Newly released data shows Boston police are monitoring nearly 5,000 people — almost all of them young black and Latino men — through a secretive gang database.
A summary provided by the department recently shows that 66% of those on its database are black, 24% are Latino and 2% are white.
Black people comprise about 25% of all Boston residents, Latinos about 20% and white people more than 50%.
A lawsuit brought last fall by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups says Central American youths are being wrongly listed as active gang members "based on nothing more than the clothing they are seen in and the classmates they are seen with."
They say that's led some to be deported.
Boston police haven't provided comment after multiple requests. Commissioner William Gross has previously defended the database as a tool in combating MS-13 and other gangs.
