Once upon a time, muckrakers were hailed by progressives for bringing the horrible conditions in ghettos into the light of day. Now, Democrats senselessly insist that pointing out how terrible Baltimore, Charm City, the City that Reads, the Country’s Murder Capital, is racist.

The Baltimore Sun, now in the rare position of grabbing the country’s attention for 15 minutes for something other than a race riot, plastered its pages with headlines like, “People who refuse to see or hear Trump’s racism in attack on Baltimore are beyond reach” and “Trump’s Twitter attack on Cummings and Baltimore: undiluted racism and hate”.

Pointing out that Democrats have left Baltimore a mess is seriously damaging to the Left. And when the Left faces facts it doesn’t want to hear, it starts shouting about racism.

But Trump didn’t make Baltimore a disgusting homicidal rat-infested mess. It’s been that way for a long time.

The city’s mottos have kept changing to outpace its reputation. Charm City was quickly rendered, Harm City, by the locals. The City That Reads, a fitting motto in a metropolis with shockingly high illiteracy rates, became The City That Bleeds.

Its current motto mentions that it’s the birthplace of the national anthem. No one can argue with that.

Somehow it’s not racist to reduce Baltimore to a war zone, but it’s racist to point it out.

If you want to see what happened when the Obama administration and the Democrats devastated Baltimore, the stats are there.

In 2014, 189 died. And then Baltimore came under assault from Black Lives Matter over the Freddie Case leading to riots and the Ferguson Effect crippling law enforcement efforts. The police became the villains. Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake offered the racist rioters and looters space to destroy. Along with the businesses and sense of security, here is what else was destroyed.

An additional 131 black men died in 2015 in Baltimore. 16 black women were murdered in both 2014 and 2015. The huge increase came at the expense of black men. The biggest bump in homicides, 49 to 99, happened among young black men aged 18 to 25. This year’s incomplete toll already stands at 68.

The second biggest increase marked black men aged 26 to 34 whose death toll rose from 60 to 108.

277 black men were shot in 2015. Up from 141 in 2014. Shootings overall in Baltimore rose 72%.

These are the same black men that Black Lives Matter and its torrent of shrill supporters claim to care about.

No racism to see here.