Read the room......

[Jared Traveler]

One thing I have learned traveling around the globe is that you can learn a lot about the bad guys, just by looking at what the police, security and civilians are doing and carrying.

If you land in a country and everything is gated with fences, with gate guards, that's one thing. If you land in a country and those fences have razor wire, and the security guards are carrying rifles and wearing body armor, that's another thing.

In the first case the bad guys probably don't have guns, in the second case, they certainly do.

If you go through a military check point, that's one thing. If they are carrying long guns and the check point has twenty armed men, that tells you something else.

 

[Tigerwarrior]

One thing I have learned traveling around the globe is that you can learn a lot about the bad guys, just by looking at what the police, security and civilians are doing and carrying.

If you land in a country and everything is gated with fences, with gate guards, that's one thing. If you land in a country and those fences have razor wire, and the security guards are carrying rifles and wearing body armor, that's another thing.

In the first case the bad guys probably don't have guns, in the second case, they certainly do.

If you go through a military check point, that's one thing. If they are carrying long guns and the check point has twenty armed men, that tells you something else.

This is great advice. Thanks for the post bro. I find myself doing a few things no matter where I go. I always know where all the exits are, if I'm sitting by a door I'm always sitting facing the door, and I look around and kind of size up the scene to see if anyone is showing aggressive behavior or looks like trouble. But you do this on a bigger scale like cities and towns I never really thought about that before. I also usually try to plan my trips out so I'm always avoiding rough areas if I can, but one thing I learned is if your traveling anything can happen, someone might need to hit up a gas station to pee in a neighborhood you don't know about. Or one time my cousin got a hotel for me and neither of us knew the area, and it ended up being a rough area. If I would of did some recon I could of avoided that, but I didn't think I would spend the night there my plan was just passing through. So always be prepared for anything and have situational awareness.

 

[geezer]

If you land in a country and everything is gated with fences, with gate guards, that's one thing. If you land in a country and those fences have razor wire, and the security guards are carrying rifles and wearing body armor, that's another thing.

In the first case the bad guys probably don't have guns, in the second case, they certainly do.

You really have to factor in culture and traditions before you jump to conclusions.

Where I live, most of the middle class neighborhoods, especially the older ones built back when I was a kid, aren't gated and the front yards aren't fenced in. They certainly don't have razor wire. Yet here, many people have guns. So, of course the bad guys definitely do as well.

On the other hand, in Latin American culture, houses have high walls, often topped with spikes or broken glass set into mortar. You see this even in areas where crime rates are low and few people (criminal or otherwise) have guns.

I've even seen this in very peaceful areas of Costa Rica. I also remember seeing some pretty poor houses in the area with high fences and gates. I asked a local about this and he replied, "Of course. It's all about appearances. Even if you are poor you want to have a high fence so people will think you have something of value worth protecting!

On the other hand, plenty of American expats lived in the area without fences and assured me that they felt quite safe. Especially compared with living here in the States.