The drug dealers, with their ostentatious display of money and power, fill this vacuum. And pernicious as the code of the street may be, it still provides a set of rules and expectations that decent and street people alike can take into account in their behavior. Anderson feels that the code substitutes for formal law and order. Even decent people hesitate to call the police for help, because to do so can subject them to reprisals and make their lives worse in the long run. Indeed, the ethos of the street is so pervasive that decency must often go underground.
Serious students turn in their homework surreptitiously.
Good kids, Anderson says, dress in street fashion to ward off abuse from their peers. But teachers, police officers and other representatives of society can't always recognize the good kid underneath the street garb and mannerisms, so he is neglected in school and hassled by the police. In order to survive on the streets, decent people not only become streetwise, they learn to ''code-switch'' between the two different ways of being in the world. Street knowledge can save your life in a dangerous situation. Anderson includes a long discussion of the ''etiquette of the stickup,'' a kind of manual for potential victims on how to make sure that you give up only your money and not your life.