"Brockley doesn't feel safe", really?

I recently came across this post on a Plumstead blog http://plumsteadshire.blogspot.com/2007/03/its-safe-innit.html , written by an ex-Brockley resident, Pangloss.

He claims to feel safer in Plumstead than he did when he lived here and a couple of patriotic Plumsteaders have pulled out some statistics to back that up.

But as someone who used to live in that direction and whose main experiences of Plumstead have been accidentally waking up there on the last train home and having to find my way back that claim simply doesn't feel right. Whereas Plumstead feels deserted after 11pm, Brockley has more of a 24-hour lifestyle. While not everything that goes on in Brockley at 2am is especially savoury, the presence of people makes it feel more secure.

My neighbour, who's been living in the area for many years, regards me as some kind of lunatic ingenue, who drifts through Brockley life without noticing its dark underbelly, but I think her perception is out of date. Indeed, I've met a number of former residents of Brockley who've held similar views to Pangloss and while it's often the case that ex-pats are the quickest to find fault with their former homes (eg: the stream of decliniste commentary from people living in places like the Philippines that you find at the bottom of any comment article on the Telegraph website), I think the fact that their perception seems so out of kilter with my own suggests that the area has become a "safer" place in recent years. Or maybe I'm just Dr Pangloss, myself.

What's your experience been?