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Even during the day, some high crime areas are nothing to joke about, and to blindly walk into them is to open oneself up to potential danger. There's also a theory regarding selection of victim that I have heard whereby criminal elements will select based upon the likelihood of police response.
As an outsider to the neighborhood, a criminal does not know if the outsider is a teacher, social worker, or some other government/city employee going about their job duties, since selecting a municipal employee for a random crime will bring unwanted police attention. Even in the bad old days, when there was rampant, random street crime, certain people were not hassled.
For example, as the OP described herself, walking into Bed-Stuy, one would not know if she could be a teacher, perhaps a substitute, or student teacher assigned to a nearby school. A criminal would think twice, if not three times, about causing any problems because if said criminal were to attack a teacher going to school in an economically disadvantaged, high crime area, the NYPD would descend upon that neighborhood in about ten seconds and begin hassling the criminal elements in the area -- and that's bad for illicit trade. And, even if the street thug were to get away with her purse, the groups that control the area would not like the extra attention focused on the area that was caused by said action -- that could make life difficult for the attacker who perpetrated the crime. Not only that, many who live in the area, even those involved with illicit business dealings, respect teachers, social workers, etc. who come into areas to teach and help people in the community, and as such, they are "hands off."
It's incredibly foolish to say that the entire city is safe based upon anecdotal evidence that walking down the street in a known high crime area without anything happening makes the area perfectly safe. Sadly, that's not the case, and with any area that could be potentially dangerous, one has to have a healthy respect for the area, and take due care. Sure, the city is safer than it was in years past, but turning a blind eye to the crime issue does not make it go away. What's even more dangerous, IMO, is that such notions embolden a misconception as to what constitutes a dangerous area, since not all crime-plagued areas look so on the surface, especially to an outsider. Unfortunately, some people learn that lesson the hard way when they're in over their heads.
One thing to remember is that bad things can even happen in the best of areas, so one definitely should not let their guard down in a complex urban environment with which they have limited familiarity, simply because it doesn't look like a bad area; or that they strolled through one day and fortunately didn't have anything happen to them. That is not to say that everyone should be paranoid, but one needs to use common sense, especially when one does not have the sophisticated knowledge that a native of that area has -- knowing which buildings, streets, and alleys to avoid.
3 train Rockaway Avenue train station in Brooklyn.
You guys do know that if Brownsville was it's own city, per capita it'd be up in the top 5 most dangerous cities in the USA. The murder rate is 30 somethingish for every 100,000
3 train Rockaway Avenue train station in Brooklyn.
You guys do know that if Brownsville was it's own city, per capita it'd be up in the top 5 most dangerous cities in the USA. The murder rate is 30 somethingish for every 100,000
I really wanted the OP to take the suggestion and to go to some of those areas at night. I would hope she came back and gave an honest assessment rather than try to "save face". Without opining on whether those areas are really safe or not I wanted to see if her opinion would change or not. Think the OP is gone though.
I think some (inexperienced?) people expect "high-crime areas" to be uniformly unsafe, and that being a crime victim is a given just by setting foot in them. This is simply not true. Even in the 80s/90s, when it was more dangerous around here overall, people were not crime victims every day. Days, weeks, months, even years could and would pass between incident.
I spent 4 days in Baltimore over the summer this year, staying in the Barclay neighborhood and whatever the area north of Patterson Park is called. I was on the street walking around quite late at night in both areas. I didn't have any incidents. Now I think Baltimore is considered a fairly dangerous city, isn't it? The fact that nothing happened to me doesn't mean I would be right to go around saying that Baltimore is safe and crime is exaggerated. All it means is that my experience there just did not put me in contact with it.
Well, being 18 and a white guy I would think twice before going to some known "bad areas" alone even during the day. The thing is bad stuff can happen absolutely everywhere.
As mentioned in another thread, I ride the F train to the last stop at 179th St/Jamaica and I'm always by myself, even when I take the train at 3 or 4 AM. People warned me about doing that before, even though Jamaica doesn't strike me as a bad area at all. I even felt more unsafe at some subway stops in manhattan than walking around in Jamaica in the middle of the night all by myself.
I realize that Jamaica is mostly a middle class neighborhood and that it nowhere compares to high crime neighborhoods elsewhere, all I mean is that the perceptions are so different that it's hard to tell sometimes. And even in problematic areas it doesn't mean that the people living there can't be nice overall. I've been to some areas labelled as "bad" and nothing happened to me. Does it make me say that NYC's always safe? Hell no. But it's true that sometimes histeria prevails. And IMO that's even more dangerous. Crime can strike you everywhere anywhere. That's a sad fact.
Refusing to see that can be problematic too. So yes, the city's mostly safe even at night. And that's probably because most of the people know what to avoid, are aware of what they're doing and keep to themselves. But being naive and overly enthousiastic about that is as unhealthy as staying at home at all time for fear of being robbed or mugged.
^^^That's because Jamaica isn't bad at all (especially by 179th street), Jamaica is just very filthy. When most people say things like Jamaica is rough 9 times out of 10 they're reffering to South Jamaica (south of Liberty Ave) which is a totally different neighborhood.
LOL oh man. Some of yall are hilarious making qualifying statements such as "mind your business and noone will bother you" or "all ghettos are safe in the daytime". The truth of the matter is, when it comes down the ghetto, sorry to break the news, but sometimes just minding your own business doesnt work. Young hoods will randomly ask you for a dollar, the time, cut you online int he store, anything just to get you to enagage and see you're demeanor just to see if you're an easy mark. Not to mention if you get mistaken for someone else, or just caught up in the middle of someone else shootout. Thus lets not quickly for the 15 year old girl in the Bronx who recently took one in the head and survived thank god. You think she wasnt minding her own business?
BTW, if u think Brownsville is such a wonderful, safe place filled with happy kids, look at this clip
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