perp walk
English
editEtymology
editFrom perp + walk. First use appears c. 1980. See cite below.
Pronunciation
editAudio (General Australian): (file)
Noun
editperp walk (plural perp walks)
- (chiefly US, idiomatic, law enforcement) The intentional public display before news cameras of a person in police custody, especially someone famous or notorious, for the purpose of satisfying public interest, demonstrating the effectiveness of the authorities, or shaming the person.
- 1980, Paul Fussell, Abroad - British Literary Traveling Between the Wars, page 114:
- ... as well-dressed masters of the universe did the ritualized perp walk with their expensive Armani suit jackets draped over their handcuffs.
- 2002 August 12, Daniel Eisenberg et al., “Jail To The Chiefs?”, in Time:
- FBI agents gave former WorldCom executives Scott Sullivan and David Myers the same star treatment, parading the handcuffed quarry in an early-morning perp walk and prompting Sullivan's lawyer to complain about “the unfair taint of the current political climate.”
See also
editFurther reading
edit- “perp walk”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
- “perp walk”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
- perp walk on Wikipedia.Wikipedia