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Comment by ResearchCode | Hacker News Reader

It feels more dystopian than futuristic. There are countries where children don't have to commute in large groups to avoid crime.

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Barcelona is not a place where children have to commute in large groups to avoid crime. I do not know where you got that idea.

Got the idea from them being one of the crime capitals of Europe where visitors are asked to practice war zone vigilance.

Could also be a little bit of the middle class being priced out of driving cars.

Futurism in the Davos sense perhaps. You will own nothing...

Please provide a source for Barcelona being a crime capital of Europe.

For instance, the "sources" accessible through those keywords put in a google search query.

(Entertaining the question as if my claim was more controversial than any other in this thread, that is, as if Barcelona was not infamous as a crime ridden s hole where visitors are asked to practice war zone vigilance.)

How much time have you spent in Barcelona?

Enough not to get gaslighted.

I lived there for eight years until this year, and what you're saying is entirely divorced from reality.

Putting "crime capitals of Europe" into Google gets me multiple lists, only one of which includes Barcelona. The one which includes it places it 26th in Europe, behind a whole lot of cities I've felt totally safe in.

Feeling safe in the street is one thing, but those ranks miss that the big fat crime will try its best to be invisible and unnoticed.

January 2021: "Police in Spain have reported the seizure of 827000 ecstasy pills, 76 Kg of amphetamine, 39.5 kg of crystal methamphetamine, 89 kg of cannabis, and 1.65 kg of cocaine in what they claim to be the biggest drug haul in Europe"

https://www.addictionjournal.org/posts/police-seize-largest-...

Barcelona still has a huge problem with drugs

In this sense, yes, has well earned sadly a place among European crime capitals. Indirect analysis as looking for sewage water biomarkers, place Barcelona among the European cities with a biggest abuse of cocaine, slightly bigger than London. This means that 5 millions of citizens in Barcelona consume more cocaine that 9 millions in London, so they almost double the average dose per capita. Antwerp (half a million) is a disaster doubling the London/Barcelona values in a weekend. They could go to Barcelona to detox. Those are recent values taken from here:

https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/html/pods/waste-wa...

Being "safe on the streets" is what this discussion was about. Drug use is irrelevant to what was being discussed, with user "ResearchCode" claiming that Barcelona is a place where people "are asked to practice war zone vigilance", something they've failed to back up with any kind of sources.

With respect to the drug use, I don't buy that measuring use is a valid proxy for measuring abuse or "disasters" - assuming all use is abuse is a severely puritan value judgement. I'd much rather be around an ecstasy or cannabis user than an alcohol user for example.

If being safe on the streets is what we are talking, sorry, but we definitely must have a small talk about drugs and cars.

Friends don't let their friends drive while high on ecstasy (specially when there are a lot of children riding pink bikes in the street).

Again, if there are sources to suggest that the streets of Barcelona justifies calling it one of the "crime capitals of Europe", feel free to supply them rather than presenting unsupported hypotheses about how drug users behave there.

Nah, the streets are 100% safe and this is Arcadia. Forget it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpeQMinhj1M

It feels pretty futuristic to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8C8fLMoTqE

And Yeah, drug users are gentlemen and their bad image is undeserved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3cimtfC9Ag

London have had machete fights, and riots, and lots of drug dealers, yet I have in 21 years of living here never been in a dangerous situation. Neither parts of those sentence proves anything about the safety of London, just like your videos proves nothing. Anecdotes are not data. Try again.

I'll note I have no idea if Barcelona is safe or not. It's possible it's a crime-ridden shithole, but nobody in this thread have substantiated that claim with a source, despite the person who originally made the claim suggested it was easy to establish with a search - which turned out to not support their claim at all.

It's perfectly possible there are stats that shows that Barcelona is in fact as dangerous as they claimed. But supporting that claim requires actual sources, not random videos.

> For instance, the "sources" accessible through those keywords put in a google search query.

We are on hackernews, here it is part of the etiquette to source claims

Please ensure that you do so

I’ve never understood why people sometimes get angry when they’re asked for evidence to back their assertions.

?? I spent 3 months studying there a while back. To me, Barcelona felt safer there than most large American cities that I’ve lived in. One “problem” was petty crime that seemed to mostly target tourists—-vigilance was indeed the solution… but more of “mind your surroundings” than “war zone.”

Every city I’ve ever been to in my entire life is more dangerous for tourists than residents. They’re easy targets, since they usually have expensive gear and don’t understand the area.

I wouldn’t judge a city based on the experience of tourists in it.

I haven't been to Barcelona in something approaching 10 years and I only spent a week there when I did. I had an amazing time and it was one of the most exciting cities I've ever visited.

That said, the amount of criminality on show to your average tourist was surprising. Offers of drugs and being accosted by prostitutes in the street was common place, not to mention lower level crime like graffiti and people selling beers on the street.

I think someone would be forgiven for coming away with the wrong impression of it as a city.

Honestly, sounds a lot like Venice Beach, CA.

Well, except for the beers. Americans are very much not okay with public drinking.

"The crime capital of Europe" is a literal walk in the park compared to any metropolis in the Americas.

I think the safety is to do with road traffic rather than deliberate criminality.

No, it’s to protect them from cars, which are by and far one of the biggest dangers to children

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