The death counts are higher among the traveler community, but mostly from drugs and alcohol.
Agreed. Drugs, alcohol and unfortunately suicide as well.
You honestly don't have to be super afraid of getting murdered; most people don't want a murder charge, but landing in the hospital isn't really something you want.
There are people out there who would attack you for no reason. Just because you are there. But that never happened to me, travelling in UK and EU.
Knock on wood.
Most violence I witnessed (I was never in a fight) were because of come reason. Sometimes a silly reason, but there was a reason.
That's why I never let people provoke me. Happened that I was playing my harmonica at night and some guys walked by and one was like "useless scum ... get a job" and so on. In those situations I just ignored that.
I mean, don't get me wrong. If I care about someone's opinion and this someone has a problem with me, I would discuss that. But why risking a confrontation with someone who is onviously in an aggressive mood. I don't care what idiots thinking about me, anyway.
Generally, just respect people, be honest, don't fuck anybody over, and share, and you're fine.
Yes, absolutely.
Obviously doesn't help if people are about to rob you for money or are about to rape you and so on, but it eliminates many causes for trouble and violence.
The company you keep can attract fights or turn on you, so watch who you hang out with. If somebody's into alcohol and violence, odds are good that at some point the violence will be toward you.
Yep. Always trust your gut feeling. Once I was about to sleep next to a very good friend of mine in a doorway. He really is one of my best friends. But he got really drunk and then he tends to be at least verbally agressive. Like some people walking by (quite big guys), one is dropping a can on the pavement and my friend would yell at them "there is a bin here, dont drop it in front of
my doorway you fucking cunt ... idiot ..." and so on. After a few of those incidents I told him I would leave. Sleep somewhere else. He understood that and next morning he apologized and said it was a good decision to go away.
I mean he was not so drunk that he needed help or company. And I would always backed him up if he would get in trouble. But I can't stand it when people I'm with a constantly calling for trouble without reason.
Cop violence is also common. When you're dealing with the cops, always keep your hands away from your pockets, announce what you're doing ("Okay, I'm reaching for my wallet in my back left pocket now"), and move a little slower than you normally would. Don't talk shit to them, don't give them an excuse to drive you off somewhere out of sight and beat the crap out of you or purposely stick you in the drunk tank with an angry drunk skinhead.
Yep. Cop violence is not as much a problem where I was, compared to the US. I mean, in UK the normal cops don't even carry a firearm. There is cop violence (as in every other country) but I only read about it, never witnessed it.
But yeah, when dealing with cops I always stayed polite. Not kissing their ass in a manner of speaking, but calm and decent. You could say "as polite as necessary, as unhelpful as possible".
Always be careful what you say. Don't give any information you are not legally required to give.
That's really important. Watch your mouth. Imagine cops turn up while a friend of you is still sleeping. Don't wake him up saying "James, wake up, we have to go". Maybe later if the cops ask for names he would give a false name. And then the cops would be like "but your mate called you James before?!?"
And never admit something that is not plain obvious.
