On December 17th, 2021, I reported on the Liberty Leader that a young and fairly new truck driver had been convicted of some 27 charges, including reckless vehicular homicide. Sentencing from the judge was 110 years to be served consecutively. The sentence is extreme, even the judge himself commented that he would not be giving such a sentence if he didn’t feel it was mandatory or written in Colorado law that it was a required sentence.
People convicted of pre-meditated murder rarely see so harsh a punishment.
Truckers all over the country are upset about the sentencing. So much so that a petition on change.org has over 4.3 million signatures already. The numbers were rising even as I looked it over and it’s possible this petition may surpass 5 million. Signing the petition is to show support in demanding a new sentence, commuting of his sentence, or calling for time served for the now 26-year-old Rogel Aguilera-Mederos.
But that’s not the only way that the trucking community is stepping up to support Rogel Aguilera-Mederos. Hundreds of independent contractors for semi-trucks have vowed that they will not drive any loads up to Colorado until something is done to help the young man.
Several Tik-Tok video’s are going viral as truckers declare they will not be going anywhere into Colorado and asking others to do the same.
In solidarity to Cuban immigrant & truck driver #RogelAguileraMederos unfair 110 year sentencing for a tragic accident, truckers are refusing to enter Colorado.
Premeditated murderers, school shooters & vigilantes get less time.#SupportFairSentencing #SupportOurTruckers pic.twitter.com/1ULUZ3wpXO— Benti F. (@FrankiB) December 17, 2021
— Tillie Toro (@tillie_toro) December 20, 2021
My Father’s company WILL NOT drive to Colorado
#RogelAguileraMederos pic.twitter.com/p51NlLSLa2
— 𝖣𝗈𝗇’𝗍 𝖳𝗋𝗎𝗌𝗍 𝖠𝗇𝗒𝗈𝗇𝖾 (@Queen_2430) December 16, 2021
It appears that this may become heavily politicized as many on social media are comparing the harsh sentencing to the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse. Let me make this clear. Race has nothing to do with either case except where people want it to.
Rittenhouse was cleared of all charges because his team was able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he was defending his life from a pedophile rapist, a domestic abuser, and a disorderly drunkard who likes to wave his gun around in public.
Aguilera-Mederos was found guilty on nearly 27 different counts of various assaults and murder charges. (CNN says 42 counts, but honestly, who knows with them). The young man made a series of bad decisions in the middle of panicking while careening toward stopped traffic in a massive diesel truck with failed brakes.
The system worked in Rittenhouse’s case. It didn’t work in Aguilera-Mederos’ case. These two cases are not the same and they should not under any circumstances be compared to one another.
The prosecution repeatedly hammered home that the inexperienced driver should have taken a runaway truck ramp. Undoubtedly that would have been the right decision to make. It is absolutely tragic that the young man’s inaction helped to cause the deaths of four people as well as the serious injuries of six others. It’s terrible that his lack of know how incurred hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages. Several of the race-baiting twitter trolls have even acknowledged that Aguilera-Mederos should have to spend some time in jail, they just don’t feel 110 years is fair.
And for once, they’re right. It’s not fair at all. Destroying the life of a working man who made an unintentional mistake is not justice. It’s vengeance. It’s cruel, but unfortunately, it’s not unusual. Such strange crimes can hold dozens and dozens of years to be served consecutively while others get to be served concurrently and that’s where the system has failed both the convicted in this case and the judge.
Colorado may not be the only state affected by this boycott either.
Houston’s local Fox News station spoke to at least one trucking company about the boycotts.
“We fully support and stand with the boycott of industry and business to Colorado,” says Tony Salas, co-founder of the Greater Houston Trucking Association.
“He believes the boycott could help redirect accountability to trucking companies putting inexperienced drivers on troubling roads.
“A lot of truckers are afraid to go to Colorado. Colorado has a lot of mountains, a lot of hills … [Aguilera] was only 23 years old and had never drove outside of Texas and went into a terrain that has a lot of mountains,” says Salas. “From our understanding, there was already an incident ahead of him, and his equipment failed on him, so when you look at the accountability, it should really be on the trucking company that put this man on the road.”
With the trucking industry already suffering with low employee recruitment this situation cannot possibly help. People already fear the driving the trucks but will be far less likely to consider a job with a company if one terrible mistake could lead to the end of your life as you know it.
This story syndicated with permission from My Patriot Post
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