CHAPTER TWO: STAND
1 Suicide, prisoner-on-prisoner violence ... The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that
throughout the 1980 s, several hundred incarcerated individuals died each year of suicide,
homicide, and other “unknown” reasons. Christopher J. Mumola, “Suicide and Homicide
in State Prisons and Local Jails,” Bureau of Justice Statistics (August 2005 ), available at
http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid= 1126 , accessed April 30 , 2014 ; Lawrence A.
Greenfield, “Prisons and Prisoners in the United States,” Bureau of Justice Statistics (April
1992 ), available at http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid= 1392.
2 I found Bureau of Justice statistics ... In 1978 , black people were eight times more
likely than whites to be killed by police officers. Jodi M. Brown and Patrick A. Langan,
“Policing and Homicide, 1976 - 1998 : Justifiable Homicide by Police, Police Officers
Murdered by Felons,” Bureau of Justice Statistics (March 2001 ), available at http://www.bjs.
gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid= 829 , accessed April 30 , 2014.
3 By the end of the twentieth century ... By 1998 , black people were still four times more
likely to be killed by the police than white people. Brown and Langan, “Policing and
Homicide, 1976 – 1998 .”
4 the problem would get worse ... In states with “Stand Your Ground” laws, the rate of
“justifiable” homicides of blacks more than doubled between 2005 and 2011 , the period
when the majority of these laws were enacted. The rate of such homicides against whites
also rose, but only slightly, and the homicide rate against whites was much lower to begin
with. “Shoot First: ‘Stand Your Ground’ Laws and Their Effect on Violent Crime and the
Criminal Justice System,” joint press release from the National Urban League, Mayors
Against Illegal Guns, and VoteVets.org (September 2013 ), available at http://nul.
iamempowered.com/content/mayors-against-illegal-guns-national-urban-league-votevets-
release-report-showing-stand-your, accessed April 30 , 2014.
