Peter wrote:
Surely police always shoot at somebody attempting to escape?
Good heavens, no, they don’t. Not in our corners of Europe. The USA has that reputation, but I expect that “here”, Police has to account for each shot, and they need a good reason. They might (would?) shoot at a multi-recidivist murderer escaped from prison trying to escape recapture, but not at a petty thief running away from arrest. The damage inflicted to the escaping person would far outweigh the benefit of the arrest to society!
I come across such maps with irritating regularity. Most of them are purely political b.s. and do not reflect the situation represetative for a whole country, at least in the lower grades such as green and yellow. And in any case, for GA and for operating GA, they are hardly relevant at all on the aviation side of things, but primarily on what happens if you travel outside the airports.
Clearly, there are places where you should not venture almost everywhere in the world, including “green” countries such as Switzerland. However, conditions in places like certain quarters of big cities where nobody ventures without protection will push up the danger level for a whole country and that is totally wrong. As LeSving points out, Sweden may have gotten the yellow sticker for one or two cities, but for the rest it is as safe as it gets if you leave the confines of your own bed. Same goes for most other yellow labled places.
Best protection is to read the news and keep yourself informed where the trouble spots are and stay away from those, otherwise in terms of aviation, bad infrastructure such as foxholes in taxiways, bad fuel, bad ATC and overzealous authorities are the much worse dangers to us than some quarters of the cities you may venture into.
And btw, yea, if the US deems fit to issue a CYA warning for Germany, most of their cities should be red. But they are not, maybe because other security specialists are less panic prone than the US or rather have fewer lawyers to fear. Yes there are places in Berlin, Munich and many otehr places where one should be careful, but heavens… nothing compared to some slum areas in NY or Chicago…
Mooney_Driver wrote:
if the US deems fit to issue a CYA warning for Germany, most of their cities should be red. But they are not, maybe because other security specialists are less panic prone than the US or rather have fewer lawyers to fear.
Obviously the US State Department does not generate this data for US cities, even if the US is a much more diverse place for a foreigner than (for example) most European countries. The main purpose of the State Department data is to provide an automated brief for Americans required by law to get one for every country visited, typically as an indirect job requirement, including places they may have visited many times with great familiarity and those with which they may have no prior knowledge. After reading a number of them and comparing them with your own direct experiences you realize the tone is neutral, anything of the slightest potential interest is noted, and the baseline for receiving no comment is zero point zero risk. They’re fine when viewed as such.
