After Minnesota state Rep. John Thompson (D) claims he was racially profiled, police in St. Paul, Minnesota, released bodycam footage of a traffic encounter involving him on Tuesday.
Thompson was pulled over by a St. Paul police officer just after midnight on July 4 because he was driving without a front license plate, which is prohibited in Minnesota. Thompson alleged that the officer pulled him over because he was black during the traffic stop and afterwards in a statement.
The officer approaches Thompson’s vehicle at the start of the video. According to the police department, the audio was quiet at first because the bodycam was buffering.