Posted on July 17, 2021 by Scott Johnson in Democrats, Minnesota, Policing

From the mixed-up files of Rep. John Thompson

I’ve stayed away from the story of DFL state representative John Thompson’s July 4 wee hours traffic stop by a St. Paul police officer for the past few days. Thompson is a racial hustler who rode his call to burn down Hugo, Minnesota last summer all the way to the state legislature in November 2020.

Thompson is the true face of Minnesota’s DFL. He stands for something far larger than himself. He would have you believe it’s racial victimhood. The story of the traffic stop is worth pausing over, as I have done in posts — here (July 10), here (Thompson’s statement, July 13), and here (officer’s bodycam, later that day).

I would like to update my notes in a set of bullet points to assess where we are while trying to give readers enough to get to the heart of the something larger that Thompson represents.

• Thompson was stopped because his car lacked a front license plate. In his his statement Thompson acknowledges: “[I]t should have had a front license plate, but I didn’t have the right part for the front bracket.” Perhaps he was missing a screwdriver. I think he has a screw loose.

• The officer was concerned about Thompson’s attempt to evade the stop. I would guess Thompson had been out drinking. The officer asks him: “Why in such a hurry?” Thompson responds: “I don’t think I took off like a bat out of hell. I just drove off.” I read that as a confession that he “took off like a bat out of hell.”

• In her otherwise useful account of the dialogue on the bodycam video, the Minnesota Reformer’s Deena Winter omits Thompson’s “bat out of hell” bit.

• Thompson gave the officer a Wisconsin driver’s license that he had renewed, most recently, the same month he was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives. The Wisconsin license of course lists a Wisconsin address.

• Where does Thompson live? Does he live in his district? As of today, we do not know.

• Thompson himself told the officer: “I’m actually a current state representative in this district right here.” The location of Thompson stop, however, is not within his district. I take it he was pulling rank on the officer and trying to intimidate him.

• The Star Tribune reports: “Thompson signed and completed a required affidavit of candidacy with the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office in 2020. According to a copy of the affidavit, Johnson entered an address before crossing it off and writing a P.O. Box address. The initial address he entered is located within his legislative district.”

• In her report linked above, Deena Winter adds: “Peter Bartz-Gallagher, communications director for [Minnesota Secretary of State Steve] Simon’s office, said the address Thompson provided the office in a separate form is in his legislative district.”

• Later in the story the Star Tribune adds this: “A St. Paul address listed for Thompson on the citation from the July 4 stop is located outside his legislative district. He did not respond to a request to clarify his address.”

• MinnPost adds this: “Thompson lives on Blair Avenue — per ticket — which is not in his district.”

• MPR reports that “Thompson is a registered Minnesota voter, with a listed residence on York Avenue in his St. Paul district.”

• Thompson currently faces a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of legal process in Hennepin County District Court. Jury selection took three days. KARE 11 reporter Lou Raguse was covering the trial before he left on vacation. He sought clarification from Thompson (tweet below).

• The address listed for Thompson in the misdemeanor case is outside his district. Thompson himself has somehow evaded reporters at the courthouse. After striking out with Thompson, Lou Raguse sought clarification from Thompson’s counsel Jordan Kushner (tweets below).

• Kyle Hooten reports for Alpha News: “A KARE 11 photographer reportedly spoke with a neighbor who lives next to Thompson’s alleged out-of-district address found in the court papers. This neighbor stated that the representative was not home, [implying] that he does indeed live there.”

• Kushner is a well-known local radical. In 2015 Kushner managed to get himself banned from the premises of the University of Minnesota Law School on the West Bank of the university campus for a year. He is well matched with his client.

• Thompson’s Minnesota driving privileges were under revocation at the time of his July 4 stop. They had been revoked as a result of an unfulfilled child support obligation, which he has now taken care of, but that’s what he was ticketed for after the officer figured things out back in his squad car.

• How long did Thompson owe the child support that resulted in that revocation? I would love to get the answer to that question. So far as I know, it hasn’t even been asked.

• Which brings us to this unsurprising sidebar to the story, via FOX 9 investigative reporter Tom Lyden: “Search for Minnesota lawmaker’s residency uncovers domestic assault cases” (tweet below).

• Recall that this incident came to light as Thompson declared that the officer who stopped him was guilty of “racial profiling” of which Thompson was the victim.

• When they first took up the case earlier this week, Jon Justice and Drew Lee predicted that “DFL privilege” would shield Thompson. I think we talked about it in the last hour of the show yesterday.

• What does state representative John Thompson represent? He perfectly represents the racial hustle that is the motive force of the Minnesota DFL and the Democratic Party.

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