We have all seen the discourse on places like reddit or whatever, where even the positive comments about rough neighborhoods is like “just keep your head up, don’t use headphones, pay attention and you will be fine”
Like how much of this is just white people playing out fantasy scenarios in their cop brains? I feel like most of “bad neighborhood” discourse just comes down to
Like sure there are places where you are more likely to get your place broken into or whatever and systemic racism tends to result in certain outcomes but I feel like most places like this are in the minority, and in fact this must be the case or gentrification wouldn’t happen
Bit idea: talking about the financial center of the city like this bc it’s likely where the majority of the city’s crimes are committed
The danger is generally exaggerated but having lived in a few local ‘bad neighborhoods’, it is best to not look out of place or wear anything too expensive that could be resold or whatever. There are some desperate people who can be dangerous. I’ve had a few close calls, a couple attempted muggings where I literally didn’t have anything worth taking, one time I got rolled for a box of frosted mini wheats cause I went to the store when high af for munchies and that’d literally the only thing of value I had. I negotiated that I could take a handful. Almost got swarmed coming home by some kids looking to do so and being a crust punk saved my ass there, they got closer, saw how I was dressed I heard one say "naw, this is just some punk rocker!’ And then they wished me a good night. One time an older homeless dude who I was helping with his parking direction job in exchange for free speed thought I was also homeless and younger and was clearly trying to groom me into sex work, I just directed cars and got a handful of pills and left. Shit happens and there are for sure scumbags out there, but there are anywhere else too, it’s just in poorer places it happens outside more often. I felt less safe going through richer neighborhoods on weekend nights when shithead rich kids would cruise around and kick the crap out of people they didn’t recognize from hockey league or whatever. The racial demographics of any of these experiences probably leans a bit more towards white people being the perpetrators by incident. The group thar let me go cause I’m punk was all black kids and they would skew things if I went by number of people. A few of em I already knew who they were and they knew who I was, some were random. Like, I would say you may run a higher risk of getting robbed if you’re in a 'bad neighborhood ’ and are a clearly easy target for robbery cause there is a higher concentration of people that are desperate for quick cash for myriad reasons. Things aren’t as bad as they’re reported to be generally and racist fear mongering is a huge part of that, but at the same time, don’t be an idiot and at the end of the day, you gotta realize they just want your stuff and aren’t just doing random physical harmand while getting robbed sucks, robbing people isn’t that glamorous either and take your loss as a privilege check.
I think the racist undertones come not so much in the explicit discussion of the crime rates, but rather in the the implicit assumption that a white person in the “bad neighborhood” will be more of a target for criminals that non-white people. It’s this obnoxious mindset that permeates everything in the burgerland crackkker brain. Despite their preferred positions in society and all the brutality their ancestors engaged in to give them that, they must always be the innocent victims that the Others have it out for.
I think this one is actually somewhat true, not because they’re white but because they don’t know how to act to keep themselves safe. Apparently criminals commonly choose victims to assault based on how they walk
You can usually pretty easily tell if somebody is scared/unathletic/uncomfortable while walking in certain neighbourhoods
And just anecdotal evidence but the techies I know who chose to live in the poorest neighbourhoods in SF apparently get harassed pretty often but the friends I know, which include women and older people who have to live in those same neighbourhoods haven’t had any troubles and are friendly with their neighbours
So I was robbed in SF many, many years ago. In retrospect, it was likely because I looked like an outsider and I was in an unfamiliar part of the city late at night after a comedy show. It fucking sucked, but I was prepared, with money and a BART card in my shoe (as my friends from Oakland had advised me), and a hundred dollars in the wallet so they didn’t take my ID (Classic take the money, just please don’t take my ID it’s a pain in the ass to get it from another state). All they got was my shitty phone and some cash. I didn’t even bother filing a police report, as it would have taken more time and they never would have caught the guy anyways.
That said, I went back there a year later after acculturating to the Bay area and was just fine, didn’t get harassed or anything for being in the ‘wrong neighborhood’. Just wrong place, wrong time probably. That said, getting to know some of the people who grew up around there, tech-people are seen as ‘gentrifiers’ and ‘rich’ regardless of the actual circumstances (though tbf they are probably both those things) so they are equal opportunity for both punks and neighbors to fuck with, because they are rarely seen as part of ‘the community’, which again tbf they do not actually see themselves as a part of.
My mom lived in a lower middle class neighborhood for several years, when they installed a speed bump in front of her house she was convinced it would cause criminals to drive by slower and wonder what she had inside the house to steal. I asked to be dropped off very close to that house years prior to catch a ride to a concert and she had been worried I was going to be shanked in broad daylight.
House robberies are super rare unless people already know what you have in the house and where to find it. Usually drug dealers, occasionally elderly people with scripts but chances are that’s the shithead friends of their pillhead grandson most of the time and not random strangers. Picking houses to break into and rob at random is such a high risk vs potentially low reward. Most people’s valuables are heavy and hard to carry out.
House burglary used to be more common (80s and 90s) because people had stuff that was common, reasonably valuable, light enough to carry, and easy to sell, like stereo equipment and CD collections. Knew lots of people whose houses were broken into while they were at work and had just their CDs stolen. Streaming and the falling price of electronics has made this kind of burglary a lot less common. But I also think most people who were around then haven’t adjusted their expectations.
maybe it’s different where you live, but my experience is the complete opposite
most of the time you would see a house that looked easy, knock on the door to see if anyone is in, then break in, grab games consoles, laptops, games etc.
the only time you would “case the joint” is if you were hitting a business
It’s not always “just” racist hogwash. You’ve also got fear-of-the-poor hogwash in general.
Ironically some of the most neglected children I’ve met have been from absurdly wealthy families. It tends to be neglected children who find themselves out hunting for sport in their teenage years. Past that phase it’s poverty and drug addiction under prohibition that has motivated more or less every violent criminal I’ve met that wasn’t just victimising their own family.
It tends to be neglected children who find themselves out hunting for sport in their teenage years.
This sentence has come out of nowhere and bluescreened my cognition Mr Evrart/gun-style
basically dont wear expensive stuff and if you see groups of guys dont walk passed them
there arent just hordes of minorities looking to rob and kill people like jakubians like to pretend. these neighborhoods have little kids walking to schools in the morning too. they’re completely normal and if you’re not fucking around they’re safe enough
