From your April 23, endorsements: “District Attorney: Patty Perlow’s experience and support from the justice community makes this one a slam dunk.”

In March 2019, Springfield Police Officer R.A. Lewis shot Stacy Kenny five times, twice in the head, while seated next to her in her car. Kenny was unarmed, still seatbelted, and schizophrenic. So SPD officers would know how to — and how not to — respond if they encountered her, the SPD alerted them on the day they killed her. 

This was a traffic stop. Sound familiar? 

Five heavily armed, physically strong male cops somehow couldn’t overpower her or block her car with theirs to keep her from driving off. She was calling 911 as Lewis was climbing into her car. Lewis, who was or should have been aware of Kenny’s schizophrenia, somehow was “in fear” for his life because she was driving fast. 

So he shot Kenny five times while seated right next to her. Take a moment and envision that.

And Patty Perlow ruled the killing justified in April 2019, one year before Eugene Weekly endorsed her as “a slam dunk.” 

Now the city of Springfield has to pay Kenny’s family $4.55 million for her wrongful death, an Oregon record for police violence.

Question: How does EW explain its endorsement of Perlow at all, let alone as a “slam dunk”? How does “support from the justice community,” let alone Perlow’s egregious ruling, warrant such an endorsement? Perlow is clearly compromised. So are your endorsements.

William LeGro

Eugene

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