Dear Docs and Friends,
On Friday, Feb. 8, Andy and I went to ALPACT, Advocates and Leaders for
Police and Community Trust, a group of law enforcement, legislators, and
civil rights people that meets monthly to discuss issues related to the
community building in Southeast Michigan. It is co-led by law enforcement
and a civil rights or community leader. We presented on Michigan’s Stand
Your Ground Law variously also known as the self defense or justifiable
homicide law. We compared Michigan’s law to that of Florida and used data
culled from a MLive week long series from May of 2012. Stand Your Ground
allows you to shoot if you feel threatened outside your home- extending
your “castle” to shoot beyond your house. There was a good discussion
following and we made some new allies. You can look at our attached slides
and note that many of these were black on black deaths, males, ages usually
18-40, and most of the victims were unarmed while committing a crime. There
was some general concern that this law is another Public Health disaster
and deserves our concern. For more information go to our website at PPGV.org
Jerry and Andy