Who Said It?

"We can forgive Major Colvin, who out of his frustration and despair, found himself condoning something which can't possibly be condoned. We can do that much. But, gentlemen, what we can't forgive, what I can't forgive, ever, is how we, you, me, this administration, all of us, how we turned away from those streets in West Baltimore. The poor, the sick, the swollen underclass of our city, trapped in the wreckage of neighborhoods which were once so prized, communities which we failed to defend, which we surrendered to the horrors of the drug trade. And if this disaster demands anything of us as a city, it demands that we say enough; enough to the despair which makes policemen even think about surrender; enough to that fact that these neighborhoods are not saved or are beyond saving; enough to this administration’s indecisiveness and lethargy, to the garbage which goes uncollected, the lots and rowhouses which stay vacant; the addicts that go untreated. The working men and women who every day are denied a chance at economic freedom. Enough to the crime which everyday chokes more and more of the life from our city. And, the thing of it is if we don’t take responsibility and step up , not just for the mistakes and the miscues, but for whether or not we are going to win this battle for our streets. If that doesn’t happen we are going to lose these neighborhoods and ultimately this city, forever. If we don’t have the courage and the conviction to fight this war the way it should be fought; the way it needs to be fought, using every weapon we can possibly muster; if that doesn’t happen, then we are staring at defeat. And that defeat should not and cannot and will not be forgiven.
Councilor Thomas J. Carcetti, City of Baltimore
AKA Aidan Gillen. “The Wire” Season 3, Episode 12 “Mission Accomplished”