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37 Idaho L. Rev. 557 (2000-2001)
To Flee or Not to Flee - That Is the Question: Flight as Furtive Gesture

handle is hein.journals/idlr37 and id is 565 raw text is: TO FLEE OR NOT TO FLEE - THAT IS THE QUESTION: FLIGHT AS FURTIVE GESTURE STANLEY A. GOLDMAN* TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTROD UCTIO N ........................................................................ 557 II. THE CASE: ILLINOIS V. WARDLOW ...................................... 558 III. TH E BA G ..................................................................................... 560 IV . TH E H O OD .............................................................................. 561 V . TH E FLIGH T ............................................................................... 566 VI. THE STOP ........... ................... .............. 573 VII. THE FRISK .................................... 574 VIII. THE SLIPPERY SLOPE ............................................................. 577 IX. CONCLU SION ............................................................................ 581 I. INTRODUCTION The uniformed officer dismounted his black and white motorcycle and approached the lone male motorist whom he had just pulled over after observing a broken tail-light on the driver's late model pickup truck. As he slowly walked to the driver's side of the vehicle in order write a fix-it-ticket, he noticed the occupant discretely attempting to stuff a brown paper bag beneath the unoccupied passenger seat. Since the stop had taken place in an area known for high drug trafficking, the officer asked if the motorist would mind showing him what he was apparently attempting to hide. The driver, in an angry tone and with the aid of much profanity, refused the officer's request, responding in substance that he could not think of any good reason why the officer would be justified en- gaging in such an intrusion. The officer smiled wryly and answered that he really didn't need permission to enter the vehicle and search the bag. The very attempt to conceal it from the policeman's potential view had given him reasonable cause to believe that the driver may have had something criminal to hide and thus provided him with jus- tification for a search. The Alice in Wonderland logic of this encounter could seemingly exist, of course, only in some alternate universe concocted from the * Professor of Law, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, California.

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