The best evidence for specialized enforcement units like the task force is a decade old. But even then, the numbers are unreliable because future task force members were already committing crimes. Meanwhile, in the city’s predominantly white neighborhoods, hard-charging “proactive” squads are generally absent and officers actually respond to service calls. The police say they follow crime and the reason they don’t have gun units in white neighborhoods is because there are no guns in white neighborhoods. But that is precisely the kind of thing the task force was doing to the mostly black citizens of Baltimore.

Source: New York Times May 14, 2019 10:07 UTC