San Francisco trip advisor - racist post / blame the victim??

Headed to SF soon so I was looking through trip advisor posts on things to do. These individual replies blew my mind

Subject: Almost got robbed at Twin Peaks. BEWARE!!

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we drove up to Twin Peaks for a nice view. The area we drove through looked upper middle class and we had seen no bums once we left the center.

With that in mind we left our suitcases and briefcase with passports etc. in the car (we were going to stay close enough to see the car). BIG MISTAKE!!! We had maybe walked up for 2-3 minutes, when a black car stopped behind my rental (with TX license plates) and a black guy with a hoodie jumped out, running to my car and looking through the (tinted) passenger window to see what was there. I started screaming at the top of my lungs and run back down. Luckily the guy did not see my briefcase or it would have been gone. He jumped back in the car (with 3 guys in it) and drove off in a hurry

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Very good post alerting other travelers right?? Apparently not to some local TA posters who scream racism and question the OP:

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Mentioning clothing and color of skin is not of any help, nor is the mention of "bums" thieves come in all colors and hoodies are popular among many. Believing you can spot a "type" is foolhardy.

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I'm curious why you mentioned the Texas license plate. Are people from Texas more apt to be criminals? And what about black people? Could it be that the guy was simply meeting his friend and he approached the car simply to see if that was his friend's rental car? He didn't actually do anything. He didn't have a weapon with which to break a window. And, if he was going to break into a car in broad daylight, why would he come up to a tourist attraction when there are plenty of sleepy side streets in San Francisco with no pedestrians present?

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Maybe he "drove off" because he saw a crazy non–black person angrily coming towards him. Shame on all of you.

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Were the possessions in the trunk and the car locked?

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A breaking into a vehicle, or a home if unattended is not a "robbery". It is a burglary.

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Well, OP said "almost". There's been other cases where tourists were indeed robbed, at gun point. As I said, OP could've been robbed.

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I "could be" a millionaire if I win the lottery.

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Sad that the OP has to "clear things up"

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Thanks all for your comments. To clear things up a bit, I did not mention the color of the car or the person for racist purposes, I was just stating facts. The license plates of MY (rental) car were from Texas and I realized, that would make my car more of a target for thieves. And Hopskip, your comment that maybe the guy was just looking to see if it was his friends car...is at best very naive and more likely meant to call me a racist, which I find racist in reverse. I forgot to mention that the guy, when the car drove off, stuck out his hand and flipped me off. Innocent? Yeah right.

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To determine if a statement is racist or not, would you have included the race if he'd been white? Hispanic? Asian? Walked with a limp? If yes, fair enough, it's simply descriptive. But to include that data, when we're not likely to put that information to use, seems unnecessary.

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It explains why you were so sure he was a would-be thief. Without that detail, however, we're left to speculate as none of the information provided originally could give us insight into his mind.

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How was the alleged burglar going to break the car window? Was he carrying a tire iron or similar tool? I know from personal experience that is it is very hard to break a side car window unless you have a heavy metal object.

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poster from Raleigh ended it nicely...

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We need to take care not to blame the almost-victim here. Mentioning skin color and the guy's hoodie are facts that could be helpful if someone were to see that car and those men again. The color of the hoodie would be nice to know, also. But no need to look for racism when none was intended.

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