[cemerick]

That's great; in general, people should be, and I'm not looking down on them for doing so.

However, property crime is absolutely irrelevant when presented with the news of someone's murder, yet so many people here are quick to conflate them as somehow equivalent vis a vis personal safety, etc.

(Sidenote: I personally don't understand anyone thinking that property crime is "scary". Your car is not your kid. Your wallet is not your body. Your house is not your family. These things are not in the same class, and a loss in one category is not the same as a loss in the other. I'm not sure how one could argue otherwise, but it's apparently a widely-held worldview.)

[vkou]

A burglary is much scarier than someone stealing shit from your car, because someone invaded your living space in the latter. It's a much more serious invasion of your privacy than a broken window smash and grab.

The point I made in the sibling point stands, though. At 55th in the nation, SF does not have a high burglary rate. It has a high larceny (stealing from stores, cars, etc) rate.

[cemerick]

I'm not comparing e.g. burglaries to car thefts, but the category of property crimes to the category of violent crimes. The former range from unfortunate nuisances to unpleasant material losses (depending on how well you've scoped your insurances); the latter can be life-shattering tragedies.

[Vervious]

Btw, I think technically if the car is locked, it's also classified as a burglary

[DharmaPolice]

People (on the whole) aren't afraid of losing stuff. They're afraid of someone coming into their home or grabbing them on the street and things going south. If you somehow had a device which 100% guaranteed your personal safety (but somehow still allowed theft) then (for most people) most of these crimes would merely be an inconvenience/irritation on the same level as low level credit card fraud (where you lose no money but have to get a new card).

[Jackpillar]

"They're afraid of someone coming into their home or grabbing them on the street and things going south"

Luckily, this isn't a real thing that happens.

[cemerick]

Your "legitimate question" is insulting to me and to those who actually are autistic. Everyone on HN is so nice.

No, I don't think being pickpocketed (or having my car stolen or whatever) is "equally as scary" as if my daughter were assaulted or kidnapped. I'd be ashamed to think they're equivalent, lest my daughter believe I view her as valuable as a hunk of steel or a wad of cash.

> Property crimes lead to a generally dangerous living area and people don't like to live in dangerous areas because it necessarily leads to more violent crime.

This is deeply incorrect. As has been repeated and cited over and over, violent crime in e.g. SF is not particularly high (lower than most other US cities), while its property crime rate is outrageously high.

[dang]

You've unfortunately been crossing into personal attack and name-calling repeatedly in your HN posts, as well as breaking the site guidelines in other ways. We ban accounts that do this kind of thing, so could you please stop?

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.