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Comment by larrys | Hacker News Reader

"Non-snarkily, I think people are the same everywhere, mostly good and hard working"

If that is the case then why do I keep my windows up when I drive through those neighborhoods. Are you saying I have nothing to fear driving my new expensive car through, say, many areas of Newark NJ or areas such as the "Badlands" in Phila PA? Or that I am safe to walk the streets in those areas? And if those areas are so great and wonderful places to raise families why are the actual good hard working people that live there trying to get out to provide better for their children?

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I have no idea about those neighborhoods, but I've spent plenty of time in east Oakland without incident, statistically the 4th most dangerous city in the country. No matter how much crap you hear in the news it's not an actual war zone, most people lead normal day to day lives. From my experience people want to get out because the government services like schools and police suck, not because they hate their neighbors.

"but I've spent plenty of time in east Oakland without incident, statistically the 4th most dangerous city in the country."

You do what you can do to protect yourself. While crime can and does happen everywhere there are places that you are more likely to be a victim of a crime. Probability wise of course.

Even with respect to car theft you will find that insurance companies charged rates depending on where you live and even where you park your car (garage etc.) There is a basis for this you know.

Let's suppose, for the sake or argument, that 40% of the population of the "Badlands" are truly evil murderous thieves, who have no compunction firing a pistol into your car as you drive by, and suppose further that every day each one of them partakes of this pastime.

A horrible, dangerous place, seething with evil, yes? Far worse than the reality, no doubt, but let's go with it.

What do you make of the other 60%?

What do you make of the other 60%?

That they're good people who allowed evil to triumph by doing nothing to stop it?

As an outside observer, the effect of white collar crime would appear to have hit Americans far harder than the crime discussed here - and it's effects have been felt world wide too. Behaviors allowed and encouraged in big banking have been very destructive to lives. And I'll make a safe net that the perpetrators lived in so-called good areas. So while worrying about being car-jacked in the badlands, behavior in the good lands sees your company fail, job lost and car repossessed. Perhaps a touch overwrought, but another angle to consider.

Yes, it is safe to drive in your expensive car through Newark or to walk the street in north Philly.

The badlands:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sngBcF5M-AU

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Badlands

If that is the case then why do I keep my windows up when I drive through those neighborhoods.

Because you are paranoid or watch too much TV maybe?

The fact that you feel in danger, does not mean you actually are, and inversely just because you feel safe does not mean that you are. You are vastly more likely to hurt yourself by crashing your car than by someone else attacking you after seeing that you have your windows down.

This goes for most things really. In terms of injury, the most dangerous person in most people's lives is themselves.

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