People used to live in a relatively much safer country (which makes for all of the western world, western europe, UK, Australia, Japan, etc.) should be afraid of most American cities - especially certain areas and hours.

It's just that Americans in those cities have learned to normalize this violence all around them. They're OK with abnormally large rates of homicide, burglary, theft, rape, and acompanying ill like school shootings, police killings...

All major cities have areas and neighborhoods that are higher risk and not “safe”. You wouldn’t let your kid there, your partner or yourself go there typically.

I lived in North Philadelphia throughout college and a couple years after. It isn’t a lie to say you are operating at a different level of vigilance. Your behaviors change. So no, Hollywood didn’t tell me anything about North Philly, my experience did.

It’s quite amusing how everyone is saying US cities are safe and great like Baltimore, while they’re also saying “if you mostly stay in the gentrified or well established areas”. Is that even Baltimore then? Or a bubble within Baltimore?

> Is that even Baltimore then? Or a bubble within Baltimore?

If it's in Baltimore, then yes, it's in Baltimore. Why wouldn't it count? If a foreigner says, "America is unsafe" and you say, "Well, my suburb is safe," can they say, "Oh, that's not America"?

Those unsafe places are also America. I don't think anyone is arguing that there aren't some places in the US that are safe, but that on the whole, it's a lot more dangerous than Europe. The fact that some Americans have the means to shield themselves from it while others don't just emphasises the inequality.

My biggest problem, though, is the fact that schools are unsafe. The fact that schools need to practice shooter drills is heartbreaking.