As far as I am concerned, the new revelations about Jeff Perry render him plainly unfit for any office, to say nothing of the U.S. Congress.
So I wonder what Republicans think. Of course they want to pick up seats – everyone wants to win elections. But there does come a point at which a candidate’s behavior is so abysmal, and the moral character of that candidate is so questionable, that winning that particular seat is not worth it.
It’s obvious to me that, as of today, we’ve reached that point with Jeff Perry. As of now, any Republican who continues to support Perry must be doing so because they believe that, to quote Vince Lombardi, “winning isn’t everything – it’s the only thing.” The only thing, to the exclusion even of basic human decency.
So I’m asking. EaBo, Peter Porcupine, JohnD (UPDATE: JohnD declines to back Perry here), and the rest of BMG’s stalwart band of conservatives, what do you say? What about RMG – shouldn’t there be a front-page post about this development that at least calls it to people’s attention?
Can you seriously continue to back Jeff Perry after today’s revelations?
I asked Kevin, the proprietor of Pundit Review, whether he was willing to back off supporting Perry. His response:
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p>OK, that settles that. At least he was concise. Upon my further query as to whether that was really such a good idea, he adopted the classic “look over there! A Democrat did something once!” strategy.
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p>Classic attempt to change the subject. I suggested that it would be more beneficial to focus on people who were (a) still alive, and (b) currently running for office. Kevin responded with the following:
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p>My response to that one:
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p>To be continued, maybe.
Wow, the internets have been around a lot longer than I thought.
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p>He’s got a point though, probably should just drop this whole Perry/child molester/cover-up/lies thing. If not, his rabid defenders will surely slam us with the ultimate political trump card & irrelevant diversion, the Teapot Dome Scandal. Oh, wait, that was republicans…never-mind.
Regular contributors here did.
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p>To be fair, that defense was in reaction to the charming Phelps people protesting at his funeral, which likely colors the response significantly.
Um, yeah. I’d say so.
You really have to ask, why did it take so long for Lisa Allen to speak out now? What is the real motivation behind her speaking out now? Was she paid to do this? This woman could have spoken about the incident when Jeff Perry ran for State Rep. She didn’t.
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p>Why didn’t she say something on this to the Grand Jury? Once again nothing.
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p>The Democrats stand by Gerry Studds who has sex with a 16 year old male page. They call it Statutory Rape.
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p>Why not say something on Bill Keating who plea bargains a date rape case instead of taking it to court? How do you think the victim felt on this one?
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p>This is nothing more than smear on Jeff Perry by the Democrats and Bill Keating. Keating can’t defend the Democrats and what they are doing to this country so he has to revert to smearing Jeff Perry.
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p> If you ask this Republican, I support Jeff Perry and will cast my vote for Jeff Perry. The Democrats are desperate.
…given your statements, you obviously have no concept of the trauma victims go through. Your so desperate, you are despicable. Go crawl back under your rock.
Yet another Republican attacking yet another victim of sex abuse.
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p>I don’t “have to ask” her anything, her courage in coming forward speaks for itself.
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p>Instead, I ask you — do you appreciate just how despicable your attack on her is?
And I hope that any woman close to you never suffers through the trauma of sexual assault. What would you do if your 14 year old daughter-a CHILD-was strip searched and groped by law enforcement with no reason? Would you blame the victim then?
Was in an affidavit released by the Malone campaign to the media. Nothing new came out today. Nothing except Scott Flanagan’s victim spoke.
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p>I think this is an issue that was brought up in the primary and people knew about it. I think also that Perry probably should have done something different? Do I think that it disqualifies him for office 20 years later. No.
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p>On the issue of Character ask Bill Keating why radio stations are taking down his false advertisements.
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p>I’m actually not paying that much attention to this race.
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p>But to claim that anything new came out today is not an accurate statement.
Put up of shut up Eabo…I believe this is new information…or information that I have not seen in print, pertaining to what happened that night…
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p>The story says…
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p>”They were close enough to hear — for me to hear them, you know; clear, but not close enough, you know, to where I knew where they were,” she said at that time. “Yes, they were there. They were right there.”
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p>Show me where that has been in print anywhere before today?
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p>And you lying about Bill Keating running radio ads…it’s a 3rd party.
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p>BTW, if you think Perry should have done something different 19 years ago, what do you think about Perry saying it was good police work and he would do nothing different? The man is deeply flawed and should resign as a State Rep, never mind get a promotion to Congress.
http://www.capecodonline.com/a…
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p>June 24, 2010
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p>Same information. Different person saying it.
It was from an outside group. I didn’t read the whole NRCC press release. I’m sorry. I wasn’t lying, just ignorant. Teach me to read only the first paragraph in the car on my way into work.
…of the victim? Yes, the fact the Perry stood 15 feet away from a sexual assault of a 14 year old girl (wow, given that fact and you still stand by this guy!?!?!?!) was reported is one thing…that it now said with the very words of the victim and the victim criticizes Perry’s actions and today says that Joyce was part of the coverup from the very beginning–is big, big news.
It certainly is the same information, but presented in a far more heated context than an old police report.
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p>I am inclined to be at least a bit skeptical when this kind of heated “break” in an old story just happens to pop up two weeks from election day.
Skeptical that Ms. Allen is telling the truth? Because that’s really the only thing that matters. If what she says is true, then Jeff Perry has been untruthful about this episode for 20 years. If it’s not, then Perry is off the hook.
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p>Where do you come down? Do you believe the sexual assault victim, or the cop?
And glad I live in a different district, and don’t have to decide.
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p>I do find the timing of this big news break to be suspiciously fortuitous for the Democratic Party, and am dubious of the quick resort to “You’re blaming the victim!” above, when the curious timing was pointed out. So I guess I am saying that the statement is likely “dramatized for late October.”
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p>On the other hand, to the extent that I have paid much attention to the candidate, his statements then and now seem a wee bit self-serving, to put it charitably.
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p>So I’m not coming down because I don’t have to; the race near me is easy because Marty Lamb is a crazy person.
who is easily manipulated–and most certainly a Democrat–who has no vested interest in the lies and prevarications that Mr. Perry, a candidate for Congress, has offered prior to this point.
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p>Maybe she has wrestled with coming forward?
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p>Maybe she is really concerned that an individual of the moral depravity of Mr. Perry might actually get elected to the United States Congress after all?
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p>Maybe she is sick and tired of hearing him prevaricate and dissemble?
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p>I have to say that I often find what you have to say level headed and rational. On this point, however, I think you’ve let your desire to toe that line cloud your thinking. Her motives are not the issue here; it’s Perry’s consistently dishonest spinning of this incident that is the issue. There’s virtually no question on what happened that night at this point, and there is absolutely no question regarding Mr. Perry’s actions in the aftermath.
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p>And we agree. Marty Lamb is a loon. Come to Holden center next Wednesday at 4 pm and hold a sign for McGovern and we’ll chat.
You must love it there, politically. To paraphrase Tina Fey, I can see Holden from my house.
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p>Maybe it is the case that there is no question about what happened; I have paid only intermittent attention. I doubt that I would be that inclined to vote for him anyway, for reasons unrelated to this. Nor do I intend to play private grand jury and sift the evidence. But I am instinctively suspicious of this kind of campaign “issue” especially when it pops up so late in the day, just in time to pour some life on an attack issue that people seemed dismayed wasn’t getting more traction, in a closer-than-expected election.
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p>I have a great deal of respect for our Congressman, and am quite happy to vote for him even though I disagree with him from time to time.
I was dubious too. When partisan advantage seems to combine with hot button story, I’ve learned to immediately spring lots of doubt.
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p>There are enough aspects of this story to undermine any confidence one should have in Mr. Perry’s judgment. A lot of them have to do with his statements that he heard everything and didn’t hear everything, reported to his superior but didn’t, etc.
in the Cape Cod Times archive, I can’t argue with this at all.
But the recent WGBH poll suggested that Perry’s positioned to win it, which might very well have motivated Allen to come forward.
Personally I now wish Malone had won the primary.
Perry’s ad which has his former Police chief/codefendant in civil trial vouching for him and saying he was a good police officer might have been the reason the victim came forward. This is the same guy who questioned Perry’s veracity in court documents. If I were the victim of Perry’s lying defense of the criminal actions of Flannagan, this ad would have enraged me.
The original print report uses the passive voice:
“Perry is accused of being at the scene, just 15 feet away, as Flanagan forced the girl to lift her shirt and then put his hand in her pants as the girl screamed in protest, according to court documents.”
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p>Today’s new information — and yes, it is both new and sensational — is that the victim herself was the source of that accusation.
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p>So what do we know now that we didn’t know before?
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p>I’m sorry guys, but this is news. It is material, it comes from a valid source, and it makes it crystal-clear that Jeff Perry lied then and has been lying about this episode since then.
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p>I grant you that such reprehensible behavior doesn’t matter to the 17 registered Republicans left in the state, but it certainly should matter to everyone else.
The identification of the person making the accusation is news, in a sense, but who did we think was the source of the accusation before yesterday?
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p>For me, the bigger issue with this guy is that he seems to have been one of “those” bully cops. That has been lost in all of the overheated “predator” and “rapist” talk, which are an exaggeration even if one believes the worst about the candidate.
I’ve not said nor heard said that he was a “predator” or a “rapist”.
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p>Instead, I suggest that he was (and is) an enabler.
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p>In response to your question, until today the source could have been a friend, a family member, almost anyone with second- or third-hand information.
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p>I agree with you that Jeff Perry seems to have been one of “those bully cops”, but in my view his role in this episode is worse.
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p>While on duty and in uniform, he stood by, silently, while his partner perpetrated a criminal sexual assault against a 14 year old girl. That is a betrayal of the victim and a betrayal of the trust society placed in him when they gave him a badge and put him on the street.
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p>His subsequent self-serving and dishonest accounts of his role in this episode reinforce the perception that Jeff Perry is a man who should not have any role in government.
by having the assaulted teen coming forward as a grown woman making the claim. It’s no longer hearsay, no longer the dry publishing of a court record, but a first person account.
and out of cowardice or complicity failed to intervene originally, and because many of the voters already knew about it, that makes it less reprehensible? As Perry has never really accepted responsibility for his role in the scandal, it seems he’s changed very little in twenty years. Why don’t you just denounce him and focus on Bielat and Baker? BMG’s editors, by dispensing with the likes of DiMasi, Wilkerson, and Galluccio when it was obvious they were unfit for office, show that they share core values that go beyond atavistic loyalties, such as the immoral allegiance that might motivate a cop to look the other way when his partneer does something heinous.
Let this bum go, Eabo.
Just because GOP voters were willing to overlook Perry’s defense of a child molester when he had the opportunity to help the victim, doesn’t mean General Election voters will.
A final election is nothing like a Republican Primary—-
wondering what your take on all this might be. If elected, after all, Jeff Perry would represent you in Congress.
Translation: I really don’t care what a sexual assault victim has to say about the bystander–of authority–who could have helped her during the assault as long as the bystander is a member of my tribe. I’m not paying close attention, though, but I stand by the member of my tribe.
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p>Got it. Thanks. I’m hopeful you don’t have any daughters–or sons, for that matter.
I think that Jeff Perry is a lot like Ed Exley.
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p>Do you remember the begining of ‘LA Confidential’? Where the twerpy young officer, Exley, was in charge and bad stuff was going on, and he tried to ignore it, and finally acted when it was too obvious?
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p>I think Jeff DID believe his friend Scott, and acted more and more panicky as incidents unfolded. When it WASN’T one freak thing on New Year’s Eve, but ANOTHER thing from the year before ALSO, coming out, and then people saying that YOU were involved…
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p>What Jeff Perry should have done when this first emerged in this race was to say he screwed up when he was young, and believed a friend, and apologize. He tried to act as if there was no story, that nothing happened – what he did at the time. But Flanagan WAS guilty and Perry should have been more candid.
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p>Do I think he was involved? Really, no. He is not a pervert or pedophile, as the lurid Malone and Keating ads imply. He is too stiff-necked, too proud to admit he was wrong 20 years ago and mishandled things badly due to youth and inexperience. Put a participant, or actively involved? No. Allen says he ‘must have known’, but there has never been any indication this is true and it was investigated at a civil and criminal level at the time.
that Perry himself is a pervert or pedophile.
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p>But I reiterate that Ms. Allen’s allegation today is precisely that Perry was actively involved. The State Police said he was 15 feet away. Fifteen feet! That’s less than the length of a living room in a New England center-entrance Colonial! And she says she was screaming and crying. If that is true, there is no way that Perry didn’t hear it and wasn’t aware that something was going on.
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p>If the Staties and Allen are right, then Perry was there, he heard her screams and cries, and he made a decision to let Flanagan keep doing what he was doing. That, I’m sorry to say, is active involvement in the incident. Does it make him civilly or criminally liable? I have no idea – that is emphatically not the issue. The issue is whether, having apparently (if Allen is telling the truth) been untruthful about this incident repeatedly, for 20 years now, he is fit to serve in Congress.
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p>That one pretty much answers itself, PP. Give up on this guy. You’ll be glad you did.
All over this site people are referring to ‘facts’. They are statements. There is a difference beteen a ‘revelation’ and an ‘allegation’ although the words are being used interchangably (except by you, who have legal training).
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p>But she does not say that he saw. She said ‘he MUST have known’. Even the proximity is debatable. WAS another person being handcuffed at the same time? I’d like to know what the third officer had to say, myself.
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p>And again – this was in the newspaper last May. And June. And July. Malone’s ads and mailings said exactly what was a startling revelation today. I just heard Braude sneer that it may have been publicized, but only in a ‘too small’ universe. WTF? The woman is in her 30’s and has been silent while Perry was reelected 4 times – she is not a traumatized teen. Why 13 days before an election usless it IS merely partisan? Her own words are evasive – ‘must have known’? It sounds like she is doing literal truth telling, not making a declaration. Right now, as I type, an ad on TV says ‘five steps away’ and ‘resigned in disgrace’ and ‘happened repeatedly in Wareham’. These are simply untruths.
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p>The irony here is that Perry and I are far apart on many actual issues – the portmanteau of social issues, the specific issues of Cape Wind and birthright citizenship, as examples. But I have not even HEARD Keating make an issues based ad. He is pretty much ignoring issues except Social Security, where is is a lying fearmonger. Perry has nothing BUT positive ads. As I said, I disagree with several, but I DO agree about spending, debt, illegal immigration enforcement, and so on. I saw him work – hard – for a dozen years and know he is intelligent and dutiful. Tell me again why I should dump him when I have seen him do good work in favor of perfervid accusations.
You asked:
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p>You should dump him for the same reason that you should dump a Catholic bishop who knowingly covers up criminal adolescent sex abuse committed by priests under his authority. You should dump him for the same reason that you should dump a school principal who knowingly covers up a sexual relationship between a teacher and student in that principal’s school.
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p>You should dump him because he is still lying about his role in this episode, even though the facts are crystal-clear.
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p>You should dump him because his is a liar. You should dump him because he is a sex-abuse enabler. You should dump him because he has already betrayed the trust of a victim and the trust of the society that gave him a uniform, a badge, and gun. You should dump him because he still doesn’t or won’t admit that his behavior as a cop was indefensible (whether or not it was criminal).
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p>That’s why you should dump him.
From the Globe article:
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p>Now, perhaps the Staties are wrong. But I haven’t seen anything to suggest that’s the case, and it seems unlikely that they are trying to implicate the cops on the scene.
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p>Given that, you simply cannot (1) accept Ms. Allen’s statement that she was “screaming and crying” as true, and (2) believe that Jeff Perry had no idea that anything was amiss. You simply can’t. I don’t care what else was going on at the time – you can’t miss a 14-year-old girl screaming and crying at 15 feet. The “five steps away” thing is actually pretty accurate – most men have a stride of about a yard. It sure isn’t more than 6 or 7 steps.
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p>It’s pretty simple: either Ms. Allen is telling the truth, or she isn’t. So maybe you don’t believe her. If that’s the case, then please say that you don’t believe this victim of a sexual assault. If not, then please explain why you don’t think Perry is lying about what happened – and has been doing so for 20 years.
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p>I just can’t see any third way here.
He probably didn’t think he was molesting her or assaulting her, Perry probably thought he was searching her for drugs, and that was why she was crying. Perry and the other officer were probably searching the other three kids at the same time. Are police not allowed to search kids for drugs, even strip search? I’ve heard of body cavity searches, do they all require a warrant or something? Do they require a same-sex officer?
Police turn the other way when colleagues put their hands down the pants of 14-year-olds (generally 9th graders) all the time. No problem. Are you lucid?
Last night, my wife pointed out a salient fact: Jeff Perry was Scott Flanagan’s supervisor. Jeff Perry was his sargeant. That means that Jeff Perry was in charge; Scott Flanagan was under his command.
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p>I’m thinking that “Don’t Get Cute” is perhaps young enough to genuinely not know about the constitutional protections every American is entitled to. This episode may, in fact, be a teaching moment for him (according to his bio here, Don’t Get Cute is a “he”).
Here are two statements:
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p>Statement 1:
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p>Statement 2:
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p>Here’s what the State Police investigation said:
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p>The two statements cannot be reconciled with each other. A police officer standing fifteen feet away from a young woman screaming and crying must have been aware of her distress. Either Jeff Perry is lying or Lisa Allen is lying.
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p>In fact, there have been many indications that the episode happened approximately the way Lisa Allen describes it. Scott Flanagan was convicted. The information that Jeff Perry was fifteen feet away was disclosed at the time, was part of the investigation, and is in the transcripts. Similarly, the account the Lisa Allen offers today is completely consistent with the information already in the public record from the time.
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p>In fact, it is Jeff Perry’s statements that cannot be reconciled with the facts.
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p>He stood nearby while his partner abused a 14 year old girl. He did and said nothing. He lied about it afterward, and he’s lying about it now.
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p>In my view, the only question left is how someone can, like you, handle the cognitive dissonance of attempting to believe that the first two statements above are simultaneously true.
A colleague using the authority of his badge (and gun) to stick his hand down the underwear of a 14 year old girl is not the kind of “bad stuff” that it’s ok to “ignore”, even once.
I re-read that Globe story from June, and it was all there. The state police report establishing that Perry was 15 feet away. Lisa’s testimony (though without her name) that she was screaming, yelling, and crying. Take a look.
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p>What’s new now isn’t that we have more facts, it’s that it’s more visceral, reading the victim’s own words. It brings it home more, it makes it vivid and memorable in a way that previous stories hadn’t quite done.
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p>But we’ve known about all of this for months, and we’ve known Jeff Perry was unfit for office that whole time.
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p>Remember when William Jefferson was caught with a fridge full of bribery cash? The Democratic & lefty netroots blogs actively criticised him and tried to get him defeated. When he was up against Republican Cao in the 2008 runoff, mainstream netroots blogs mostly either didn’t support him, or supported Cao. I think this is a similarly severe case.