As soon as you enter the city of Baltimore, a peculiar sight emerges. Close to every light pole is a flashing blue surveillance camera, openly stalking the actions of the city's inhabitants. There is a militarised police presence on every street corner.

I’m a resident of Baltimore and live at a 10-minute drive from the flashpoint of the riots. Thousands of miles away in Bahawalpur, where I'm currently on vacation, I can still feel the heat rising in Baltimore.

The city entered the limelight after the death of Freddie Gray, a young black man arrested for making eye contact with an officer. Mr Gray, remembered as a loving son and caring brother, was put in the back of a van with his hands and feet cuffed, without a seat belt. The motions of the van and the inability of Mr Gray to stabilise himself, resulted in a broken spine, leading to his eventual death.

Know more: Six Baltimore police officers charged over Gray’s death

The narrative of police brutality in the United States, especially in Baltimore, is not new.

In the last four years, 31 people have died in police custody in this city, most of them black. Even more harrowing is the recent video of Walter Scott from North Charleston, South Carolina, who was shot and killed while running away from a police officer.

Since the start of 2015, there have been 387 people murdered by police officers in the United States.

Compare that to any other developing country, like Australia, which has had 105 police shootings in the last 22 years, and a haunting picture starts to emerge.

The rhetoric of blatant, utter inequality may be worn out but it is true: there are areas in Baltimore, located at a 10-minute drive from Howard County – the third richest in the United States – which have lower living standards than the shanty-towns of Nigeria.

The war on drugs, a remnant of the Reagan era and a convenient way to enforce racism; has resulted in blacks being five times more likely to be arrested for marijuana than whites, even though usage among both races is close to the same.

Also read: Globetrotting: Baltimore or less

Infant life expectancy in some Baltimore neighborhoods is on par with that in Belize. And that is despite Baltimore City being home to one of the best healthcare systems in the world, Johns Hopkins.

The boiling kettle of socio-economic problems and outright cruelty had to erupt. And, it did. The riots in Baltimore resulted in major property loss and the calling of the National Guard to stabilise the situation.

Many of the businesses destroyed during the riots were Asian-owned. The vast ownership of businesses by Asians in majority black areas, whether planned or fateful, results in a clash of interest between these groups. Asian groups are not necessarily against the movement for black equality; they are worried more about riots that result in property loss.

Also read: Police targeted, stores looted in Baltimore riots

This individual story, however, is slowly turning into a communal one.

There were many Muslims at the peaceful protests on April 29, one that attracted close to ten thousand people of diverse backgrounds to march through the city of Baltimore, demanding justice and change. They wore hijabs and had beards, comfortably walking amongst the diverse crowd, exemplifying the cultural salad-bowl that is the United States of America, together attempting to change the inequality that exists in their homeland.

There are many lessons that the Pakistani state can learn from the Black American struggle. The largest factor in pushing extremism and halting political and social progress is definitely economic inequality, both in Pakistan and America.

The existence of a state lies in the provision of opportunity for its citizens. If the state continues to fail to respond to disparities, and ignores the welfare of the common man to let the imperialism of industrialists and landlords flourish, it can expect to watch its authority diminish.