I had been to was the United States, where the state of New York was a hotbed of terror.
In August 2016, a group of men dressed in black and wielding machetes began shooting at a group called the Black Panthers.
At least six people were killed, and the rest of the attack was captured on film by a bystander, who has since become a celebrity.
The video went viral and has gone viral ever since, becoming a sort of symbol of how America can feel terrifying in 2017.
I had never been to a country where the media and government was trying to hide that it was going to be a war zone in the coming months, according to Chris Martin, a journalist who has covered the protests in New York.
He said he was worried the news would make the country even more paranoid, and made the trip to New York for the first time in December to cover the events.
It was the most terrifying thing I’ve seen in my entire life.
But it was also a place that felt like home.
When I arrived at the U.S. consulate in New Haven, Connecticut, I was taken aback by the size of the crowd there, Martin said.
I didn’t expect to see anything like that.
A group of people, including myself, were taken to a secure area, which I found out was called the Embassy Hotel.
After we arrived at our hotel, a few hours later, we saw what looked like a lot of police officers outside, he said.
They were standing there with rifles drawn, ready to open fire on any protesters they saw.
We were in a hotel, but we were also at a military base in a town called Kandahar, which had a lot more police there than we did.
I was surprised to see that.
I thought that was a safe place.
We got a hotel manager to give us a room and the next morning I went up to the embassy to get a picture with the mayor and get an update on the situation.
“It was a big deal,” Martin said in an interview with the Associated Press.
On the day of the massacre, we all went to the same restaurant in a different part of the city.
It was the same place, but there was a difference.
I went to a table of 10, and I had no idea what was going on.
The tables were empty.
As the violence continued, the number of people taking photos increased.
People were shooting into the air, shooting into other people’s heads.
It wasn’t just a lot, it was a lot.
One person was standing in front of a table with a pistol, Martin recalled.
And then they started shooting into this whole crowd of people.
People were crying.
It felt like a bomb was going off.
The crowd was completely panicked.
I remember saying to my friends, ‘Don’t you guys think we’re going to get killed?’
They were freaking out.
We thought it was an accident.
That night was the worst night I’ve been to New Jersey.
New York State Police Chief Daniel F. Dromm said he would never, ever go back to New Haven.
While he acknowledged that the violence was not a natural occurrence, he also said that it had been planned for weeks.
It could have happened any time during the year.
The state had a plan to deploy some 1,500 additional troopers to New England, Dromf said, and those troopers were ready to deploy on New Year’s Eve.
There was a plan, he added.
But I never felt the need to pull the trigger, and certainly I didn�t think the city of New Haven should be in the position that it is.
Martin told the AP he had been surprised by how much the country has changed since he first arrived in New Jersey a year ago.
Now people are not afraid, people are more relaxed, he told the news agency.
What has happened since then has been absolutely devastating, he continued.
It is terrifying to think what we are going to see next year.
He said he felt safer during his first visit back to the state than he had during his visit to New Hampshire in November 2016.
My heart just sank,” Martin recalled, adding that he was terrified.
Read more at Business Insider: The most scary place I�ve ever been: The worst thing I have EVER been