celle

I already stated that I did nothing to provoke the incident. The policewoman indicated for me to roll down the window. I did exactly that and no more.
Don't try to place any blame on me.

I have visited the US many times. I am aware of the gun culture, but this woman's action was over the top.

BRITINJAPAN3

British, married 18 years to a japanese, 15 of them living in Japan, never, ever an issue, in the cities or countryside !

BRITINJAPAN3

What ! The Thai people are renowned for their gentle kind ways, 90% buddist and not just in name !!

1010101

As long as your wallet remains full and open I would agree.

DeepUnderground

offtopic, nevermind

Zephyrous

I never had a situation where I felt that my life is directly in danger, however the following places had an uneasy feel:

- Hearing shots fired outside where we were staying in Tegucigalpa
- East St. Louis, IL
- Crazy cab driver in Cairo (seems to be a pattern)
- Finding myself "lost" in dodgy (?) part of Cape Town
- Male, Maldives (as a gay Jew seeing the proud display of Nazi flags out in the open was scary and the place had a sinister atmosphere)


Did not feel the least bit scared in Iran.

invisible

It was an innocent question to understand surroundings of the the event. If you are reacting to questions in real life the same as here, no wonder that cop pointed the gun to you. Say thank you that you did not get shot.

invisible

celle

If you had read my post properly in the first place, you would not have had to ask your question, which I now quote:
"Did you try to open door/move? Or did you try to reach glovebox? You can get shot by doing that. Sorry if you don't know the realities of US, but some people keep loaded gun in glovebox."

While the first three questions are innocent enough, your last sentence was patronizing and appeared to be attempting to blame me for the policewoman's action.

I'm an experienced traveller, having been to 69 countries, and the USA is the only country in which people seem to find it acceptable to have a gun pulled on them for no reason at all.

I have felt more safe in China, S. Korea, Viet Nam, Cambodia and several countries in South America than I felt in San Francisco on that day.

Just FYI - We received an apology from the policewoman's Commanding Officer for her action. He agreed that it was unjustified. She was new and "jumpy." That would have been poor consolation, if she had shot me.

txviking

The US isn't as bad as its reputation, in spite of all the guns. When I was a teenager and wanted to be an exchange student, my parents were reluctant to let me travel here because "it was such a violent place". Since then, I've lived here close to half my life without getting shot at (knock on wood.)

That said, I have had a few uncomfortable experiences in the US (Oakland and Los Angeles, CA; Washington, DC; Miami and Belle Glade, FL come to mind.) Nothing really happened in any of those places, other than a foreboding sense of being in a bad neighborhood and wanting to get out of there. It's very odd in the US how you can go from a good neighborhood to a bad one literally in the space of a city block.

In the UK, a local pickpocket started following a friend and me around in Marylebone in London. He was incredibly conspicuous and probably high on something, so it was equal parts unnerving and comical (in a "I can't believe that really happened" kind of way.)

In Prague, the only thing I encountered that was dangerous was a suicidal taxi driver, but I did get a general sense that foreigners weren't welcome.

And of course, there are a number of other countries where people aren't malicious per se, but take a devil-may-care approach to traffic safety. Countries that come to mind here are Thailand, Costa Rica and Poland.

txviking

One more comment on gun crime in the US: The indirect stuff can be unnerving. Like when someone you know, even casually, becomes a victim of gun crime, it does remove that false sense of safety that says that stuff only happens to criminals/gangbangers/other people. Some other experiences that have given me pause include hearing reports on the radio of an active shooter in the same traffic jam you're stuck in (happened to me on the I-405 in Los Angeles,) having your commute blocked because of a shooting (Beeline Highway, Florida) or finding bullet holes in the building when looking for an apartment (Riverside area of Austin, Texas.)

wolf72

I get very scared visiting the USA.

The whole experience of going through immigration, then customs and the searching of bags and questions of why are you here, who are you here to see...etc etc...it's the most unwelcoming welcome anyone can experience anywhere in the world, canada and australia aside.

And then your scared of being mugged or shot during a robbery....

A scary place. Many other places in the world to visit which don't stress me anywhere as much.

CX HK

To be honest, this behavior is (to a certain extent) a result of combating boisterous, disruptive, and downright offensive expat tourists in Thailand. Cue a well-known video of a large British man trying to start a fight with everyone in a bar, only to get "ganged" upon by locals.

wolf72

Seen the sort all over the place..in KL, Singapore, Bali, Jakarta, Delhi and even strangely in Urumqi, China of all places. You can't stop it but you can deplore it.

Pretty sure it happens more often in HK, Thailand and Singapore where a bigger presence of undesriables exist as far as expats go...

eigenvector

Not sure what an expat tourist is, an expat is someone who lives abroad and a tourist is a temporary visitor. But there are boorish examples of both in Thailand. Many Europeans see the country as a giant nightclub for their pleasure.