I'm not afraid of terrorism, are you?

[CapnAwesome]

In a way this is more making my point then yours, what you see here is media alarmism. Statistically you aren't more likely to be robbed by a hitchhiker, not according to the one study done on it, but boy is it sure more likely to get reported by the media. Refugees aren't more likely to murder, but I bet every time they do it'll get media coverage. One those stories even illustrates the difficulty of robbing someone in a moving car.  Most of them include calls not to pick up hitchhikers, which is bullshit. It's cherry picking incidents to try to make something seem more dangerous then it is and leaving us with a less friendly society because of it. We live in the safest time in American history, but people have never been so afraid. I'd hate to live my life in such fear and to become a worse person because of it.

Aren't more likely to get robbed by a hitchhiker than what?  The alternative is not picking up a hitcher, which comes with a 0% chance of them robbing you.  I can't imagine what other comparison they felt was relevant.  I agree it's unlikely you'll be robbed by a hitchhiker.  How unlikely, I have no idea?  And even with stats, we need to break it down by specific circumstance.  Picking up a kid in a college town in the afternoon vs. picking someone up in a bad neighborhood.  Picking up one person vs. two, age, appearance, location...etc..

I can't imagine the data exists.  Even reading the sites that encourage picking up hitchers, they stress safety first, and give tips that try to help identify shady situations.

Sure, but what you originally said was that you never pick up hitchhikers and would be uncomfortable if someone else did with you in the car.  Nobody is arguing that you are obligated to drive crackheads around the inner city. It's a moot point anyway, since people don't hitchhike in the city but between cities. I generally pick up anybody who doesn't appear under the influence of drugs or alcohol. It doesn't mean I don't talk to them for a bit before letting them in my car. It's the same with refugees, vet them before letting them into the country. Nobody is arguing that we just let people flood in unchecked.

I'm not afraid of the refugees and I'm not afraid of hitchhikers. If that's the way you are going to live your life, it's up to you. But the idea that safety should come before having enriching experiences and meeting interesting people from foreign lands is a dismal one, in my opinion.