My first thought was that there was probably a deleted or missing scene to explain why the people at the bus stop act as they do.
It really makes no sense, not even to a liberal, otherwise.
here is little Effie's head
whose brains are made of gingerbread

so if a rapist is caught in the act against a kid, jumps in a car and drives away, the police would not chase? pppfftt sure..

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good intent - badly done.. what if they all got home all smug and found out he raped and murdered a bunch of kids. Black guy aint smirking now.

The movie is set in Pittsburgh, so - working-class, union town. Generally in places like that, when the cops are chasing a guy, they help the guy.
Sure, a lot of people might go "Hey! He's over here!" but not everybody. So in this instance, he got lucky and got an anti-cop crowd.
Philo's Law: To learn from your mistakes, you have to realize you're making mistakes.

Liberally-biased Hollywood screenwriters hate police. They think all regular citizens want to stick it to "the man."

Nothing. People on this board have been wondering the same for years.
Fighting a religious war is like fighting over whose imaginary friend is better.

Yeah, I understand why the moviemakers created the scene as they did. Thanks for pointing out the obvious. What I meant was:
in the world of Jack Reacher
, what made these people hide him? He may be armed, he may be dangerous and he's obviously being chased by the cops, so what do they gain in hiding him?

It was a dumb attempt at showing that Reacher is good at blending in. Also a comic relief.
Fighting a religious war is like fighting over whose imaginary friend is better.