Safety on the Streets
I'll be using this blog to recount some stories and thoughts from the recent Mennonite Church Canada and USA bi-annual convention that I attended with my youth group in Charlotte, North Carolina.

As part of our registration package was a booklet outlining our schedule, session and seminar information, maps etc. It also included a few guidelines for a great convention experience. The dress code included restrictions on spaghetti straps and two piece swimsuits. The girls in my group are generally on the modest side and even they had trouble adapting their wardrobe accordingly. I, and other sponsors in similar situations, had no trouble relaxing these conditions. The guidelines also included various points about respecting other people as far as behaviour in the hotels and in the city in general.

What caught my eye the most was the list of street safety guidelines. Charlotte has a curfew of 11pm for anyone under 16 years old, which I didn' know was common practice or even truly enforceable. There were some points about not looking like an obvious tourist, and thus not looking too vulnerable, and about traveling in groups which I thought was relevant and helpful. One point however that drew a raised eyebrow from me was the following quote.

In cities, people don't normally look each other in the eye. Such direct contact is often used for illicit purposes.

Are there cases of people unknowingly involving themselves is illicit activity simply by giving a friendly eye to eye greeting? Maybe I don't know enough of those stories, but it seemed to me like unnecessary fear mongering. I'm quite sure that someone soliciting prostitution, selling drugs, or engaging in whatever else kind of illicit activity can tell the difference between someone being friendly and a potential buyer. Sure, people in cities don't make a lot of eye contact, but that doesn't mean I should avoid it myself. I refuse to travel to a place and completely disengage myself from the people living there in the name of safety.

As a young adult male, I know that I have less to worry about as far as safety concerns, and I had no problem walking the streets after 10pm for curiosity sake. I made eye contact as I normally would. A few times it invited panhandling, a few times it even invited a smile as a response, but it never invited any kind of illicit activity. That's one safety suggestion that I was more than glad to disregard.

   [ posted by William @ 3:07 PM ]