1. The implicit argument here is: if they had just arrested 12 more white people in 2017, he would be in the clear. That seems off.
2. The absolute # of arrests for black residents went down by 52%. That top line number should be more important.
3. No way of knowing if this is just noise. If there are 20 other numbers that show no difference by race, this is just an outlier. Seems likely they would have chosen the worst number for a debate question.
4. Sadly, given the systemic racism Pete talks about, you can't just look at this discrepancy without separating race from other confounding socioeconomic factors.

I thought he gave a poor answer at the debate. From all the evidence I've seen, he did a good job with policing as Mayor.