The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppressio

I know that it might seem that I am sticking with the same topic when it comes to prejudice but whenever I think about it and how it affects my life or my family’s life this is where it happens. As I have explained to you before my husband is in recovery. Even though my husband is in recovery he and his family have consequences of his past repeatedly. He lost his license due to a DUI a couple years ago but was granted driving privileges. I still do not understand the concept but the general idea is that he can drive to and from work and to any AA related program including meetings, counseling, etc..

Last Friday I was in line at Walmart and my husband called me in a state of panic. He had gotten pulled over. Immediately I was guilty of passing judgment on him by asking what he did wrong, when in fact he had done nothing wrong. In fact the police officer who pulled him over was clearly in the wrong and if I had gotten to the scene soon enough I would have pointed this out. My husband was driving to a meeting and was a little bit early because a fellow friend asked him to come early and talk with him. He was on the side roads very near where the meeting was to be held and an officer was following him. The officer who had nothing better to do that night pulled him over strictly because he ran his plates and saw what was on his record. Along with pulling him over in front of the building where the meeting was about to be held, the officer also called in 3 more officers to come to the scene. It was beyond a waste of resources.

The bottom line is he was pulled over with no just cause, there were no laws being broken the officer just wanted to pull him over based on his driving record. This is completely illegal. My husband showed his proof of insurance and his proof of driving privileges and the officer stated that he was luck because he was about to arrest him and tow his car.

My feelings about this were beyond frustrated for so many reasons. To start off there was no real reason to pull my husband over. The next reason why I was frustrated;  how is it that we can put on his record the fact that he has a driving offense but not that he is in fact allowed to drive? And to top it off, if my husband did not keep multiple copies of this document and he was without it that day, it would have cost our family hundreds of dollars to fix and for what?

The only change that needs to happen here is for the officers of this town to legally pull over people who are actually breaking the law. I do not in any way take driving under the influence lightly. However, I do not feel that he should be pulled over whenever they feel like it just because it is on his driving record. I do not feel someone should be pulled over for the color of their skin or because the police just do not like how they looked at them that day. This is unjust practice and is neglecting the correction of those who are actually breaking the law.