Brodigan - July 19, 2021 at 07:26AM
Ponder to yourself how many times you've gotten pulled over for a busted taillight or some other minor infraction like that. You and the cop exchange words. A summons is issued. Everyone goes about their day. Minnesota Rep. John Thompson was pulled over in the wee hours of Independence Day. We know this because he then gave a press conference accusing the police of pulling him over for being a black man. Police denied the claim and released bodycam footage to show what really happened.
Thompson was pulled over for speeding and driving without a license plate. After pulling him over, police discovered he had a suspended out-of-state driver's license. That'd odd for an elected official in one state to be driving with a driver's license from a state they are not an elected official from. But whatever. The cop was professional during the entire stop. Rep. Thompson, not so much,
He berated the officers, claiming, "You 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. "
No. He pulled you over because you were driving a car without a license plate. That's illegal in most of the fifty states. As is driving with a suspended license.
St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell called for the release of the bodycam footage after Rep. Thomspon level the baseless accusation of racism against the police officer. Chief Axtell addressed the matter in a Facebook post.
"These aren't 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's race,. The traffic stop was by the books. What happened afterward was anything but."
Axtell says Rep. Thompson owes the officer an apology. I think Thompson owes the voters an apology. We've seen what happens in Minnesota when elected officials make reckless accusations against police officers. Buildings have a habit of catching fire.
One thing Thompson was right about is that the incident is something we've seen over and over: Elected officials lying about sensitive race-related issues for political reasons.
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from Steven Crowder Says
