In my opinion, the most serious crime a gringo may face in the city is a "fast-food kidnapping." This type of kidnapping occurs when you take a street cab. Once inside, the cabbie will drive you a few blocks, stop and pick up two or three armed men who then escort you from ATM to ATM to withdraw cash and possibly hold you overnight to keep playing the same game the next morning. Jewelry, cameras and other valuables (such as my acquaintance's computer, which was stolen at gunpoint after he hailed a street cab a few weeks ago) are also fair game.
While unpleasant, this process is not usually violent. Also, it seems to me that once aware of the danger, one can avoid this unfortunate adventure by not carrying around ATM cards and/or taking official cabs. Literature on the subject also suggests the number of street cab robberies has gone down. Hearsay in general indicates that the city is a much safer, more pleasant place than it was a decade ago.
Ah, but still. My American countrymen are, for the most part, wary of Mexico though according to a recent article in Reuters:
"The most common crime suffered by tourists in Mexico is robbery, while deaths are more likely to be attributed to a heart attack, drowning or falls from balconies."
Aiming for swimming pools from balconies can be tricky business when you have consumed a whole bottle of tequila in 5 minutes. Not having a heart attack on the way down is another battle, and even if you make it, you still have to worry about the whole drowning thing. As for robbery (or what I would call petty muggings), it is a potential problem but mainly in dodgy areas. Plus, this type of crime is endemic to urbanity, not Mexico City. Sure, you may also be robbed in any part of Mexico, especially tourist destinations, though I have yet to have this problem nor have I encountered others who have been robbed blind the second they enter, say, Acapulco. This again, is true anywhere the gringo goes. While I have not been robbed in Mexico, I did have have my phone pick pocketed in Rome. This turned out to be unfortunate, indeed, as the bloody thing was never properly replaced, and I put myself at the mercy of abandoned phones, mostly heavy square shapes from the 90's.
I have had my fair share of assaults and attempted/successful robberies in both Atlanta and Mexico. In the case of the former, they were almost always home invasions (why hello there man breaking into my bedroom window, front door, back door, car door....) In the latter case, they have always been on foot. Rather than robberies, Texcoco was home to all different flavors of assaults, including a particularly nasty broken nose. It was not even my nose. Walking home from Doppler my friend and I took note of a few teenagers lingering in the beerlight. One walked over to us and punched my buddy in the nose without saying a word. I had no idea how much blood resulted from a broken nose. His white shirt soon turned red and the sleeves of my cardigan dripped the warm liquid as I held them against his nose. Blood covered and still trying to make sense of the random violence, I fell asleep on a hospital bench.
My only tale from Mexico city is of an "almost" robbery at knife point. It was my first solo visit to the daunting metro Insurgentes, with its 6 or so exists, and decided to just "go for it," (this exist looks good enough, right?) The passage was empty (which I later read in Lonely Planet means pick again) save one young man walking in front of me. He gave me a bad feeling, "the willies" I told one friend, but I wrote it off to paranoia up until he grabbed me, said something in Spanish and showed me what I assumed to be a knife. The ninja that I am, I yelped like a dog, which came out quite operatic, and jumped/fell away from him, landing on my bag, and effectively squishing a banana. It must have been the banana but whatever I did worked because he ran away. Witnesses helped me up and handed me my red scarf that I had unintentionally left behind in my scramble to escape the almost crime scene.
More recently, my stories are more of amazement at the lack of danger I have faced considering my behavior. For better or for worse, I have been coming home quite late in the night. The first time I was out past my bedtime, I had to take the last metro car operating. Coming from a concert in Lunario, I had to make a change at Tacubaya to get onto the pink line. When the doors opened, everyone on the train started running. I joined in. It was thrilling. Mothers holding children, men in suits clutching their briefcases and other concert goers all dashed through the underground tunnels hoping to avoid the extra fare (and maybe danger?) that missing the train would induce.
The next week/concert, I walked from Roma Norte, down Orizaba, to Insurgentes and along Liverpool, during which I was met by three groups of people:
1. Drunk kids peeing on the street
2. Middle aged bar goers
3. Old couples walking their dogs...at 3 a.m.
Yet another time, my friend Luna and I walked from the Centro Historico to my apartment at 2 a.m., and I was, again, amazed at how safe I felt. I mentioned this emotion to her and then pointed to a nearby, posh-looking historic building crawling with people in suits and ties. "See Luna. Mira! It is safe! Those are respectable people awake and socializing this late." She pointed out that the building was a funeral home...
Not convinced about the safety of Mexico City? You can visit a shop in Calle Hamburgo were you can buy lip stick knives, pepper spray filled pens and other goodies for the paranoid/cautious at heart.
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