We've been having a lot of police chases in Los Angeles lately. The other day, a man who was reportedly armed with a gun carjacked a taxicab and led police on a two-hour pursuit until large, armored SWAT trucks came in, spun the cab out and then surrounded him. Along the way, crowds gathered on sidewalks to cheer him on and a few citizens even ran up and high-fived the guy during the low-speed portions of the chase.
We'll probably never find out what, if anything, was on the fellow's mind. Of all the vehicles out there to carjack, why would you pick a lime green taxicab? Even if you didn't know that most cabs today are equipped with the kind of G.P.S. that makes them easily trackable, why would you want a car you couldn't sell and which was easily identifiable? Also, this particular cab was a Prius. That's a good auto for driving to the Whole Foods Market but it's not the ideal vehicle for trying to outrun police cars.
I suppose the answer is that nothing rational was on his mind. Fleeing from the cops is not a particularly rational act. Your chances of getting away are darn close to zero. Your chances of having a collision that will kill or injure you are considerably better.
We always hear the reporters covering these chases saying, "He probably figures he has nothing to lose." But of course, he has his life to lose. And once these guys are caught and taken into custody, we rarely hear much about who they are and why they might have done it. How many of them really were "three strikes" criminals who figured that once caught, they were going to the slammer for the rest of their lives? How many really had "nothing to lose" by running?
I wonder about that and I wonder about two other things. They can't all be irrational or stoned. How many of them are running just because they know that if they can evade the cops for ten or fifteen minutes, helicopters will magically appear above? How many like the idea that they'll be on most of the TV channels in the city for a few glorious minutes or even an hour or two?
And in a related wondering: How many think these days, "Well, I'm going to prison no matter what I do. I stand a better chance of not being shot if I'm on live TV when the cops take me in"?