Baltimore’s problems not rooted in racist police

Attorney General Loretta Lynch has announced a Justice Department investigation to determine whether the Baltimore Police Department’s practices are unconstitutional and violate civil rights; in short, whether or not the police force there is racist. It will come as no surprise if the investigation concludes that it is, because accusing the department of racism diverts attention from the city’s real problem: Baltimore, a laboratory for liberal policies, is a failed city that has shortchanged the poor for decades.

Baltimore has received over $1.8 billion in stimulus money from the Obama administration, including $467.1 million to invest in education and $26.5 million for crime prevention. Still, parts of the city remain mired in poverty and despair. There are 16,000 vacant buildings in Baltimore and an unknown number of “vacant” fathers. Between 2000 and 2010, Baltimore lost 5 percent of its population. The liberal solution of raising taxes hasn’t worked. Many of those who could escape the city have.

“Every single major urban center in America is run by Democrats — more specifically, liberal progressives, black or white,” writes former Congressman Allen West.

It is undeniable that it is liberal policies that have failed — from anti-poverty programs, to dysfunctional schools from which they refuse to let the poor escape because of the political donations they receive from teachers’ unions.

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