{"id":593412,"date":"2021-07-16T11:06:21","date_gmt":"2021-07-16T15:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=593412"},"modified":"2021-07-16T11:06:23","modified_gmt":"2021-07-16T15:06:23","slug":"minnesota-lawmaker-claimed-he-was-cited-for-driving-while-black-so-police-released-bodycam-footage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/minnesota-lawmaker-claimed-he-was-cited-for-driving-while-black-so-police-released-bodycam-footage\/","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota Lawmaker Claimed He Was Cited For \u2018Driving While Black,\u2019 So Police Released Bodycam Footage"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fminnesota-lawmaker-claimed-he-was-cited-for-driving-while-black-so-police-released-bodycam-footage%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=593412&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/John-Thompson.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Police in St. Paul, Minnesota, released bodycam footage Tuesday of a traffic stop involving Minnesota state Rep. John Thompson (D) after the lawmaker claimed he was racially profiled.<\/p>\n<p>A St. Paul police officer pulled Thompson over early in the morning on July 4, saying that the lawmaker was driving without a front license plate, which is illegal in Minnesota. Thompson claimed during the traffic stop, and in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.twincities.com\/2021\/07\/12\/rep-john-thompsons-full-statement-following-traffic-stop\/\">statement<\/a> released afterward, that the police officer pulled him over because he is black.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/bringmethenews.com\/minnesota-news\/video-police-bodycam-footage-of-rep-john-thompsons-july-4-traffic-stop\">video<\/a> begins with the police officer approaching Thompson\u2019s car. The audio is silent in the beginning as the bodycam buffered, according to the police department.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy in such a hurry?\u201d the officer asks Thompson as the audio begins.<\/p>\n<p>Thompson replies: \u201cI don\u2019t think I took off like a bat out of hell, I just drove off.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As the officer and Thompson go through the lawmaker\u2019s insurance and license, the officer notes that Thompson\u2019s license is from Wisconsin. In his statement released Monday, Thompson said that he obtained a Wisconsin license because his family was considering moving back to the state to care for a family member.<\/p>\n<p>The officer returns to his cruiser for about 14 minutes of the roughly 16-minute long video. After returning to Thompson\u2019s car, the officer says that Thompson\u2019s license has been suspended in Minnesota. Thompson\u2019s license had been suspended in 2019 after he failed to pay child support. As <a href=\"https:\/\/minnesota.cbslocal.com\/2021\/07\/13\/i-got-a-ticket-for-driving-while-black-video-released-showing-rep-john-thompsons-traffic-stop\/\">WCCO<\/a> reports:<\/p>\n<blockquote readability=\"9.0489864864865\">\n<p><em>According to records, Thompson does not hold a Minnesota driver\u2019s license and has never had a driver\u2019s license issued by Minnesota, and he was eventually cited by the officer for driving with a suspended Wisconsin license. WCCO learned his license was revoked on April 21, 2019 for his failure to pay child support in Ramsey County. You can&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aamva.org\/PDPS\">have action taken on your driving record in Minnesota<\/a>&nbsp;even if you do not hold a valid license. And a<a href=\"https:\/\/www.revisor.mn.gov\/statutes\/cite\/518A.65\">&nbsp;license can be suspended because of child support.<\/a>&nbsp;Thompson\u2019s license was reinstated Wednesday after taking care of the child support issue.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Thompson later asks why he was pulled over, and the officer says because of Thompson\u2019s missing front license plate and because of the way he took off from a stoplight.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m too old to run from the police man,\u201d Thompson replies. \u201cYou profiled me because you looked me dead in the face and I got a ticket for driving while Black. You pulled me over because you saw a Black face in this car brother. There\u2019s no way in hell I\u2019m taking off with you behind me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat you\u2019re doing is wrong, to Black men,\u201d Thompson continues as the officer denies that Thompson was racially profiled. \u201cAnd you need to stop that. Thank you so much but this ticket means nothing to me \u2026 What I\u2019m saying to you is stop racially profiling Black men in their cars sir. Stop doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After the incident, St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell released a statement calling for the release of the bodycam footage and stood behind his officer\u2019s conduct.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was shocked to hear that driver accuse the sergeant of making the stop based on race,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese aren\u2019t accusations I take lightly, so I looked into the traffic stop, watched the body worn camera footage and spoke to the sergeant. This stop, made at about 1:20 in the morning, had absolutely nothing to do with the driver\u2019s race,\u201d Axtell wrote in a post on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/toddaxtell\/posts\/10209101415808338\">Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe traffic stop was by the books. What happened afterwards was anything but,\u201d Axtell continued.<\/p>\n<p>In his own statement, Thompson did not back off his claims of being racially profiled, and did not apologize for his conduct. He noted, however, that the traffic stop was \u201cby the book.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was pulled over in what is referred to as a pretextual traffic stop. The same type of stop that led to the killing of Philando, as well as Daunte Wright this April,\u201d Thompson claimed. \u201cPretextual stops have been shown to not only do little to stop serious crimes, but they also disproportionately target nonwhites. This was the racial profiling I spoke to, and I\u2019ve been working to get rid of these types of stops long before this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Police in St. Paul, Minnesota, released bodycam footage Tuesday of a traffic stop involving Minnesota state Rep. John Thompson (D) after the lawmaker claimed he was racially profiled.A St. Paul &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-593412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}