Thanks to all of the nice people who sent us links to Louis Theroux’s Law And Disorder in Philadelphia. What the Brits need to know is that the scenes depicted there are as alien to us (10 miles from the action) as they are to you. It unintentionally painted a miserable picture of Philadelphia and enabled people like this tosser to talk bollocks.
This film could have been shot in London or Manchester. OK, perhaps the guy with the cow was unusual for those cities, but the rest is just run of the mill.
Personally, I was glad that Police were accurately portrayed:

• They were [initially at least] well meaning.
• They were utterly useless at attacking the root cause of the problem.
• Instead they attacked the easily attackable such as a bunch of kids smoking weed in a car, and a few loonies/tweakers on the street.
• In doing so, they alienated just about everyone in the neighbourhoods that need the most help.
• When they did nick the real culprit, he was out of jail in 5 hours. I know people who’ve been stuck in nick for longer than that for drunk and disorderly…

As I said, just like London and Manchester.
The most annoying aspect to all of this is that the whole problem could be solved with a few million quid and advice from people who actually understand the problem. Instead, we give billions to a wunch of bankers because they can’t even do their own jobs without fucking it up for the rest of us.