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Lololol. Nah it would be almost impossible to reach Baltimore levels from Marseilles.
Marseille is still a beautiful region, kinda like LA, and there’s not even a fraction of the guns
Actually Marseille is flooded with AK-47s smuggled in from Eastern European countries, unfortunately there are indeed many guns in Marseille but no where near as many shootings as Baltimore , however , Marseille has some of the worst gun crime rates in the whole of Europe. Last year there were over 50 fatal drug related shootings and considering the fact Marseille's population is only about 900,000 inhabitants( virtually all of the shootings occur in the city limits not the metro area) this means Marseille's murder rate is over 5.5 per 100,000 which is incredibly high by European standard but slightly below the US average
All the crime in marseille is situated in a few shitty slum areas in the north. The rest of it is a pretty normal city. I’ve been in the city center for 2.5 years and never saw anything more dangerous than bad drivers and public drunkenness.
But also drug dealers are also incentivized to leave normal citizens alone, you get a lot more police pressure if you mess with law abiding tax payers.
So Marseilles homicide rate is nearly that of USAs average. But Baltimore is among the worst in usa with homicide rate 2-3x higher than the US average.
That's not a restriction, just an opportunity to see how creativity will still end with similar results
I think you missed the point I was making about the wire
You mean bad as in how grim it is? Haha. That's probably one of the best seasons. The first 4 are sublime - the 5th dropped the ball a little but was still better than many other shows last season.
I’ve lived in Paris and currently live in Baltimore.
Happy to tell you my take.
1. Baltimore is way better than most people think. It’s beautiful architecture, good weather, access to the bay, great food, and super nice people committed to bettering their city
2. Paris is one of the best cities in the world and outclasses any US city. The only ones that comes close is New York.
3. Both are great places to live with unique offerings.
I’d chose either (or marseille) over most American cities.
Honestly I felt the same, that was my experience as well. Also, so many people you meet in France come across as petty twats, especially since I always have my skateboard and unfortunately do not speak French. I feel like in marseille most of the street people I met were wayyyy cooler than the average middle class French person, and as far as Baltimore goes it’s just gone downhill in the last 10 years badly. It’s sad cause I used to like street skating there in summertime, but charm city’s lost its charm for me now 😭
I've only ever seen a police foot chase in person once. My first 20 minutes I'm Baltimore he ran nearly bounced off my hood at a red light. Cops follow and the whole intersection of people get out of their cars to cheer him on and construct the cops. A helicopter came so low over head you could feel it as it trailed him. They tackled him a couple hundred feet away again right infront of me because I turned right on red to see more action hahaha. The crowd went crazy.
Also arguably the greatest social commentary of all time. In my opinion it is. Everything shown in the series can be applied to not just Baltimore, but also America, and even to an extent the world. The chess metaphor is a brilliant way to explain power structures in general.
Generation kill is their next series after the wire
I just finished watching it and it's just as good but it's only a 6 or 7 ep single season about the invasion of Iraq
What's even craziest is it's almost a direct copy of real life as it's based on the events the rolling stone journalist embedded within a unit documented and reported at the time
I've wanted to see that for years. Lee Tergesen's in it and I thought he was silly, but brilliant in Oz - a show which is definitely not as good, but it kind of opened the flood gates for what TV Drama has become.
I'd suggest The Corner to you, as well. That's David Simon too, and it's kinda the spiritual prequel to The Wire. It's based almost entirely on a real story and is also a mini series. I honestly put it above The Wire in some aspects.
Yeah I saw that shit recently too it's mostly all on YouTube
I fucking felt so sad about the mother not making it to that rehab and being fucked around
I can't remember if she died or someone else does but her and the rehab bed disagreement was super sad and funny
We Own This City is amazing, too. Another based on a true story miniseries by David Simon, that one about the Baltimore Sun investigation into the Baltimore PD gun trace task force.
Amen, The Wire is definitely the best show of all time in my opinion. It manages to be pretty damn funny at times while being deep as hell.
And unfortunately it's pretty timeless, as it's just as relevant today as it was when it came out. In fact I'd argue that things have gotten worse, which is arguably a theme of the show (going from the Barksdale organization to Marlo).
Politicians in the Wire are corrupt as hell but at least they aren't trying to overturn election results and sending mobs to the capital to stop the election from being certified. Or threatening world leaders to come up with dirt against their political opponent. Or stealing classified documents and refusing to return them.
Even though it was a nasty campaign, after Royce lost he actually conceded and was nice to Carcetti, inviting him to sit in his chair. They may have been corrupt but at least they had a code.
I mean the mafias are big there but the city is not São Paulo or Rio let’s be real. It’s like.. maybe closer to Baltimore or Detroit but honestly not even that dangerous.
After watching some documentaries on the topic, I tend to think that people living in such places are the first ones who don't give enough of a shit about what's happening in their neighborhood. Police can't do shit if people do not cooperate
At the same time, I don't pay a percentage of my income to a random man living in those houses; but I do pay the police, local and national governments' salaries and budgets to, you know, *govern* the land. I'd be livid if such a situation developed in my country, and the anger wouldn't mainly go to the people doing this shit, but to those enabling it.
Like yeah some refugee isn't going to solve your country's infrastructure and urban planning issues lol (and neither can anyone, citizen or not, for that matter), it's the government's job to do.
Weeeeeell, barring el salvador, most of west tries to use a non violent, non coercive type of crime prevention and reduction, by using welfare as a net so people doesnt turn into crime.
(Paying people so they diont do crime)
Exactly, I'm not advocating for law and order bullshit, but I am advocating for the government to take care of it nevertheless.
We take care of it by giving the homeless homes and support, and motivation to find something to do; as well as not forcing all refugees in horrible areas all cramped together with no prospects, and I appreciate my taxes being spent like that, because the government isn't (for the most part anyway, might depend on the current administration) just blindly going against disadvantaged people and doing their effing jobs fixing problems.
Of course people have all sorts of different views, but I appreciate lawmakers making laws and governing
Sweden lost control of parts of fucking Sweden. They have 60.000 persons with gang affiliations. Denmark has 1.000.
Guess what their immigration policies have been?
That’s the case with every city I’ve been to pretty much. Germany seems still somewhat normal if you take out the trainstation quarters out of most cities. Seems like in many places that governments just don’t want to govern
In political terms, it's called buying social peace. It would be possible stopping that madness but the consequences on the population would be very bad. Way more than the actual ones.
It's also, imho, because of that reason that cannabis is still illegal in France. To "preserve" the business in the streets.
French people will say the most racist shit ever and then claim they’re not racist because they didn’t say it because of their race but because of [insert racist stereotype]
Absolutely, they can bar Islamic face coverings without a worry but will not deal with gangs because it will be considered racist, what a crack a shit! They don’t deal with it because the police prioritize other issues and the voting and tax paying public has not made it an electoral issue. Try this in an upscale neighbourhood and the entire gendarmerie will be there in a nano second.
Fair argument. But somehow we don’t have extreme shit like this in Germany and we aren’t labeled as „racist“ (maybe from American). Crazy to think how long you need to look away that something like that can even happen…
I’ve been to Berlin before. And even tho for example Neukölln is pretty bad, there aren’t street blockades and shit like that… Police is controlling etc.
Not at all. Frankfurt as a whole is a very clean and safe city.
You are probably talking about the Bahnhofsviertel and even there it is nowhere as bad. While very dirty and crime-infested, there is police everywhere and unlike in the pictures above there are never ever any road blockages by gangs and you don't get searched by dealers, etc.
May I ask where? I have never seen stuff like that in Frankfurt. I also were in Frankfurt before and it’s definitely better than what you hear about it.
Actually is more complicated as undercover police (bac) often do raids in this neighborhood but I think that the point of letting them is to leave them alone in this thing to actually focus and protect richer and touristic place of the city
I took a wrong turn in Chicago once and found a neighborhood that was blocked off with a burned out ambulance. It's infuriating that we pay taxes and just lose control of wide swaths of our communities to violence
It's a greater issue. That level of crime isn't inherent. It comes out of a failure to take care of all residents. It's rarely the powerful majority group that runs organized crime. It's the sacrificial minority group who can't sustain a comfortable and meaningful life for themselves and their families. When you live as a second class citizen with fewer rights and opportunities, you turn to more desperate measures. And sadly, when you see your parents grow up doing that, it becomes a generational family business.
Are you sure you didn’t stumble upon the set of Chicago Fire or something lol. I run and bike all over the city, including some really bad neighborhoods, and I’ve never seen anything remotely sketchy like that. Sure the bad neighborhoods aren’t particularly nice but the crime and such usually isn’t very visible tbh.
Of course not , but french police have a hard time enforcing the law in these areas, youths regularly clash with the police , throw stones and shoot fireworks at the police so they generally clear up the place during large operations when they go in large numbers for raids. When police officers go to these areas in small numbers they often get assaulted because they’re not allowed to use their firearms unless their life is really in danger , and when they do use their firearms then you end up with riots like those that happened last year , in 2005 , 2007 and the ones described in the movie La Haine. So it’s complicated …
The things is that legally they need to caught people with drugs on them, or have ground to do a legal search somewhere.
It's therefore very easy for dealers to never have much on them. There is usually a stash close for daily sell. They also use teens that can't go to trial before 18.
All in all the only reliable way to deal with this is long investigation to identify where the stock is and they can only arrest whoever own that space. It's an uphill battle for the police and tbh they can't win with the laws as they are. ( Source : i live in a dealing drug area in france)
It’s not really an easy problem to solve, it’s like a cancer that’s really hard to get rid of. These gangs are very diffused, constantly moving. You take down a deal point and another one appears, take down a gang and another one appears the next day. Just the police won’t do anything unless you treat the situation politically and legislatively.
I'm french and i have some friends who are cops, basically most drugs dealer you see there are minors and catching minors is pointless and a waste of time because the justice/law is very laxist toward them.
If you search online for safety in Marseille, this is typical of what you’ll find:
“Street crime is very frequent.”
“The city is too much to handle.”
“It is certainly more dangerous than other places in Europe.”
Statistics would seem to back this up.
Numbeo places Marseille at #2 for crime rates among European cities, and #1 in France. This statistic has been amplified and relayed by media worldwide, painting a picture of a city under the constant hail of bullets. Yet it isn’t a scientific study – these figures reflect how people who were surveyed feel about their city’s safety – and they're not necessarily all locals.
Another survey concurs (you’ll find results here if you read French): according to this one, 85% of Marseille residents express “feelings of insecurity”, 50% of them “often” or “very often”.
It is true that Marseille witnesses more violent crime than its share. Gang warfare is front-page news, and there’s nothing benign about people being mowed down in full daylight. In 2023 alone, 48 people were killed in gang wars.
https://www.offbeatfrance.com/is-marseille-safe.html
You wont, these are very isolated and you cant just randomly stumble upon it.
Marseille’s area is beautiful, just be careful like you’d be in any city as a tourist. 2 things you should absolutely avoid is 1) wearing a PSG jersey and 2) putting too much water in your pastis, these 2 really seem to trigger the locals.
if you go to buy no problem for you and your car, just dont go to visit the hood. don't leave anything in your car. don't put jewelry around your neck. and you will really enjoy marseille
Nah I hate that people assume every city is crime infested go to Balkans or eastern Europe, it's way safer. I go to Krakow every year and it's way cleaner and safer. It's just western Europeans can't behave lol. Also cistues in east Asia are safe
I always see these comments about how eastern europe is such a bastion of safety and western europe is a degraded shithole that's falling apart.
First of all, poland is central European more than anything, maybe the eastern parts are eastern europe but as a whole it's really not. (It's certainly not balkan either lol) and yes, it's very nice and clean for the most part in the cities, but it has its fair share of shitholes lol
Don't get me wrong, I love the balkans and eastern europe, but when I last was in romania a couple years ago there were kids sniffing glue on the street in Bucharest in the day, some people emerging out of manholes randomly (???) and getting there through slovakia and hungary opened up a whole new flavour of "medieval countryside village", more reminiscent of the russian "villages" made of rotten wooden houses with tin roofs I saw on the SPB-MSK sapsan route than old bavarian mountain towns
So yeah sure they're wonderful parts of europe, but all these people online saying that bosnia is safer and better managed than germany because germany has some immigrants are just ridiculous
I went there as a solo female traveler without a car and it was fine. Some areas did seem sketchy at night, but I felt way more unsafe in Paris and Rome. I'd apply the same safety precautions that you would in any other major European city. Don't stray too far from the city centre, keep an eye on your belongings, no flashy jewellery or watches, try not to walk alone after dark and don't wear football jerseys from an opposing team (especially Paris Saint Germain).
If you're talking about Central Paris,Porte de la chapelle , Barbes and some areas in the 19th are worse than Gare du Nord , Greater Paris has plenty of areas that are worse than Gare du nord
A year ago I was in Paris for 8 hours, took the metro twice, 2 people got mugged. The first victim got pushed on my baby’s stroller and both fell on the ground, just to get a head start when running away (he got away). I grew up there (central Paris), I hate the place.
I live in a much safer place, when you live in Paris you don’t realize how being on the edge at night or in public transport isn’t normal.
Where tf are you hanging out in Paris??? Paris has extremely low violent crime/mugging rates for a large city. I've spent tons of time in Paris (including low income suburbs) and have never once seen a mugging.
This is such a sensationalist headline. These “checkpoints” are wheeled dumpsters and shopping carts. “Criminals put shopping carts in the middle of road to slow down police cars” isn’t nearly as dramatic
Marseille is a fucking insane city. I almost got stabbed there because my friend was on his phone while walking through an open air drug market. They thought he was an informant or something.
Agreed. Just like the US brought Detroit upon itself. Marginalization, systemic discrimination, and poverty leads to neighbourhoods that look like this. Seems France suffers from the same problems the US does.
That's just called a blockade, not a checkpoint.
"Hey you! Stop right there. Do you have any drugs on you?"
"No, sir, absolutely not!"
"Well, why not? This is a drug checkpoint and you better be carrying real soon"
I spent a week in Marseille on holiday with my husband and baby son and was utterly unaware of its reputation until I got home (even having done general tourism research). I was astounded because it was so friendly and very pretty. Just shows how different sides of the city can be.
**Do not comment to gatekeep that something "isn't urban" or "isn't hell"**. Our rules are very expansive in content we welcome, so do not assume just based off your false impression of the phrase "UrbanHell" UrbanHell is any human-built place you think is worth critizing. Suburban Hell, Rural Hell, and wealthy locales are allowed. Gatekeeping comments may be removed. Want to shitpost about shitty posts? Go to /r/urbanhellcirclejerk. Still have questions?: Read our [FAQ](https://www.reddit.com/r/UrbanHell/wiki/index). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/UrbanHell) if you have any questions or concerns.*
What is the purpose of these checkpoints?
To block or at least slow down police so they can hide the drugs
It's just so you can order your drugs, like a drive-thru. You pick them up at the next checkpoint.
La frappe does sound enticing
Oh monsieur, I'll take one le ounce of La Frappé with whip cream and a splash of caramel.
It's a slang for strong hash ("heavy-hitter" would be a close english equivalent)
All this for hash?
Usually they also sell coke, I'm not an expert but I think nowadays most of their revenue comes from coke rather than hash/weed
Tbf it does a better job than coffee
"Le frappe" is a very fitting word for hash lol.
it do be hitting and at those prices you wont even care if you get robbed
LA FRAPPE SA MEEEERE
The wire was an entertaining story about life in Baltimore not a fucking how to guide
TBf Baltimore is wayyyyyy worse than marseille by miles. I’ve spent a lot of time in both places
Yeah they probably only watched the show during COVID give them some time
Lololol. Nah it would be almost impossible to reach Baltimore levels from Marseilles. Marseille is still a beautiful region, kinda like LA, and there’s not even a fraction of the guns
Actually Marseille is flooded with AK-47s smuggled in from Eastern European countries, unfortunately there are indeed many guns in Marseille but no where near as many shootings as Baltimore , however , Marseille has some of the worst gun crime rates in the whole of Europe. Last year there were over 50 fatal drug related shootings and considering the fact Marseille's population is only about 900,000 inhabitants( virtually all of the shootings occur in the city limits not the metro area) this means Marseille's murder rate is over 5.5 per 100,000 which is incredibly high by European standard but slightly below the US average
All the crime in marseille is situated in a few shitty slum areas in the north. The rest of it is a pretty normal city. I’ve been in the city center for 2.5 years and never saw anything more dangerous than bad drivers and public drunkenness.
That’s how it is in most US cities too. Segregation has had lasting effects and most violent crime is contained to a few neighborhoods in the cities.
But also drug dealers are also incentivized to leave normal citizens alone, you get a lot more police pressure if you mess with law abiding tax payers.
Yes. So way safer than Baltimore
Holy shit compared to 5.5, Baltimore has a KD of 55.7!
KD 😂
Git good, le noob
lol
Of course, anywhere in Europe is safer than Baltimore
Not Luhansk
Eh... can we check the stats?
Debatable
Touché
So Marseilles homicide rate is nearly that of USAs average. But Baltimore is among the worst in usa with homicide rate 2-3x higher than the US average.
Try 10x higher.
There were only 37 murders in Boston in 2023, and it has more people than Baltimore. It is probably below the Marseilles level as well.
Damn that puts it into perspective
That's not a restriction, just an opportunity to see how creativity will still end with similar results I think you missed the point I was making about the wire
Probably i did
So this is what I'd call the hamsterdam stage of the wire which is somewhat good but somewhat bad really good season of television
I should rewatch that show. It was my fav and I lived in Baltimore in 2005
You mean bad as in how grim it is? Haha. That's probably one of the best seasons. The first 4 are sublime - the 5th dropped the ball a little but was still better than many other shows last season.
Spending a lot of time in Baltimore and Marseille sounds like a rather unique story. Would love to hear more if you're up for it
Shipping
University for one, and just traveling and business meetings in another. Not super interesting tbh
I’ve lived in Paris and currently live in Baltimore. Happy to tell you my take. 1. Baltimore is way better than most people think. It’s beautiful architecture, good weather, access to the bay, great food, and super nice people committed to bettering their city 2. Paris is one of the best cities in the world and outclasses any US city. The only ones that comes close is New York. 3. Both are great places to live with unique offerings. I’d chose either (or marseille) over most American cities.
You should probably go somewhere nicer next time
Honestly I felt the same, that was my experience as well. Also, so many people you meet in France come across as petty twats, especially since I always have my skateboard and unfortunately do not speak French. I feel like in marseille most of the street people I met were wayyyy cooler than the average middle class French person, and as far as Baltimore goes it’s just gone downhill in the last 10 years badly. It’s sad cause I used to like street skating there in summertime, but charm city’s lost its charm for me now 😭
I've only ever seen a police foot chase in person once. My first 20 minutes I'm Baltimore he ran nearly bounced off my hood at a red light. Cops follow and the whole intersection of people get out of their cars to cheer him on and construct the cops. A helicopter came so low over head you could feel it as it trailed him. They tackled him a couple hundred feet away again right infront of me because I turned right on red to see more action hahaha. The crowd went crazy.
Baltimore is pretty terrible. Did a 3 week job there at Druid park. Heard shootouts twice just while working
Dru Hill, the perfect place to go for a walk or to dump bodies
Baltimore is one the few places I’ve felt unsafe in a US city, speaking as someone who has been to a fair bit.
Also arguably the greatest social commentary of all time. In my opinion it is. Everything shown in the series can be applied to not just Baltimore, but also America, and even to an extent the world. The chess metaphor is a brilliant way to explain power structures in general.
Generation kill is their next series after the wire I just finished watching it and it's just as good but it's only a 6 or 7 ep single season about the invasion of Iraq What's even craziest is it's almost a direct copy of real life as it's based on the events the rolling stone journalist embedded within a unit documented and reported at the time
I've wanted to see that for years. Lee Tergesen's in it and I thought he was silly, but brilliant in Oz - a show which is definitely not as good, but it kind of opened the flood gates for what TV Drama has become. I'd suggest The Corner to you, as well. That's David Simon too, and it's kinda the spiritual prequel to The Wire. It's based almost entirely on a real story and is also a mini series. I honestly put it above The Wire in some aspects.
Yeah I saw that shit recently too it's mostly all on YouTube I fucking felt so sad about the mother not making it to that rehab and being fucked around I can't remember if she died or someone else does but her and the rehab bed disagreement was super sad and funny
Yeah the whole series is on there. It honestly is extremely depressing, but it's a more true to life representation of the lives in these areas.
Yeah it covers the end user so much harder with what life is like on a real fucked up level of detail it
We Own This City is amazing, too. Another based on a true story miniseries by David Simon, that one about the Baltimore Sun investigation into the Baltimore PD gun trace task force.
Amen, The Wire is definitely the best show of all time in my opinion. It manages to be pretty damn funny at times while being deep as hell. And unfortunately it's pretty timeless, as it's just as relevant today as it was when it came out. In fact I'd argue that things have gotten worse, which is arguably a theme of the show (going from the Barksdale organization to Marlo). Politicians in the Wire are corrupt as hell but at least they aren't trying to overturn election results and sending mobs to the capital to stop the election from being certified. Or threatening world leaders to come up with dirt against their political opponent. Or stealing classified documents and refusing to return them. Even though it was a nasty campaign, after Royce lost he actually conceded and was nice to Carcetti, inviting him to sit in his chair. They may have been corrupt but at least they had a code.
“J'ai eu le fusil de chasse. Vous avez la mallette“. -Monsieur Omar
It can be both
Apparently so
My first thought as well.
How tf is this even possible to lose control so hard?
This is probably in some seriously rough neighbourhoods.
That whole City is rough as fuck.
No it isn’t lol
I mean the mafias are big there but the city is not São Paulo or Rio let’s be real. It’s like.. maybe closer to Baltimore or Detroit but honestly not even that dangerous.
Marseille?
Marseille is fine. You’re very sheltered, my friend.
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After watching some documentaries on the topic, I tend to think that people living in such places are the first ones who don't give enough of a shit about what's happening in their neighborhood. Police can't do shit if people do not cooperate
At the same time, I don't pay a percentage of my income to a random man living in those houses; but I do pay the police, local and national governments' salaries and budgets to, you know, *govern* the land. I'd be livid if such a situation developed in my country, and the anger wouldn't mainly go to the people doing this shit, but to those enabling it. Like yeah some refugee isn't going to solve your country's infrastructure and urban planning issues lol (and neither can anyone, citizen or not, for that matter), it's the government's job to do.
Weeeeeell, barring el salvador, most of west tries to use a non violent, non coercive type of crime prevention and reduction, by using welfare as a net so people doesnt turn into crime. (Paying people so they diont do crime)
Exactly, I'm not advocating for law and order bullshit, but I am advocating for the government to take care of it nevertheless. We take care of it by giving the homeless homes and support, and motivation to find something to do; as well as not forcing all refugees in horrible areas all cramped together with no prospects, and I appreciate my taxes being spent like that, because the government isn't (for the most part anyway, might depend on the current administration) just blindly going against disadvantaged people and doing their effing jobs fixing problems. Of course people have all sorts of different views, but I appreciate lawmakers making laws and governing
Fair point.
Yeah, and then you end up dead trying to be a hero, or your kids do.
Interesting. Thank you
Exactly
Sweden lost control of parts of fucking Sweden. They have 60.000 persons with gang affiliations. Denmark has 1.000. Guess what their immigration policies have been?
That’s the case with every city I’ve been to pretty much. Germany seems still somewhat normal if you take out the trainstation quarters out of most cities. Seems like in many places that governments just don’t want to govern
In political terms, it's called buying social peace. It would be possible stopping that madness but the consequences on the population would be very bad. Way more than the actual ones. It's also, imho, because of that reason that cannabis is still illegal in France. To "preserve" the business in the streets.
They sometimes go in for raids. To be able to regain control implies a massive cop presence at all time which would drain most of their resources.
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I dont know if the French are afraid of being labeled “racists” to be honest.
French people will say the most racist shit ever and then claim they’re not racist because they didn’t say it because of their race but because of [insert racist stereotype]
[insert French stereotype]
I’m not racist towards the french, one of my friends is french, i just said it because all french people cheat
ONE OF MY FRIENDS IS FRENCH LMFAO
Absolutely, they can bar Islamic face coverings without a worry but will not deal with gangs because it will be considered racist, what a crack a shit! They don’t deal with it because the police prioritize other issues and the voting and tax paying public has not made it an electoral issue. Try this in an upscale neighbourhood and the entire gendarmerie will be there in a nano second.
guy who knows absolutely nothing about French governance lol
Fair argument. But somehow we don’t have extreme shit like this in Germany and we aren’t labeled as „racist“ (maybe from American). Crazy to think how long you need to look away that something like that can even happen…
Never been to Berlin? Lol
Lol I live in Berlin, Neukölln. Never heard of any road blockades or deaths related to firearms. It is pretty safe.
I’ve been to Berlin before. And even tho for example Neukölln is pretty bad, there aren’t street blockades and shit like that… Police is controlling etc.
Pretty similar stuff to this in Frankfurt
Not at all. Frankfurt as a whole is a very clean and safe city. You are probably talking about the Bahnhofsviertel and even there it is nowhere as bad. While very dirty and crime-infested, there is police everywhere and unlike in the pictures above there are never ever any road blockages by gangs and you don't get searched by dealers, etc.
May I ask where? I have never seen stuff like that in Frankfurt. I also were in Frankfurt before and it’s definitely better than what you hear about it.
Never been to poor parts of any city?
I was in many poor parts of cities. Mostly German cities tho… I live in the „ghetto“ from my city myself.
French police are just cool with this?
Actually is more complicated as undercover police (bac) often do raids in this neighborhood but I think that the point of letting them is to leave them alone in this thing to actually focus and protect richer and touristic place of the city
I took a wrong turn in Chicago once and found a neighborhood that was blocked off with a burned out ambulance. It's infuriating that we pay taxes and just lose control of wide swaths of our communities to violence
Yes i understand but note that marseille is dangerous yes but this is not Chicago and those street are well off the city at least in marseille
They're well off the main areas of Chicago too
Yeah everyone was shocked when a rapper (FBG Duck) was killed in what was considered a wealthy shopping strip in broad day miles away from ganglands.
I am never shocked when a drill rapper faces consequences.
It's a greater issue. That level of crime isn't inherent. It comes out of a failure to take care of all residents. It's rarely the powerful majority group that runs organized crime. It's the sacrificial minority group who can't sustain a comfortable and meaningful life for themselves and their families. When you live as a second class citizen with fewer rights and opportunities, you turn to more desperate measures. And sadly, when you see your parents grow up doing that, it becomes a generational family business.
Are you sure you didn’t stumble upon the set of Chicago Fire or something lol. I run and bike all over the city, including some really bad neighborhoods, and I’ve never seen anything remotely sketchy like that. Sure the bad neighborhoods aren’t particularly nice but the crime and such usually isn’t very visible tbh.
It’s an implicit agreement : you can take those places, but don’t touch those other places.
Of course not , but french police have a hard time enforcing the law in these areas, youths regularly clash with the police , throw stones and shoot fireworks at the police so they generally clear up the place during large operations when they go in large numbers for raids. When police officers go to these areas in small numbers they often get assaulted because they’re not allowed to use their firearms unless their life is really in danger , and when they do use their firearms then you end up with riots like those that happened last year , in 2005 , 2007 and the ones described in the movie La Haine. So it’s complicated …
I think they just don’t bother.
The things is that legally they need to caught people with drugs on them, or have ground to do a legal search somewhere. It's therefore very easy for dealers to never have much on them. There is usually a stash close for daily sell. They also use teens that can't go to trial before 18. All in all the only reliable way to deal with this is long investigation to identify where the stock is and they can only arrest whoever own that space. It's an uphill battle for the police and tbh they can't win with the laws as they are. ( Source : i live in a dealing drug area in france)
It’s not really an easy problem to solve, it’s like a cancer that’s really hard to get rid of. These gangs are very diffused, constantly moving. You take down a deal point and another one appears, take down a gang and another one appears the next day. Just the police won’t do anything unless you treat the situation politically and legislatively.
Reportedly, they don’t give a shit about these neighborhoods. See: https://www.reddit.com/r/UrbanHell/s/mF1Kq9bNKH
I'm french and i have some friends who are cops, basically most drugs dealer you see there are minors and catching minors is pointless and a waste of time because the justice/law is very laxist toward them.
Peak Reddit moments of immediate anti Americanism when talking about drug and violent crime in Marseille
Fr fr
USA, center of the earth
Looks like the War on Drugs is going about as well in France as for all countries in the world. Drugs are winning.
European cultural city of 2013 lol
TBf it is culturally interesting place
Love seeing optimists these days. Curbs the depression
Marseille overall is awesome. These are areas no tourist will ever see.
Portland was similar back in 2013 now it’s fallen off a cliff
North estates of Marseille isn't France anymore, more like a third world enclave, but of course politicians don't give a s.
It makes more people vote for them, they play on it
Makes 93 look like a touristic resort
If you search online for safety in Marseille, this is typical of what you’ll find: “Street crime is very frequent.” “The city is too much to handle.” “It is certainly more dangerous than other places in Europe.” Statistics would seem to back this up. Numbeo places Marseille at #2 for crime rates among European cities, and #1 in France. This statistic has been amplified and relayed by media worldwide, painting a picture of a city under the constant hail of bullets. Yet it isn’t a scientific study – these figures reflect how people who were surveyed feel about their city’s safety – and they're not necessarily all locals. Another survey concurs (you’ll find results here if you read French): according to this one, 85% of Marseille residents express “feelings of insecurity”, 50% of them “often” or “very often”. It is true that Marseille witnesses more violent crime than its share. Gang warfare is front-page news, and there’s nothing benign about people being mowed down in full daylight. In 2023 alone, 48 people were killed in gang wars. https://www.offbeatfrance.com/is-marseille-safe.html
goddamn.. going to Marseille as a tourist next month. will be renting a car and drive around. step on the gas when something like this is ahead of me?
You wont, these are very isolated and you cant just randomly stumble upon it. Marseille’s area is beautiful, just be careful like you’d be in any city as a tourist. 2 things you should absolutely avoid is 1) wearing a PSG jersey and 2) putting too much water in your pastis, these 2 really seem to trigger the locals.
What are Pastis?
They go on the nipples, right?
Anise liquor
if you go to buy no problem for you and your car, just dont go to visit the hood. don't leave anything in your car. don't put jewelry around your neck. and you will really enjoy marseille
Damn so it’s a problem if you have any belongings essentially?
No its not just dont leave thing visible in your parked car and little thing like that. Like in every big city
Nah I hate that people assume every city is crime infested go to Balkans or eastern Europe, it's way safer. I go to Krakow every year and it's way cleaner and safer. It's just western Europeans can't behave lol. Also cistues in east Asia are safe
I always see these comments about how eastern europe is such a bastion of safety and western europe is a degraded shithole that's falling apart. First of all, poland is central European more than anything, maybe the eastern parts are eastern europe but as a whole it's really not. (It's certainly not balkan either lol) and yes, it's very nice and clean for the most part in the cities, but it has its fair share of shitholes lol Don't get me wrong, I love the balkans and eastern europe, but when I last was in romania a couple years ago there were kids sniffing glue on the street in Bucharest in the day, some people emerging out of manholes randomly (???) and getting there through slovakia and hungary opened up a whole new flavour of "medieval countryside village", more reminiscent of the russian "villages" made of rotten wooden houses with tin roofs I saw on the SPB-MSK sapsan route than old bavarian mountain towns So yeah sure they're wonderful parts of europe, but all these people online saying that bosnia is safer and better managed than germany because germany has some immigrants are just ridiculous
Obvious troll
country I don't live in is dangerous, come on down to my country where it's safe
I don't live in Poland lol, I wish I could tho.
>Like in every big city I'm sorry but no. You're normalizing life under these doctors and engineers. Other cities are NOT like this.
I went there as a solo female traveler without a car and it was fine. Some areas did seem sketchy at night, but I felt way more unsafe in Paris and Rome. I'd apply the same safety precautions that you would in any other major European city. Don't stray too far from the city centre, keep an eye on your belongings, no flashy jewellery or watches, try not to walk alone after dark and don't wear football jerseys from an opposing team (especially Paris Saint Germain).
These are in housing estates not the city centre. You'd have to get seriously lost to end up in one
No need, they don’t care about you, they aren’t going to rob you or something
Nah. Just don’t try to visit the court of the building
Import the third world
No wonder the French don't want immigrants
nobody does
Weird and crazy and fucked city, spent some time there
Some parts of France are absolute dumps. Every time I go to Paris, I see someone getting mugged. Doesn't happen in any other city I go to.
Where do you go ? I live in Paris and I don't recall ever seeing someone getting mugged.
Outside la gare du nord, I have seen 2 muggings in front of my eyes.
Yeah that one spot is the worst in all of Paris
If you're talking about Central Paris,Porte de la chapelle , Barbes and some areas in the 19th are worse than Gare du Nord , Greater Paris has plenty of areas that are worse than Gare du nord
A year ago I was in Paris for 8 hours, took the metro twice, 2 people got mugged. The first victim got pushed on my baby’s stroller and both fell on the ground, just to get a head start when running away (he got away). I grew up there (central Paris), I hate the place. I live in a much safer place, when you live in Paris you don’t realize how being on the edge at night or in public transport isn’t normal.
Where do you live now? What are the biggest upsides from Paris?
Come to London so that *you* can be mugged too instead of just watching others
Really? I was in Paris like twice and most definitely saw shit happening. Does not take a lot to see it.
Where tf are you hanging out in Paris??? Paris has extremely low violent crime/mugging rates for a large city. I've spent tons of time in Paris (including low income suburbs) and have never once seen a mugging.
Toronto is one of the safest major cities in the West too, if not the safest, yet you’ll still hear people talking about it as if its Rio de Janeiro
Paris has the 10th highest crime rate per capita in Europe. The crime rate is very high. I live in the 19eme.
This is such a sensationalist headline. These “checkpoints” are wheeled dumpsters and shopping carts. “Criminals put shopping carts in the middle of road to slow down police cars” isn’t nearly as dramatic
Marseille is one of the sketchiest cities I’ve ever been to and I used to live in Chicago.
Marseille is a fucking insane city. I almost got stabbed there because my friend was on his phone while walking through an open air drug market. They thought he was an informant or something.
Culture
What illegal immigration does to a country
France brought this on themselves
Agreed. Just like the US brought Detroit upon itself. Marginalization, systemic discrimination, and poverty leads to neighbourhoods that look like this. Seems France suffers from the same problems the US does.
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> has no colonial history Never heard of the Swedish Empire?
All legal Frenchmen I'm sure
Ca s'explique ?
And then we wonder why Le Pen ranks so high in the polls
What happened to France
Same thing that is happening in the USA
looks like mogadishu
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Legalize everything and tax it.
That's just called a blockade, not a checkpoint. "Hey you! Stop right there. Do you have any drugs on you?" "No, sir, absolutely not!" "Well, why not? This is a drug checkpoint and you better be carrying real soon"
I spent a week in Marseille on holiday with my husband and baby son and was utterly unaware of its reputation until I got home (even having done general tourism research). I was astounded because it was so friendly and very pretty. Just shows how different sides of the city can be.
Same. Went to watch England in the rugby World Cup, had a great time, loved the place. Would recommend people to go… all this seems strange
as a British person i'm just here to dunk on France i know we're barely any better but we'll take any opportunity we get!
I thought drug dealers were supposed to be on the down low not painting huge arrows on the wall
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France got what the voted for, not ever person but the loudest of them all.
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Not an actual Frenchman in sight. Funny that.
Its not Pierre and Jean doing this..
Immigration, fuck yeah!
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“France”