Gladstone Mayor Tammy Stempel says she is not on social media. But her sister Debbie Lumb is – and that is creating problems for some Gladstone residents who say they feel targeted by Lumb for questioning their local government.
Two Gladstone residents say they’ve been harassed by Lumb and members of the political far-right after communicating concerns about local issues to the mayor. Stempel said that she doesn’t encourage or agree with her sister’s behavior, but that online harassment is just a part of being on social media today.
“It’s horrible on all sides. It is absolutely deplorable,” Stempel said in a phone call Thursday with The Oregonian/OregonLive. “And how to change that? I don’t know.”
Gladstone resident Cierra Cook, 34, said the mayor’s sister sent her harassing Facebook messages July 12 about 30 minutes after she emailed the mayor, city council and several other city officials with concerns over a Second Amendment “freedom rally” scheduled that week at a local bar. The event flyer featured the logo of far-right group the Proud Boys: a black circle encompassing a gold laurel wreath.
Cook sent the email around 3:30 p.m., asking how Gladstone police were preparing for the event, which she feared would involve drinking alcohol, brandishing firearms and driving through the city.
Stempel replied once, asking Cook to forward her the event flyer, but didn’t respond again. About 30 minutes later, Cook said she started receiving Facebook messages from the mayor’s sister.
“Oh you silly silly thing. Love your message to the chief haha,” Lumb wrote, accompanied by an attachment of the Second Amendment. “Go back to school and learn how to read … I know you are one of those woke vaginas well actually your (sic) woke but not awake.” The message ended with several emoji, including an American flag.
About five minutes later, Cook received more messages from a Facebook user named “Freedom Fred,” whose profile picture was a meme adopted by the far-right.
“You should just mind your own business and let this fine group of young American patriots be free in the grestest (sic) country in the world,” the message said. “More of (the police) would rather go to ‘my’ event than any event the left is having … they hate u as much as we do.”
The message included several emoji of a white hand flashing the “ok” gesture, an emoji that has been adopted by the far-right.
Cook said the messages made her fear for her family’s safety, and raised concerns over how the mayor’s sister, who calls Proud Boys her friends, learned about her email.
“I don’t think there is a plausible reason to share my name with her sister unless the purpose is to incite harassment,” Cook said in a phone call Thursday. “I have two young children – I shouldn’t have to weigh their physical safety when deciding whether or not it’s safe to email my mayor with a question about my city.”
Stempel said she called and told her sister about Cook’s email because her sister was one of the event organizers, and that she was doing her “due diligence” by sharing Cook’s concerns. During their phone call, Stempel said she told her sister Gladstone police would be monitoring the event.
Stempel said she did not encourage her sister to send harassing messages to Cook, but that her sister – whom she described as “fringey” and politically “very-right” – uses social media “as a tool.”
“It doesn’t matter what I say or do, she will do her own thing,” Stempel said. “I have asked in the past for her to step back, but I have zero control over my sister. Absolutely none. And I don’t want to have any control over my sister.”
Lumb, 51, agrees.
“My sister doesn’t control me,” said Lumb, who previously lived in Gladstone but has lived in Estacada for about a year. “If (Cook) doesn’t want anybody to know who she is when she’s being an imbecile, maybe she shouldn’t email out to the whole entire city because that becomes public information.”
Lumb, though, appears to have sidestepped a public records request process thanks to her sister, Cook said, noting that members of the public must fill out a form and pay a fee to get access to a public record, such as an email to the mayor.
“If the mayor is allowing relatives to work around that system and offer city services for free at a quicker turnaround time than is offered to the general public, then I think that is inappropriate,” Cook said. “Democracy dies when citizens can’t engage with their elected officials without putting themselves at risk.”
Lumb disagreed, adding that she doesn’t regret messaging people like Cook who saw the Proud Boy logo on her event and “spun it to their agenda.”
“I don’t attack people – I go against people that lie,” Lumb said. “If you don’t lie, I’ll leave you alone. If you lie, I’m coming after you.”
Stempel said there is “very long history” between her sister, her sister’s friends and a small group of Gladstone residents who she said routinely “attack” her via email and at city council meetings.
One of those residents is 45-year-old Ben Hildner, a counselor at a Portland elementary school who lived in Gladstone between 2019 and 2021.
Hildner said he was “targeted specifically by Debbie Lumb” after becoming involved in social justice activism in 2020, following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
Hildner said he started participating in local Black Lives Matter events and voicing his concerns in emails to the mayor and during city council meetings about how Gladstone was handling calls for racial justice. He first thought it was a “misguided but well-intentioned” show of support when Stempel stood next to a police car during a June 2020 racial justice protest carrying a sign that read “kindness matters.”
For a while, he said Stempel responded to his emails and thanked him for his input. Eventually, however, she stopped responding to his emails.
Things changed once Lumb found him on Facebook, he said.
Hildner said he started receiving Facebook messages that summer from Lumb and other far-right supporters ridiculing him, calling him a pedophile and threatening to show up at the elementary school where he works. Social media posts with photos of him were shared on Facebook accusing him of “indoctrinating children.”
The harassment continued for over a year. He woke up July 26, 2021, to Proud Boy business cards scattered outside of his home, he said. On Aug. 27 of that year, Lumb and another person stood outside a Gladstone business carrying a sign bearing a photo of Hildner, accompanied by the words “Antifa Member” and “Peeping Tom.”
“I felt threatened significantly, and I felt dismissed by police,” he said. “It doesn’t seem real.”
Lumb said she has never met Hildner, but that she created the signs because he hid behind bushes and garbage cans, photographing people and their families to later post on “Antifa sites.” She could not name what those websites were.
Hildner denied Lumb’s accusations and said that photos were taken of him and posted online – not the other way around.
Since moving back to Portland in 2021, Hildner said his level of fear has gone down significantly. But he still feels in danger as long as he remains involved in Gladstone’s social justice activism community and voicing criticism to the mayor.
Stempel said she wasn’t aware of the harassment Hildner described, but said that he, Cook and several other residents are often “instigators” of situations they find themselves in. And while she doesn’t participate in social media herself, Stempel said she knows people “attack” her online as well.
“Criticism is fine – everybody should be criticized if you’re doing something wrong. But there’s a right way to do it, and bullying and harassing is not the way to do it,” Stempel said. “It’s almost like a hit squad mentality.”
According to Hildner and Cook, however, private citizens – especially those who criticize the mayor and other city officials – are the ones facing the brunt of harassment in Gladstone.
“If you’re the mayor of a town and a resident comes to you with concerns, I wouldn’t call that bullying,” he said. “If by ‘instigate’ they mean advocate – writing emails saying I’m concerned about this or that – then I guess that’s what I’m doing. I’m not going to be quiet if I see something that’s wrong.”
— Catalina Gaitán; cgaitan@oregonian.com
Ad Choices