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Picture Bourbon Street at 11pm. There's a bar you want to go into.
If there are 100s of other tourists on the street, you feel safer. You don't even notice that there are 10 unhoused folk, and 1 is close to OD'ing*. You walk in confidently.
*You should notice. But you don't.
Now picture the Bourbon street, but minus the housed folk and the hundreds of tourists.
Now you notice the unhoused people, the person OD'ing, the litter on the streets, and the cops. You still see the bar, but now you're too afraid to go in.
The cops do not make you feel safer. The crowd and the community made you feel safer.
(c) Mekka Okereke
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/110178086769104233
Looks like it's actually explains a lot in a current narrative about cities and crime.
If there are 100s of other tourists on the street, you feel safer. You don't even notice that there are 10 unhoused folk, and 1 is close to OD'ing*. You walk in confidently.
*You should notice. But you don't.
Now picture the Bourbon street, but minus the housed folk and the hundreds of tourists.
Now you notice the unhoused people, the person OD'ing, the litter on the streets, and the cops. You still see the bar, but now you're too afraid to go in.
The cops do not make you feel safer. The crowd and the community made you feel safer.
(c) Mekka Okereke
https://hachyderm.io/@mekkaokereke/110178086769104233
Looks like it's actually explains a lot in a current narrative about cities and crime.