Is Poland an unsafe country?

I wrote about this issue yesterday night, after I arrived home; and I think it is a very important topic for every person who is going to stay in Poland during some weeks or months so it would be a good idea to translate my article to English too.

The point is that in my opinion, security is a main issue to talk about, and for this reason, I would like to analyse it, firstly in Poland and then in my city this year, Łódź, as you know.

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First of all, people say that Łódź is one of the safest cities in Poland, so if you know this, you can imagine, along with my comments about Łódź, the security level in the country. So, I'm going to start talking about Poland in general and then, about my case in Łódź.

According to the "Global Peace Index" in 2012, Poland is the 24th safest country in the world, where we can see other countries as Spain (number 25), France (number 40), Netherlands (number 28) and England (number 29). I am not sure what the index focuses on, and for this reason, I have found some data to show you that not always rankings show the reality. For example, I'm going to compare Poland and Spain, which are respectively, as I mentioned, 24 and 25 in the "Global Peace Index".

Average number of homicides per one hundred thousands habitants (data taken from reports of the EU, from two thousand and six to two thousand and ten): Poland 1. 29 vs Spain 1. 02

Fatalities in road accidents per million habitants, with data from two thousand and eight to two thousand and ten: Poland 143 (the second highest data after Lithuania) vs Spain 68.

Population in prison per one hundred thousand habitants from two thousand and six to two thousand and ten: Poland 229 vs Spain 153.

Well, those are a few statistics that I found surfing the Internet, but they are only statistics.

What is the reality then?

On the one hand, in the case of Łódź, I have to say that it is difficult not to see a fight during the day, so you will see one fight about 80% of days. For example, a few days ago, I was going to class and I saw two Polish people getting out their car and started punching each other until one of them fell to the ground. The thinnest man was bleeding, but the fattest one went on hitting him. It was absolutely brutal, so when this kind of things happen nearly everyday, you should think about security.

I have seen many fights in discos (not only in Łódź, because I've travelled to other cities such as Warsaw and Krakow, and there was no day that I wouldn't see any fight, even three fights in one night in the same disco in Krakow), also at night near to clubs, at the queues while we were waiting to enter somewhere, at the entrance of the university, at the main street, etc. And the truth is that it is not very nice to see. There is always a common detail in every fight: one of them is thin, and the other one is strong but also fat, and always wins this last one.

The problem is that these fights in Poland are inconceivable for most of us because in the last example, walking to class, the thinner man couldn't defend himself, while the other one, the fatter boy, punched his face, until he fell to the ground because he could not resist anymore. On the other hand, one of the Krakow fights was terrible for a very young boy because the bigger one (the bigger one always win) wouldn't stop hitting him, even when the thinner man was on the ground, the bigger boy kicked him in his mouth, and then punched him like a hammer.

The worst thing is that fights can start for any stupid reason: for overtaking a car, for not respecting a queue, or also for unfortunately hitting somebody while dancing. I think that any excuse is good when you are not happy with yourself. It's embarrassing to meet these people at the street, and it is shameful that there is a very large number of them.

There have been many Erasmus students who have suffered something like that, usually at the main street and usually with the same condition: at night and while they were alone. Some of them were not lucky because they were also robbed. Others were just robbed (I don't know what is worse: if a man hit you 4-5 punches or if a man steals your monthly money). The thing that enrages me the most is not the fact that they hit you for no reason, is that they are always in groups and they just hit an only person alone. Definitively, this kind of people are cowards.

There is a good point in the story though, which is that Łódź Widzew in 2010/2011 season went up to first division, while LKS Lodz, in 2011/12, went down to second division, so there was a lower number of football team fans and therefore fewer hooligans and more safety. The point is that the confrontation between these two teams is excessive, and, in words of some Polish people, if one LKS Lodz supporter saw any Widzew Łódź supporter, they would just go and hit them without thinking about it. It doesn't matter if you haven't said anything, if you are supporter of the other team, there is enough reason to fight. Experts say that Polish hooligans are one of the most dangerous fans in the world, so... be careful if you go to a football pitch. Fires are very common and even there are areas where weapons are allowed. Moreover, Polish people told me that, years ago, women used to go through the streets afraid, because hooligans did not care about the gender; if you're a fan from the other team, nobody cares if you are male or female. Of course, time changes, and, of course, everything goes better and things have calmed down.

Although there are still those typical bad-looking boys wearing tracksuit that we have heard about and it´s always important that you are careful. They do not speak, they simply act! They prefer to act than say words and if any of them comes to you (usually with black sweatpants, white socks and shaved), the best option is running away, because if you don´t do this, the usual consequence is that you take a "corrective". No words or reasons are useful, if they just decide that you are the victim, bad luck.

On the other hand, there is a kind of fight called "ustawka" which takes place on the outskirts of the city and the people are involved through SMS, or Internet messages. Hundreds of people meet to hit each other (it's a very stupid thing, in my opinion). There are several examples of this kind of fight on YouTube (you can find it writing "ustawka"). But the problem is not as simple as saying hooligans and supporters are crazy; the key is that the media also acts wrong with provocative news. For example, I remember one that took place while the European Championship. Poland had to play versus Germany (Germany won 2-0, both goals of a Polish nationalized German, Podolski). The day before, the Polish coach was shown cutting off the heads of the German captain and coach on the media. And, of course, when they lose, Polish fans went to the German embassy to burn it (all prevented by the police).

In conclusion: I've never felt insecure in Spain so far, but in Poland there are several times you should be extremely careful, looking around for everything, to control the situation. So, although "Global peace index" says that Spain is the number 25 in security and Poland is number 24, in my opinion, Poland is more insecure than the typical Spanish city. But we don't have to be afraid of walking around its streets. Poland in general is a secure country and we shouldn't panic.

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