Knowing he was being live streamed, a Virginia state trooper turned to the camera and smiled before placing a man in a chokehold and pulling him out of his car over the suspected smell of marijuana.
“Watch the show, folks,” Trooper Charles Hewitt said to the camera before attacking Derrick Thompson.
Turns out, Derrick Thompson did not have any weed in the car. He just didn’t want his rights violated.
Thompson had been pulled over for an expired inspection tag when the cop claimed she smelled weed and ordered him out of the car. But Thompson refused to step out, claiming it to be an illegal search. He also believed he was being racially profiled.
The cop called for backup and Hewitt arrived.
“You are going to get your ass whooped in front of fucking lord and all of creation!” Hewitt yelled at Thompson before pulling him out.
Hewitt later told Thompson there was no way he could be racist because he was married to a Black woman. Thompson’s attorney, however, said that appears to be a lie.
The incident took place on April 20, 2019 but it is just coming to light now after Thompson’s attorney sent a letter to Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring outlining the details that took place that day. The letter also includes racist posts from Hewitt’s Facebook page.
Police in this country has long used the “smell of marijuana” excuse as a way to search people’s cars but that tactic should be legally obsolete with the passing of the 2018 Farm Bill which legalized hemp at the federal level. Hemp looks and smells just like marijuana so the smell of weed could just as easily be the smell of hemp which is why prosecutors are now dismissing such cases.
It does not appear a lawsuit has been filed in this case at this time. Read the letter to the attorney general here.
UPDATE: Thompson was convicted for obstruction of government but now that the video has surfaced, Hewitt has been placed on paid administrative leave, according to the Washington Post.