Actually, it's quite the opposite.  It is terribly dangerous to be black in Baltimore. Of the 223 homicides in Baltimore in 2010, only 13 were white. 202 were black.

http://essentials.baltimoresun.com/micro_sun/homicides/

The real state of things there is far worse than described in here. I wonder, why the local media doesn't report on that? Are they as corrupted as local police? And, in response to john's comment - the overwhelming majority of  population here in Baltimore are African Americans. That's why homicides of the white are so few.

Theres a lot of stereotypes going on here. First off, the police corruption is assumed by the report of one person who was located in "the Block."
Second, this author seeks to extrapolate somehow from the red light district of Balitmore, the struggles of all black families in Baltimore. I don't think "the Block" is really representative of black families living "on the edge". She went to the Block looking for a story. She found one.
Finally, its not dangerous to be black in Baltimore. It's dangerous to be affiliated with drugs in Baltimore. This is not to say that all black people are involved in drugs, but there is a definite connection between the drug trade and poverty, which disproportionately effects blacks.  Drug dealers can't exactly go to the courts and sue for turf incursions or for unpaid debts, so they resort to killing. 
Nothing new in this article. More stereotypical smearing of a city that's made leaps toward gentrification that are largely ignored by those who don't live there. 

da Block is for kids, so reporter should have gone outta da Martin Luta King blvd - dat's where everything is really risky and miserable. Thou there are plenty of no-go hoods in Bodymore. If ya are white and happen to be there - ya dead,  100% sure.   Cuz believe it or not, every 1 out of 10 dudes there are drug dealers or  other criminals. 

Not sure why the author had to travel 35 miles north to Baltimore.  She could have jumped on the metro and headed over to south east DC.  The crime statistics are very similar.
Poorly written poorly researched piece. 

the author is a war reporter, okay? She is not interested in the National Aquarium - can you blame her for that?  It's interesting to read what the visitors think about the place rather than dismiss their opinions as stereotypical 

Interesting enough, for decades,  Baltimore, DC, Phily and the likes have been governed by the Utopian Party of More Government is better, the Democrats (Progressive Socialist Party). There are more social services available in these areas than there are ATM's. With generation upon generation enslaved in welfare dependency, wards of the state, would you expect to find anything else. What we are now seeing is as the states become poorer so do their poor. This is the prescription scripted by the Socialist/Marxist within the Democratic Party for the collapse of Capitalism. Francis Fox Piven and the likes of have always advocated for the overloading of the system, causing a collapse, thus bankrupting the welfare system and their governing entities. The result is chaos, social, economical and racial warfare within, or, the fall of the Republic and the collapse of Capitalism. When the United States is gone, I wonder who will the Socialist/Marxist Tyrants demonize then.....? God save the Last Stand of Freedom on Earth. God Bless the "United States".

@Baltimore The population of Baltimore is 31% white, according to Wikipedia, and 13 out of 223 homicides reported in 2010 by the Baltimore Sun is 5.8% Therefore, the population demographics alone do not explain the disproportionate number of Black homicides.  And I would also be interested in the circumstances of the 13 white homicides ... that is, did they occur in the Black neighborhoods and were they related to the drug trade or some other vice?

Equal opportunity in the United States is a myth. Schools are funded mainly by property taxes. Those taxes are obviously higher in affluent neighborhoods. You are far more likely to go to college if you grew up in an affluent family. George Bush is a prime example of how an idiot can go to an Ivy League college if they have enough money.

My family couldn't afford to send me to school at the time, and my dad that lives far away makes too much for me to get help enough to do much, but everyone can say I had all the opportunities, and they, of course, deserve while I don't.  Oh boy, do they love me, the one they can get to, and I hate the advantage black people have, so whatever.  Humans are pathetic creatures.  Ask the man to pay for one class. +rolls eyes+  I don't care.  I have a sob story and raynauds from it.  Wah.  I joined the army, which makes school free.  I love learning, and I think America is a great place with many libraries, even though I am now intellectually challenged (since the onset of schizophrenia) and don't think I'll make it past an associates.  That stripper wants to suffer so let her. "Perfect World" Hell's Winter.  She won't be able to pay back 20,000 for a community college?  And that's an expensive one. Give me a break.  She loves her Hell.  Some people do, so leave them in it and go to your heaven.  One man's corner is another's Hilton.  America is rich in opportunity.  You just have to think.  There are a few traps... but it's better than others. 

Now I might eventually be homeless, but do you think I'm going to suffer?  No, not like that hopeless world of garbage.  People want to be trashy and drugged out, and I don't.  And all cities have bad parts.  Don't think it's only black's that envy whites.  And I've been in several trashy places as an adult with trashy whites.  I'm jealous of black people in many ways.  I'm like the girl in the "Bluest Eye" but I have the blackest skin with my reality.  It's weird.  I want to be from Africa and like Kali. 

Divide and rule. The Roman and British empires both understood how to control the game. Now today the top 0.001 %   in America are doing the same.  Have you noticed how poverty flows up from the bottom, it used to be the truly useless that were out of work, then it was the factory worker and the small shop keeper that couldn't compete with Wal-Mart. Now we see people who use to work for a bank walking out of the building with their cardboard boxes and tears in the eyes.

Divide and Rule, encourage the people with a job to criticize the people at the bottom.

A Jew who lived in Nazi  Germany wrote; they came for a man in the next town and I did nothing, they came for a man at the end of my street and I did nothing, they came for my neighbor and still I did nothing, now they have come for me. It will be your job or business next!

 I suggest that you stop criticizing the people below you and blame the banks who are the people who have taken the strongest and greatest nation on earth stolen it's money and turned it into little more than a failed Banana state.

Unit or Die 

  Visit the aquarium, Harborplace, McKeldin Square, Little Italy, Enoch Pratt Libary, the Museums, the Conservatory, a few Churches, the Zoo, etc. etc. and then report back.   By the way, don't try anything at the money making Block for you are smack dab at the Central Police Headquarters of Baltimore City.  Next time first visit a web site on travel to Baltimore City and stay away from comments of exotic dancers who represent about .00001% of the population. 

The author of this article is not quite the intellectual she obviously covets herself to be. People are not created equal. They are not. If they were, we would all finish the race at the same time, eat the very same food, and so on. Yes, growing up in a devestated environment is tougher than not but the individual's future is still in their hands. I know that is very difficult for you to believe but it is the truth

You had to go stare at them as if they were zoo animals (some might argue that they are) but this betrays your true intent. You and the occupy person need to stop crying about the haves and have nots. Stop making excuses, they are thin and weak. Just like you.

Black folk have a lot to be angry about when their roots are in Maryland.  In the rural counties they are to be found huddled in abject poverty in little "poor towns" down dirt roads, behind general stores, literally back in the woods.  And in the cities they are left to fend for themselves.  

Rural Blacks have not even the economic options they had 20 years ago.  The Great Hispanic Invasion orchestrated by anti-labor conservative political cartels has been purposely designed to pull the rug out from under them forever.  Not only have Blacks but also poor Chinese who gardened for a living since the end of the railroad construction been undercut by the immigration explosion followed shorty after by the resulting population explosion has spelled the end for upward mobility in America and for nearly all it has eroded the life quality for us all.  

It is the most heart-breaking of blows really having just begun.  The crime is merely the symptom of the deeper undermining by the elites the world over.  This is the beginning of the feudal age again.  We are going to lose the benefit of nearly 1000 years of advancing civilization thanks to the conservative theoreticians abusing money and power for family rather than community.  

It is just two choices: isolated selfish family or an integrated inclusive community.