After I returned from Washington DC, a friend of mine asked me about the crime there. It was ironic that he asked because I felt more like a criminal at times than that I was surrounded by them, and so I thought it relevant to explain my feelings here.
As we passed from building to building, I suppose new DHS laws required them to at least look through our bags. Some places exerted more scrutiny, scanning us with a metal detector or asking for ID, etc., while others let us in without too much fuss. When exiting the Customs building as I looked at all the guards frisking people, I felt like a criminal in my own country, but I remembered as we walked toward the White House that in most places you can't get that close to the King, Emperor, Dictator, etc. no matter who you are.
Only at one point did I see any crime. Well, everyone drove like a maniac, and there was some jaywalking, but this person tried to steal a camera. Otherwise, you couldn't tell it was a major metropolitan area at all. That being said, 95% of all crime in DC occurs on the floor of Congress, and since they wouldn't let me in with water bottles in my backpack, I was kept safely away from that section of town.
Maybe I felt completely safe because of the company, but I have not been so at ease in a long time. True, at the beginning, I wondered about my wallet and my backpack in the crowds, but eventually I just had a good time.
As we passed from building to building, I suppose new DHS laws required them to at least look through our bags. Some places exerted more scrutiny, scanning us with a metal detector or asking for ID, etc., while others let us in without too much fuss. When exiting the Customs building as I looked at all the guards frisking people, I felt like a criminal in my own country, but I remembered as we walked toward the White House that in most places you can't get that close to the King, Emperor, Dictator, etc. no matter who you are.
Only at one point did I see any crime. Well, everyone drove like a maniac, and there was some jaywalking, but this person tried to steal a camera. Otherwise, you couldn't tell it was a major metropolitan area at all. That being said, 95% of all crime in DC occurs on the floor of Congress, and since they wouldn't let me in with water bottles in my backpack, I was kept safely away from that section of town.
Maybe I felt completely safe because of the company, but I have not been so at ease in a long time. True, at the beginning, I wondered about my wallet and my backpack in the crowds, but eventually I just had a good time.
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