Failed people all have one thing in common, and that’s an inability to accept responsibility.

After a stunning 211 homicides in “Charm City” so far this year, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake—who so ineptly led the city during the Freddie Gray riots and who alienated her own police department—is now attempting to blame her city’s violence on, well, everywhere else.

“If you know someone who is involved in this, who you know are either the next victim or the next perpetrator, if you don’t want to see your loved one die in the streets, we need you to help us do something, because if they are involved in these strands, it’s coming,” Rawlings-Blake said.

Citing similar increases in violence in other cities, the mayor called for a national response, including a controversial target: tougher federal gun laws. She acknowledged that Baltimore’s violence surges on despite Maryland’s gun laws, some of the toughest in the country. The problem, she said, is that laws in other states are more lax.

“What I am saying (is) the current approach, the state-by-state approach, has not been effective,” Rawlings-Blake said.

Rawlings-Blake is following the same blame-shifting pattern of the governments of Chicago, Washington, DC, and other large, Democrat-controlled cities with high violent crime and highly restrictive gun control.

The mayors of these cities (and others, such as St. Louis, Oakland, Memphis, and many more) refuse to deal with the incontrovertible fact that thug culture within their cities not only accepts, but glorifies violence and criminal behavior.

You need look no further than the gangsta rap culture (glorified in music, movies, and even in the White House itself as President Obama poses with violent former drug dealer Jay Z) to see where the problem lies.

Unfortunately, none of these politicians has the moral courage to confront this problem head-on, much less attempt to change it. Putting the blame where it belongs would inflame their most reliable voters (inner city minorities who vote lockstep for Democrats) and would force uncomfortable introspection for all… and we can’t have that.

Thug culture is the problem.

A culture that sings of violent retribution for minor slights, boasts of criminality and misogyny, while spitting on civility and basic human decency, while vilifying those who would protect them from themselves is the problem.

Do you want to really address the problems of Baltimore, Mayor Rawlings-Blake?

Stop pointing fingers elsewhere, and look in a mirror.