Argentina Crime a reality check

[fifs2]

Agreed Steve...it makes for depressing reading seeing us turn upon each other in this way for something that is a perception and that neither side can prove in any meaningful way with solid verifiable data...can we talk about pizza again..thats equally heated quite so vicious! Anyone tried Diametro 41...? Clearly a frozen pizza that came literally so wet that I could squeeze the water from the base and the onions..more is definitely less for this place.!

 

[MatiArg]

When i first got here 10 months ago i was a bit paranoid basically from what my mom kept telling me of the rampant crime in BA. She has not lived here for 20 years and has lived in Rio, Maracaibo, Mexico City and now Quito. She thinks that BA is extremely dangerous to the point that if i wear a hoodie she tells me i look like a criminal, this is all thanks to her watching Argentine news 24-7!! My dad warms me about going to concerts because he saw on the argentine news in Quito that someone got stabbed. Thats the effects of too much Argie telly. Cronica is disgusting, just playing over and over the same crime for days and days, that can really get someone paranoid i tell ya. I stopped watching that shit, long time ago. However i take precautions....

 

[igor]

I lived in the district two years and the amount of random violence in such a small area was overwhelming.

After living in Washington DC area (well, actually suburban Maryland and Virginia) for 4 years, I can tell you what an "unsafe place" means for me.

If your car breaks up there, you are dead within 20 minutes.
Mail is not delivered, because postal office workers refuse to go there.

When people are comparing some other place with DC and say that the place is unsafe. I immediately think of South East DC.
"Buenos Aires is unsafe" for me means "Buenos Aires is like South East DC". And this is absolutely not true.

But if "unsafe" actually means
"I lived in Potomac, MD/GeorgeTown, DC and here I feel uncomfortable going to Plaza Miserere/Parque Lezama at night."
Yeah, I am ready to agree with that.

Nobody can say that every place in Buenos Aires is safer than every place in DC (or vice versa), but if you compare typical middle-class neighborhood in DC within the beltway and typical middle-class neiborhood in Buenos Aires. And part of the city that is walkable, and general attitude of the people, Buenos Aires beats DC hands down.

 

[perry]

The media has a huge influence on the psyche of its inhabitants and if you look at Buenos Aires television you would believe that we live in a hellhole .
Constant repetitions of the same crime over and over. Cronica is scaremongering at it best with its constant mordid music it makes for most depressing viewing. I remember the famous swine flu scare and the paranoia and hysteria was incredible in Buenos Aires then . 24 hour coverage of a false flu when it has now been proven that 99% of all flues were called swine flu when there was absolutely no connection.

 

[Johnny]

Let us not forget that Cronica provides the best T&A show on tv during the summer months. Those visual dispatches from Mar del Plata are a welcome change from the incessant crime report. Cronica ! Not ALL bad !

 

[therealsupa]

I've only been in BA for 4 months, so my opinions might not count for much.... I'm incredibly careful when I'm walking the streets day or night - no matter what city I am in. I am in a state of constant aware, but it certainly does not constrict my movements, or keep me awake at night. That's really all we can do, just be smart.

But if i was living somewhere where i was in a constant state of paranoia and stress, I would move. And if that's not an option, then you have to wonder how bad it really is.

My 2 cents/

Ps. Since being here, I haven't met one person who's been robbed, bashed, nor have I even been pick pocketed. Back home in Australia of my city of 2 million - every weekend I'd watch young people bashed, robbed and left for dead... BA is my happy place.

 

[marksoc]

I will not read allof this,simply put:the fact that the cheto areas are more dangerous now doesn´t mean that crime is rising. In fact we have less crime than 5 years ago, it seems to be only more concentrated around the areas were the obvious victims are. And I don´t have any problems with that, as those are the areas where the people that produced the poverty live. Yes,you heard what I said. Karma is a bitch.

 

[RobW]

I blame inflation.

I really don't understand how the lower class can even hope to move up or save here. It comes as no surprise that many turn to crime just to keep up.

 

[gouchobob]

I will not read allof this,simply put:the fact that the cheto areas are more dangerous now doesn´t mean that crime is rising. In fact we have less crime than 5 years ago, it seems to be only more concentrated around the areas were the obvious victims are. And I don´t have any problems with that, as those are the areas where the people that produced the poverty live. Yes,you heard what I said. Karma is a bitch.

The areas that produced the poverty, you mean the Casa Rosada?

 

[esllou]

I will not read allof this,simply put:the fact that the cheto areas are more dangerous now doesn´t mean that crime is rising. In fact we have less crime than 5 years ago, it seems to be only more concentrated around the areas were the obvious victims are. And I don´t have any problems with that, as those are the areas where the people that produced the poverty live. Yes,you heard what I said. Karma is a bitch.

hang on, "poor people produce poverty"? Is that a good summing up of your grasp of modern economics?