Black Oregon state rep says someone called police on her while she was campaigning

A black Oregon state representative said Tuesday that one of her constituents called the police on her while she was canvassing a neighborhood in her district.

State Rep. Janelle Bynum (D) said in a Facebook post that someone called the police on her to report that she “was going door to door and spending a lot of time typing on my cell phone after each house.”

Bynum is up for reelection in November and said that she was taking notes on her phone from conversations with constituents. 

{mosads}

Bynum told The Oregonian that she was taking notes after stopping by the second-to-last of about 30 homes on her list when a Clackamas County sheriff’s deputy — identified only by his last name, Campbell — pulled up to her.

Bynum said that the officer who responded to the call acted professionally and that she asked to speak with the woman who called law enforcement on her.

“I asked to meet my constituent who thought I was suspicious, but she was on the road by then,” Bynum wrote. “The officer called her, we talked and she did apologize.”

According to The Oregonian, Bynum recalled telling the deputy that “when people do things like this, it can be dangerous for people like me.”

A number of incidents in which police were called on people of color doing normal activities have gained widespread attention in recent months. For example, two black men were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks in April after they sat down in the cafe without making a purchase.

Those men reached a settlement with the city in May, agreeing to a symbolic payment of $1 each and securing funding for a program to help high school students who want to become entrepreneurs.