Ultimate Perp Walk of Dumb and Dumber

Start with stealing a luxury SUV from a car dealership to which they were connected. And then move on to shooting two NYPD officers who had pulled them over after verifying that the plates on the SUV were not registered to that SUV. And then fleeing, leaving behind the vehicle, shell casings, unfinished fried chicken dinners from a fast-food joint and guns traceable to them. Despite a circuitous route, they were easily tracked in the Poconos Mountains of Pennsylvania. Dexter Bostic and Robert J. Ellis earn the title of Dumb and Dumber. Throw in an “alleged” if you want. They, and the driver of the SUV (the boyfriend of Bostic's sister apparently), were identified from surveillance video. Those chicken plates yielded fingerprints and DNA. Bostic and Ellis both had ties to a car dealership from which the SUV had been taken. They were caught woefully unprepared as would-be hikers in the Poconos. Ellis was pulled from bushes with a jar of peanut butter.

As I watched their mug shots being telecast while they were on the lam with a reward pool of at least $64,000 on their heads and then after watching them, apprehended, being trotted out for the cameras, all I could think was: Heaven help them.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says that all the resources of the department will be used to see that justice is done. But the police officers, especially the colleagues of Officers Russel Timoshenko, 23, and Herman Yan, 26, are in a vengeance-is-mine mood, especially because Timoshenko is paralyzed and on life support from being shot in the head. This is a telling sign, from The New York Times today:

“Officer Yan’s handcuffs were placed on Mr. Ellis’s hands. Officer Timoshenko’s had been used on Mr. Bostic earlier. ‘It’s an important symbol, and I think it shows that this is a very close-knit organization,’ Mr. Kelly said."

The perp walk is designed to humiliate and intimidate a suspect in a crime with extensive media interest. Law enforcement gets to show off its work; the hungry press is satiated; the rest of us, supposedly, can breathe a sigh of relief that we and the streets are a bit safer.

So, in a carefully choreographed show, and at an appointed time, the cops bring the suspect to the precinct or out of the precinct en route to an arraignment – a first appearance before a judge to determine basic details about the case, about the suspect, etcetera.

The ultimate perp walk took place in Brooklyn yesterday. Not only were reporters and photographers present for the show outside the 71st Precinct, but also were dozens of NYPD officers, men and women in blue, many of them black, forming a phalanx, there to let Dumb and Dumber know that, as that Sting song goes: “Every breath you take/And every move you make/Every bond you break, every step you take/I'll be watching you.”

They have a serious whipping in store out of view of the public. That’s the way the system works. So, with that in mind and as much as I think that Dumb and Dumber are reprehensible, their civil rights must be assured. Let’s be vigilant and, while holding our noses, demand that they be treated fairly.