I wasn’t there as a tourist, but I see your point.
I grew up in the DC area and there were definitely large parts of the city I would never dream of being out in late at night. Whether that was perception or genuine danger, I dunno. But I’ve never had that feeling in Dublin. I live in the North Inner City and I feel safe enough walking home alone all the time.
OTOH, there is a very distinct difference between the people that you are wary of. In America, sadly, there is a racial component to that fear. In Dublin I’d pass by a black man without even noticing him, but if I saw a group of young locals in tracksuits I’d stay out of their way. And when I say “young” I mean anything from 30s on down. Even the small children here are prone to seriously aggressive misbehaviour. I’ve never seen anything like it in the States.
Heh. I have a friend who grew up in Oakland, lived in NYC for a decade, never had any problems. Moved to Little Rock earlier this year and within a few months she’d been robbed at gunpoint twice and shot.
I prefer the line from Casablanca:
There are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn’t advise you to try to invade.
That’s a hell of a thread.
I’ve been in a few pubs in the UK that were a bit on the dodgy side although never in one where I feared for my safety all thatmuch. I’ve never felt unsafe anywhere in the UK just walking about.
I’ve not been to all that many places in the US but I’ve found New Yorkers to be a really rather friendly and kind even after just jumping on the underground train and heading to random places on the network. clueless tourist The only time we felt really lost was outside the zoo, but even then we got sorted out by some random guy who showed us where to get a bus back into town.
Something like that happened to a couple of my friends in Albuquerque. Not “friend of a friend” type. I saw them after it happened and they told me about it.
They were walking somewhere, trying to get back to the AF base, lost, when they got picked up by cops and taken to the front gate, for their own safety.
I haven’t been back since Katrina, but New Orleans had some super-intimidating places.
We were there for Mardi Gras, and a group of 3-4 of us wandered the wrong way while drunkenly trying to get to the streetcar from the French Quarter. It was late, and someone from the neighborhood we stumbled through had just been hit by a car apparently, and a crowd was forming and looking agitated. And there were sirens from every direction (or so it seemed). We at least knew enough to do a 180 and regroup…
But I really love New Orleans as a whole.
Some of Paris’s suberbs are vicious.
The French don’t like admitting that they have a problem though.
I think the big difference is guns.
In Dublin, I may get randomly attacked and beaten (never happened thankfully), but chances are that I will live, and suffer no permenent damage. If I die, it will not be the intention of my attacker.
However, guns are fairly prevalent in America, which I would imagine leads to a higher death per attack ratio. Basically, in European countries, there are more attacks, but less deaths.
And there are few places in Dublin that I would not enter.
But don’t thugs in Europe have knives? A knife is just as dangerous as a gun at close range.
London, in particular, has had real problems with knife attacks in recent years, I’ve read. It’s even come up in debates in the House of Commons.
Aren’t there some places in Southern Texas that are pretty dodgy? I understand that a few of the border towns are pretty much under control of MS-13, a gang that has killed people for things which pretty much amount to looking at them funny (Wikipedia cites an incident where a member shot up a family in a car because they briefly blocked them from making a left turn).
And I’ve heard talk that Laredo, Texas has gotten so bad the Texas Rangers won’t even go there anymore. But I’m not sure how much of this is exaggeration.
Or screwdrivers (notice the ages of the attackers; see my previous post). There’s the odd syringe attack here too.
Parts of Chicago have seemed terrifying at night, even on the inner loop.
Living here in Kansas City, I’ll say there are places where as a native we just don’t go - they’re the areas responsible for a large portion of the murders in Kansas City Missouri (note the emphasis - the Kansas side it pretty safe). In the rest of the entire State of Kansas, with an area the size of England and Wales together, I think you’d be hard pressed to find a similar “no go” area.
I generally feel reasonably safe in Europe, with some exceptions. I remember staying in a cheap hotel in Spain which turned out to be in an area that was rougher at night than it looked during the day, and listing to gunshots and sirens at night (gunshots? In Europe? That’s unpossible!) I have been picked on both the Underground and the Docklands Light Railway in London (by everyone from teenagers to older adults), and Fierra and I got caught in the middle of a drunken brawl on an Underground carriage late at night. I have been stalked through the Paris Metro by some teen that I think wanted my handbag, or worse. In fact parts of Paris at late night can be pretty bad, with drunken Frenchmen harassing you and getting right up in your face, especially near Sacre Coeur.
All things considered, I never felt as worried anywhere in Europe as I would going to 12th and Troost in Kansas City late at night.
I’m curious which parts? I don’t think I’d go into any council flats unless with a resident but during the day most places in Dublin are quiet enough.
My CV of violence/crime in Dublin.
I’ve been punched in the face in drunken incidents several times, once on a nightlink, another time in a pub. Once or twice probably my own stupid fault, another time completely unprovoked while attending to a man having an epileptic seizure. This was on Parnell St.
I’ve been mugged once when I was 14, with the threat of syringe, although in retrospect the muggers were probably spoofing, one had a knife. At the time muggings seemed to be a very common event with even my giant of a brother mugged one night.
I’ve stopped a mugger/purse snatcher trying to grab a bag off a tourist late at night on an otherwise deserted street, just off the main drag, on North Frederick St.
I’ve attempted to stop a pickpocket but he got away from me as I was carrying heavy luggage at the time. Bachelor’s Walk.
I’ve witnessed countless fights. What I found interesting is that they were nearly always amongst people who knew each other.
Nearly all these incidents were in the vicinity of O’Connell St. the main street of Dublin. I’ve never had anything of note happen to me in ‘rough’ residential areas. All in all though, O’Connell St. and environs feels safer now than at anytime previously in my lifetime.
I’ve also moved to the US from the UK. I would say definitely yes.
Although “petty” crime levels do seem lower (this is in the SF Bay Area), but there is NOTHING in the UK to compare with the more deprived areas of Oakland or Downtown LA (and I’ve spent a long time in similarly deprived areas in the UK, such as Longsight or Moss-Side in Manchester, or Bermondsey in London). The only thing I’ve encountered that is worse than the deprived inner-city areas of the US is in the third world).
I have always felt safer in European cities (Central and Western Europe, that is) than American ones, without a doubt. I live in New York at the moment, and while I’ve never particularly felt in great danger, I feel much more at risk here than I ever did when I was working in London. New York is just that much dirtier and unfriendlier.
It’s not just limited to New York, though. I’ve felt safer in European cities than small American towns. A few years ago I went on a nice trip to Germany, and one night in Munich I was walking around late at night after having gone to a movie or a bar or something. I marveled (not for the first time) at how clean and safe and beautiful everything was. I stopped to admire a church and saw a little old lady step out of a church and start walking home, alone, with no evident fear for her safety. It was perfect.
Flash forward a week, and I’m standing on a curb outside a movie theater in the downtown of the little, supposedly idyllic town in Pennsylvania where my parents live, waiting to be picked up since I didn’t have a car. The place is deserted and unfriendly, except for a gang of teenagers who starts walking up the sidewalk down to my left. They’re yelling and cursing obnoxiously, and generally acting like antisocial assholes. Instinctively I wrapped my hand around my wallet, stood a little straighter, and scowled a bit in preparation for their passing. I seethed in that moment, and for weeks afterwords, at the different experiences.
Who knows – the crime stats for Munich may actually be higher than my parent’s little Pennsylvania town. But this thread is about impressions, and to me the US shows far higher signs of the kind of social decay that lead to crime than just about any European country I’ve been to.
(Any European girls out there interested in marriage for reciprocal citizenship?!)
Just an opinion: I live near Washington, DC. I have been mugged twice. At gunpoint. Always gave up all the cash I had on hand.
Now, as a rule, I don’t cross the line south of the National Mall.
Just sayin’ is all. No racial intent or anything else. It’s just a tough area.
Man, are those ever great.
What about the ex-urbs of Paris where there was all that rioting a few years back? Are those dangerous areas on non-riot days?
I would bet Europe is more dangerous than we think, especially in the areas with large immigrant populations, but I still think the US is more dangerous.
There are tons of places I’ve been in the US that I wouldn’t return to: housing projects in the Lower East Side, most places in southeast D.C., and even Hartford, CT.