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Reader question: Please explain “usual suspects” in the following passages (Corruption: TI report calls for more international collaboration, DigitalJournal.com, October 27, 2010): Transparency International, the global anti-corruption organization has released its 2010 report on corruption around the world and the usual suspects are still on parade. While countries like Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore did extremely well the usual bad boys - Afghanistan, Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Somalia are way down the totem pole. My comments: Yes, the usual suspects. Who are they? As you may correctly infer, the usual suspects in the above example are Afghanistan, Myanmar and Somalia. Why, because they are named in the report this year, were named last year, the year before and probably every year before that. Usual suspects literally are people whose names come to the mind of a policeman first when a new crime is committed. For example, every time a burglary occurs in the neighborhood, local police immediately take a look at past offenders and see if they are at it again. Those past offenders are “the usual suspects” because they are usually suspected of wrongdoing. Interestingly, according to Gary Martin (Phrases.org.uk): This expression has a specific and unambiguous origin. It was spoken by Captain Louis Renault, the French prefect of police, played by Claude Rains in the 1942 U.S. film Casablanca. The context was a scene in which the Nazi, Major Strasser is shot by Humphrey Bogart’s character, Rick Blaine. Renault was a witness to the shooting but saves Rick’s life by telling the investigating police to “round up the usual suspects”. The film then ends with the famous exit line: | 
