Even DC has a police department that treats blacks unfairly

DCist -Black D.C. residents represent 47 percent of the city’s population, but a new report from the ACLU of D.C. found that from 2013 to 2017, 86 percent of people arrested by the city’s police department were black.

The arrest data, released by the Metropolitan Police Department in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, show that black people were arrested at 10 times the rate of white people in the years examined. And according to the ACLU, black people were arrested at higher rates in the vast majority of D.C.’s neighborhoods — even predominantly white ones. Racial disparities in arrests were found in 90 percent of the city’s census tracts.

The data show significant racial disparities for relatively minor offenses, including driving without a permit, possession of an open container of alcohol, public marijuana consumption, gambling and noise complaints.

For both open container offenses and public marijuana consumption, 80 percent of the arrestees were black.

The ACLU argues that because black people in D.C. are disproportionately poor, they are also disproportionately targeted by enforcement of these crimes.