On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City by Alice Goffman Read Free Book Online

the entire evening, with
     the man’s girlfriend enlisting her friends and relatives to provide information about
     his whereabouts, and the man doing the same. Around one in the morning, I heard that
     she’d caught him going into the beer store and dragged him back home.
    It wasn’t always clear to me whether these chases were games or more serious pursuits,
     and some appeared more serious than others. Regardless of the meaning that people
     ascribed to them at the time or afterward, these chases improved young men’s skill
     and speed at getting away. In running from each other, from their girlfriends, and in a few cases
     their mothers, Reggie and his friends learned how to navigate the alleyways, weave
     through traffic, and identify local residents willing to hide them for a little while. 1
    During the first year and a half I spent on 6th Street, I watched young men running
     and hiding from the police on 111 occasions, an average of more than once every five
     days. 2
    Those who interact rarely with the police may assume that running away after a police
     stop is futile. Worse, it could lead to increased charges or to violence. While the
     second part is true, the first is not. In my first eighteen months on 6th Street,
     I observed a young man running after he had been stopped on 41 different occasions.
     Of these, 8 involved men fleeing their houses during raids; 23 involved men running
     after being stopped while on foot (including running after the police had approached
     a group of people of whom the man was a part); 6 involved car chases; and 2 involved
     a combination of car and foot chases, where the chase began by car and continued with
     the man getting out and running.
    In 24 of these cases, the man got away. In 17 of the 24, the police didn’t appear
     to know who the man was and couldn’t bring any charges against him after he had fled.
     Even in cases where the police subsequently charged him with fleeing or other crimes,
     the successful getaway allowed the man to stay out of jail longer than he might have
     if he’d simply permitted the police to cuff him and take him in. 3
    A successful escape can be a solitary act, but oftentimes it is a collective accomplishment.
     A young man relies on his friends, relatives, and neighbors to alert him when they
     see the police coming, and to pass along information about where the police have been
     or where and when they might appear next. When the police make inquiries, these friends
     and neighbors feign ignorance or feed the police misinformation. They may also help
     to conceal incriminating objects and provide safe houses where a young man can hide.
     From fieldnotes taken in September 2006:
    Around 11 a.m., I walked up the alleyway to the back of Chuck’s house. Before I reached
     the porch, Chuck came running down the iron stairs, shouting something to a neighbor. Reggie followed him, also shouting. Their mother, Miss
     Linda, came to the top of the second-floor balcony and told me the law was on the
     way, and to make sure that Reggie in particular did not come back until she gave the
     green light. I recalled that Reggie had a warrant out for failure to pay court fees,
     and would doubtless be taken in if the cops ran his name.
    I watched Chuck and Reggie proceed up the alleyway, and then Chuck turned and yelled
     at me to come on. We ran for about three blocks, going through two backyards and over
     a small divider. Dogs barked as we went by. I was half a block behind and lost sight
     of Chuck and Reggie. Panting, I slowed to a walk, looking back to see if the police
     were coming. Then I heard “psst” and looked up to see Chuck leaning out the second-floor
     window of a two-story house. A woman in her fifties, who I immediately guessed to
     be a churchgoer, opened the door for me as I approached, saying only, “Upstairs.”
    Chuck and Reggie were in her dressing room. This quite conservative-looking woman
     had converted what is usually the