It may have taken some time, but Mayor Bloomberg brought up a very interesting point of view regarding the NYPD’s “perp walk” of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
Let’s go ahead and put it out there. We may not like him, but should someone of Strauss-Kahn world status (Former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief) undergo the organized handcuffed walk before the cameras? Should anyone for that matter be forced to undergo a “perp walk.”
Bloomberg is now calling such public displays “outrageous” and a “circus.”
"We've done “Perp walks” for the benefit of newspapers and television for a long time," said the mayor.
"I've always thought the perp walks were outrageous. That's only my view. Nobody's asked me and I have no say in it. Whatever.” The mayor also added:
"Even if they're guilty they're not guilty until they're convicted — and yet we vilify them for the benefit of theater, for the circus. You know they did it in Roman times, too. This is nothing new."
The mayor remarks, are very different than what he said a couple of months ago when French public officials questioned why Strauss-Kahn had to walk through rows of cameras with his hands cuffed leaving a police station.
"You know, if you don't want to do the perp walk, don't do the crime," Bloomberg said May 17.
"I don't have a lot of sympathy for that. Our judicial system works when the public can see the alleged perpetrators."
Dominique Strauss-Kahn was forced to do the “Perp Walk,” but now that he is about to be fully cleared in a court of law, will this further damage relations between France and the U.S? Would it be tolerated in the U.S, if an American national figure is arrested in France, and let’s say walked before the cameras in Paris.
A city official is looking to completely ban “Perp Walks.”
Brooklyn Councilman David Greenfield says the "perp walk" custom violates the presumption of innocence.
Greenfield's bill would make it illegal for any city employee to assist in the public showing of someone who's arrested.
It would not apply to those who plead guilty.