Surviving The Trauma of Being Arrested and Jailed: Should You Sue?

Current statistics show that 1 in every 3 African American males has had or will have contact with the criminal justice system in the form of being stopped and searched and possibly even arrested and jailed. An increasing number of Afrcan American women, and those men and women of all races who society has labeled "the poor" are regularly treated with disrespect by law enforcers, constantly subjected to being stopped, questioned, searched, detained, falsely accused and even jailed, because it's perceived that they are "nobody." This emotionally traumatizing experience has too often been accepted as a fact of American society. But it shouldn't be! No one should accept being violated by a another human being without protest. Personal violations must be addressed whether it comes in the form of punitive damages paid as a monetary award,a public apology to the victim or jail time sentenced to the perpetrator. Failure to seek justice encourages the perpetrator of wrongdoing to keep violating people, feeling that he or she can operate above the laws of decency without repercussions. Have you been traumatized by an unjust arrest? Are you still emotionally affected by the experience? What should you do about it?