A woman called the police on Oregon state representative Janelle Bynum (D) as she was canvassing in a neighborhood in her district, according to Bynum’s Tuesday Facebook post.
“Big shout out to Officer Campbell who responded professionally to someone who said that I was going door to door and spending a lot of time typing on my cell phone after each house — aka canvassing and keeping account of what my community cares about!” Bynum wrote in her post.
The legislator said she asked the policeman to connect her to the person, whose race is unknown, who called 911. Bynum wrote that “the officer called her, we talked and she did apologize.”
Later, Bynum told the Oregonian that while she understood the woman’s concern, “when people do things like this, it can be dangerous for people like me.”
In several recent incidents, bystanders have called the police to report on black people engaging in innocuous activities including holding a barbecue in a public park, waiting in a Starbucks, and, in the case of one eight-year-old girl, selling water.
Read Bynum’s full post below:
