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As a US native I’ve never had someone threaten to shoot me or show me they were armed to intimidate me. I’m not exactly living a sheltered life either. I have

As a US native I’ve never had someone threaten to shoot me or show me they were armed to intimidate me. I’m not exactly living a sheltered life either. I have a few questions, sorry if this sounds like a lot I’m just really curious. What city are you in where this happens? What are you doing to provoke this kind of behavior? Why haven’t you moved away to somewhere safer?

WalterBright 5y ago
I have. Seattle. I was mugged by 3 armed teenage hoodlums. It was a long time ago, but I still have a bad reaction when people come up behind me.
mattlondon 5y ago
In my experience it happens a fair bit at the long, long, long immigration lines at US air ports if you are not a US citizen. Guards fondling their gun holster and shouting at people for using a phone or sitting on the floor after queuing for 3 or 4 hours. Welcome to America. I guess you don't experience this if you are a US native. And also obviously it happens frequently in SF from the homeless people. That is probably more worrying as they potentially have "nothing to lose"
- BrandoElFollito 5y ago
  I have traveled extensively to the US (I am French), probably 10+ times a year. The way people are "welcomed" to the US is horrible - I felt like this only in Russia. Once the border officer asked me (or rather - barked at me) "why are you coming to the US?", to what I said "for business". "For how long?" - to what I answered "for 3 days" He then asks "why so short?" to what I answered "I swear if I could squeeze it to one day I would gladly come and go not to spend money in a country that is so welcoming" (it was a very long, tiring flight and I really wanted to go to the hotel, afer having queued up for 2 hours) He told me that I should not reply like this, to what I said that this is the truth. We had a small staring contest and he let me go. The other similar case in Russia was when the border guard was yelling at me for not having my passport number printed on my ticket (yes, I do not know either), to which I yelled back to kick me out of their country with a "never return" stamp because I am fed up enough to have a week-end ruined with tha travel. I showed him my hands together (as in "handcuff me") and he pushed me into Russia. The stay was great, people were great.
  - yardie 5y ago
    > "I swear if I could squeeze it to one day I would gladly come and go not to spend money in a country that is so welcoming" This is what greeted my family every time we came to the US. Which fucked up ICE agent will we get this time? Most of them were pleasant but it only takes 1 asshole in the bunch to ruin a great holiday. And no matter what they say, Canada's ICE weren't much better.
    - filoleg 5y ago
      Yeah, I (as a US immigrant) personally had way more problems with Canadian ICE than the US one. Semi-relevant anecdote: I was traveling in my car with my mom and sister to Vancouver BC from Seattle (back when I was not a US citizen yet). Canadian officer at the border was more than just inquisitive. He asked who i was, where i worked, which team i worked on, what specific product I worked on and what specifically I did (which was already making me feel uncomfortable, because the product wasn't public back then, so I wasn't really allowed to talk about it in general). The questioning itself took like 10 mins and was absolutely unnecessary. Not even mentioning how aggressive he was, I felt like I was an inch away from being escorted to their "office" for additional questioning. And I am saying that as someone who doesn't usually feel threatened much by any interactions with officers. On the way back into the US, however, it was buttery smooth. The officer confiscated the grapes my mother tried bringing back with her (despite me urging her not to do so), and he was extremely apologetic about it. Then he said "welcome home", and that was it. Took less than a minute overall. Not trying to generalize anything from this, as, of course, the experiences differ wildly between individual border officers and such. I just thought it was an interesting semi-relevant anecdote.
      - selestify 5y ago
        Wow, as a US citizen I've faced much more scrutiny from Canadian border agents than US ones. Also at the border between Vancouver and Seattle.
      - lhorie 5y ago
        Oh, don't even get me started on CBSA. I was driving from a town in Illinois to Toronto (a very long 10 hour trip as it was). Got to the border, they said that I needed to pay several thousands dollars to import my car because according to them I was a "returning resident" even though I kept saying I work in US and was going to return to US (and had paperwork to prove it, to boot). Nope. They kept insisting I was lying about the purpose of my trip, and eventually decided that because I was "lying", they were going to seize my car (and everything in it, including laptops and cellphones). They then proceeded to tell me I had to pay $14k to get my car back (or to find a cab willing to come to the border. Without a cell phone. At midnight on a sunday.) Did I mention I had my wife and two children in the car with me? Yeah. So I ended up scrambling to come up with $14k by maxing out multiple credit cards, got my car and belongings back, and finally got our asses out of there at 2am (with still 3 hours of road ahead of me). I knew the border officers were full of shit so I filed a formal appeal with the government. Six months later, what do you know, it was actually reviewed and it was determined that the border officers were in fact in the wrong and that I should get a full refund. Better late than never, but boy, that night couldn't have gone much worse.
- hermitcrab 5y ago
  Given that Americans are generally warm and approachable, it is quite surprising just how hostile their border officials.
Diederich 5y ago
I grew up in south-central Los Angeles in the 1970s and 1980s and I witnessed several incidents of gun violence, one of which was fatal, and I was personally fired at on two different occasions. These were all gang related, random acts of violence, though neither myself nor anybody I happened to be near at the time was in a gang. > What are you doing to provoke this kind of behavior? Standing on the sidewalk, hanging out with friends. > Why haven’t you moved away to somewhere safer? I left when I was 18. I'd be happy to entertain any additional questions you or others might have.
- selestify 5y ago
  That's nuts, thanks for sharing. Would you happen to know why gangs would bother doing random acts of violence against teenagers standing on the sidewalk? I'd heard that the Italian mafia at least likes to keep themselves out of the public eye, interesting that other gangs don't.
  - IG_Semmelweiss 5y ago
    Because they can. Its a game, its a status symbol. Whatever. It doesn't matter what matters is... that it does happen. They have literal games , such as "knockout". The game is literally to come from behind and hit a random passerby so hard that they fall on the ground... knocked out. Its some real messed up stuff. I am sure you google.
  - koolba 5y ago
    Either demonstrating dominance or as part of initiation. Requiring recruits to perform illegal acts or even random violence is common. It’s to prove you’re willing to do what is asked of you by your superiors.
yardie 5y ago
Miami. A city with notoriously bad drivers some of them armed. It's better now but was a hell of a lot worse when I was growing up, the 90s. But you can pick any major city and ask a local where not to go, and just don't go there. Driving, riding my bike, walking. When I was a kid simply walking to school was enough. But people will threaten to shoot you for turning, not driving fast enough, merging, stopping, not stopping. Riding a bike in the right lane. Growing up down here you get used to it. Far too many Americans have access to guns. Hopefully, they only use it on themselves. But even if only 1% of gun owners were certifiable crazy, that's still over a 1 million unhinged individuals. I moved to Europe for a time. But career and family brought me back here. And I like money :-)
- kenjackson 5y ago
  Road rage is definitely the fastest escalation path I've seen in the US. Do other countries have road rage the way the US does?
  - IG_Semmelweiss 5y ago
    Lebanon is notorious for this. Guns are illegal. Still, plenty of shootings and killings from random roadrage incidents.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]

WalterBright 5y ago

I have. Seattle. I was mugged by 3 armed teenage hoodlums. It was a long time ago, but I still have a bad reaction when people come up behind me.

mattlondon 5y ago

In my experience it happens a fair bit at the long, long, long immigration lines at US air ports if you are not a US citizen. Guards fondling their gun holster and shouting at people for using a phone or sitting on the floor after queuing for 3 or 4 hours. Welcome to America. I guess you don't experience this if you are a US native. And also obviously it happens frequently in SF from the homeless people. That is probably more worrying as they potentially have "nothing to lose"

BrandoElFollito 5y ago
I have traveled extensively to the US (I am French), probably 10+ times a year. The way people are "welcomed" to the US is horrible - I felt like this only in Russia. Once the border officer asked me (or rather - barked at me) "why are you coming to the US?", to what I said "for business". "For how long?" - to what I answered "for 3 days" He then asks "why so short?" to what I answered "I swear if I could squeeze it to one day I would gladly come and go not to spend money in a country that is so welcoming" (it was a very long, tiring flight and I really wanted to go to the hotel, afer having queued up for 2 hours) He told me that I should not reply like this, to what I said that this is the truth. We had a small staring contest and he let me go. The other similar case in Russia was when the border guard was yelling at me for not having my passport number printed on my ticket (yes, I do not know either), to which I yelled back to kick me out of their country with a "never return" stamp because I am fed up enough to have a week-end ruined with tha travel. I showed him my hands together (as in "handcuff me") and he pushed me into Russia. The stay was great, people were great.
- yardie 5y ago
  > "I swear if I could squeeze it to one day I would gladly come and go not to spend money in a country that is so welcoming" This is what greeted my family every time we came to the US. Which fucked up ICE agent will we get this time? Most of them were pleasant but it only takes 1 asshole in the bunch to ruin a great holiday. And no matter what they say, Canada's ICE weren't much better.
  - filoleg 5y ago
    Yeah, I (as a US immigrant) personally had way more problems with Canadian ICE than the US one. Semi-relevant anecdote: I was traveling in my car with my mom and sister to Vancouver BC from Seattle (back when I was not a US citizen yet). Canadian officer at the border was more than just inquisitive. He asked who i was, where i worked, which team i worked on, what specific product I worked on and what specifically I did (which was already making me feel uncomfortable, because the product wasn't public back then, so I wasn't really allowed to talk about it in general). The questioning itself took like 10 mins and was absolutely unnecessary. Not even mentioning how aggressive he was, I felt like I was an inch away from being escorted to their "office" for additional questioning. And I am saying that as someone who doesn't usually feel threatened much by any interactions with officers. On the way back into the US, however, it was buttery smooth. The officer confiscated the grapes my mother tried bringing back with her (despite me urging her not to do so), and he was extremely apologetic about it. Then he said "welcome home", and that was it. Took less than a minute overall. Not trying to generalize anything from this, as, of course, the experiences differ wildly between individual border officers and such. I just thought it was an interesting semi-relevant anecdote.
    - selestify 5y ago
      Wow, as a US citizen I've faced much more scrutiny from Canadian border agents than US ones. Also at the border between Vancouver and Seattle.
    - lhorie 5y ago
      Oh, don't even get me started on CBSA. I was driving from a town in Illinois to Toronto (a very long 10 hour trip as it was). Got to the border, they said that I needed to pay several thousands dollars to import my car because according to them I was a "returning resident" even though I kept saying I work in US and was going to return to US (and had paperwork to prove it, to boot). Nope. They kept insisting I was lying about the purpose of my trip, and eventually decided that because I was "lying", they were going to seize my car (and everything in it, including laptops and cellphones). They then proceeded to tell me I had to pay $14k to get my car back (or to find a cab willing to come to the border. Without a cell phone. At midnight on a sunday.) Did I mention I had my wife and two children in the car with me? Yeah. So I ended up scrambling to come up with $14k by maxing out multiple credit cards, got my car and belongings back, and finally got our asses out of there at 2am (with still 3 hours of road ahead of me). I knew the border officers were full of shit so I filed a formal appeal with the government. Six months later, what do you know, it was actually reviewed and it was determined that the border officers were in fact in the wrong and that I should get a full refund. Better late than never, but boy, that night couldn't have gone much worse.
hermitcrab 5y ago
Given that Americans are generally warm and approachable, it is quite surprising just how hostile their border officials.

Diederich 5y ago

I grew up in south-central Los Angeles in the 1970s and 1980s and I witnessed several incidents of gun violence, one of which was fatal, and I was personally fired at on two different occasions. These were all gang related, random acts of violence, though neither myself nor anybody I happened to be near at the time was in a gang. > What are you doing to provoke this kind of behavior? Standing on the sidewalk, hanging out with friends. > Why haven’t you moved away to somewhere safer? I left when I was 18. I'd be happy to entertain any additional questions you or others might have.

selestify 5y ago
That's nuts, thanks for sharing. Would you happen to know why gangs would bother doing random acts of violence against teenagers standing on the sidewalk? I'd heard that the Italian mafia at least likes to keep themselves out of the public eye, interesting that other gangs don't.
- IG_Semmelweiss 5y ago
  Because they can. Its a game, its a status symbol. Whatever. It doesn't matter what matters is... that it does happen. They have literal games , such as "knockout". The game is literally to come from behind and hit a random passerby so hard that they fall on the ground... knocked out. Its some real messed up stuff. I am sure you google.
- koolba 5y ago
  Either demonstrating dominance or as part of initiation. Requiring recruits to perform illegal acts or even random violence is common. It’s to prove you’re willing to do what is asked of you by your superiors.

yardie 5y ago

Miami. A city with notoriously bad drivers some of them armed. It's better now but was a hell of a lot worse when I was growing up, the 90s. But you can pick any major city and ask a local where not to go, and just don't go there. Driving, riding my bike, walking. When I was a kid simply walking to school was enough. But people will threaten to shoot you for turning, not driving fast enough, merging, stopping, not stopping. Riding a bike in the right lane. Growing up down here you get used to it. Far too many Americans have access to guns. Hopefully, they only use it on themselves. But even if only 1% of gun owners were certifiable crazy, that's still over a 1 million unhinged individuals. I moved to Europe for a time. But career and family brought me back here. And I like money :-)

kenjackson 5y ago
Road rage is definitely the fastest escalation path I've seen in the US. Do other countries have road rage the way the US does?
- IG_Semmelweiss 5y ago
  Lebanon is notorious for this. Guns are illegal. Still, plenty of shootings and killings from random roadrage incidents.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]