The Tragedy of Baltimore: Inside the crackup of an American city.

New York Times ^ | March 12, 2019 | Alec MacGillis

[reaganaut1]

...

In Baltimore, you can tell a lot about the politics of the person you’re talking with by the word he or she uses to describe the events of April 27, 2015. Some people, and most media outlets, call them the “riots”; some the “unrest.” Guy was among those who always referred to them as the “uprising,” a word that connoted something justifiable and positive: the first step, however tumultuous, toward a freer and fairer city. Policing in Baltimore, Guy and many other residents believed, was broken, with officers serving as an occupying army in enemy territory — harassing African-American residents without cause, breeding distrust and hostility.

In 2016, the United States Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division concurred, releasing a report accusing the city’s Police Department of racial discrimination and excessive force. The city agreed to a “consent decree” with the federal government, a set of policing reforms that would be enforced by a federal judge. When an independent monitoring team was selected to oversee the decree, Guy was hired as its community liaison. This was where she wanted to be: at the forefront of the effort to make her city a better place.

But in the years that followed, Baltimore, by most standards, became a worse place. In 2017, it recorded 342 murders — its highest per-capita rate ever, more than double Chicago’s, far higher than any other city of 500,000 or more residents and, astonishingly, a larger absolute number of killings than in New York, a city 14 times as populous. Other elected officials, from the governor to the mayor to the state’s attorney, struggled to respond to the rise in disorder, leaving residents with the unsettling feeling that there was no one in charge.

[hal ogen]

Always remember, maryland is THE Freak state. It is replete with LIB losers of all sorts. It is truly hopeless there. Leave while you are still allowed to do so.

[Alberta's Child]

The fact is if Baltimore was still a vibrant steel, ship and car producer it would not be the 3rd world hell hole it’s become. You can’t blame that on Democrats.

I don't blame that on Democrats. I blame that on Baltimore.

Baltimore didn't just lose its industry to foreign competitors. It lost its industry to other regions of the U.S. I demonstrated that in my earlier post about the auto industry. The shipbuilding industry is another excellent example. This is an industry where the U.S. has become a shadow of its former presence as Asian nations have dominated the industry for years (South Korea, China and Japan in particular). That's no coincidence, since it's one of the first truly global industries, and -- more than any other -- is subject to purely economic forces with minimal political influence.

And yet there's still a major shipbuilding presence in the U.S. -- because domestic shipping companies are required by law to use U.S.-built vessels. It is in this segment of the industry where the decline of urban sh!t-holes like Baltimore is most apparent. As with many other industries, shipbuilding has largely migrated from the Northeast to Southeast and Gulf Coast states where the business climate is simply better. There's no excuse for that, as far as U.S. cities like Baltimore are concerned. They have nobody to blame but themselves.

[Mr. Lucky]

Who won the World Series that year?

I may as well place a few bets.

[central_va]

You are in hopeless denial.

[Alberta's Child]

And your post is remarkably devoid of facts.

[central_va]

BTW. The auto plants went to Mexico and China. The steel mills to China and Asia, and the ships to Japan and Korea. All of it off shored.

[hanamizu]

My wife watches Family Feud. One question from last night’s show: “What would a mother hate to hear about a woman her son was going to rob?” What kind of family is it where that question might come up?

[central_va]

I demonstrated that in my earlier post about the auto industry.

You demonstrated a lie. The autos built in Baltimore were mostly GM cars, production was sent to Mexico and Asia NOT in other parts of the USA. That is because of union contract clauses. The foreign brands CAN build factories in the USA because they are not restricted to the UAW.

[Alberta's Child]

The autos built in Baltimore were mostly GM cars, production was sent to Mexico and Asia NOT in other parts of the USA. That is because of union contract clauses. The foreign brands CAN build factories in the USA because they are not restricted to the UAW.

I didn't demonstrate a lie. If anything my post and your post pretty much confirms that the biggest threat to the U.S. auto industry isn't foreign competition ... it's the United Auto Workers.

Go back and look at what you posted again. "Union contract clauses" are the issue? The UAW sold its members out by negotiating away their jobs.

[central_va]

The fact is the government did not do anything to stop the de industrialization of Baltimore. The role of the govt IS to protect US industry through tariffs and other trade restrictions. IT’S THE JOB OF THE GOVERNMENT TO DO THAT. IT SHOULD BE A GIVEN. The fact they didn’t shows how the right has corrupted our federal government. The result of this globalism has been to make cites like Baltimore a 3rd world cesspools. AND THE REPUBLICANS BLAME THE VICTIMS!

[central_va]

The cost of labor can be arbitraged inside the USA. But that requires a closed domestic market. The auto assembly plants were not the biggest part of the economy of Baltimore anyway. It’s a red herring. Those plants could have been bought by a foreign auto maker, but our government is corrupt and could have engineered that transition. Instead the entire city was thrown under the bus.

[Old Yeller]

I moved to Maryland in November 2019.

Well, I'm impressed.

[Alberta's Child]

Go back and see what I posted about Baltimore's history, dude. Baltimore only became a dominant producer of steel and ships because the U.S. government was BUYING what was being produced there.

Do you really think the U.S. government can do anything -- short of having taxpayers buy ships that aren't needed and sink them in the middle of the ocean -- to make Baltimore (or any other U.S. city, for that matter) competitive in the global shipbuilding industry?

[central_va]

Dude, Baltimore's rice bowl was taken away by globalists. It it's not their fault. They ran into the open arms of the socialists. YOU GUYS CAUSED THIS PROBLEM. All your side offered was "better learn to code".

The economic facts are any city, big or small, needs some kind of industry or service to make it viable. A million people cannot just consume they have to also produce. Well you guys took away their means of production so how can you blame them?

As far as Baltimore goes the inner harbor tourist trap, the national aquarium and a containerized sea port is not enough of a wealth creator to sustain that population. So they are going to suck YOUR taxes. Better keep paying because you are lucky they don't go on a rampage and hunt you globalists down like vermin.

[nathanbedford]

The consent order often referred to in this article was entered in 2016 while Obama was president. I recall many objections entered to these consent orders done by Obama because they were shams.

In some instances they were bludgeoned in place against police departments which were not hewing to the progressive line and beleaguered towns were forced into the Hobson's choice of bankrupting themselves in litigation against the federal Justice Department with unlimited resources or consenting to their demands and entering a consent order which foisted left-wing policing procedures into a city with dire results.

When involving those jurisdictions which were "progressive," the consent orders were a sham because they were often an instrument of collusion between the feds and leftist politicians who saw a way to get around their constituents or to make points with constituents, as the case may be, by entering into a consent agreement thus diverting political heat away from themselves.

The effect of the consent orders was to impose the alien culture of Eric Holder or Loretto Lynch into police departments where the feds should have had no business, at least no genuine constitutional right to intrude.

The effect was to federalize policing in American cities.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Baltizuela.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

So, what size tariff would you recommend, keeping in mind that heavy tariffs will price some items out of reach of poorer consumers, such as those in the Democrat-run shitholes?

[Jim Noble]

Guy was hired as its community liaison. This was where she wanted to be: at the forefront of the effort to make her city a better place. But in the years that followed, Baltimore, by most standards, became a worse place.

How surprising.

[1Old Pro]

Baltimore’s Black mayor hates whites and is a racist, isn’t that good enough to help the city?

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

The price of a new car has gone to the moon, thanks to over-regulation. Why should anybody sane buy one nowadays?