Baltimore: Anatomy of an American City

Baltimore: Anatomy of an American City

7.37
12345678910
Ratings: 7.37/10 from 30 users.

Baltimore: Anatomy of an American CityThe election of the first black US president offered hope to millions of African Americans across the country. But have four years of an Obama presidency seen positive change for black communities in the US' inner cities?

"It's not a war on drugs, it's a war on the blacks. It started as war on the blacks and it's now spread to Hispanics and poor whites. It was designed to take that energy that was coming out of the civil rights movement and destroy it." - Ed Burns, the co-creator of the TV series The Wire.

While the 'war on drugs' rages on inside the US, there is some political consensus it is failing. White House officials have even indicated a federal policy shift away from incarceration and towards a public health strategy.

In Baltimore, one of the most dangerous cities in the US, the police have reframed their 'war on drugs' as a 'war on guns'.

More great documentaries

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

32 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
buttercup123456
buttercup123456
9 years ago

Dear MobTown Awake 303. Are you kidding me? Pay you and your neighbors to clean up your cr*p? Why don't I just come and do it for you, I'll bet that would solve the problem, at least for a short while. And as for the low paying dead end jobs, they are at least a way to start crawling out of wherever you are now or reverting to crime and complaining about how people get locked up for it. You see, t really is that simple and doesn't take "Einstein" to figure it out. By the way, what would i have to pay an hour to get you to clean up your own cr*p?

Don Sampson
Don Sampson
11 years ago

Perhaps more blacks are committing crimes and that's why more blacks are in jail.

Camreeno
Camreeno
11 years ago

I don't like these arguments about drugs or guns being the problem to situations seen in this doc. People turn to violence and selling drugs because of poverty. They even explain in this documentary how steel industry jobs left the city en masse. It's the same situation with all the crime and poor blacks in Los Angeles. The car industry left, causing many people to lose their jobs... and viola, many desperate unemployed people turn to crime or violence to make a living.

If guns were the problem, why is it that countries like Canada have similar gun ownership rates yet far fewer gun-related deaths? They clearly aren't the problem. Things like poverty and unemployment are.

Bou
Bou
11 years ago

War on drug=white men war against black and Mexican

manfruss
manfruss
11 years ago

A "war" on anything fails. They all have, and they will all continue to. This has not been learned yet, and the current "War of Terror" is the next in line. Feels like an excuse to keep a military industrial complex going.

I always thought that treating the disease was the way to cure, not the symptoms. Policy today, deals with the symptoms and doesn't delve deep into real cause of the problems. Universal education will be a huge step in that direction.

I AM POP SLAG.
I AM POP SLAG.
11 years ago

war on guns? lol. you couldnt make this **** up. how do you go to war against an inaminate object?,
especially one that is usually required in any modern war?
so how do you fight the war on guns?
with guns of course so its not really a war on guns is it?
if your using them?
its just an ordinary war?
why not justcall it that?

Lenie Adolphson
Lenie Adolphson
11 years ago

The documentary is powerful it is addressing the structural and institutional causes for these communities that are so blighted, it is easy and somewhat comforting to simply state these people are criminals and just wash our hands of them. However, that is a simplistic look at a systemic problem that has to be addressed with children and investment. Whether we like it or not, we as a society are already spending billions of dollars on these issues and we getting absolutely nothing in return.

4Christ
4Christ
11 years ago

EXSCUSE ME?!@ "If there is a "war on the blacks"
ObaIslama began it! He has DIVIDED US AS A PEOPLE. NO OBAISLAMA 2012 OR EVER AGAIN! HE IS THE ENEMY WITHIN!

No...I haven't watched it YET. So when are you gonna post one about the blacks beating up on the Caucasians...for the "fun of it" eh?

I have black people - granddaughter and son-in-law -...BUT they are like all people! Just because one has a certain "skin color" makes them NO DIFFERENT than any other God-Created and loved people!

buttercup123456
buttercup123456
11 years ago

I can't believe the comments people have made after viewing this documentary. The "City of Brotherly Love", are you kidding me? The place is a pig sty. Whats funny is that the best idea that comes from the film is that too many blacks are being put in jail for the crimes they committ. Lets face it, they are in jail because they are CRIMINALS. Drug dealers, murders etc. On top of that, the primary interview in the film is listening to a convicted murderer telling everyone what the cities problem is. The answer is simple and its not drugs or guns, its the people and there culture! You can't tell me that all these people are doing what they do because they are just trying to survive. If they had not committed the crimes they could find work somewhere, even if they needed to leave Baltimore. I'm a bit tired of people beating around the bush and blaming everything from politicans to slavery, com'on people, separate the trees from the forest. Iits the people and their culture and its the same everywhere you go. Always trying to make a buck the fast and easy way instead of working for it. If you want the government to throw more good money after bad and to create more intercity programs, why doesn't someone suggest that O'Bama fund a "Pick up the Trash" program for the place. It certainly needs it and there seems to be plently of people there with nothing better to do.

Javed060
Javed060
11 years ago

Usual story of sweet and beautiful words of reforming the society and dangerous intention behind it. Cops are not for common men, they never were. They are meant to protect the elite. And to protect the law and order, again to benefit the elite.

wcb123
wcb123
11 years ago

Guns are legal. There's your answer, its not rocket science

freeyourmind
freeyourmind
11 years ago

Powerful documentary but again...never any real solutions...we can point the fingers, and to be honest it is important to KNOW who is behind all of this, but where are the solutions? Give me solutions....and not money thrown at "programs". Real solutions... changing the way we live would be a first...stop so much consumerism, be cognizant (aware) of your own money trail and choose intelligently who you will buy from. I don't know... I didn't grow up in that environment but I have relatives who have. They are "damaged" and not easy to talk with, but dialogue needs to happen, and out of the box solutions must be tried.

dewflirt
dewflirt
11 years ago

Squeeze the poor 'til they pop then lock them up. Helpful.

Kwamla Hesse
Kwamla Hesse
11 years ago

Its amazing...people can make a TV series like "the wire" or reality documentary like the one above describing the direct assault on generation after generation of Black people criminalized into selling drugs and killing each other. Yet eve
ry one knows about it but just has to accept it as a fact of life?

This is planned manipulation and control of the African-American population. soon to be experienced by the rest of the American population. It really is time for people to collectively "Wake Up" to what is happening in our own environments.

G.P. de Bies
G.P. de Bies
11 years ago

It's been a long time coming.

The facts are; 350 years of repressing opression "slavery" is a term that fits.
To me it's more accounts owing for 350 yrs of unpaid work ! !

These are decade long proceedings: institutionalized in a national custom of differentiation and disfavouring.

To this very day, US Police action and demeanour is unstable when it comes to minorities yesterdays murder of 1 man by 5 heavily armed policemen again is a clear example.
Not because I say it, the world knows it clearly !
This will not go away through negotiations in 4 yrs Sir. No siree.

NO WAR ! !
The only war Americans people, ever fought against each other; was to end the above mentioned.

Except for the rednecks nobody in his right mind wants to wage war.

For the good of the USA we have BARACK OBAMA, maybe heaven sent, allow him to do his devine magic 1 more term.

David Ewer
David Ewer
11 years ago

Chilling film about the US caste system. There is a war on women, a war on blacks, a war on poor people. So who is prosecuting this war?
The rich elites control the media, the banks, the military and the police.
And the same elites claim to be ethical and tell us they love Jesus and he loves them. Oh, and their God is just.
This situation clearly cannot continue.
Which side are you on?

phelony_jones
phelony_jones
11 years ago

10:30 no mention of LBJ's war on Poverty, which is the original sin.