Subte Robbery Alert (C Line)

[orwellian]

Owellian - you have only been here 3 months? Ahhhhh.. that explains a lot. If you haven't seen crime yet, you will. It's just a matter of when, not if. I used to be one of those that said "Oh..it's not that bad, people are over-reacting." That was when I moved here. That was before 2 of my friends were stabbed during muggings, (San Isidro & Las Canitas), 2 other friends were mugged (Palermo & San Telmo), 3 friends has cars stolen in Las Canitas in the space of a year, I saw a guy get hit in the head with a wooden board by a street guy (again, Las Canitas), saw someone mugged on the subway in Centro, watched a woman get her laptop stolen in Palermo and the list goes on....

No, it's not the most dangerous city in the world by any means but crime is a factor.

Well I used to live in Barcelona for 7 years and both me and a friend of mine have been stabbed on different occasions. I have been and seen several people getting pick-pocketed, had their bags snatched. Once my sister had all her travel money stolen on the subway on her way into the city from the airport. So yeah, it's not worse here accept that they use guns more.

What I meant by over-reacting was that she wanted to start a strike and a grass root movement. I think families going through the garbage and kids sniffing glue is a far worse problem to get involved socially in.

 

[jp]

I was just so frustrated that almost everyone just minded her/his own business, as if it was just too much of a hassle to stop and help someone, who is clearly foreign, in a tough situation.

Sorry to hear your story, you do see community spirit in action though. I've lost count of the number of times people have told me to be careful, told me a 2 peso note is visible in my back pocket, or told us to keep our bags on our fronts etc. People have been touchingly concerned about our safety. My girlfriend got her camera snatched and ran after the thief. Other passers by joined in the chase, cars even came off the road to box the guy in and block his escape route. The thief got caught in the end, thanks to people helping out.

I've been here 3 months and I haven't even seen any.

3 months? Seriously? What frame of reference do you hope to have after being here for just three months? There are very valid reasons people are jumpy here.

 

[EliA]

JP - I totally agree. When I was robbed and started yelling everyone ignored me and I was really frustrated by that reaction since I'm the kind of person to get involved, run after the guy, etc - not the safest reaction but it's ingrained.

BUT when there is no perceived element of danger there is a reasonably strong social fabric in which strangers help each other in many small but meaningful ways.

Any time I've appealed for help of some kind - directions on the street, an extra 10 centavos when one of mine was fake (or being forgiven those 10 centavos by the driver), help from a few women nearby to shame an obnoxious man to stop harrassing me, I am given that help in spades. And, just striking up a conversation with a stranger in a shop, at a bar, on a bus, wherever shows how kind the people tend to be.

Try asking for ANY of those small but important favors in neighboring Santiago, for example - where in my opinion the crime is much worse - and see what kind of reaction you get. Plus, Santiago residents certainly don't smile at each other when the subte is packed and hot; they push you and elbow you and avoid eye contact or any contact of any kind.

And, when someone hears you've been robbed and says "Yes, they're very good" they aren't doing it because they are PROUD of thieves (who most locals will swear up and down come from other countries and are very embarrassed/angry about it). Most of the time they're doing it to try to make you feel better, like you couldn't have avoided it no matter what you did.

Buenos Aires isn't perfect, but it's certainly a much more helpful, friendly city than most you'd find in a city this size.

 

[orwellian]

3 months? Seriously? What frame of reference do you hope to have after being here for just three months? There are very valid reasons people are jumpy here.

Yes seriously, didn't take me that long to see at least one in Barcelona.

 

[Sanne]

Something strange happened to me yesterday close to retiro busstation. I was carrying my bag at the front and with an extra belt around my waist, cause I don´t trust that area at all! But then this little boy put this white substance on the back of my shirt. It smelled like lemon, but don´t know what it was. Nothing else happened, but it made me think about this story I heard while traveling:

Sometimes they put something on the back of your shirt and then go ´excuse me, there is something on your shirt´. They then hope that you put off your bag and then they snatch it away from you.

Again, nothing like this happened to me yesterday. But because of the story I heard before, I reacted by holding on to my bag even tighter when I felt something. So I just wanted to tell this story so everybody can be aware of this robbery. Anybody heard of something like this before?

 

[Ryoga]

How do you know it was the same guy? And what happened?

because it was at the exact same spot i was robbed and the same gun.. bloody paco heads. my freind was bold and refused to give up hit watch until the guy asked him if he wanted to die.

the funny thing is that we told the story to a cabby and he blamed it on peruivans and bolivians... racists in denial

 

[orwellian]

Again, nothing like this happened to me yesterday. But because of the story I heard before, I reacted by holding on to my bag even tighter when I felt something. So I just wanted to tell this story so everybody can be aware of this robbery. Anybody heard of something like this before?

Because you reacted like that was probably the reason they didn't try to steal from you.

 

[Neil]

It has always been bad and now is worse...years ago I was warned about it .....are we talking about the train or bus stations, or both..???

 

[jp]

Well I used to live in Barcelona for 7 years and both me and a friend of mine have been stabbed on different occasions. I have been and seen several people getting pick-pocketed, had their bags snatched. Once my sister had all her travel money stolen on the subway on her way into the city from the airport. So yeah, it's not worse here accept that they use guns more.

Spend another 7 years here and you may think differently. I've only been here two years and already I know people who've had family murdered for nothing.

They do actually have marches against "la inseguridad". Its just a bit pointless, its not like there's a union of criminals or a government department to lay the blame on. No easy solutions and not a whole lot than can be done in the short term sadly. Although lowering the age of criminal responsibility would probably help...

 

[syngirl]

CFK and her cronies won't do anything about the crime -- because the people committing the crimes generally are the ones that CFK also pays off to vote for her. Anyway, she'd be a hypocrite if she started enforcing laws against these criminals, since she's the biggest on of all.