Agreed. It's all a matter of relative risk. Do you send the kid out at 11 p.m. to ride uptown past 125th St.? No. But at 4 p.m. after school to head to a piano lesson on the upper West Side? Sure.
If a kid gets into a jam and starts to holler there are plenty of folks - yes, even in NYC - who will come to his aid.
There were two men who were involved in trying to grab a young girl in Minneapolis the other day...full daylight. The girl fought the one man off and got away (the other was driving the auto). They caught one, the other is still “at large”. She yelled and screamed, not one person tried to help her!
I bet Kittie Genovese thought the same thing. (showing my age here).