Janelle Bynum caught using foreign actor as fake police officer in ad

Janelle Bynum caught using foreign actor as fake police officer in ad

Extreme Democrat Janelle Bynum's latest TV ad uses foreign stock footage of an actor in Ukraine posing as a police officer, a new investigation revealed. As Bynum claims "I'll work with local law enforcement," the foreign fake flashes on screen.

Bynum clearly couldn't find a single real cop to appear in her TV ad - perhaps because Oregon's largest police organization just blasted her ad as a "lie," writing that "the Defund the Police movement has had no greater champion than Janelle Bynum."

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NOTE: "Extreme Janelle Bynum's fake ad perfectly captures her fraudulent attempts to pull the wool over voters' eyes," said Ben Petersen, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. "Bynum has foreign actors posing as cops because real Oregon police officers say her radical agenda is too dangerous."

Republicans pounce on Democrat Janelle Bynum over stock footage in police ad
Oregon Capital Chronicle
Julia Shumway

A Democratic congressional candidate's first televised ad has drawn criticism from Republicans and a police group for featuring stock footage of a Ukrainian actor and touting a public safety message.

State Rep. Janelle Bynum, a Clackamas County Democrat challenging first-term Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer in Oregon's 5th Congressional District, released the 30-second ad last week. It features a voiceover from Bynum and footage of her family and the Legislature, as well as stock video of police officers, fentanyl and an officer walking a handcuffed prisoner down a hall.

"In the Oregon state Legislature, I worked to pass bipartisan legislation to re-criminalize fentanyl and other dangerous drugs," she narrates. "In Congress, I will work with local enforcement to keep us safe and fight to ensure our communities have the resources they need."

The clips of police officers are from a stock photo site, Shutterstock, and one was added to the site by a Ukrainian company, M_Agency. As Politico reported last year, campaigns have increasingly used stock images and videos filmed in foreign countries in political ads - sometimes with embarrassing results. One example is a May 2023 ad supporting Virginia's Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin that featured a scene of an Italian fighter jet.

Republican critics of Bynum cast the stock footage in her ad as proof she doesn't have support from local law enforcement.

"Extreme Janelle Bynum's fake ad perfectly captures her fraudulent attempts to pull the wool over voters' eyes," said Ben Petersen, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee. "Bynum has foreign actors posing as cops because real Oregon police officers say her radical agenda is too dangerous."

[…]

Chavez-DeRemer and her Republican allies have latched onto Bynum's record on police reform as a potential weak point, with the National Republican Congressional Committee running digital ads calling her "Oregon's most pro-criminal politician." They've cited audio of her on a podcast praising 2020 racial justice protests in Portland that spurred Oregon lawmakers to pass a set of police reform measures in 2021. While the months-long protests were largely peaceful, some events turned into riots with injuries, millions of dollars worth of property damage and the shooting death of a counter protester.

[…]

The Oregon Coalition of Police and Sheriffs, which lobbies for law enforcement, issued a lengthy and scathing statement about Bynum and her ad, saying that she proposed and passed bills that crippled police's ability to keep communities safe. It cited a 2023 law that stops police from pulling people over for equipment violations, like a burned-out headlight, unless that broken equipment is currently interfering with safe travel, as well as the 2021 laws that limited use of tear gas and impact munitions.

Portland Police Sgt. Aaron Schmautz, the organization's president, said Bynum was "gaslighting" by saying she worked across the aisle to recriminalize fentanyl. He noted that she endorsed Measure 110, the 2020 voter-approved law that decriminalized drug possession and aimed to provide more funding for treatment. Lawmakers walked the law back this year.

"Janelle Bynum's actions in the Oregon Legislature are crystal clear: Bynum views law enforcement as the problem and has advocated for defunding at every turn," Schmautz wrote. "Oregon is less safe today because of policies she not only supported but led."

[…]

Chavez-DeRemer on Thursday announced that she received endorsements from more than 50 current and former law enforcement officials and firefighters across the 5th District, including the Republican sheriffs of Deschutes, Linn and Marion counties. She's also backed by the Oregon Coalition of Police and Sheriffs and local fire unions.

"Oregonians are fed up with soft-on-crime policies that have failed to keep them safe, and that's why I've fought to hold criminals accountable and let law enforcement do their jobs," Chavez-DeRemer said in a statement. "My record speaks for itself, and I'm honored to have endorsements from groups like ORCOPS, the Oregon State Fire Fighters Council, and now this coalition of honorable men and women who have put themselves in harm's way to keep our communities safe."

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