In Baltimore, Slogan Collides With Reality

Darrell Brooks stood at the front of a courtroom, tears streaming down his cheeks, and choked out an apology.

He had killed seven people, five of them children, and now he said he felt sorry.

''I will never, ever, as long as there is breath in my lungs, ever forgive myself,'' he said last Wednesday. ''I knew those kids. I loved them. I swear I didn't mean it, I swear.''

The lanky Mr. Brooks was off to prison for life for burning down a house full of people last October, a crime that seared the heart of this city and blasted a signal that things in Baltimore were still out of control.

Mr. Brooks, a drug dealer, did not Believe. He had not gotten the message, stamped all over the city, on garbage cans, squad cars, T-shirts, skyscrapers, even thumping basketballs.

Believe. One word, printed in black and white, as if things were that clear. It began as a high-concept public relations campaign, begun by the mayor, Martin O'Malley, to tackle Baltimore's most infamous problem, drug crime. For years, the city had been at or near the top of the list of per-capita misery statistics: most murders, most addicts, most high school dropouts, most cases of H.I.V. and syphilis.

Believe was a way to address those ills, not through programs, but through commercials, banners and bumper stickers. Few cities had ever tried anything so abstract.

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