There’s really not any strong evidence to suggest that was happening. And you can’t test it because all it takes the accusation of racism and some pseudoscience and you’ll be shut down.
It makes some weird comparisons. Why have the heat map of drug users? Police are much more interested in drug dealers, and particularly drug dealers who are likely involved in gangs and violent crime. Unfortunately, those individuals are over represented in minority communities, as are violent criminals more generally.
It also throws around phrases like "historically over-policed communities" without ever actually explaining what that means or why it occurred. There seems to be a general pattern of taking "systemic racism" and equating that to racial discrimination when the two are not the same. There are problems within minority communities which are significant in driving these disproportionate outcomes, and if we just say "racism" and don't look any further that isn't even going to be considered.
If we want to reduce mass incarceration of people for nonviolent crimes, we ought to be reforming the laws, not reducing enforcement just to produce conviction stats we like more. That will almost certainly get people killed.
The closest thing to evidence referenced in the article is this study: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1740-9713.2016....
It makes some weird comparisons. Why have the heat map of drug users? Police are much more interested in drug dealers, and particularly drug dealers who are likely involved in gangs and violent crime. Unfortunately, those individuals are over represented in minority communities, as are violent criminals more generally.
It also throws around phrases like "historically over-policed communities" without ever actually explaining what that means or why it occurred. There seems to be a general pattern of taking "systemic racism" and equating that to racial discrimination when the two are not the same. There are problems within minority communities which are significant in driving these disproportionate outcomes, and if we just say "racism" and don't look any further that isn't even going to be considered.
If we want to reduce mass incarceration of people for nonviolent crimes, we ought to be reforming the laws, not reducing enforcement just to produce conviction stats we like more. That will almost certainly get people killed.