasses at Arts Alive or a handful of pints at the Crabs game, and driving home is fine.
But if we really want to bring something positive out of these tragedies and really honor those we’ve lost — Kiya Kitchen, Faith Tsarnas, Savannah Kindred, Kendra Lewis, Stephanie Hubbard, Nathan Titus, Jessica Toste, Steve Shroyer, to name a handful — we need to recognize that this isn’t solely about Marcia Kitchen. It’s about all of us.
This article appears in Service Call.
You hit the nail on the head….we’ve got a big problem with this in Humboldt. Thanks for shining your light on it.
Wow, this is an excellent wake-up call. We are a reactive and self-deflecting society. It’s time to be introspective–about many things–in this beautiful county.
Well written, Mr. Greenson!
When the index finger points blame at others, three fingers always point back at the accuser.
Art & Wine in the Park, Martini fund raisers, Brewfests all summer long in every community – the entire county culture seems to encourage getting drunk or high. Maybe it’s time to promote safe and sober events.
It’s one of many big problems in this County. Here we are one of the biggest growers of Cannabis in the world and people put forward the belief that the use of it the same as alcohol, yet we cant seem to manage how we use alcohol. Though these stats are alarming, I am more concerned with the young people and we are talking about very very young who use alcohol and are getting the message Cannabis is the same, no harm in using it. Drug and Alcohol used consistently before the age of 16 permanently damages the brain function. That is a known fact among drug and alcohol therapist that treat teenagers for addiction. All I see is the statistics growing. I recently heard this nation has a heroin epidemic. Hell this country has a drug culture and they are not doing much to change it. There is legislation and activities to patch the symptoms of the drug culture but nothing to turn it back. If anything takes this country down it will be our abuse of drugs.
You know it’s kind of funny. Not ha-ha funny, but odd funny. When I’m out with friends and order coffee or tea and they’re all having a few brews they ask me if I don’t drink. I respond that I do, but I don’t drink and drive. That way if a cop pulls me over I can answer simply No! I haven’t been drinking. It’s taken a few years for them to accept that about me. Personally I think we as a society need to change the paradigm of having a few and driving. I think there should be more sleep overs, more designated drivers, as the norm. As a motorcyclist I suspect over half of the other drivers out there are impaired in some way. Whether alcohol, pot, meth, opioids, texting, or just plain stupid.
A relatively recent city council meeting in fortuna is a much-needed light on the LACK of taxis or taxi-like (i.e. Uber) in this county. The hoops one has to jump through are ridiculous to say the least.
Stevie shroyer rip
“It’s about all of us”
NO, it’s not about all of us. It’s about those of us who refuse to take responsibility for the risks they impose on themselves and on their loved ones and on complete strangers. Who, in this day and age, with all of the news and information, can continue to justify getting in their car and driving off after a “couple of glasses of chardonnay” or more? NOT ACCEPTABLE!
Who, in this day and age, with all of the news and information, can continue to justify or excuse allowing a friend, an acquaintance, or that stranger sitting next to you, to get into their car and drive off after a few? NOT ACCEPTABLE!
You have a responsibility to call the police and provide a license plate number and description of the vehicle and driver. You have the responsibility to ask the bar or restaurant or festival staff for help calling a taxi or sober friend. Oh, too hard? too complicated? too much effort? NOT ACCEPTABLE!
You have the responsibility to be prepared in advance if you are going to an event where drinks will be served and you plan to consume – some – any – oh, just one – well maybe two. Oh, just this once, I’ll drive slowly. NOT ACCEPTABLE!
You all know, and we all know, that if you have been drinking alcohol or imbibing any kinds of mind altering substance, you should absolutely NOT DRIVE! No excuses, no exceptions. Seriously, who doesn’t know that? Ironically, people who do drink and drive are often cogent enough to know that to run away is your best bet, at least, until the alcohol or other substance has worn off enough that you won’t test the limit. NOT ACCEPTABLE!
If you know enough to run away to save your own sorry ass, you know enough to plan ahead for other transportation options.
Those of us who drink responsibly, who make plans in advance when partying hearty, are insulted by those who are irresponsible. People who drink and drive most likely do it fairly frequently. We all have a responsibility and an obligation to report this behavior and stop these people before the next innocent person gets killed or injured.