The walk of shame
It was the most publicly shaming moment of what has been a spectacularly humiliating weekend for Dominique Strauss-Kahn: the walk from the back door of the Special Victims Unit in Harlem, New York, to the waiting unmarked police car, writes Ed Crooks In New York.
The so-called “perp walk”, done to give the news photographers and TV crews a good look at the central figure in a case, is a well-established part of the US judicial system for celebrity defendants.
The fact that the New York Police Department chose not to spare Mr Strauss-Kahn that public exposure suggests that it is determined to see the prosecution through to a conviction.
Just before midnight on Sunday night one detective working at the station said the case had “blown up into a whole big thing”. But whatever the diplomatic sensitivities the case has thrown up, the NYPD is treating Mr Strauss-Kahn like any other high-profile defendant.
It would have been perfectly possible to smuggle him out of the police station quietly.
But the silver Ford Fusion that was to carry him was parked outside the police station car park on 124th Street. A police officer even adjusted the angle at which it was parked, to make it easier for photographers to secure the best possible view.
Before Mr Strauss-Kahn appeared, the police gave several minutes warning, and then a final shout of “get ready!” just as he was about to emerge.
When he came out, he was visible for only a few seconds, but it was enough. In a pale blue open-necked shirt and black raincoat, with a detective holding either arm, Mr Strauss-Kahn looked as rumpled as one might expect after a night in the cells, and was grim-faced as he has led to the car, but made no attempt to hide himself or respond to the 50 or so waiting reporters and photographers.
After the car sped off towards second Avenue, the remaining policemen refused to discuss his destination.
“We gave you what you wanted,” one said. “The money shot.”