By Jaz McKay
You know what’s GREAT about being racially oppressed? It means that rules don’t apply to you, and if anyone accuses you of violating them, you can just screech “RACISM! YOU’RE A RACIST!” just like Minnesota State Representative John Thompson did.
Mr. Thompson didn’t have a front license plate on his car, which is required by state law in Minnesota, and so he was pulled over by the police….. Opps, sorry, let me correct myself: he was pulled over because the police are racist.
He was then cited for driving with a suspended license, because it seems his drivers license had been revoked for failing to pay child support. That’s the kind of oppression some have to deal with thanks to systemic racism:
“I thought we weren’t doing pretextual stops in this state. But we are,” said Rep. John Thompson, DFL-St. Paul, at an event Tuesday marking five years since Philando Castile was shot and killed during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights. “We’re still getting driving-while-Black tickets here in this state.”
Squawking 24/7 about being a victim of systemic racism got him elected and it damn sure ought to get him out of having to pay traffic tickets too.
But there was one little problem with Mr. Thompson’s story, the officers bodycam video. If not for that video who knows what tales Thompson may have told? The officer might end up in the cell next to Derek Chauvin. While Thompson has tried to keep the video from the eyes of the public the best side of the story is this little bit of irony:
“Rep. Thompson’s signature issue at the state legislature was advocating for rapid release of police officer’s body camera footage. Now he’s blocking the public release of the body camera footage of his own incident with law enforcement this past week,” said [Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association] Executive Director Brian Peters. “Constituents have the right to see how their legislator conducted himself, particularly when he made such strong claims about what happened during the traffic stop.”
So, the primary legislation Representative Thompson sponsored in the Minnesota State House was that bodycam video from police encounters with the public be released to the media in a timely fashion, however when it looks like that’ll make a liar out of him, he sings a different tune. There’s a shocker.
Mr. Thompson quickly learned that it isn’t easy to keep embarrassing videos off the Internet:
Let’s see if the race card can get Thompson out of this:
Gov. Tim Walz and leaders from Minnesota’s DFL and GOP parties called for Thompson’s resignation Saturday after reports emerged of domestic assault allegations going as far back as 2003.
By the way, Mr. Thompson has a history of violence as well. He was twice charged with domestic assault back in the 2000s in two separate incidents, both were reduced to disorderly conducts.
What’s Thompson’s defense?
He questioned the authenticity of the police reports, which a Fox9 journalist obtained via public record requests, calling them the “product of the campaign to silence an American African man who speaks out against powerful and abusive interest.”
Yup, he’s just a poor oppressed victim.
Minnesota Republicans were quick to file an ethics complaint, and with a two-thirds vote, Thompson can be kicked out of the legislature. Unfortunately, the idiots that would elect him in the first place, can surely be counted on to replace him with someone else just as odious as John Thompson.
Visits: 1