TALL, black and built like a wrestler, Ronnie grew up in a Harlem tenement with 15 brothers and sisters, sometimes sleeping two and three to a bed. Now 21, he has been mugging for a living since the age of 15. "It just boiled down to the fact that I didn't have the things I needed—shoes, clothes, food," he explains. "So I either had to go to work or get out in the streets. Work was impossible—I was too young. Besides, mugging was like a game at first. The object was to be faster than the Man."
In teams of three or...
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