Two Alaskan police officers are under fire after allowing a woman to leave a traffic stop unticketed thanks to her “white privilege card,” USA Today reports.
While visiting Anchorage for a rally held by former President Donald Trump, Mimi Israelah was pulled over by two area police officers . At the time of the incident, she mistakenly gave the officials a “white privilege card” instead of her driver’s license.
According to Israelah, she was stopped for weaving while driving to a pizzeria at 3:43 a.m. on July 9 after she had just landed to attend Trump’s rally. She was visiting from California and per her Twitter bio identifies as Pinay, or a woman of Filipino origin.
“When I saw my white privilege card, I gave to him if it’s okay,” wrote Israelah in a now-deleted Facebook post. “He laughed and called his partner. It’s their first time to see a white privileged (sic) card.”
Though it is not clear where she received the card from, the top of it read: “White Privilege Card Trumps Everything.”
In a video of the encounter with the officers, Israelah can be heard asking if the officers liked her identification card.
One of the officers responded, “That’s hilarious.”
The officers have been identified as Nicholas Bowe and Charles Worland, and there is no set word on the disciplinary actions they will face.
After backlash from Israelah’s post, Deputy Chief Sean Case said that he recognizes why people are referring to the officers comments as “inappropriate.”
Per police Sgt. Jeremy Conkling, who is also the president of the police union, officers have discretion when it comes to issuing tickets for minor offenses such as not having a physical license present during a traffic stop.
“Especially in this circumstance, where you had a very, very low-level minor offense and the officers are really just focused on trying to find DUIs – I’m not at all surprised they didn’t write a citation,” he said. “I don’t know that a lot of officers would have written that citation, if any.”