Quote:
Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame
Dangerous is a relative word. 99% of them will not come after you and try to assault or stab you. Ask any emergency room psychiatrist or street team volunteer in across many cities, and them violently attacking is very much an exception to the rule.
To conflate things like talking to themselves, shouting, making a mess and erratic behavior with actual propensity to commit random violence is one reason why stigma exists against drug addicts. I'm not saying its impossible, but violently attacking random people - without provoking it - is improbable.
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I've had a lot of experience walking through the DTES, but a better example is a good friend of mine who runs the main needle exchange in town. Out of the tens of thousands of interactions that she has with residents, she has had one encounter where police had to intervene. That's got to be an order of magnitude less than what a bartender has to deal with on an average Friday night.