a lot of US conservatives experience notions of safety/crime by , and since huge parts of the US have a rural-white / urban-brown diverse situation going on, it's the coded way to express racial bias.

i grew up and spend the first half of my life in areas where the rural communities were as racially diverse as the cities, so it was not something i recognized until i moved to the "rural = white" parts. if you get a white conservative cornered on this topic, rub their tummy/make them feel safe and tease it out... it's always about them being

don't get me wrong, there are always people in rural areas that have apprehension about the city who are not fucked up about race. the overpolicing, the prices, the unfamiliarity with navigating / complexity with parking (often paid) and traffic patterns. for people without social connections in the city who are having to go there for some administrative/bureaucratic b.s. or a big event, the city quickly becomes a place where there are lots of institutions putting their hands in your pockets. regional urban hospitals can absolutely nail families visiting from the boonies on food and parking. not to mention, there are a number of downtown areas where finding a fucking free/public bathroom is a goddamn nightmare if you're just arrived and on your own. which is absolute bullshit, imo. a big fancy city with no easily accessible public bathrooms in the central core deserves all the scorn and piss and shit on its sidewalks and streets that humans put there. i personally hate that the most.

but to your point, the conservatives complaining about "crime" and "safety" (and explicitly not "safety from zealous cops") are talking about their racial hangups.