Locking up our own : crime and punishment in Black America
James Forman (Author)
"Critics of America's criminal justice system have assailed the rise of mass incarceration, emphasizing its disproportionate impact on people of color. As James Forman Jr. points out, however, the war on crime that began in the 1970s was supported by many African American leaders. In this book, he seeks to understand why. Forman describes how the first substantial cohort of black mayors, judges, and police chiefs took office amid a surge in crime and drug addiction--and thus embraced tough-on-crime measures that would have unforeseen but devastating consequences for residents of poor black neighborhoods. He tells stories of politicians, community activists, police officers, defendants, and crime victims--individuals trapped in terrible dilemmas."--Book cover
Print Book, English, 2018
First paperback edition View all formats and editions
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2018
306 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm
9780374537449, 0374537445
1021856753
Introduction
Part I: Origins : 1. Gateway to the war on drugs: marijuana, 1975
2. Black Lives Matter: gun control, 1975
3. Representatives of their race: the rise of African American police, 1948-78
Part II: Consequences : 4. "Locking up thugs is not vindictive": sentencing, 1981-82
5. "The worst thing to hit us since slavery": crack and the advent of warrior policing, 1988-92
6. What would Martin Luther King, Jr., say?: stop and search, 1995
Epilogue: The reach of our mercy, 2014-16