It is very difficult to find documentary footage on crime in Baltimore. Our city government is very protective and even refused to permit HBO back to film another season of The Wire, as if the world does not know the city is a mess.

This BBC documentary is shot in the east coast city which most closely resembles Baltimore in terms of architecture and urban blight. The white officers and bystanders are more numerous and tougher than in Baltimore. But the black guys behave identically to those in Baltimore.

The reporter is such a pasty faced coward that he manages to get in under the ghetto radar enough to score some interviews with active criminals on the street. The segment on ‘Reds’ the Hispanic drug lord, is hilarious. This guy is trying to operate a ranch with livestock in the ruins of what looks like a bombed out city.