Why a Perp-Walk?

French people who were shocked by the perp-walk should read this article from the New York Post in which Police Commissioner Ray Kelly explains the reason for the walk. Here are excerpts:

"We have been walking prisoners out of the front doors of station houses for 150 years in this Police Department," Kelly told reporters. "This is how we transport people to court.

"There is no back door, no secret way of doing it," he said at Brooklyn College, where he attended a Police Academy graduation. "So the issue of the so-called perp walk is strictly an issue for the media."

NYPD policy was under fire after French politicians and commentators blasted what they called the humiliating treatment of DSK following his arrest in May.

Most recently, it was Kelly's boss, Mayor Bloomberg, who added fuel to the fire.

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After DSK's arrest, Bloomberg had no problems with subjecting suspects to the walk. "If you don't want to do the perp walk, don't do the crime," he said then.

But with the sex-assault case in a state of collapse, the mayor whistled a different tune about suspects.

"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," Bloomberg said.

Kelly insisted, "We handled this arrest as we would handle any other arrest."

Note: Some Post readers do not agree with him. They regard the perp-walk as a horrible injustice, as so many French people did. But both France and America are awash in crimes. So a perp-walk is not a deterrent, or an impetus. Both countries are dealing with lax, intimidated justice systems that cannot control racial violence against whites.