I forget exactly, I spent a bit of time there -- from what my host told me it was on the other side of the railroad tracks or something where all the black people were segregated (at the time we were the only 2 white kids on the street - his house was broken in 3 times etc.).

This was about 7 years ago. Was robbed downtown Boston, downtown San Diego someone tried to steal my bike (not really sure what they were doing but they broke off bunch off stuff), in Raleigh was stranded after moto broke down, 6 cops showed up while I was fixing it (minor repairs but they still stood around me for an hour running a background check on me and a cs friend whom I immediately called because yeah.. middle of night in Raleigh.. one of them even said they couldn't help me because I had a dangerous instrument in my hands - scissors).

List is pretty endless but it ultimately comes down to price. In Mexico, I got wasted and pissed on the street - bribe fine was 20 bucks (all I had on me), same when my passengers didn't have helmets etc. You get fucked over but it's for very little - whereas in US, every time I ran into cops (repairs, out of gas, them randomly walking up to me because I was in a 'nice' neighborhood drinking coffee) I was immediately thinking how much I have left in my emergency fund and calling friends asap. Eventually, I had to burn through about 10 grand as I said because of a clerical error (won't bother going into it, it's in my history somewhere).

The other month in TJ, I had assholes called the cops to get my bike towed (citation was vehicular abandonment while I was at a bar) and after all the 'fines' and negotiations with the judge and tow company, I brought the tag down to about 50 bucks. No fucking way would that have been the case in the US. You get robbed in US by anyone and chances are you're seriously fucked.