MangoIVPlease be honest + boost welcome.
If you enter a train station and it’s guarded by policemen with heavy weaponry (machine gun) and military outfits, how does that make you feel?
Secure
Intimidated
I don’t care
Poll ended at .
PedestrianError 
@mangoiv I’d actually say more angry than intimidated, but of course I’m a little afraid the bastards might shoot me or stomp me with their jackboots. Mainly though when I see visible displays of fascism I’m just filled with rage about the meanspiritedness and the extreme waste of our tax dollars on such nonsense.
Jay@PedestrianError @mangoiv Every fully kitted out cop is another ten teachers struggling to get classroom supplies for 35 kids a class that could go much further in preventing the violence these cops are supposedly stopping.
Zaphod Beeblebrox 
@mangoiv any police presence, armed or not, makes me feel icky.
Katze von Schrott@mangoiv less intimidated, more pissed and disgusted
Roknrol@mangoiv The only reason I'd be at a train station is because I have to be there.
I wouldn't necessarily feel comfortable, but being a white middle aged guy means that most of the time I wouldn't be targeted by these types.
I would not feel any safer and I would be concerned that they're there for a reason.
But...I have a train to catch. What am I going to do? Walk?
Arnfinn Pettersen
BiggestBulb 💡🏳️🌈🧑💻@mangoiv I'm from the US, so I naturally would think either something serious just went down or that something serious is about to go down. I'd also be a little intimidated when leaving, given the police' track record of following people home.
חנן כהן • Hanan Cohen@mangoiv Israeli here. Fourth option - Normal.
When I first flew abroad I felt strange no one asked me to open my bag or ask me if I carry a weapon when I entered public transport stations, theaters or malls.
Evelyn fra denne andre øya@mangoiv always makes me feel a little uneasy when we have armed police in the station. Felt worse in France though, seeing groups of soldiers patrolling with rifles
Jima 
[Yaseenist] CauseOfBSOD 
@mangoiv im from the uk so that kind of thing is like, really abnormal
Pete Alex Harris🦡🕸️🌲/∞🪐∫@CauseOfBSOD @mangoiv
I certainly wouldn't feel safe if I saw that in London, because the Met do have form for shooting random guys based on paranoia and incomplete information, and I don't want to see that even if it's not me.
I certainly wouldn't feel safe if I saw that in London, because the Met do have form for shooting random guys based on paranoia and incomplete information, and I don't want to see that even if it's not me.
David B. Himself@mangoiv In France (my country), I don't care, it's been like this for about 30 years give or take. If I see this in another country, I'll be intimidated, especially as a foreigner.
enoch_exe_inc@mangoiv Perhaps a bit more intimidated than usual, but otherwise not much else. The cops don’t need to stand around in riot gear and assault rifles to be intimidating; their status as vanguards of state-monopoly violence and immunity from consequences are sufficient to make me fear them even if they were totally unarmed.
Under liberalism, state violence is an implicit threat, whereas under fascism, it’s an explicit one.
Raptor's Nest (He/Him)@mangoiv The occasional armed police officers I see in public places like train stations or airports in the UK with their MP5 submachine guns don't make me feel safe - it feels more dangerous to be in the presence of such high power weapons.
Especially in places like the UK, that's the only time you ever see a semi-automatic weapon!
Especially in places like the UK, that's the only time you ever see a semi-automatic weapon!
Colm Ó Donnchadha@drmambobob @mangoiv the cops in Derry were tooled up walking along a shopping street last time I was there
Steven Heywood@mangoiv
This is why I hate it when the Tories have their annual conference in Manchester, streets are fenced off and the local plod are tooled up like carabinieri (to be fair, they never look too happy about it either).
This is why I hate it when the Tories have their annual conference in Manchester, streets are fenced off and the local plod are tooled up like carabinieri (to be fair, they never look too happy about it either).
AvonLovesBlake@mangoiv I still remember getting off the airplane for a brief refuelling stop at Bangkok airport in 2000. As soon as I stepped off the plane, I saw several grim faced 20 year olds in full camo with giant machine guns. For a moment I thought there had been a coup and we were all about to be taken hostage.
Mathi Gwithyas
sortius@mangoiv having grown up in the global south, specifically in Cambodia, I can say seeing anyone with an automatic weapon "guarding" somewhere, says "stay the fuck away from this place"
Alan Langford 🇨🇦🧤🧊摏@mangoiv Both, in parts. Also hyper vigilant for threats, unattended packages, etc.
I've experienced this at airports.
decapitae@mangoiv Makes me feel skeeved, and if they start shooting, it's time to take away their toys. 😞 Automatic weapons have no place in crowded areas, only warzones (those shouldn't exist either anymore, but we obviously haven't planetarily recovered from leaded petrol use).
Tim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE@mangoiv Yeah, it's a bit like when I see a bouncer on the door of a pub - "if it's that dangerous in there perhaps I'd better go somewhere else instead".
Ponygirl@mangoiv Like an American.
Moose Jolly Holcomb@mangoiv after over two decades of seeing machine guns in train stations I'm still not used to it, and have no intention of trying to feel normal about it.
Mr E McKissock@mangoiv
The options don't really cover it for me. Context is everything.
Brought up Scottish, police with guns of any sort were intimidating in any location.
Living in Victoria, Australia, it is normal for there to be armed police at train stations and I've become acclimatised.
If I went back to Scotland, I'd still be very concerned if I got off a train at Langbank station and saw police with guns.
Kevin Westbrook@mangoiv Depends where it is and why they are there. Generally, though, probably worried.
Ed Chivers@mangoiv it would definitely make me uneasy, as it's an enormous red flag that this is not a safe area, and I should be on my guard.
Any place with guns automatically feels *less safe* than the exact same place without guns, because I don't want to get shot by some trigger happy shooter regardless of who they are.
Context: am a Brit who has lived in mainland Europe.
ENG. Tretron 🐲@mangoiv I miss an option, because yes I feel intimidated but only partially caused by the police. But also by the reason why they are required. And weapons in general make me anxious.
Johannes Borgström@mangoiv concerned: is there a credible threat that warrants this level of response, or is it an exercise in strongmanship?
Feodora 🐈⬛(🐈)🐾🐾😺(😺)
Linebyline→mastoart.social@mangoiv American here. "Train Station"? You mean that thing from the Narnia books? Weird hypothetical, but OK. ;)
Either way, I'm not going anywhere near *anyone* open carrying machine guns. That it's people in authority doesn't make it less scary, just different scary. Maybe more scary, depending on circumstances.
Ollie 🇪🇺🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️🇵🇸🇺🇦@mangoiv Not just intimidated but scared for my life
Sleepyhead@mangoiv depends. Generally I'm intimidated but if e.g. there were bombing threats made or something similar the safety would outweigh the intimidation.
Rasmus Lindegaard@mangoiv so, I'm a white guy with a average height for a male from the Nordics and the dirty blonde hair (den kommunale hårfarve) as well as greyish eyes. So I'm probably very unlikely to be targeted in northern Europe, but!
For some reason i always get picked out of the line at the airport for drug swabbing. Always. No matter who I'm travelling with, and the ironic thing is: never been drunk or high, ever.
Now, I'm thankful it's custom agents that are drawn to me and not armed police
@mangoiv that said, i voted before reading comments, and picking "intimidated" my thought was that the source of the intimidation would be whatever has our police manning a train station like that