Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz says state Rep. John Thompson should allow police to release body camera footage of a traffic stop that has placed Thompson’s credibility under a spotlight.
“Yes,” Walz said when asked directly by TV reporter Esme Murphy on WCCO Sunday Morning. “It’s Representative Thompson’s choice, but I’m a big believer … body camera footage should be released in all situations, not just where it exonerates the police or if it shows something the police did wrong.”
After Thompson was pulled over earlier this month for a missing license plate — and then cited for driving while his Minnesota privileges were suspended — Thompson said the stop was racially motivated. Thompson offered no evidence, and the assertion was disputed by St. Paul Police Chief Todd Axtell, who said he reviewed body camera footage of the incident and said Thompson should apologize to the sergeant who stopped him.
Additionally, Thompson has come under scrutiny because he furnished a Wisconsin drivers license that he has held since 2005, regularly renewing it — including in November, when his name was on the ballot in Minnesota. That, combined with the fact that Thompson’s address on the citation is not in the St. Paul East Side district he represents, has raised questions about Thompson’s truthfulness to various governments in the two states over where he lives. (He has told the Pioneer Press he has lived on the East Side for 18 years.)
After briefly corresponding with the Pioneer Press last week, Thompson stopped returning texts and phone calls and has not commented publicly in ways that illuminate the situation.
DFL CHAIR ‘DISAPPOINTED’
Walz wasn’t the only fellow Democrat to come out publicly over the weekend with statements that cast a light on Thompson.
On Sunday, Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, issued the following statement on “Thompson’s recent actions”:
“Nobody is above the law, including our elected officials. We expect all of our elected officials, regardless of party, to not only follow the law, but to hold themselves to the highest standards. Whether they like it or not, their words, actions, and behavior are going to be scrutinized by the public. As such it is important for people in positions of power and influence to model the type of behavior we expect from everyone. Representative John Thompson fell short of that standard, and I am disappointed by his recent actions.”
Axtell asserted, after watching body camera video worn by an officer involved in Thompson’s stop, that it wasn’t racially motivated but rather: “the traffic stop was by the books. What happened afterwards was anything but.”
That cast attention to the footage, and the state’s largest police association, the head of Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association called on the footage to be made public.
Several aspects of state law deals with the public release of body camera footage, but one portion states that the subject of the recording has access to it and can release it, potentially with redactions if other people who haven’t consented are shown. The Pioneer Press has requested the footage, but the police department has said it’s not public — thus placing the burden on Thompson.
As a lawmaker, Thompson championed a proposal that would have required the swift release of body camera footage when police use deadly force, although it never reached Walz’s desk amid Republican opposition.
WALZ: LET PUBLIC JUDGE
Walz, who has supported such measures, on Sunday said Thompson has, as a lawmaker, should be held to a high standard, and the public “deserves to know.”
“I do believe that elected representatives do need to be held to a higher standard,” he said on WCCO. “I’ve got 20 years of tax returns out there that anybody can go online today and find. I think you should be held to that higher standard. I don’t know all the facts in this, but I think Minnesotans deserve to know what happened. If you’re going to be responsible for writing the laws, if you’re going to be asking people to do things, there is a responsibility for you to follow them. So in this case I’ll wait and pass judgment when it gets there, but I think the default position is always transparency.”
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Walz: Rep. Thompson should allow release of body cam footage when cops pulled him over - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
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