Thread: Держи прочь ! Улица опасная !

everyone tells me, (from school, maybe that's the problem) if i go to russia, i will get jumped, or robbed. i don't think any russian city can be any more dangerous than any other city around the world... are moscow and peter really that tourist un-friendly ? i don't think so, but i'm just making sure

BS! I can walk in my city in any time in a day in any districts absolutely free and I'll never be robbed. The night walking is more dangerouse but if you are not alone and you are in a right district you are in safe. You should have a "right" behavior indeed.

Well, I've been here more than a month, and I haven't had any problems. And I'm a girl. I think that if you a)try not to look too foreign and b)don't go to sketchy places alone, it's not dangerous. I've read that St. Petersburg has a much lower crime rate than most US major cities anyway...

Just watch out for pickpockets.

Кстати, Догбой, не "Держи прочь!" а "Держись подальше!", "держи" говорят когда дают что-нибудь кому-нибудь, а "прочь" используют с глаголами движения - "лети/плыви/иди/беги прочь".

The murder rate in Russia is only 2 per 100,000 higher than in the USA (9 per 100,000). I'm not saying that the USA is a safe place, far from it, but if you dare go out in America, you shouldn't have problems with Russia. (Crime levels are also almost the same)

Aha, thanks jasper. i have lived in america for 16 years, and havn't seen any murders yet ! and i walk on the streets alot, it's pretty safe here... but there are lots of black people who like to throw things at you from thier cars, and when you ask them whats going on they get out and accuse you of being racist... but hey ! they didn't murder me ! like i said originally, i don't think it's that bad at all.

Yeah but you live in the suburbs, Dogboy. Except for the occasional midlife crisis serial murder or whiny teenager committing suicide because nobody understands his pain (except a billion other people in the world), who the hell dies unnaturally in the suburbs? I remember this guy who lived alone in the apartment above ours that OD'd on heroin in Christmas Day 1997. The stairs there were really steep and at sharp angles, so when the Bristol crime van showed up (I have no idea who called them, I guess maybe his daughter came over or something) they had to carry the bodybag down like a rolled up carpet. To give this story a happy ending, I should mention that his three brothers who never came to visit him for five years showed up the next day to divide his belongings! It was a Christmastime miracle!

Teacher says every time a short length of rubber tubing breaks an angel gets its wings.

To Jasper May: I believe you're confusing two separate comparisons. Per capita for countries Russia has 20 per 100,000 and the US has 5 (according to the UN as of 2003). However, per capita for cities the USA has far more than Russia as far as cities immigrants are likely to visit goes (according to a 2001 UK Home Office report on criminal justice trends). Washington DC has 69.3 per 100,000, Philly has 27.4, LA has 22.8 and NYC has 16.8 (NY's murders are actually at an all-time low since like 1963 I believe). Moscow has 18.1 murders per 100,000 people (which made it the first non-American city on the list of 20 European and US cities by murder rate) and no other Russian city made the list. Total crimes recorded by the police in Russia in 1999 were 3million. In the USA it was 11million. The good news is that these numbers are falling for the US and the bad news is they are increasing for the Russians. In 1989, the first year the statistics were recorded, the respective figures were 1.6million and 14million. Considering the routine Soviet denial of such crime problems as drug trafficking, I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the USSR's police records, though.

You may walk in the night but you' d better not. ОТ греха подальше!!

Also, I think it all depends on where you walk. When I lived in Chicago it was ok to walk downtown or in the Grant Park area even as a 12-year-old. It was just the projects and dimly lit areas that were dangerous. The busier parts of the city all had cavalry police or whatever the guys on horses are called. Butterstuff!

Lol... mikes, true, i live in the suburbs. but, i also live in the town that the green river killer lives in! he got arrested in like december of 2001, about 4 miles from my house ! now, i know he hasn't killed anyone since like 1981, and they were all prostitutes, but when i was like 2, my grandma said that the king county police where investigated the woods like 100 yards behind our backyard for dead bodies left by the green river killer. they also just found a body behind green rivier community college (That's where i used to go to light off fireworks for the 4th of july) like a weeks ago... So, lol yes, it is the suburbs, but... probly some of the most dead body filled in N. america !

When I was in Russia, the worst thing that happened to me was being harrassed by a group of guys who had a little too much to drink that night.