As an Australian i felt far safer in NYC and San Fran than say in Melbourne or Sydney, which went against my expectations. I think both Australia and NZ are extremely tolerant of youth crime which is a big part of the problem. That combined with limited legal protection for those acting in self defence means you often feel like criminals and gangs have greater rights than ordinary citizens.
I think it depends heavily on which parts of the cities you visit. Tourists don't tend to visit the slummy areas.
That combined with limited legal protection for those acting in self defence means you often feel like criminals and gangs have greater rights than ordinary citizens.
This is nonsense. You have the right to use equal force in return, and you are expected to retreat if possible. What it means is you can't shoot someone who's only threatening you with their fists.
And if you're talking about gangs, Australian gangs are not a patch on US gangs - US self defence laws have certainly not given them less gang influence than here.
> I think it depends heavily on which parts of the cities you visit. Tourists don't tend to visit the slummy areas.
I was walking the streets of Brooklyn and Queens in not-so-touristy areas and didn't run into any problems or feel threatened. I got the feeling that there might have been dangerous people around, but if you didn't mess with them they wouldn't mess with you.
> This is nonsense. You have the right to use equal force in return, and you are expected to retreat if possible. What it means is you can't shoot someone who's only threatening you with their fists.
As a somewhat pudgy software engineer who hasn't been in so much as a scuffle since primary school, knowing that I can "use my fists" against a street hardened, violent thug does not exactly leave me feeling empowered. And while I would not like to shoot anyone whatever the circumstances, I would like to feel I could use a firearm to deter someone from violently assaulting me.
> And if you're talking about gangs, Australian gangs are not a patch on US gangs
Your right, there is a big difference. Gangs in the US appear to be well organized, hierarchical, structured operations, "gangs" in Australia are more like packs of disaffected youth roaming the streets looking for trouble. And I may be way off here, but while the US might have a lot of gang violence, it seems to be largely gang-on-gang violence. The incidents of random, senseless, violent attacks against innocent bystanders by violent youths and thugs - usually without any other motive such as theft - is a bewildering common occurrence in Australia, and a well-known and widely talked about issue in contemporary Australian culture. Here is a very recent example which is typical of the kind of stories that we hear about every few days: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/national/mans-neck-slashed-...
As a somewhat pudgy software engineer who hasn't been in so much as a scuffle since primary school, knowing that I can "use my fists" against a street hardened, violent thug does not exactly leave me feeling empowered.
So you're subscribing to the idea that carrying a knife or gun is going to help? But more importantly, note this part of your quote: "hasn't been in so much as a scuffle since primary school". What, exactly, do you feel you need to defend yourself against? You want to bring sidearms into a nation to protect yourself from 'not so much as a scuffle since primary school'? The US has major problems with handguns and crime, but the genie is out of the bottle there.
The incidents of random, senseless, violent attacks against innocent bystanders by violent youths and thugs - usually without any other motive such as theft - is a bewildering common occurrence in Australia, and a well-known and widely talked about issue in contemporary Australian culture
I might be wrong here, but the 'random, senseless attacks' were a large part of NYC until the very recent efforts in making the city much safer. It's not something that is peculiar to the Australian psyche.
But yes, around nightclub districts there is a problem. Even your linked article it's talking about the heart of a nightclub district at 2:30am. But in reality street crime is no worse here than anywhere else. I think you're falling into the trap that Australians so like to fall into, claiming that the country is always going downhill and is worse than anywhere. It's like the people that claim our country is the most racist in the world. Sure, we have some problems with racism, but what countries don't? Whenever we have these discussions, there's almost never any actual comparison to contemporary countries - it's habit for us just to assume we're the worst (because like the US, we like to think we're #1, it seems :)
It's actually really hard to accurately compare crime directly between countries (excluding homicide). A punch-on between a couple of guys can end up with five charges being laid in Australia (ascending charges, one of them will stick), and is listed as 5 charges in the stats. NZ does this as well, but not many other places do. In contrast the US doesn't even bother publishing those stats, they'll generally only publish aggravated assaults, which are with either a weapon or resulting in severe injury.
