Safety
I was just reading a news item about some people in a car with tinted windows and no license plate, who approached a kid’s car and signaled him to stop. When he didn’t, they pursued him and shot his car eight times. Scared, he finally got out of the car, at which point they identified themselves as cops.
Right before stepping on his neck and breaking two teeth.
So it seems that we now have the cops to worry about as well. We’re one more step closer to becoming the United States, but getting to pay twice as much for a hard disk in the bargain.
Awesome.
It got me thinking more about how safe Berlin is. When I was coming here, Gabriele gave me directions that included a bus and a subway. I asked, as delicately as possible, if it was safe for an obvious tourist to use those in the middle of the night, while carrying cash for the rent, a laptop and a large suitcase. She replied that the main danger in Berlin was catching a cold.
She wasn’t kidding. I feel like a mirror version of Charles Dance stepping out of the movie in Last Action Hero and discovers the impunity of New York.
I’ve been here for over three weeks. When I arrived I decided on the general rule that when something’s less than 2km away, I’ll walk. As a result I’ve seen a lot of the city – on my first full day here I must have walked a total of at least 14km, and I’ve done an average 3km a day. I’ve been consistently straying from the touristy areas, to explore and find little corner imbiss that aren’t mentioned anywhere. On occasion I’ve gotten lost half on purpose, to make sure I visit areas I otherwise wouldn’t. Hell, I’ve walked home for 3km at two in the morning, and haven’t felt threatened once. Sometimes I’ve been on relatively dark alleys, having followed some Google-provided directions, and I run into women alone walking in the opposite direction without a care in the world. I haven’t seen a single person I could finger as a crackhead. On occasion you do see some odd-looking groups, but they’re only part of the city’s cosmopolitan quality – goths or punk kids or soccer fans minding their own business.
Allow me to show you a thousand words.
When was the last time you saw a BMW Z3 parked outside overnight in Costa Rica? Almost nobody here has garages, so most cars sleep outside – from Toyotas to Lexus and Masserati. Not a window broken, not a radio stolen. I wonder how long they would last in Escazú or San José.
Of course, this could all be tourist naiveté, so I’ve asked around. Nadine from C-Base, who has lived here for about a decade, told me that even as a woman alone she never feels threatened, nor has anything happened to her or anyone she knows. No guns pointed at her head, no knives pulled, nobody even grabbing her purse and making a run for it. Others report the same.
This is not all because of the heavily-armed Gestapo teams prowling the Berlin streets – half the cops I’ve seen look like someone handed a green polizei jacket and a walkie-talkie to my mom.
And about that kid who got shot at by cops who hadn’t identified themselves, the most that the OIJ chief can say is that it would have been odd for thieves to use a siren. Right. Because when I’m being chased by car thieves, I really want to take my eyes off the road to figure out what that wailing noise is (and pause to consider if the people shooting at me for no good reason may be paid to protect me).
But it’s OK, the government will make San José safer by opening fire when you don’t stop your car for unidentified strangers in a dark vehicle.