Activist Targeted by Prineville Police Chief
On June 13, 2020 Officer Dale Cummins, the Chief of Police in Prineville, Oregon, used the official Facebook page for the Prineville Police Department to defame Josie Stanfield’s (a resident of Prineville for 13 yrs.) name & calling her a liar without any evidence or explanation of what she had supposedly lied about.
Earlier that week Josie had held a #BLM protest in Prineville & met with the chief for over 2 hours. Josie then went home &posted a recap of that meeting to her PERSONAL Facebook page.
A little backstory! Time Magazine did an article on the activists in Central Oregon who had the courage to stand up for the #BLM movement. Josie was not named personally in the article. Bernie Sanders & Barack Obama both shared the Time Magazine article on their social media whichin turn upset the mayor of Prineville.
At the next protest the mayor is on video stating he had a meeting to go to. Josie can be heard asking if she could attend this meeting, unaware it was about her & the release of the video. She was told no. The video was subsequently released during this protest without thought of the danger they had just placed Josie & her family in.
Days after the release of the video the Oregon Justice Resource Center sent a letter to the city informing them of the increased threats Josie was receiving since the release of the video. The city was asked to remove the video & given a 2 week deadline to do so. That deadline has come & gone.
For weeks Josie has incurred expenses trying to keep her family safe. She now needs your help. Her days & nights are unknown because of the threats & the last minute hotel stays have become the sad norm. She has small children to protect.
Please donate what you can & share. Because we don’t know how long this will go on all leftover proceeds will be used for further protests. Our end hope is that Chief Cummins does the right thing. Never in his history of being Chief of Police has he personally attacked a citizen without explanation or evidence.
