A North Dakota lawmaker who serves on a panel that handles law enforcement legislation made homophobic and anti-migrant remarks to a police officer who arrested him on a charge of driving drunk, body camera footage shows.
Republican state Rep. Nico Rios of Williston was also charged with refusing to provide a chemical test. Both that and the drunken driving charge are misdemeanors under state law. Rios is scheduled for a Feb. 5 pretrial conference in municipal court.
Williston police pulled him over on Dec. 15 for failing to maintain his lane, according to an officer’s report. The officer wrote that Rios “was verbally abusive, homophobic, racially abusive and discriminatory” toward him “for the entire duration of the incident following road side testing.”
The homophobic slurs can be heard in body camera footage requested by and provided to The Associated Press. In the recording, Rios also said he would call the North Dakota attorney general about the situation. He told the officers they would “regret picking on me because you don’t know who … I am.”
Yeah, that sounds about right for the quality of elected officials put in charge by that special group of the electorate.
“BacK tHe bLuE” my ass
Republicans only back the blue when the blue is murdering unarmed black people for them.
Well Bubba, the whole country is going to know who you am now.
And over a third will cheer him on and excuse his behavior as free speech.
He’s a fracking moron as well as overt racist and homophobe. Excuses will now flow to say that he is really a very nice chap, a pillar of the community and a model citizen representing your views
No one needed to be told it was a Republican.
Shocked. Just shocked he’s a Republican, I tell ya…
This guy just sounds like such a lovely individual. /s
They obviously have the footage. Why not just post an embedded video of the bodycam footage?
