Read Online On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City by Alice Goffman - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Alice Goffman
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fashion that they had gone to the hospital—quickly and quietly,
ducking in and out:
REGGIE: We couldn’t really stay, you know, at the funeral or whatever, you know they’re
on my ass [the cops are looking for him]. But we ducked in and out and saw the body
and everything. We ain’t go to the gravesite though, but we saw his [the dead man’s]
grandmom, and she saved us a plate [of food] from after [the get-together at her house].
Lucky it was so many people at the church, because the cops was definitely out, boy. 7
Cultivating unpredictability not only helps with evading the police; it also helps
to reduce the risk of friends and family informing. Simply put, a man’s neighbor,
girlfriend, or mother cannot call the police on him if she doesn’t know where he is.
Chuck, twenty at the time, explained the dipping and dodging sensibility to his thirteen-year-old
cousin:
The night is really, like, the best time to do whatever you got to do. If I want to
go see my moms [mother], see my girl, come through the block and holla at my boys,
I can’t be out in broad day. I got to move like a shadow, you know, duck in and out,
you thought you saw me, then
bam
, I’m out before you even could see what I was wearing or where I was going.
Young men are so wary that their relatives, girlfriend, or neighbors may set them
up that they may take any request from those close to them to show up or stop by as
a potential threat. Mike noted:
Nine times out of ten, you getting locked up because somebody called the cops, somebody
snitching. That’s why, like, if you get a call from your girl, like, “Yo, where you
at, can you come through the block at a certain time,” that’s a red flag, you feel
me? That’s when you start to think, like, “Okay, what do she got waiting for me?”
When Chuck’s nineteen-year-old neighbor had a bench warrant out for failure to appear
in court, he was determined, he said, never to go back to jail. He slept in a number
of houses, staying no more than a few nights in any one place. On the phone, he would
lie to his family members, girlfriend, and fellow block members about where he was
staying and where he planned to go next. If he got a ride to where he was staying,
he requested to be dropped off a few blocks away, and then waited until the car was
out of sight before walking inside. For six months, nobody on the block seemed to
know where he was sleeping.
Young men looking over their shoulder for the police find that a public and stable
daily routine becomes a path to confinement. A stable routine makes it easier for
the police to locate a man directly, and makes it easier for his friends and family
to call the police on him. Keeping a secret and unpredictable schedule—sleeping in
different beds, working irregular hours, deceiving others about one’s whereabouts,
and refusing to commit to advance plans—serves as a generalized technique of evasion,
helping young men avoid getting taken into custody through many of the paths discussed
here.
PAYING TO PASS UNDETECTED
When Mike and Chuck and their friends had a little money, they spent some of it securing
an array of underground goods and services that would help protect them from the authorities
or postpone their admission to jail and prison.
One major item they sought was a clean ID.
Many readers may not be aware of how often they are asked to present some form of
ID, or to hand over a credit card or proof of address, throughout the course of a
day. Those who have these things, and who are free from the threat of the police,
tend not to think about it when these documents are required of them. For young men
around 6th Street concerned that the police are tracking them or will take them into
custody on the spot, legitimate identification is the source of considerable concern.
On the one hand, Mike and Chuck and their friends feared discovery and didn’t want
their
ducking in and out:
REGGIE: We couldn’t really stay, you know, at the funeral or whatever, you know they’re
on my ass [the cops are looking for him]. But we ducked in and out and saw the body
and everything. We ain’t go to the gravesite though, but we saw his [the dead man’s]
grandmom, and she saved us a plate [of food] from after [the get-together at her house].
Lucky it was so many people at the church, because the cops was definitely out, boy. 7
Cultivating unpredictability not only helps with evading the police; it also helps
to reduce the risk of friends and family informing. Simply put, a man’s neighbor,
girlfriend, or mother cannot call the police on him if she doesn’t know where he is.
Chuck, twenty at the time, explained the dipping and dodging sensibility to his thirteen-year-old
cousin:
The night is really, like, the best time to do whatever you got to do. If I want to
go see my moms [mother], see my girl, come through the block and holla at my boys,
I can’t be out in broad day. I got to move like a shadow, you know, duck in and out,
you thought you saw me, then
bam
, I’m out before you even could see what I was wearing or where I was going.
Young men are so wary that their relatives, girlfriend, or neighbors may set them
up that they may take any request from those close to them to show up or stop by as
a potential threat. Mike noted:
Nine times out of ten, you getting locked up because somebody called the cops, somebody
snitching. That’s why, like, if you get a call from your girl, like, “Yo, where you
at, can you come through the block at a certain time,” that’s a red flag, you feel
me? That’s when you start to think, like, “Okay, what do she got waiting for me?”
When Chuck’s nineteen-year-old neighbor had a bench warrant out for failure to appear
in court, he was determined, he said, never to go back to jail. He slept in a number
of houses, staying no more than a few nights in any one place. On the phone, he would
lie to his family members, girlfriend, and fellow block members about where he was
staying and where he planned to go next. If he got a ride to where he was staying,
he requested to be dropped off a few blocks away, and then waited until the car was
out of sight before walking inside. For six months, nobody on the block seemed to
know where he was sleeping.
Young men looking over their shoulder for the police find that a public and stable
daily routine becomes a path to confinement. A stable routine makes it easier for
the police to locate a man directly, and makes it easier for his friends and family
to call the police on him. Keeping a secret and unpredictable schedule—sleeping in
different beds, working irregular hours, deceiving others about one’s whereabouts,
and refusing to commit to advance plans—serves as a generalized technique of evasion,
helping young men avoid getting taken into custody through many of the paths discussed
here.
PAYING TO PASS UNDETECTED
When Mike and Chuck and their friends had a little money, they spent some of it securing
an array of underground goods and services that would help protect them from the authorities
or postpone their admission to jail and prison.
One major item they sought was a clean ID.
Many readers may not be aware of how often they are asked to present some form of
ID, or to hand over a credit card or proof of address, throughout the course of a
day. Those who have these things, and who are free from the threat of the police,
tend not to think about it when these documents are required of them. For young men
around 6th Street concerned that the police are tracking them or will take them into
custody on the spot, legitimate identification is the source of considerable concern.
On the one hand, Mike and Chuck and their friends feared discovery and didn’t want
their
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