[Minnesota state Rep. John Thompson (D)] later asks why he was pulled over, and the officer says because of Thompson’s missing front license plate and because of the way he took off from a stoplight.
“I’m too old to run from the police man,” Thompson replies. “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 brother. There’s no way in hell I’m taking off with you behind me.”
“What you’re doing is wrong, to Black men,” Thompson continues as the officer denies that Thompson was racially profiled. “And you need to stop that. Thank you so much but this ticket means nothing to me … What I’m saying to you is stop racially profiling Black men in their cars sir. Stop doing that.”
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’s conduct.
“I was shocked to hear that driver accuse the sergeant of making the stop based on race,” he said.
“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,” Axtell wrote in a post on Facebook.
“The traffic stop was by the books. What happened afterwards was anything but,” Axtell continued.
Flashback: Remember When Civil Rights Groups Wanted Police Bodycams? Look At What They’re Saying Now.