Sen. Rand Paul raised a lot of eyebrows Tuesday when, in his speech announcing his presidential candidacy, he declared: “I see an America where criminal justice is applied equally and any law that disproportionately incarcerates people of color is repealed.”

Critics — and not just critics — immediately wondered: Don’t lots of laws result in the disproportionate incarceration of people of color? Should they all be repealed? Laws against murder, robbery, and assault, to name just a few examples, would fit that description. In each of those cases, people of color are imprisoned more, in proportion to their part of the population, than whites.