Constituent Calls Police on Black Candidate Canvassing, Suspected Drug Deal

A constituent called the police on a black candidate while she was canvassing for state assembly in Wisconsin because of a suspected drug deal.

Sheila Stubbs, who had served on the board of Dane County Board of Supervisors for more than 10 years, was canvassing for votes in a predominantly white neighborhood in Madison, Wisconsin, she told The Cap Times on Wednesday. Her mother and her eight-year-old son were in the car while she introduced herself to voters on August 7 when a man called the police and said they were "waiting for drugs at the local drug house," according to The Cap Times. The notes from the 911 call obtained by the newspaper read it "would like them moved along."

Stubbs told the newspaper a police officer approached her after 20 minutes of walking around the neighborhood, according to The Cap Times. Stubbs, 46, was a 12-year veteran of the Dane County Board of Supervisors and told the newspaper that she found the incident "degrading."

"It's 2018," Stubbs told the publication. "It shouldn't be strange that a black woman's knocking on your door. I didn't do anything to make myself stand out. I felt like they thought I didn't belong there."

She noted that the interaction between her and the responding officer was positive and that the two exchanged phone numbers, according to The Cap Times. She told the publication that she offered to work with the officer to work on improving race relations in the county.

"It's just not OK," she said. "When you specifically target people of color and call the police, sometimes there's different outcomes."

Stubbs went on to win the Democratic primary for the state assembly on August 15 with nearly 50 percent of the vote and will be the county's first black representative to the state Legislature, WISC-TV previously reported.

"I belong where I choose to go," Stubbs told The Cap Times. "You don't have to like me. You don't even have to respect me. But I have a right to be places."

Newsweek has reached out to Stubbs for comment on the incident but did not hear back in time for publication.

A similar incident occurred at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on Friday after the police were called on a black employee at the school. The person who called in the anonymous tip said Reg Andrade, a case manager in the disability services office at the university, "seemed very agitated."