The fantasy that without discrimination, every demographic slice of the nation would be proportionately represented in every aspect of human endeavor – good and bad – has become official dogma in much of government. The end result is often tragic. Let's hope this step by the Portland Police Bureau does not end up allowing gangs more leeway to inflict harm on others.

Portland police will no longer maintain a database of suspected gang members, due to concerns that the vast majority of people with the gang label are racial minorities. Starting Oct. 15, the Portland Police Bureau will end the 20-year practice of issuing gang member designations, which police say can lead to "unintended consequences" and a lifelong stigma even for those who have given up the gang lifestyle. Officials intend to notify the approximately 300 people on the gang list that the bureau will purge all records related to the designations, The Oregonian reported.

The official position seems to be to imply that this is mostly cosmetic:

"There are still criminal gang members. That doesn't go away because we don't have a gang designation," said Capt. Mike Krantz, according to The Oregonian. "We're not pretending gang violence doesn't exist. We're just taking this one thing away."

Notice how carefully constructed this comment is. The good captain is not saying there will no impact, that law enforcement will be unaffected. In fact, the logic that created the database must include a reasonable expectation that it would be a useful tool.

I don't have to tell you why this change is being made: cowardly, virtue-signaling politicians and bureaucrats surrender to "community activists."

City officials and community activists had long urged the bureau to stop attaching the gang designation to criminal suspects, claiming the practice disproportionately impacted people of color. A review of police data by The Oregonian last year found that 81 percent of the "criminal gang affiliates" in Portland's database were racial or ethnic minorities. "This is too long coming," said Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who is also the city's police commissioner. "It was the right thing to do."

Let's hope there is no increase in gang-related violence, especially on the part of former members of the list. Their victims may not agree that removing this tool was "the right thing to do."

Meanwhile, in Portlandia, this group of Mennonites...

...are just as likely to be gang members as this group.

I guess it is time to start rounding up Mennonites along with all those other under-incarcerated ethnic groups.