Philadelphia thru the BBC lens: "Law and Disorder"

BBC News Magazine recently published a report filed by Louis Theroux, a guy who's been doing video travelogues for several years now. I remember watching Weird Weekends about 10 years ago, I think on the Bravo network when Bravo used to have shows with meaningful content.

Theroux recently spent a few weird weekends in Philadelphia, specifically in Philadelphia police cars, and subsequently filed a report called "Law And Disorder in Philadelphia." The accompanying article includes a 2-minute video excerpt revealing some of the less charming areas of North Philadelphia to the international viewing public.

The journalist outfitted himself in a flak jacket for much of his visit -- unfortunate as far as Philadelphia boosterism goes, but maybe good in that we were apparently in the middle of a cold snap while Theroux was here. (I haven't been able to pin down when the show was filmed.)

It's too bad he wasn't here for the couple of weeks surrounding the World Series and the Presidential election. Everybody was really mellow for a little while. Then the weather got chilly and people started getting grumpy again.

But in any event, both the article and the summary of the episode on the BBC iPlayer page carelessly conflate the rotten neighborhoods that Theroux documented with the entire city of Philadelphia. There are murders in Philadelphia; there's a "no snitchin'" mindset here; and there are problems of drugs, poverty, racism, and generations of joblessness. But there are not "gun carrying drug dealers on every corner, [where] it is now normal for the centre of Philadelphia to stage 30 or 40 homicides a month."

In fact, Center City is safer than some other sections of Philadelphia. Furthermore, the city as a whole is on track to finish up with fewer murders this year (163 as of 30 June 2008) than last year (392 by 31 December 2007).

I mean, not to say, "Whoo-hoo! Three hundred dead people in my town this year!" But still. No need to paint the entire city with the "lawlessness born out of poverty and disaffection" brush.