The criminality increase around Puerto Plata ?

[diego200]

For a few months, I have the feeling that the criminality increase in the Puerto Plata area (including Sosua and Cabarete).

Is-it just because people post more often on the forum than before ?

I would like to know what are thinking the people who are living in this area for a long time. Do you feel less safe than you did ? Did you change things in your way of life to avoid troubles ? Do you plan to leave the country ?

I'm a bit worry, because in january/february I will come to live in Sosua, with my wife and daughter...

 

[HOWMAR]

Not much different than when you asked back in January.
http://www.dr1.com/forums/living/47124-safe-place-my-familly.html#post365345
The expats were then, and still are targets of crime, some very violent crimes. You have to make a decision as to what your acceptable level of risk taking is, and are you prepared to assume those risks for your wife and child. Personal security measures are a deterrent but not foolproof. I live here and willingly assume the risks for myself, but would be hesitant to expose my family to the same risks.

 

[Werner]

I live in Cabarete for almost 2 years now. What really scares me is the violence back home in Holland. People get a gun on there head for a mobile phone, get robbed in the bus while the bus is full. Al kinds of strainge things.
Here I know there is a risk so I am prepaired. Cant say the same from my family in Holland.

If your worried, read your local newspaper and pay attention to the little stories about robberies. You would be surprised how much you filter out after the years just because you cant be bothered anymore.

 

[Rick Snyder]

Diego200,

Having a few years under my belt and having lived here for the last 10 of those years I can admit that crime has increased here. It must also be noted that with every place that I have lived I have noticed an increase in crime as time passes.

As crime increases it is inevitable that more foreigners, tourists, will be victims as they are a part of the makeup of this country. At the same time that these crimes against foreigners occur the media will in a sense sensationalize their reporting on these specific crimes due to the fact that they are not an everyday occurrence like the crimes that get perpetrated against Dominicans day in and day out.

I have been very fortunate in the fact that I haven't been a victim of a crime here but at the same time I always use the same precautions here to ward off crime that I would and did use in every place that I have lived including the USA.

Use the senses you have been taught and don't let your guard down just because you are in a different and new country and you should be okay. I honestly don't believe you will be more secepitible to crime here then you are where you presently are.

Rick

 

[beasley]

What about the college girl who was just killed in a small town in Vermont? She travelled to many places in the world,never having any problems. Then, she goes back to college and randomly gets murdered.

 

[beasley]

Do yourself a favor and tune out of the TV before going on a trip.

 

[mountainfrog]

Tip of an Iceberg?

....At the same time that these crimes against foreigners occur the media will in a sense sensationalize their reporting on these specific crimes due to the fact that they are not an everyday occurrence like the crimes that get perpetrated against Dominicans day in and day out.

The opposite is the case.

Many crimes against foreigners and tourists are not reported at all, because...
- the press in this country is not as free as one may believe it is;
- incidents in far off places (where, however, tourism is found) do not reach the news, because the media do not have staff there and the authorities tend to present a 'todo abajo control' picture;
- petty crime is underestimated because the police would not even accept a 'denuncio';
- crimes in which police officers take part are covered up.

m'frog

 

[HOWMAR]

. I honestly don't believe you will be more susceptible to crime here then you are where you presently are.

Rick

I doubt that. Ask a group of middle-aged suburbanites in the US if they have been victims of crime and I am sure only a few will respond in the affirmative. Ask a group of longterm expats here in the DR, and I believe the majority have been a victim of at least petty crime, and some even worse.

 

[juancarlos]

I live in Cabarete for almost 2 years now. What really scares me is the violence back home in Holland. People get a gun on there head for a mobile phone, get robbed in the bus while the bus is full. Al kinds of strainge things.
Here I know there is a risk so I am prepaired. Cant say the same from my family in Holland.

If your worried, read your local newspaper and pay attention to the little stories about robberies. You would be surprised how much you filter out after the years just because you cant be bothered anymore.

Holland? That's a shocker! I thought Holland had next to nothing crime. I never imagined that situation there, and I am not being sarcastic.

 

[Rick Snyder]

If anyone is looking for an arguement from me you are wasting your time as this isn't one of the debating threads.

The OP asked for some information and I offered my opinion and what I interpret the situation to be.

When you use a quote by me and you address said quote without using the name of the OP then I assume you are talking to me. If I am wrong in my assumption then I apologize beforehand.

I do however stand behind those things I have stated and as they are my opinions and I will not debate them.

Rick

 

[mountainfrog]

Helping View?

...those things I have stated ... are my opinions and I will not debate them.

Anybody is entitled to his/her opinion.
Mine was aired in contrast to yours because my experience backs it.
Yours is respected.
The OP can now decide whether my view adds to find the truth to his question or dismiss it as nonsense.

m'frog

 

[HOWMAR]

Rick,
If you are referring to my post, no I wasn't talking to you, I was talking to the OP and stating that I had an opinion that differed from yours. As you are usually quite hyperpolysyllabicsesquipedalianic in your posts, you should realize that a forum, which this is, is a medium for open discusion of opinions.

 

[Werner]

Holland? That's a shocker! I thought Holland had next to nothing crime. I never imagined that situation there, and I am not being sarcastic.

Yep, Holland as well. But also in Norway, my second "home" country the crime is going the wrong way.

Most scary is that the level of "useless" violency goes higher and higher. Of course, violence is always useless but the violence related to nothing. People getting beaten up for nothing, not even robbed, just beaten up on the street because.
Thats the part of society that really freaks me out.

 

[MerengueDutchie]

I live in Cabarete for almost 2 years now. What really scares me is the violence back home in Holland. People get a gun on there head for a mobile phone, get robbed in the bus while the bus is full. Al kinds of strainge things.
Here I know there is a risk so I am prepaired. Cant say the same from my family in Holland.

If your worried, read your local newspaper and pay attention to the little stories about robberies. You would be surprised how much you filter out after the years just because you cant be bothered anymore.

Werner,

Can you be more specific? I am from Holland, live in a big city, use public transport a lot, use my bike a lot and have very little personal experience with the things you describe.

Also please bear in mind that the crime in Holland gets publicised while I am not soo sure about the crime in the DR..

Regards,

MD

 

[MrMike]

Yeah I heard crime was a major problem in Holland, damn hippies smoking pot all over the place and prostitutes everywhere.

 

[Werner]

The crime here might not be publices but those who live her know what happens and to who. Its a small communitie after all.

I hope you will never get personal experience with this form of violence. However, there has been some big well known cases of this form of crime.
Meindert Tjoelker, Kerwin Duinmeijer en Joes Kloppenburg are just 3 of the bigger cases that came in the news.

Since your dutch, check out Zinloos geweld - Wikipedia. For the people among us that dont speak Dutch, do a search on "random violence" as they call it in the US or the UK.

In general I am not scared. I'm 6.3 and not somebody you want to get in problems with on first seight. The amount of little kids carrying guns however is going a little bit to high these days to feel totally safe on the streets. Specially at night. And since I am a dj by profession thats the time I am out and about.

What city do you live in by the way? I am from Rotterdam.

 

[Werner]

Yeah I heard crime was a major problem in Holland, damn hippies smoking pot all over the place and prostitutes everywhere.

I dont know if you remember the football championships in Holland and Belgium a few years ago. There were many fights in Belgium between the different holigans. In Holland nothing happend. After the games the governments decided to do research why nothing happend in Holland but everything went wrong in Belgium.
Conclusion after a few million spending on research: the holigans in Holland were amazed by the coffeeshops and the legal pot. They were to stoned to fight.

Prostitution? Nothing compared to Sosua.

 

[NALs]

My 2 cheles, I mean centavos....

Crime has increased in the DR, it has also fallen in the last couple of years, but its not as low as it used to be before the original crime wave which hit the country earlier this decade.

Having said that, I do wonder to what extent does the constant mingling between expat and lower class locals lead to crimes of robbery and/or opportunity.

While in the US, for example, many suburban people don't really venture to poorer areas to mingle with their poor American counterparts. Everybody pretty much sticks to their parts of town and lives their life among people of equal or higher social status or class.

While in the big cities across the U.S. crime is rather high for the most part, that is mostly due to the constant mixing of lower class and upper classes and the sheer contrast in lifestyle between the two would cause plenty of opportunity for crimes of opportunities.

It's readily understood that many, if not most expats not only mingle with lower class Dominicans and foreigners in the DR, but they also seek the lower class for other desires (ie. prostitution, cheap construction labor, etc).

One does have to wonder what effect such contact between disparate class levels and lifestyles might be affecting the crime against expats in places like Puerto Plata and elsewhere.

-NALs

 

[Robert]

NAL's, I thought your post was spot on!

I just posted in another thread how most foreginers here move in very low socio-economic cirlcles and that certaintly doesn't help the crime rate against them.

http://www.dr1.com/forums/445793-post300.html

 

[canadian bob]

The "lower class"Dominicans steal from each other regularly, at every opportunity. Stealing from "strangers" is just as opportunistic. Stealing is a way of life here and there has always been some violence, but the repatriated criminals from the USA and drugs have helped to kick it up a notch. The pathetic judicial system encourages robberies from Tourists etc as charges are rarely laid. If the Tourist is only here for a week, it just doesn't happen. The thieves are well enough informed that robberies often occur just before a Tourist is due to leave.
We all know it is a case of "watch your own back" down here as we do at "home". But still we do remain as we love the sun.... and the rum!....and (most of) the people. Have a safe day! Canadian Bob.