The culture of crime in Baltimore sometimes never ceases to amaze me. This city is a host to a number of problems: unemployment, vacant housing, drugs, and crime. All of this issues are interrelated, and solutions to these problems are tied to the economics of a city in change. It used to be a blue collar city, with a large manufacturing base. Baltimore is now trying to attract a new breed of urban professional into the newly developed/ing inner harbor. I think the first thing you have to do in order to draw in this crowd is by assuring their safety.
Having said that, I was rather disturbed when I was made aware of this campaign in Baltimore called "Stop Snitching". In essence, don't report crime that you witness because it somehow goes against code of the hood. 60 Minutes did a segment with rapper Cam'ron, where he was very explicit in his disdain for snitches. What did this stem from? I would assume a distrust of law enforcement in low -income neighborhoods that have been ill treated by law enforcement at some point in time. But does it justify what you see in the video below?
I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or hit someone. The Sun and ABC here in Baltimore have more on it. What it comes down to is respect for the law, and criminals don't respect the law and they are trying to force law-abiding citizens to turn away from it. Here's a link to a local Fox report on the newest DVD.
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