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I once lived in an inner city neighborhood in the New York City area in the 1980s when crime was running rampant and crack cocaine was all the rage. If you didn't immediately assume that both young black and Puerto Rican males were a dangerous threat, you wouldn't last long. There were old timers in the neighborhood who were Irish and Polish and Italian but crime was absolutely rampant from the minorities.

There was an open-air drug market that operated almost on a scheduled basis in the evening and hundreds of drug addicts would surround the drug sellers in concentric circles that filled up an entire block. Police did absolutely nothing.

Drugs were sold out of all sorts of business by people in a wide range of ages, nearly all either black of Puerto Rican. It was like living in Hell. It was rapidly gentrifying but you risked your life everyday just being there.

Stealing was rampant, breaking into cars, holding people up, knocking people down. If you were waiting in a line in a store and set anything in your hands down for a second on counter a checkout, someone would steal it while you paying your bill.

Antisocial behavior was rampant. Drug addicted thugs roamed the streets all hours of the night blasting loud, hideous music from boom boxes that made it impossible to sleep. It was a dystopian society. I'm surprised I lived through it.

My house, a brownstone, was invaded and the thieves took everything of value on the first three floors while I slept in the fourth. Eventually they made enough noise to wake me up and I heard foot steps from two or more people coming up the stairs to the top floor. I jumped from my bed toward the door to press an alarm on the wall just as the door opened and scared the intruders who thought the house was empty. They ran down the steps like scurrying rates.

Bottom line. If you don't pre-judge on sight, at least mentally, you literally risk your life. The fact that great majority of blacks are not like this doesn't matter. A significant criminal element thrives in the community. That cancels out everything else. I still judge people individually as I meet them, but I'm not going to foolishly assume someone is OK before I determine that he or she is to be given the benefit of the doubt, if only tentatively.