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I went to Amsterdam last year when I was 17 and I clearly remember leaving my hostel "The Flying Pig" and walking around the RLD and Centrum at 3 in the morning, I was wearing dress pants a polo and I had my money pouch slung across my shoulder. Walked by plenty of shady characters and was not bothered once and if I had been it wouldve been unfortunate for the person that did because ive been training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Muay Thai and Boxing for over 3 years now and they wouldnt of know what happened hahaha

Nickaveli wrote:Feel fine there apart from in the RLD at night, but even then it's still not the worst of places. If I do start to feel unsafe it's usually down to whatever I've smoked rather than the place lol

I was thinking the same thing. Weed makes one very paranoid.

I find a simple rule of thumb when travelling abroad is, if i can see any Japanese tourists, then i know i'm safe. And there are plenty of groups of tourists from all over the world taking in the sights in the RLD until late in the evening.
As has been mentioned earlier in this thread, if you venture down a dark alley alone then you need to keep your wits about you, which might be somewhat diminished considering where you are to start with. But i've never know anyone be attacked or mugged in central Amsterdam, anytime anyplace, in over 3 decades.
However i have heard of a suburb in South East Amsterdam which is best avoided at night but i think it's quite a way out of town and you would need to be really lost to find yourself there

Although I've run into some pretty dodgy characters in the RLD, this area is FAR safer than any ghetto in a major US city. Someone may hassle you (a bit) or try to pick your pocket (biggest Euro travel book myth), but they won't shoot you...anything other than that is likely to be just a good story when you get home anyway. Go wherever you damn well please in the 'dam.

I feel safer in the Dam than the UK

same here lampshade

Its MUCH safer in the Dam than it is in the US cities I live near
I have never had to dodge gun fire there
I did have someone try to pickpocket me once and if I had been carrying ANYTHING in my back pocket it would have been gone.
(The guy was FAST)

Once at 2AM I was in Dam Square by myself and a street dealer came up to me saying "Cocaine Extacy Viarga ?" I said "no" and a cop appeared out of NO WHERE and chased the guy down the street
I dont know if he ever caught him or not
But it was nice to see him or the guy would have hassled me more

Its SO Nice when you are happy to see police
They are there to "Protect and Serve"

lampshade wrote:I feel safer in the Dam than the UK

2 right

I too feel safer in Dam than the UK, reason being over there the police are your friends, over here thanks to the fucked up laws, police are the enemy!

2 months ago me and my two mates were in the dam , we wer all 17 and on the second last day of a week we we were walking through the rld at half 12 in the afternoon and my mate got robbed by a crackhead with a knife , we kept telling him to fuck off but he jus wouldnt stop then a nice homeless bloke called hugo helped us and got him away he snatched 50 quid on me mate in the end but he looked at it and said "no i want everything " and tried to grab him again but the homeless guy got him away and we went down into a tattoo parlour and the homeless guy came back in and said we wer lucky he was there and that he really wanted to stab my mate , he said he probably would have brought him into a bogey window stripped um , raped um and took everything he had was a bad buzz would recommend havin a flick out bat or sometin on ya just incase !

AmDamMan wrote:I too feel safer in Dam than the UK, reason being over there the police are your friends, over here thanks to the fucked up laws, police are the enemy!

Dangerous attitude.

If you talk to alot of police they dont like to follow up cannabis, in fact, recommendations from the head of police was to keep it as a Class C substance during the upgrade.

Sir Niall of Essex-sire wrote:
Dangerous attitude.

If you talk to alot of police they dont like to follow up cannabis, in fact, recommendations from the head of police was to keep it as a Class C substance during the upgrade.

Thats why i said, due to the fucked up laws. I know the police are only doing what is their job and understand that, but obviously the old bill in your neck of the woods are different to the ones i've had dealings with. Cannabis is certainly a priority in my region.

since mugabe brown had the law changed,the police has been very self righteous and over zelous for busting weed in this area.....trolling around the smoking areas outside bars and clubs,sniffing discarded roll ups and searching people

AmDamMan wrote:
Thats why i said, due to the fucked up laws. I know the police are only doing what is their job and understand that, but obviously the old bill in your neck of the woods are different to the ones i've had dealings with. Cannabis is certainly a priority in my region.

Im not saying the old bill are easy round where i am at all, in fact i live in a town where they train wanabe police, so cannabis is an easy nick for them. What im saying is that the more the whole police is the enemy attitude is shouted by people acting on their first emotion when thinking of the old bill, the more damage it will do to our cause. If you think old bill are stupid, your stupid, they know the bullshit of nicking people like me and you, more than me or you realise. They will give a hard time to people who are asking for it imo, if you smoke in your house, or in a chilled out space, you usually dont get too much issues. If we show the old bill that cannabis users are peaceful and dont want to start a fight with them, they will be on our side, and afterall having the old bill on your side when the legalisation debate eventually takes place will be a HUGE advantage.

I have worked in the security profession (both retail guarding and doorman) and it boggles my mind that the police will happily allow smackheads and violent drunk people to go about their business with a 'verbal warning' because they can't be bothered with the paperwork. However, on the 2 occasions i've been on the wrong side of them they've been happy to waste plenty of time filling out a cannabis warning form. Now, if i get caught again with the tiniest amount of weed I go straight to court. Other than the 2 recent warnings i have a completely clean criminal record and have in fact helped the police on many occasions.
One of the major problems is they are taking on too many young recruits who are doing the job because it gives them the chance to feel important and strut about feeling special. They have no life experience and no common sense, all they know is what they've been taught.