As New York mayor Eric Adams faces flak for “orchestrating” the pero walk of Luigi Mangione, his rival Jim Walden said if he’s elected he would ban the practise in NYC as it serves no purpose. The mayor’s office shut down the criticism and said people can tweet whatever they want but the mayor was present there showing support to the law enforcement.
New York Democrat Ritchie Torres said the criminal justice system is not treating Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old accused killer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, like other assassins. Case in point: the perp walk of Mangione after he reached New York. “The dramatic perp walk of Luigi Mangione, accompanied by a heavily armed police presence, strikes me as law enforcement theater. Why the need for so much spectacle at so much taxpayer expense?” the Democratic leader said.
“The criminal justice system should treat Luigi Mangione as it would any assassin. Elevating Mangione to a mythical status only serves to deepen his delusions of grandeur,” he added.
Torres said what many social media users spoke about with shock as a huge number of police personnel were deployed when New York City received Luigi Mangione from Pennsylvania. Mayor Eric Adams was also present. Perp walk is to make an example out of a person who is led to the police station or a courthouse in full public display.
But Luigi Mangione’s perp walk drew shock as social media users questioned the need for it. Some observers pointed out that it was absolutely counter-productive as instead of making an example out of Luigi Mangione, they made him a hero as they paraded Luigi Mangione who was seen in a new shaven look.
Eric Adams walked behind wearing a navy blue overcoat while it is not usual for mayors to oversee the handling of people in federal custody. Did Eric Adams stage the perop walk? Adams said in a television interview that aired on Friday that the shooting had traumatized people who work in the health care field and he wanted to show that he was “leading from the front.”
“I wanted to look him in the eye and say you carried out this terroristic act in my city — the city that the people of New York love, and I wanted to be there to show the symbolism of that,” Adams said in a television interview with WPIX news.
New York Times observed that the high-profile perp walk also provided an opportunity for Mr. Adams, a former police captain, to project an image of toughness on public safety and to change the subject after a difficult week for the politically weakened mayor.
Some legal experts and elected officials said the choreographed scene and the mayor’s appearance at the perp walk was a blatant and unnecessary attempt at self-promotion.
Jim Walden, a former prosecutor who is running for mayor against Adams, said that perp walks encourage police officers and mayors “to peacock” and he would ban the practice as mayor. “It undermines due process,” he said on social media. “It serves no purpose except tainting potential jurors.”
Kayla Mamelak, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said in a statement on Friday that Mangione had “infused terror on the streets of New York City for days” and that his “coldblooded assassination” had been “sickeningly glorified, shining a spotlight on the darkest corners of the internet.”
“Critics can tweet all they want, but showing up to support our law enforcement as they extradited a brutal killer and sending the message to New Yorkers that violence and vitriol have no place in our city is who Mayor Eric Adams is to his core,” she said.