Original subtitles

(classical music playing)

(distant thudding and voices)

NARRATOR: Acknowledgement of a creation myth.

Before the world became the world, it was an egg.

Inside the egg was dark.

The rat nibbled the egg and let the light in.

And the world began.

(scuffling sounds)

The adult Norway rat can jump 32 inches high.

Baltimore city trash cans are 34 inches high.

(abstract electronic sounds)

(electronic music plays)

Presentation of a video game.

A satellite map of Baltimore is loaded into the program.

A 3-D terrain is created.

The user assumes the role of a floating point

within the game.

A null object.

Explanation of an experiment.

Scientists place food at the end of a maze.

A glass barrier is placed

so the food can be seen but not reached.

A rat runs the maze, and is disappointed.

The rat sleeps,

and the scientists record its brain wave activity.

The scientists find the same firing patterns

of the neurons activated by

the unreachable food are also activated in its sleep.

The rat is dreaming of reaching the food.

The rat is dreaming of a desirable future.

A baby rat won't open its eyes

until it's two weeks old.

Does the blind rat dream?

(electronic sounds)

(ping pong game being played)

(voices talking)

(electronic music playing)

EDMUND: Watch what I did.

You hear what I said?

Please call me.

That's what I do.

My name is Edmund, but you ain't gonna get me.

You gonna get the switchboard,

but it's gonna be me,

because this is my neighborhood.

This is my neighborhood, I'm telling you.

It's gonna be a small thing

to lay them down for y'all, what.

It ain't never been a rat problem in Baltimore.

Always been a people problem.

And that ain't gonna change until you educate the people.

This right here is Diatrac.

I think it's one of the favorite poisons for the guys,

because it's a no choice poison.

Most of the time, we kill exactly

what we trying to kill.

We inject the poison right into the hole with them,

and it coats the whole lining of the hole.

So, they gonna bump into it and hit it.

And as they say, "Wow, okay, look at me. I'm dirty now.

Let me groom."

And we get them. They don't have a choice.

No choice, that's what I meant when I said no choice.

No, let me stop. No, um...

I work for the Baltimore city rat roto program.

Basically what we do is...

we come out, we assess...

what people believe to be rat problems.

We project what we can do and possibly

how we can help them.

And then we try to correct the problem.

Basically, basically.

NARRATOR: 1911, Baltimore city enacts a resolution.

Quote, "An ordinance for preserving peace,

preventing conflict and ill feeling

between the white and colored races in Baltimore city."

The law prohibits blacks from moving

into majority white neighborhoods,

and whites from moving into majority black neighborhoods.

It is a desperate attempt by the government

to halt the rapid integration of the city.

It is the nation's first legislation of its kind.

Six years later, a Supreme Court

decision rules residential segregation ordinances

unconstitutional, and the legislation is struck down.

Segregation moves to the private sector.

Upscale white neighborhoods maintain racial homogeneity

by forming covenants that require new homeowners

to sign contracts barring the sale of homes

to black or minority homeowners.

A map, deliberately frozen.

Its boundaries strain with the pressures

of the growing city.

(discordant music plays)

Okay, now can you see my hands?

Okay, we'll do like this.

This beer that I got right here.

This beer that I got.

Yeah. This-- this-- and this is a 25-ounce can,

Natty Daddy. Natty Boh.

Let's put two of them together.

No exaggeration.

Put two of these cans together, right?

Okay. Well, let's stay one and half of these cans.

Okay, that's just a body from the head to the ass.

The tail.

The tail reminds me of, like, an iguana.

(laughs) Yes, and so slow,

you know, just an old-timer that's been around.

Yeah, got little knicks and shit

where it's been up (stutters) in the cars.

where they start the engines up and a fan belt hit them.

The fan hits them and knick them and shit.

Yeah, been around. Soldiers.

That's how-- yeah, that's how big I've seen them.

NARRATOR: A confidential Rockefeller Foundation report

names a gaping vulnerability

in America's World War II defense effort.

Quote, "There is fear that the enemy

might resort to germ warfare,

using rats to spread bubonic plague throughout city centers."

War is declared on the Norway rat.

Traditional rat poison used a compound

derived from the red squill plant.

However, red squill only grew

on the Greek shores of the Mediterranean.

A territory locked off by Axis German control.

Americans were left without a rat poison.

Enter Dr. Curt Richter, a prominent scientist

at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Richter's work primarily focused

on the biological roots of behavior.

Particularly with his favorite test subject,

the rat.

During an experiment on the inheritance properties

of taste response to phenylthiourea,

Richter made a surprising discovery.

The compound was tested on a group of lab rats.

In the morning, they were all dead.

A new candidate for rat poison

had been found.

There are two key factors when considering

a new rat poison.

One, the poison must be attractive to rats.

Two, it must only kill rats.

As large enough doses in humans

merely induced vomiting,

Richter argued that it was safe for widespread use.

Because the proprietary formula remained

a closely guarded secret,

government safety inspections were never conducted.

In 1942, with funding from both the city

and the Rockefeller Foundation,

a field trial was initiated

in the primarily black neighborhood,

surrounding Johns Hopkins Hospital.

An area frequently used for public health studies.

Within days, hundreds of dead rats lined the streets.

These photos, gathered by

the Baltimore Citizens Planning and Housing Commission,

were taken to document the deteriorating conditions

of the city's slum districts.

There were used as evidence

in targeting high-impact areas

for Baltimore's rodent control project,

the first government pest program in the nation.

At its helm, Dr. Curt P. Richter.

ALL: One, two, three, four.

* Rats

* I hate those slimy little fuckers *

* I want to beat them with a bat *

* Rats

* They're useless *

* Rats

* I want to beat them with a baseball bat *

* But I don't have one right now *

* And there's no rats here we gotta wait till dark *

* And then we go get some rats *

* And beat them on the fucking head * * Come out at night

* Beat them out of the trash cans *

* Right over their fucking little greasy heads *

* Rats

* I hate them

* I want to hit them with a baseball bat *

* Really bad

* I hate those little slimy motherfuckers *

Two, three, four.

That was the best I ever heard.

That was the best I ever heard.

Yeah, baby, shall we do it?

(beeping noise)

NARRATOR: Quote, "If someone were to give me

the power to create an animal

most useful for all types of studies on problems

concerned with human welfare,

I could not possibly improve on the Norway rat."

Dr. Curt P. Richter.

Qualifications for an ideal model.

The Norway rat's dietary needs

are very nearly the same as a human.

It is a stable and predictable creature.

Its small size make it perfect for handling

in all types of surgical procedures.

The short life span, typically two to three years

in a laboratory environment,

make it an ideal candidate for studies

concerning growth, development, and aging.

Additionally, the rat's cultural position as a pest

make it less sympathetic of an experimental subject

than other animals, such as dogs, cats, and monkeys.

Hole here, hole over there.

And a hole-- see it right in here?

All them holes right here, coming from out of this cement.

That's where the rats coming from.

EDMUND: I ain't do nothing. WOMAN: I ain't saying nothing...

Relax. Relax. (stutters) I'm just tired.

I mean, I can't even bring-- I can't even come out here and hang out clothes.

I didn't do it. Calm.

And we-- we not the only one--

I'm not the only one who has rats.

They have rats. See the yard?

See the yard?

The one on the corner has rats. EDMUND: I love them.

Well, you keep on loving them. They put food on my table.

They put shit on your-- you mean a muskrat?

Huh? Oh, you mean killing them?

Yeah. They food on your table.

I love them. But it don't put food on my table

to have rats coming-- I got children.

I can't have-- I can't come out with these children, you know?

So otherwise than that,

I got to get this shit together.

I mean, they even died off and then ate the portions and shit.

Last year, I kept on putting down--

putting it with peanut butter.

And they wasn't eating it.

And I said, "You know what?

I'mma-- I will slick the damn rat this time."

So what I did, I will slick to them that time.

Last year, what I did-- I did the same thing,

I put the barbeque sauce, mixed it in with the rat poison

and put it right on the hole.

That's what in there now, that why they eating it.

Here's what happened, baby, here's what happened in a nutshell.

WOMAN: What?

You was going with the peanut butter for quite a while.

WOMAN: No, I only went-- They figured it out.

Listen to what I'm saying. They figured it out.

They said, "Every time we mess with this peanut butter stuff,

we in trouble."

So, now that you tried something different,

I got it now. That's right, that's right. It don't matter

what you mix with it... That is right.

...if it's poison, you must make it attractive.

That's right, and that's what I did. Or else they're not

going to eat it. I put that barbeque sauce on there,

made it attractive, and got them.

Ask them d-Con people. I really did.

D-Con ain't doing shit.

It's been on the market for a thousand years. Call me.

Call me, I'm the d-Con woman.

EDMUND: It been on the market for a billion years.

Them guys can eat that stuff and just keep going.

I'm telling you. Finish having a wonderful day.

I'm gonna try and do that. Please do.

WOMAN: Yep, yep, yep, gonna get rid of them rats.

WOMAN: Got to get rid of them rats. Yes, ma'am.

WOMAN: Got to get rid of them rats.

EDMUND: The pleasure was all mine. WOMAN: Thank you.

All right.

Lot of times, we trying to get in,

and get out, anyway we can.

So, now when I put down on my paperwork

that I was here for 25 minutes,

my boss will be telling me, "Really?"

Really. Really.

EDMUND: Sometimes, people slip through the cracks.

I think that's what that was.

And then cracks.

(electronic sounds)

(playing instrument)

(playing stops)

(clock ticking)

NARRATOR: The laboratory changes the rat.

Among traits noted by Dr. Richter

in domesticated versus wild Norway rat populations,

a shrinking of adrenals,

smaller organs, such as the liver,

the heart, and the brain.

Aversion to physical activity,

submissiveness to restraint.

Richter believed his findings

had a wider impact than just the lab.

In a paper titled, "Rats, Man,

and the Welfare State,"

Richter argued that the modern comforts

of living afforded by technological progress

and social welfare programs

had led to a crippling of man's abilities.

War had been declared on the rat once again.

Critics were quick to point out

the eugenic implications of Dr. Richter's work.

A rebuttal letter published in the American Psychologist,

quote, "As I recall,

two other gentlemen named Hitler and Stalin

agreed upon a somewhat similar philosophy.

Richter, like the aforementioned gentlemen,

misses the whole point of civilization.

The merit of science lies in the fact

that where it can not modify

the individual to meet the environment,

it offers hope of modifying

the environment to meet the individual."

(engine rumbling)

Check this one out, yeah.

(laughs)

All right, so, this is what I use for

rat hunting in the backyard here.

Um, this is, uh, my customized zebrawood handle.

It's a, uh, single shot, .177 caliber pellet rifle.

It does about 800 feet per second.

And, um, it's pretty fun when I'm feeling sporty.

You only get one shot, so... usually if you miss,

they run away and then you have to, you know, reload it.

And they're gone, so.

And I got a "Property of the rat czar" on this one.

And then this is one of the original rifles

that I-- I used this as a kid, basically.

Um, used to shoot rabbits for sport in Pennsylvania.

And, um, these are good old Pumpmaster 760s

that you can just buy at Walmart for $22, I think.

And, um, they-- they work pretty well.

Um, this one I put a laser sight on.

So, it's, um, wherever that laser is,

is where the pellet goes,

and, um, I can basically do head shots with this one.

They're-- they're pretty-- pretty great. There's one right--

there's one right now.

(sighs and laughs)

We're gonna get something tonight, boys.

This is a version of this, that I just--

here we go, we're gonna use the blowgun.

Where'd he go?

This is a blowgun.

It shoots six-inch prod-hit tips.

And it'll go right through him. No suffering.

Now, this is, uh, this is what they look like.

They're, uh, basically, uh...

the same thing that you would do with a deer.

We're gonna get him.

Ooh.

If we wait right here, he's gonna pop his head out.

(inhales)

(fence clattering)

He'll be back.

(rat squeaking)

Here, here.

(repeated thudding sound)

(mixed conversation)

Okay, well, basically...

basically a live pinkie.

Most-- all of mine eat frozen thawed pinkies anyways,

but when I'm at a show, I don't like putting

the frozen thawed in there because it gets hot,

and it goes bad quickly.

So, this is what I feed the snakes when I'm at a show.

And most of the time, I use tweezers.

I go through... I normally get 300

live pinkies and fuzzies a week.

And I then go through another 200 larger mice a week.

The way I look at it, the same creator created them.

MAN: What?

MAN #2: Zoom in.

(train whistling)

All right, man, so we're going to go to

the local convenience store,

uh, to get some peanut butter, you know, or either some, you know, some raw meat.

Uh, just so they're attracted to smell.

For some odd reason, they love peanut butter.

So, let's see what they got.

All right.

(hums)

What's going on, buddy? How are you?

You guys have lunch meat?

MAN: Lunch meat? MAN #2: Yeah, like turkey breast?

We have turkey breast.

Turkey breast? Turkey breast is great.

Uh, peanut butter. Good.

Extra crunchy.

We're going to get a quarter pound

of turkey breast, man.

Yes, sir.

Yeah, I guess turkey has a stronger odor to it,

or, you know, oil-based.

Kind of like chicken.

And, um, peanut butter just gives it that extra...

I guess that pasty taste.

Something that's going to stick their bones, I guess.

All right, good luck again. All right, man.

Thank you. All right, let's go. Take it easy.

(rap music playing)

It's probably fucking one of them cop shows

or something, man.

So, let's probably ride around the back this way.

Yeah. See if we can find a rat this way.

Look at this-- look at this shit.

Look at this. Trash, mess, heat, warmth.

Ooh, look at this, hell yeah, look at this, look at this, look at this,

this is perfect.

Look at the rats right there.

There's a rat there. There's a rat over there.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

Want to see if we can park here?

It's car packed.

Yeah, we're just going to pull right here.

They running all back through there, man.

Look, look, this is perfect.

This is perfect, there's one right here.

Like, literally right here. You see it?

MAN: Shit. MAN #2: There's one here.

There's a few back there.

Like, there's one round here on the side.

Running across.

Yes, man, let's, uh, let's bait up.

Let's bait up.

All right, so, what we're gonna do...

Right now, I got-- I have a double hook.

So, basically, I get two chances.

So, same thing if you was fishing for spot,

perch, bass.

You know, anything of that sort, you know.

Normally, the bigger the bait, the bigger the fish.

So, I'm basically weaving the meat.

Uh, and then, I'm gonna take some of this peanut butter.

Gonna open that thing like that.

And if we could, we're just gonna-- we're gonna dip to peanut chunks.

Might dip your finger in it.

Um, we kind of see if we can kick it up.

Oh, that's-- that's a slugger. That's a Louisville slugger.

MAN: Get one on the hook and take one out. MAN #2: So... (laughs)

So, as soon as we get them, gone.

All right, so basically, at this point now,

we're gonna just cast out.

Kind of on the right side. Uh, one...

Uh, there we go. We're still connected.

And basically, we're gonna sit and wait.

Just got to be patient, you got to be real patient.

Got to kind of, like, keep your cool.

Yes, here they come.

Once again, you gotta keep your line tight.

EDMUND: That's where you're gonna find a rat.

In the places where... most uneducated people are.

The ones who have the least, the least resources.

The people who have no dreams, no aspirations.

Just surviving.

That's basically where you're gonna find them guys.

That's it in a nutshell.

Them guys are sharp, though.

I like them 'cause they got one mission.

Ain't gonna see no rats

educated nowhere or trying to move to Beverly Hills or... (chuckles)

They do what they do, wherever they at.

How did this happen?

So, I gotta go all the way back up.

604, Canning. How did this happen?

How did this happen? How did this happen?

How did this happen? Let me see.

What am I doing wrong? What am I doing wrong here?

All right, let's turn this around.

(classical music playing)

NARRATOR: 1951, a confidential

Rockefeller Foundation report lists the weaknesses

of Curt Richter's poisoning program.

"Killing procedures merely make room

for more rats to grow up.

And actually increase the yield

of rat flesh per acre, per year."

Quote, "Killing them proved an almost endless, tedious,

high repetitive, and expensive job."

Enter Dr. David E. Davis,

a colleague of Dr. Richter's at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.

If Dr. Richter's work tried to bring nature into the lab,

Davis tried to bring the lab into nature.

Davis' fieldwork meticulously mapped

the distribution of rats in the urban environment,

charting their movements across yards, fences, and alleyways.

Organism and environment were impossible to separate.

All elements in a given system

had to be studied in conversation with itself.

This ecological approach

expanded the focus of rodent control

into the human environment that supported them.

Human factors such as trash pickup,

the prevalence of vacant housing,

access to water, and adequacy of sewage systems

became objects of study

for their effects on rat populations.

By controlling these human factors,

Davis found, rat populations could be curbed

and eventually eliminated or stabilized

at a sustainable level.

A link. Control the environment, control the rats.

Davis' findings shifted policy

and funding from poisoning programs

to bringing city blocks up to newly instated housing codes.

Dr. Davis, a quote,

"The beauty of this ecological method of control

is that improves the housing and living conditions

of the human population

in addition to reducing the rat population."

A defunded Dr. Curt Richter

vehemently opposed any ecological approach,

calling Davis' methods purely defensive.

Killing rats, he argued,

required an offensive solution.

(electronic music playing)

I don't know where she is.

In here. Hello?

(muffled speaking) MAN: Yeah.

(muffled speaking)

She's under the sofa or inside the sofa.

(muffled speaking)

Hey! Yeah, she's looking at you.

(laughing) Hey.

WOMAN: Hey. Come on, gal.

(kissing noise) Hey.

Hey.

(rat squeaks)

Okay, okay, let's go.

Back to the cage.

Okay, so where were we?

Ah, ratproofing the room. So, yeah, this is our playroom.

Where our rats get their free-range time.

Usually I give them at least an hour, hour and a half

a day, as much as I can, as much as time allows.

WOMAN: You're very generous. MAN: Yes, I'm generous.

Um, I guarded off the entrances

to the-- uh, to this living room

with that two boxes, one here and one here

so they cannot escape,

either upstairs or to the garage.

And, uh, then there were a couple of issues

with, uh, electric cords.

Um, this TV stand has to be--

um, I had to use some Coroplast,

which is a durable

sort of plastic supposed to be impervious to rat's teeth.

Turns out not.

They pick on it bit by bit

and they can chew through it, eventually.

Uh, so, I-- I bought some new panels and, uh,

installed double in places.

Um, and, uh, still, I have to watch them

when they are free-ranging.

I have to make sure

they don't jump on it because they can jump very high.

Um, one other thing is the cable here for this lamp.

Um, not much I could do here, just tape it

a little bit higher so it doesn't draw

their attention and-- and they don't try to chew on it.

Um, so that's it, every-- every other door is locked.

They have-- there are no holes in the walls.

I inspected everything.

Um, supposed to be safe for them.

(television playing cheering crowd)

(muffled speaking on television)

(television playing advertisement)

BRUCE: My name is Bruce Goldfarb,

and I'm the executive assistant

to the chief medical examiner

for the state of Maryland in Baltimore city.

This is the room that holds

the nutshell studies of unexplained death.

Which are, uh, miniature dioramas

that are used to train police officers

in crime scene investigation.

BRUCE: They were made the 1930s and 40s

by a rich socialite by the name

of Frances Glessner Lee, who lived in Chicago,

and had a long and abiding interest in forensic medicine.

She was extremely bright, well-read.

Traveled Europe, introduced as a debutante

and, uh, was expected to live the life of a socialite and get married.

And, um, I don't think that was quite her interest.

She had other interests.

She is, you know, the mother of CSI.

Each one of these costs what it costs to build a real house.

And they were built by

authentic construction methods

and they took as long as it took to build a real house.

There's a worn spot in front of the toilet.

And there's a worn spot in front of the door.

And there's schmutz coming up

the wall from the heating vent,

and-- and, you know, she-- she spent enough time in this bathroom,

or a bathroom like it,

to know (stutters) that there would be a--

I'm sure Frances never in her life

ever used a toilet like that.

Um, and, uh, you know, it's-- she approaches this

with such empathy,

uh, for these people in their lives.

These are people who don't ordinarily have

their lives depicted in art.

'Cause it's not only these death scenes,

but also it's a-- it's a snapshot

into these people's lives.

It's a moment in time frozen.

You know, a lot of people, when they look at these,

it's a sort of an innate, automatic thing to solve them.

People want a solution.

They want answers, they want to know what happened.

These are not meant to be solved.

They're not puzzles. They're not who-dun-its.

Some of these, I won't say what number,

are staged and that's part of what

you're supposed to get out of it, is there's

an inconsistency between

the information that you're being told,

that's on the-- on the front and what

is visible in the diorama.

Oh, there are solutions.

Her solutions. Frances had them written down.

Her answers, and they're her answers,

and as far as I'm concerned, those are good enough.

But, uh, there could be other answers.

They're literally kept under lock and key

and not even the chief has seen those solutions.

I've seen the folder, I have not seen the papers.

It's a manila folder.

(laughs)

Pretty ordinary. It really is just a manila folder.

(clock ticking)

(loud wailing noise)

(muffled speaking)

WOMAN: Really? MAN: Because of this.

EDMUND: I had gerbils, I had rats, I had frogs.

I had, what, guinea pigs.

I had cats. I had dogs.

I always wanted-- uh, to me, that's how you get close to God.

That's how you get close to God.

Get you a pet.

You pay attention to his works.

I'm telling you, it make you get closer.

You sort of understand.

Who else but a supreme being

could put together something like that?

What was that address I was just at?

Fifteen? Damn, 1518, right?

That's what I'm doing first, just looking for signs.

Uh, any type of activity of them being here.

And, I'm not seeing any of that right now.

You know, a lot of the times doing this, the people say,

(clears throat) "Well, how did you look and see anything?

You just walked right past it."

I say, "Miss. I've been doing it for a bit.

And I know what I'm looking for."

Very seldom does it change.

(grunts)

EDMUND: After a while, I guess you get so versed

you really-- you pretty much know where everything is at anyway.

Go to a community, the same people

make the same complaints.

You know where the rats are.

Some days be better than others.

(dog barking)

Rat Roto. Baltimore city.

(dogs barking)

Rat Roto. Baltimore city.

Hello?

Hello, there.

When I first started this job,

I think there was 25 of us.

And it was just rolling. We wasn't planned.

We were rolling.

We were trying to make a difference.

And a lot of days, you just feel, like,

"Wow, we could be doing so much more."

I-- I mean... I don't think this is

one of them topics that a lot of people

want to talk about.

It's just not.

It's not one of them--

not everyone want to talk about no rats.

Hush, hush, please.

Everybody wants to make everything

sugar-coated and soft.

And-- and not deal with the reality of the things.

No, we don't want to talk about it.

Yeah, have a good one, baby. It was good seeing you again.

I'm not going to make no excuses for it.

Um... it's mean.

Life is mean. It's mean.

It's not designed to be easy. It's what it is.

It's going to throw you a lot of curveballs,

and throw you some sliders every now and then.

And you just have to deal with it.

(stutters) You know.

You're dealt a hand and you got to play it out.

There ain't no saying, "Hold it, wait, time-out.

I want to change some things first."

And then start again. There ain't none of that.

You just deal with what you have.

You deal with it. Deal with it.

NARRATOR: An alternate view option

provides the ability to overlay

real photographs under the three-dimensional models.

An algorithm obscures recognizable facial features.

Sometimes, an inanimate object is mistaken for a face.

The game does not care if it is human.

Only that it matches the accepted pattern

of the human face.

Two men wait for the bus on the corner of 25th Street.

A mother stoops to tie the shoes

of her daughter off Monument Street.

A grandmother in her Sunday's best climbs the stairs

so slowly that she remains on the same step

for all three frames that she is visible.

With the real photographs activated,

the game becomes impossible to continuously navigate.

There are glitches everywhere within the game.

Fractures that reveal more than the program was ever meant to.

Sometimes, hiding in a tree, beneath a car,

or inside of a building,

the solar system bursts into view.

Object and perspective intersect.

The same gaping hole within every object is revealed.

A user tries to push deeper in moments like these,

but the game pushes back.

1933. Following the stock market crash,

the Homeowners Loan Corporation is created.

Among its stated purposes,

the creation of a residential security map

identifying areas of high financial risk

for government-backed loans.

Fourteen mapmakers, all white,

all men, lead up the effort in Baltimore.

Their work is kept secret for decades.

Factors considered for residential security,

quote, "Intensity of the sale and rental demand,

percentage of home ownership, age and type of building,

economic stability of the area,

social status of the population,

racial homogeneity and restrictions

for protecting homogeneity."

May 1st, 1937. Establishment of a map.

Neighborhoods are arranged into four graded areas.

Grade A, or green. Grade B, or blue.

Grade C, or yellow. Grade D, or red.

Green, quote, "In nearly all instances,

they are the new, well-planned sections of the city.

They are homogeneous,

in demand as residential locations

in good times or bad."

Blue, quote,

"They are like a 1935 automobile,

still good, but not what the people are buying today

who can afford a new one."

Yellow, quote, "Age, obsolescence,

and change of style,

expiring restrictions, or lack of them,

infiltration of a lower-grade population,

poor maintenance of homes.

Generally, these have reached the transition period."

Red, quote, "Detrimental influences

in a pronounced degree.

undesirable population or an infiltration of it."

These primarily black and mixed neighborhoods

gained a new, ominous nickname, redlined.

Based on geography, residents in redlined areas

were denied loans that would have allowed them

to move into more affluent neighborhoods.

Business ventures that might bring revenue

to the neighborhood were considered

too risky by banks to invest in.

Redlined areas, mapped as such, stayed red.

The city continued to integrate.

The market responded, house prices plummeted.

Industry and industry jobs left

and would continue to leave.

A great migration to the suburbs began,

aided by a slew of government loans

and tax incentives for first-time homeowners.

Loans and incentives that were only made available

to the predominately white families,

living in the right color of the map.

(rain falling)

Isn't it nice to think that when it rains,

the whole city gets wet?

(door closes) (both smacking lips)

How are you doing? Good, and you?

WOMAN: Great.

Uh, right now, we're at Scarpetta House.

This is our training facility

for our forensic investigators.

It's basically like a studio apartment.

We have a bedroom, kitchen, living room, bathroom.

And, uh, we use this to, uh, stage using manikins,

stage death scenes to train our investigators.

And occasionally other groups

that come in from the outside.

This is the bedroom. We have, uh, bed, crib.

Um, and we can set up different scenarios depending on

what we're doing.

You know, we can do shootings, stabbings, um...

We have a grill,

we can simulate a carbon monoxide poisoning.

Um, there are prop weapons

and we have prop drugs hidden around, so...

when our investigators come in,

uh, you can check the windows,

you can look through the garbage can.

They can look through the cabinets.

And just as you would in a real scene,

and look for anything that might be--

may or may not be meaningful.

Um, well-- (stutters) we did a, uh, a Jonestown kind of

mass suicide thing a year or so ago.

And we had... we had-- I can show you photos,

but we had, um, pretty much wall-to-wall bodies.

Yeah, there are people all over.

In the bedroom.

And they all drank kool-aid. There's the kool-aid cup.

These are actually-- these girls

and the ones in the bed,

those are the daughters of people who work here.

Um, there's one of our forensic investigators.

And the red is to simulate

a, um, little avidity, settling from the blood.

And they had to chew Alka-Seltzer

to get the foaming at the mouth

which tastes really nasty, and that's what she's doing.

She's chomping on this Alka-Seltzer.

(imitates chewing)

It does not taste good. So, um, that's what they do.

NARRATOR: December 2nd, 1957.

John B. Calhoun, a former research assistant

on Dr. Davis' rodent ecology project,

writes a letter to Mr. Eugene Casey,

of Gaithersburg, Maryland, asking permission to use a barn

on his property for an upcoming experiment.

Quote, "It has been with great anticipation

that I have followed the remodeling

of your barn near Gaithersburg.

By it, you are making possible certain

much needed scientific studies

that no one to date has had the opportunity to initiate."

Experiments began the following year

at the newly renovated Casey barn.

The project was funded by

the National Institute of Mental Health.

Their aim, to study the effects of crowding

on the development of social pathology.

Thirty-two rats were placed in the main room of the barn.

Sealed by a 140-square-foot enclosure

divided into four quadrants.

The simulated environment provided unlimited food,

shelter, and protection from predation

for its rat inhabitants.

The only limiting factor was space.

The rat population was observed for a period of 16 months.

After a period of initial growth,

the population stabilized at around 80 individuals.

Soon after, however, it was nearing total collapse.

A class of dominant male rats emerged.

sealing themselves off with eight to ten females

in high-rise apartments above the city.

Below, subordinate males went berserk,

attacking females, juveniles, and less active males.

Mothers ceased providing adequate shelter

for their young,

often leaving them to die in poorly built nests.

Population growth came to a halt

as asexual, cannibalistic rats

preyed on their abandoned young.

Calhoun called these cumulative effects

the behavioral sink.

The goal, ultimately,

wasn't to learn how to create these effects in man,

but how to better design physical space

so that behavioral sinks in man could be avoided.

In photos, Calhoun gazes out over his universe

like a gnostic god visiting

a creation he has long since left behind.

But he is not there to save the rats,

just to observe.

His only concern is how to do better next time.

Today, the Casey barn has been repurposed

as a community rental space.

Their website advertises potential uses

such as wedding receptions, family reunions,

bar and bat mitzvahs,

birthday parties,

and business meetings.

There is a full-service nursery school

and day care in the basement.

We'll go to one of my favorite alleys.

They're usually there.

Always has many rats.

Ignorant son of a bitch.

Look, he just took it off

and just walked over here and slayed him.

It sucks-- it sucks when you can see...

See, you can't see the fish steal your bait.

Okay, when it's in the water.

But you can see a rat take your bait right off the hook.

So, that sucks even worse. You know?

So, you just got to be patient,

you got to be real patient.

Got to kind of, like, keep your cool.

Because here they come.

Once again, you got to keep your line tight.

We see trash everywhere.

The perfect area for...

rats buffet.

I got it, I got it, I got it.

(whispers) Yes.

(muffled speaking)

MAN: (laughs) You going to walk the fuck home.

That shit going to be all over you.

Yeah, this guy did not struggle at all.

See, that's a head shot. Had no idea what was coming.

Right in the head.

No suffering.

EDMUND: I don't know.

Life is funny. It's funny.

You got to be funny 'cause if you take it too serious,

you'll wind up someplace

where you really don't want to be.

Sometimes, it's sad and sometimes it's funny.

I don't know.

I have no idea what I was supposed

to do most of the time.

Not all the time.

I won't have no regrets about none of that.

None of that.

And I think that's the only thing you can do.

MAN: Do rats go to heaven?

(stutters) I don't believe there's a heaven.

I really don't.

I believe that it's crazy to live a lifetime

and have all that information

and then just cease to exist.

I think the spirit part might...

go somewhere in some type of collective.

But I don't think you just live a lifetime

and have all that information and just expire

and that's the end.

I don't believe that.

As far as a heaven and hell, I...

No, I'm not gonna get spooky with all that

God this and that.

Now, I'm not gonna do that to myself.

No, I'm not. No.

I don't even believe in really good and bad.

It's just some people who had some stuff happen,

that make them make decisions

contrary to how I believe or how I feel.

And, then, so they act out in ways.

They just do stuff.

It's some more stuff piled up on some more stuff, and...

I'm not going there with myself.

I'm just not, not me.

MAN: Hey. LADY: Honestly, I know that guy.

LADY: Thank you. Take care. MAN: Thank you so much. Yeah.

EDMUND: Young lady, please call me.

Just dial the 311. This is my neighborhood.

This is the area I do.

So, every time I come,

I'm going to go above and beyond and try

to cut this myself.

LADY: Thank you.

EDMUND: Honest, I'm not just making my mouth say that.

Please call. Please call.

And you gonna be laughing.

You're going to be laughing 'cause they going to be gone.

LADY: You can get me to the point where I can throw you

a bushel of flowers... EDMUND: (laughs)

EDMUND: You're gonna see. LADY: You'll be the one that's laughing.

No, you gonna be so happy 'cause you gonna be able

to enjoy your yard. Watch.

That's all I want. That's all I want. Watch.

But thank you very much. Yes, ma'am.

Just keep doing what you're doing. Yes, ma'am.

We appreciate it.

Yes, ma'am, I got you. My heroes.

I got you.

Thank you. Yes, ma'am.

That's the best part of the job, right there.

When you run into that one person who say,

"Man, thank you." Just thank you.

Ain't a whole lot of conversation.

Thank you. We running out of time.

NARRATOR: A map of arrests in Baltimore city during 2015.

And graded for density.

Transparent areas indicate regions

with the highest concentration of arrests.

The same map, layered over the 1937

residential security map of Baltimore city limits.

Red, yellow, and diagonally shaded areas

indicate those neighborhoods

deemed the highest financial risk

by the Home Owner's Loan Corporation

nearly 80 years ago.

A 2015 survey map of vacant homes.

And graded for density.

Transparent areas indicate regions with

the highest concentration of vacant homes.

And the same map,

layered over the 1937 residential security map.

A map of Baltimore neighborhoods below the poverty line,

layered over.

A map of Baltimore neighborhoods

where the unemployment rate is double

or greater than the national average.

Layered over.

A map showing neighborhoods where average

life expectancy is one standard deviation

or more below the average for the entire city.

And layered over.

New maps.

Old maps.

Same maps.

(plane overhead)

NARRATOR: It is July 4th in Baltimore.

And the entire population has gathered on a hillside

to watch the complete and final demolition of the city.

It has been decided to start again.

A press conference was held earlier in the day

to announce the decision.

The news has been received better than expected.

Past indiscretions had been recognized.

Plans are in place not to repeat mistakes.

The mayor has announced her resignation.

Open submissions have begun

for the next American creation myth.

Streets will be redrawn.

Private property will be raffled at every corner store.

An elite rat task force will be created.

There will be trash pickup every day.

Streets will glisten.

The city will be renamed.

New Baltimore, it will be called.

Before the world became the world, it was an egg.

Inside the egg was dark.

The rat nibbled the egg and let the light in.

And the world began.

* Buses on strike gonna raise a fare *

* So they can help pollute the air *

* But that's what makes the world go 'round *

* The up and down

* The up and down

* Carousel

* That's what makes the world go 'round *

* The up and down

* Carousel

* Changing pe...

* The up and down

* Carousel

(hard rock playing)