[WS:] I have two comments about this otherwise excellent documentary:
1. It omits the efforts that the city of Baltimore and federal government are taking to address the problems that the documentary identifies. I have specifically in mind Hope VI housing projects http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HOPE_VI whose very idea is to break the cycle of crime and violence by replacing housing projects with more livable communities. I lived in Baltimore for nearly 20 years in close proximity to two Hope VI project located in the downtown area, and I witnessed how much difference such projects can make. They are neither perfect nor the panacea for all community problems - but they make a huge difference comparing to what was there before that is visible to anyone who cares to look. I wish that the documentary showed these developments - the main ones are not far away from the detention center that prominently features in the documentary - they are a brighter spot in otherwise dark landscape.
2. The documentary describes the situation rather accurately (with a few omissions per #1 above) but as the Old Man said, the point is to change it. However, nobody interviewed in the documentary offers even a glimpse of a solution - all they say is how bad the situation is. In my view, this is one of those situations that not much can be done about, at least within my life span and within confines of a democratic society. I am not sure, however, that this view is shared by the people interviewed in the documentary. I got the impression that they believe that there is some "magic bullet" that the government can use to reverse the situation, but it chooses not to. This is not explicitly stated, of course, but it is an unspoken underlying assumption, at least in my view. After all, government bashing is the national American sport that unites people of all political persuasions.
I think that this is a fundamentally false assumption - I have seen enough government efforts to improve the situation - including but limited to the above mentioned Hope VI project - to believe that government - federal, state, and local - did quite a bit. Maybe not as much as it possibly could, but quite a bit, at least in Maryland. Of course, there is also the dreadful incarceration policy that significantly contributes to the problem - but in my view this is a product of the political process and political party competition i.e. fanning out and meeting a popular demand for drastic punitive measures rather than a government measure in the strict sense i.e. an administrative decision to provide a technical solution rather than to manipulate and appease public opinion.
I also happen to believe that a long term solution is possible but unlikely within the confines of the US political system, where public policy is dictated largely by popularity contests which invariably lead to the lowest common denominator of prejudice and fears. And as long as this is the case, we will have idiotic punitive measures instead of real solutions and people of various political persuasions blaming the government instead of the political party system.
-- Wojtek
"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."