President Trump was wrong to personally attack Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, D.-Md., a man widely respected by both Democrats and Republicans alike. But Trump was absolutely right when he called Baltimore “dangerous,” “filthy” and “rodent infested” — if you can believe what you read in the “failing New York Times.”
In March, the Times Sunday magazine published a heart-rending story entitled “The Tragedy of Baltimore,” which chronicled the precipitous decline of the city. It described how then-Mayor Catherine Pugh, a Democrat, toured the Highlandtown section of southeast Baltimore, as community leaders showed her a block where prostitutes gathered and there were piles of uncollected garbage and a liquor store that allowed drunks to congregate while pretending to wait for the bus. ” ‘Watch your step,’ someone called out as the group neared a dead rat,” the Times reported.
The city’s “regression has been swift and demoralizing,” the Times wrote, adding that officials have “struggled to respond to the rise in disorder, leaving residents with the unsettling feeling that there was no one in charge.” One resident contrasted the tourist-friendly Inner Harbor with her West Baltimore neighborhood, where, she said, “we’re all bolted in our homes, we’re locked down.”
Residents are locked down with good reason. In 2017, Baltimore had 343 homicides, a new record for killings per capita — more than New York City, which has 14 times Baltimore’s population. In 2018, there were 309 homicides, and so far in 2019, there were 171 homicides as of July 11. Baltimore is quite literally experiencing “American carnage.”
