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This is reminds of a story of friends of mine from South Africa. They took the kids out of school to travel all the way up Africa and into Europ and back down f
by MrDosu 10y ago
This is reminds of a story of friends of mine from South Africa. They took the kids out of school to travel all the way up Africa and into Europ and back down for a year. They got robbed three times. Two times in France and once in Spain...
- colmvp 10y agoHa! I've travelled to remote parts of South America, Africa, Asia, and the only times I ever experienced getting robbed or deeply fearing for my safety was in Barcelona and Philly.
- kochthesecond 10y agoJust to add anecdotal evidence, I have travelled a lot in Spain and never felt unsafe nor been robbed.
- jdavis703 10y agoSame I've been to Philly and Barcelona, and live in Oakland, CA. Never felt like I was about to be robbed. I guess at the risk of being downvoted for victim blaming, "don't be stupid." It wouldn't surprise me if people let their guard down when they felt they were in a "safe" area.
- ctrl-j 10y ago> I've been to Philly and Barcelona, and live in Oakland, CA. Never felt like I was about to be robbed. Maybe you don't know what the feeling is like? I mean, how long have you lived in Oakland? If you grew up in the city with the 3rd highest crime rate in the US, maybe your barometer isn't calibrated the best?
- mklim 10y agoOn the other hand, I lived in Detroit for years. I think most people conflate "visibly poor" with "actively dangerous" and feel scared when they shouldn't. So many people would come in from the suburbs and visibly panic because they saw a crumbling building or a homeless person and figured they were about to get mugged, even though they were by the DIA in broad daylight surrounded by a crowd of people. My university's campus had less reported crimes than U of M's while I was there, and I still had a middle aged suburban woman try to get my professor to end a 6-9pm class at 7pm because she was scared to walk the 100 well-lit feet from the lecture hall to the parking structure after dark.
- rmason 10y agoI am a native Detroiter though I don't live there now. It has always puzzled me that people view Chicago as a safe and fun place to visit. Yet South Chicago is in many ways more dangerous than most Detroit neighborhoods. But they don't hold that against the city because most visitors never enter South Chicago. Yet people are afraid to visit downtown Detroit because of the crime in neighborhoods like precinct nine.
- knowaveragejoe 10y agoI think you are placing undue weight on the statistics. Just because it's the 3rd highest in the US does not mean every waking second is spent looking over your shoulder lest you be robbed.
- justin66 10y ago> live in Oakland, CA. Never felt like I was about to be robbed. I guess at the risk of being downvoted for victim blaming, "don't be stupid." Unless things have improved a lot in the last fifteen years, it's really pretty easy for a tourist inclined to walk between touristy areas in Oakland to wander into an unsafe area. I wouldn't blame that on stupidity, it's not as if the city puts warning signs up.
- ghshephard 10y agoDepends on when you lived in Oakland, CA. When I lived there (Lake Merritt and 17th) in 1998/1999, it was a total war zone. Absolutely nobody went out a night, and cars would typically drive through red lights rather than stop. I visited it recently, and the entire Lake area has become gentrified. Almost like an entirely new city, with lots of people out at night. And I wasn't too worried about being robbed. Of course, I was robbed at gunpoint just a few years ago walking home from work in Redwood City - so it just goes to show it can happen almost anywhere. Except, of course, Singapore. Gotta be the safest city in the world.
- catshirt 10y agothe only thing we can extrapolate from this is that not every single person who goes to Spain gets robbed.
- piaste 10y agoLet's do the black sheep joke: "There is at least one HN account, used by at least one person, who claims to believe he went to Spain and did not get robbed."
- gmunu 10y agoI've been to Spain once, went to Barcelona, and was robbed. I'd still go back to Spain and Barcelona though!
- bshimmin 10y agoI've only ever been robbed in Italy, but I've been back a lot in the hope of meeting my robber again (he was Italian, he had dark hair, medium height, and was somewhat unshaven - anyone know him?).
- hueving 10y agoYes, fits the description of an Italian guy I work with. He's now living in silicon valley. :)
- sumang 10y agoBarcelona really? I am from Barcelona but never thought people are scared to be in Barcelona. I heard people get robbed in Las Ramblas years back but now its quite safe. You will never get mugged in Barcelona according to my experience.
- tombrossman 10y agoYou can sit on one of the benches in the busier areas and easily spot the pickpockets and see them going in people's bags and backpacks and taking stuff. This isn't a rare occurrence and it does not take a practised eye to see. The pickpockets are always well dressed (usually very similar to the tourists). I like visiting BCN and I think it's a wonderful city, but it is completely infested with thieves targeting tourists to a degree that I have not seen in other European cities. I'm surprised this is not common knowledge among people from there, maybe try 15-20 minutes people watching anywhere along Las Ramblas and see for yourself. Busy, sunny days with lots of people and police around are the best times to spot the thieves. You'll also frequently see tourist couples speaking to police reporting the robberies. You can watch the body language and gestures from a distance and it is very obvious.
- greggman 10y agoA friend from Barcelona sent me this http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2239466/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2239466/
- jzwinck 10y agoMy friend went to Barcelona and ended up in the hospital with a whole lot of stitches after being mugged in a tourist area after dark. The place is also fairly well known for robberies of tourists in rental cars on the way to and from the airport. We were cautioned about this and rented a car from the other side of town instead.
- donretag 10y agoI once had a mugger in a chokehold in Las Ramblas after he tried to get my friend's wallet.
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- M_Grey 10y agoPhilly is one of those fun places where you can go from "Look at this lovely campus!" to "Oh god... we... we came to the wrong part of town. See how everyone is looking at us like we're crazy to be here? What... we were just on campus!!!" in a couple of blocks.
- todd8 10y agoI've been to Barcelona twice. A beautiful city that I really enjoyed. I never felt threatened in any way (but see next paragraph). I went out at night to local clubs and didn't feel that there was any more risk than going out in a large US city. Take the same kind of precautions, ask people before venturing into areas that you are unfamiliar with at night. Las Ramblas is a large interesting boulevard through the middle of town and is a lot of fun to see. However, in any location where there are tourists, there appear to be very talented pickpockets targeting them; be careful. I'm an amateur (very amateur) magician so I was fascinated to see the street scams based on the classic shell game being performed openly on Las Ramblas, complete with confederates winning money etc.
- cdhdc 10y agoI've seen the shell game and 3 card monte scams performed on the Las Vegas strip. Also witnessed the shell game in downtown San Francisco.
- oxryly1 10y agoThe pickpockets there are magicians themselves. I watched* my friend get his phone lifted on a nearly empty Barcelona street at 5am, and neither of us had any clue. *: more like I was looking in the exact direction but not actually seeing what was happening.
- collyw 10y agoHa! I live in Barcelona. Yes, pickpockets are bad (mainly in the tourist areas), but it is no way a violent city.
- RogtamBar 10y agoYes, it's puzzling. 70% of French criminals are of Arab origin. Maybe Arabs are better behaved in the Arab world than they are in France? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11352268/What-is-going-wrong-in-Frances-prisons.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/1135... Maybe it's because the French are really soft on prisoners. That Coulibaly guy was furious they confiscated his playstation. I doubt Morocco or Algeria would have ever allowed him one..
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