The election of the first black US president offered hope to millions of African Americans across the country. But have four years of an Obama presidency seen positive change for black communities in the US’ inner cities? “It’s not a war on drugs, it’s a war on the blacks. It started as war on the blacks and it’s now spread to Hispanics and poor whites. It was designed to take that energy that was coming out of the civil rights movement and destroy it. ” – Ed Burns, the co-creator of the TV series The Wire. While the ‘war on drugs’ rages on inside the US, there is some political consensus it is failing. White House officials have even indicated a federal policy shift away from incarceration and towards a public health strategy. In Baltimore, one of the most dangerous cities in the US, the police have reframed their ‘war on drugs’ as a ‘war on guns’.
Baltimore: Anatomy of an American City
