State Rep. Janelle Bynum (D-Happy Valley) likes to tell the story about how one time somebody at her son’s daycare referred to her as his “mom,” and he immediately corrected them: “That’s state Rep. Janelle Bynum to you.”
Just think what a plum it will be if her son can boast, “That’s Congresswoman Bynum to you.”
It will also be history.
“I haven’t lost sight of the significance of this race, and I’m working every day to make sure we win in November,” says Bynum in her fundraising pitches.
She would be Oregon’s first black Congressional representative if she wins in the 5th District, where she is running against Republican incumbent Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
In 2020, an especially momentous year when Oregon’s largest city endured night after night of rioting on behalf of George Floyd, Bynum served as co-chair of a special legislative committee — the Joint Committee on Transparent Policing and Use of Force Reform.
In that role, she presided over reforms intended to change the nature of policing in Oregon. It was high profile. It gave Bynum a chance to act on issues of personal concern to her.
Three years earlier at a meeting on Criminal Justice Reform in the state Capitol, Bynum told a group of legislators and activists that as a mom of four kids, one reason she ran for office was that she believed in strong American families.
Since arriving in this country as slaves “the African-American family has been under attack. … We limit our children’s interaction with the law,” she said.
Bynum told an anecdote about a Saturday when her then-12-year-old son needed a hair cut.
She coached him on how to behave: Keep his hoodie down instead of up with his ear buds in, how to walk and how to be aware. She said she always made sure he has a debit card so he cannot be accused of being in a store and not having money.
“I knew other moms didn’t have this same type of narrative,” she said.
She worried that when he was older and taller he would be perceived as a threat.
“That is why we don’t have him in public school. He is less likely to have police called to the school.” (Her son attended private school.)
It’s the kind of anecdote many black mothers repeat, and the media dutifully report.
But what does Bynum tell her black sons about how to interact with other young black guys, who are often more responsible for deadly encounters than police? What advice did she give? It’s one of the questions Portland Dissent put to her that she did not answer.
Bynum wants to make history, and one persistent challenge that faces black political leaders is crime in the black community. The violent crimes committed by black offenders are out of proportion to their numbers in the overall population. Many of their victims are also black. Yet both the media and black leaders focus their concerns on black offenders — not black victims.
Even a charismatic leader like the Rev. Jesse Jackson couldn’t make inroads. In 1993, in a speech to a largely black audience at Operation PUSH in Chicago, Jackson said, “There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps … then turn around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”
The media and political leaders of the day allowed his words to fade away.
As Oregon’s first black Congressional representative, what would Bynum do to bring more peace and less violence to the black community? It’s another question she didn’t reply to.
If her work in the state legislature is any indication, Bynum is much more interested in reforming the police than addressing criminal behavior. Here’s the catch: If Oregon — or any state — gets tougher on criminals, some black offenders will be caught in that change. Should the state go easier on all offenders so blacks will benefit? What does that do to the entire community where people of all colors live?
Here are some of the police reforms supported by Bynum when she was co-chair of the Joint Committee on Transparent Policing and Use of Force Reform and former chair of the House Judiciary Committee:
House Bill 3145 required a database to track police officers who have been disciplined — while Senate Bill 397 made it easier for more felons to expunge their criminal records.
House Bill 2928 ordered police not to use chemical agents in crowd control, while House Bill 3059 removed officers’ authority to declare an unlawful assembly (sponsored by Bynum at the request of the ACLU).
House Bill 3164 limited when police can arrest someone for interfering with an officer.
House Bill 2936 affirmed “anti-racist values” for law enforcement, adding social media policies and requiring local agencies to set standards for speech and expression by officers both in and outside the course of their employment.
House Bill 3273 restricted when police can release booking photos and how they can be used publicly.
Bynum’s opponent has been endorsed by more than 50 public safety officials.
Yet Bynum has cast herself as a law-and-order candidate. She makes frequent references to her grandfather who was a police officer.
What concerns would she have if one of her children wanted to go into law enforcement? It’s another question Bynum blew off. But then, it’s unlikely any of her four children will go into law enforcement.
Bynum has made a very prosperous living as owner (along with her husband Mark) of four McDonald’s franchises within a 10-minute drive of her spacious and safe Happy Valley home.
Growing up outside Washington, D.C., she was an ambitious and disciplined student who knew what she wanted: She wanted to avoid the distractions and violence of an urban public school. She urged her parents to send her to a private school, in this case the Madeira boarding school in McLean, Va. (famous alumnae include Katharine Graham, who went on to become publisher of The Washington Post).
In her congressional campaign, Bynum refers to her “working-class” upbringing. Her parents were both well-educated teachers, and she grew up in an academic environment.
Bynum later earned a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Florida A & M and an MBA from the University of Michigan.
A couple of years ago in an interview with The Oregonian, Bynum recalled her experience at Florida A & M, a historically black university. She pointed out its commitment to scholarship and a notable number of black national merit scholars. Also notable: The dorms were single sex with no visitation.
“It’s very conservative,” said Bynum. “The expectation is that you will finish.”
She has had personal experience in how conservative values can be beneficial in creating a good life. In her politics, though, she has often sided with white liberals who want to make it easier for young blacks to engage in delinquent behavior — those young blacks whose parents can’t afford private school or a nice neighborhood.
This week Bynum took to Twitter (X) to declare that as a mom of four kids, she worries when her family leaves the house. She won’t rest until our communities are safe.
A clip shows police leading a man (of indiscernible skin color) away in handcuffs.
“I will never play politics with protecting your family or mine,” says Bynum.
In 2018, Bynum was canvassing voters in a Clackamas County neighborhood when a woman called police and reported her as suspicious. To the neighbor, it looked like a woman was casing the neighborhood, and there had been burglaries.
A sheriff’s deputy responded and chatted with Bynum. Everything checked out fine. The deputy and Bynum took a selfie.
The following legislative session, Bynum introduced House Bill 3216 creating the malicious summoning law. The law passed, and now citizens can sue if someone unjustifiably calls the police on them. The black news media cheered.
“Put the phone down,” advised blavity.com. “If Oregon’s white residents call the police on Black people for no reason, they might have to come out of pocket.”
How will discouraging people from reporting a potential crime make communities — of any color — safer? From Bynum’s point of view, the neighbor who called police was endangering her life. (See Portland Dissent’s “When the Personal is Political.”)
In 2022, the OIR police monitoring group completed a study of the Portland Police Bureau. An overwhelming majority of officers in the survey – 83.46 percent —said they would never stop a person of color in situations where they might stop a white person. Considering that police stops for minor violations are one way officers find illegal weapons, is it worth the trade off to lower the number of encounters between police and possible offenders? Doesn’t policing require officers to try and prevent people from doing serious harm?
Bynum didn’t reply to those questions.
Even before the George Floyd legislative frenzy, she could be counted on to side with social justice activists advocating on behalf of criminal offenders.
Bynum joined with the Democratic majority in 2019 to pass SB 1008, the most significant juvenile justice reform, overturning a large portion of the voter-approved Measure 11, which required minimum-mandatory sentences for certain violent crimes. Voters wanted juveniles 15 years and older, accused of specific violent crimes, to be handled in adult court where their cases could be heard in public.
Under SB 1008, a judge can now retain them in juvenile court, away from public scrutiny. More significantly, it’s now possible for juvenile murderers to be freed by age 25 — with no criminal record.
Bynum strongly supported going easier on violent juveniles.
“It’s important for our community to stop this cycle of incarceration, overcharging — the re-enslavement of black people in this state and this country,” she said.
Why does she see the offender but not the victim?
A partial explanation might be found in that 2017 presentation she gave at the state Capitol when she discussed her sons and “the talk” black parents have. She also mentioned her daughters. Bynum was concerned about the high number of black males who are convicted felons.
“My girls deserve to have someone in their pool to marry that doesn’t have a criminal record, who can get a job,” she said.
Would she prefer that the “pool” her daughters choose from include men who are prone to criminal behavior but have avoided arrest and prosecution because they’re black?
If you look at Bynum’s official issues on her website, there’s no mention of the criminal justice reforms she actively supported for the past several years.
Education is an issue she seizes on — making reference to her parents who were teachers. Bynum calls education “our greatest equalizer.”
She states, “Our education policies should focus on uplifting our students, and that includes increasing teacher pay, decreasing class sizes, and improving school resources and facilities.”
Sounds good, so I asked her about J.D. Vance, the Republican candidate for Vice President, who wrote a book called “Hillbilly Elegy,” which includes this quote: “As a teacher at my old high school told me recently, ‘They want us to be shepherds to these kids. But no one wants to talk about the fact that many of them are raised by wolves.’”
I asked Bynum, “What can politicians do about poor parenting? To what extent should schools be expected to raise children, particularly if the parents are the problem and don’t want to change? Would a return to stricter requirements in public schools help other young students who, like you, want a more studious environment in which to learn?”
No reply.
That’s not to say I haven’t heard from Bynum at all.
For the past couple of months, I’ve heard from her every day. She calls me “Friend” and tells me, “I’m so grateful to have you on my team.”
She wants me to chip in to her campaign. She’ll settle for $5 but would love $250.
“The path to victory for Democrats runs through (Congressional District) OR-05. We can get Congress back to work by flipping swing seats just like this and taking back the House from extremists who are a threat to our freedoms,” Bynum says.
She will have to win without my donation.
It’s the race baiters and extremists in the Oregon Legislature who threaten our freedoms, who have made this state and its largest city less safe.
She is the type of person that destroyed the Gun (Gang) Violence Reduction Team that was ran by Portland Police. Once that was disbanded all sorts of chaos broke out in the black communities. BLM did them no favors either nor did decimalizing drugs. If I had a conspiratorial mind I would say she was out to destroy the black communities. 🙄
Thank you for this very important information about Bynum. I am not in District 5, but wish I were so that I could vote for Chavez DeRemer instead.