If there was any question about the notion that the United States is a dangerous place look no further than what I consider to be one of the most unfriendly and dangerous cities in the Union: Philadelphia. I have only been to this city a couple of times, a city that ironically calls itself the "city of brotherly love," and even though this was a long time ago, back then there was a curfew that included the entire downtown area and no one was allowed on the streets after a certain hour at night.
This sounds like infringing on a person's right and it is, but at the same time the city, even 30 years ago, realizes that their population are wild and have to be controlled by force. I was just a tourist but even 30 years ago I have to admit that this was the first time in my life that I had seen so many armed guards around every corner.
I haven't thought much about Philly in a while since well, I don't really follow sports and would never go there again because once you've seen the historical monuments there isn't much reason to go there again but crime is high there, one of the highest in the nation, and it has been that way my entire life.
Recently, business owners have started taking the security of their customers into their own hands by hiring off-duty police or ex-military to patrol the exterior of their buildings. What buildings you ask? Are they banks? Government buildings? some VIP mansion? Nah dude, it's a sandwich shop.
I will admit that although a great deal of my memories of being in Philly have been washed away by the sands of time, I do recall how amazing the Philly Cheesesteaks were. The combination of flavors with just the right kind of bread is something that has to be tried to be believed and it is so good that the residents flock to this one iconic establishment and form a line down the block. Due to fear of crime in the area (an area that I will admit i never visited and know nothing about) the owner of the place felt the need to hire heavily armed security for those waiting outside.
For the most part this has been well-received by the local residents with only a few people complaining about it. One guy says something along the lines of "I don't like guns, but if it makes it safer then I guess I'm for it."
I don't understand that legality of this all but they must be allowed to do it. I don't know what sort of legal situation these security staff would find themselves in if they actually did fire at anyone but I would imagine that it would have to be something very specific for them to not get in a lot of trouble over it. This may be a side-effect of the anti-police sentiment that hit its peak a few years back when it seemed to be a national sport to just wreck stuff and the police had to stand by and just let it happen. That's an entirely different debate though, and I have no interest in revisiting that.
The end result here is that this is not actually dumb news. The reports I saw on the situation were not offering their opinion and didn't try to make some sort of slant about it being pro or anti-gun. They were simply presenting what they saw in front of them and did actual reporting - which is oh so rare these days.
This isn't the first place to do this in Philadelphia either. There are several gas stations that have heavily armed guards posted outside at all times after it became a trend of sorts to rob motorists that were filling up their cars with gas.
I just think it is a bit tragic that something like this has become necessary in the one country that loves to say that the citizenry are "safe." I think that there are likely very few countries in the world whose large cities are actually less safe than some of the ones in USA. No offense to Americans of course, I am one of you after all.
I guess I just remember having a lot more of that "freedom" that politicians like to talk about so much when I was a kid. Myself and my friends would routinely just wander wherever without any fear of anything bad happening to us and I think I only saw a gun that wasn't on TV a couple of times in my youth. I think that this is going to become increasingly the norm in USA as it seems you can't really do anything, not even go get a sub sandwich, without needing someone there to protect you. Land of the free indeed.
What I'd like to see is for the USA government and media to stop pointing the finger at other nations when we find it necessary to have these sorts of things in our own cities at the same time.
