‘I Felt Completely Safe’: Video of Woman Walking Alone at 10 P.M. Sparks X Debate Over Women’s Safety, Immigration, and European City Comparisons

The video of a woman walking alone through Warsaw at night has received more than 750,000 views on X and has led to a discussion regarding women's safety, public spaces, immigration, and the way people see the differences between European cities.

In the video, a blonde woman named Weronika Rogowska records herself as she walks through Warsaw and states that she had walked alone for five kilometers at around 10 p.m.; she claims to have felt 'completely safe' during the entire journey and that she did not come across any risky situation.

“Okay, so I am alone, blonde girl here in Warsaw,” she says. “I just walked alone five kilometers at ten PM, and I felt completely safe.”

She goes on to compare her experience with that in Brussels, Berlin and Paris, and says that even if she had been only about a kilometer from her accommodation, she would have called an Uber in those cities. She says that the difference is due to secure borders, and then asks viewers if they can see the link between such policies and racism.

Reactions were divided. One user agreed that women and children could "still move about freely" in Bangkok, but knew the situation was different in the United States. Another commenter lauded Poland's policies and called the country "nice" and "beautiful." Others objected to the notion that Poland should be promoted as a destination for people to now start going to.

The conversation also led to some criticizing the way the video was framed, as one comment mentioned Ukrainians as an exception to the assertions regarding safety. Another said that comparisons between countries can be misleading since nations record crimes in different ways. And according to Eurostat, police-recorded crime figures can be hard to compare between countries due to differences in legal definitions, reporting behavior, police recording practices and methods of counting.

European data offers some context for the divergent views on safety. In 2023, Poland had one of the lowest proportions of residents in the European Union stating that crime, violence or vandalism was a problem in their area.

According to Eurostat, 2.4% of people at risk of poverty in Poland said that such problems existed, and the same was found among those not at risk of poverty, placing Poland among EU countries with the lowest reported levels of such concerns.

It doesn't mean that women do not face any risks in Poland, and one person's experience at night doesn't prove that Warsaw is safe everywhere. Eurostat states that the number of cases of sexual violence recorded by the police throughout the EU in 2024 was 256,302.