Poll reveals 61% of black Americans want the police to remain in their neighborhoods - despite calls to defund them
By James Gordon
Daily Mail
August 5, 2020
A new poll suggests 39% of black Americans are not confident that they would be treated with respect in an encounter by police.
The
figure compares to just 9% of white people who share the view that they
would not be treated favorably during an encounter with law
enforcement.
It's not clear whether
the black American's negative views expressed in the poll are as a
result of their own bad experiences or from hearing the experiences of
others many of which have been heavily documented in recent years.
Out of the group of black Americans who
are 'not at all confident' that the police would treat them with
courtesy and respect, 59% want them to spend less time in their
neighborhood.
The findings come in a poll by Gallup
which also found that 61% want the police presence in their
neighborhoods to remain the same despite calls to defund and reform
policing across the country.
The
majority of black Americans want to retain their local police force and
for officers to spend the same amount of time in their neighborhoods as
they currently do.
The poll suggests
that roughly equal proportions of black Americans would also like the
police to spend more time in their area (20%) as those who would like
them to spend less time there (19%).
The
figures are relatively similar to those in other demographics with 71%
of white Americans and 67% of all U.S. adults wanting to retain the
status quo, including 71% of white Americans.
A previous survey conducted in July found
that 90% of black citizens would like to see reforms take place
including improving police relations with the communities they serve,
along with the prevention of abusive behavior and the punishment of
those in police departments who perpetrate abuse.
Out
of four racial/ethnic groups of white, Asian American, Hispanic and
black Americans, Asian Americans were revealed to be most likely to want
less police presence where they live, with 28% indicating this,
compared to 12% of white people, 17% of Hispanics and 19% of blacks.
One question in the survey asked Americans to estimate how often police were in their neighborhood.
Black
Americans' reported seeing police more often than the national average
at 32%. The number was lower for white Americans and Asian Americans
with 22% and 21% respectively.
Hispanics
also report seeing a similar amount of police in the areas where they
live to that of black Americans with 28% seeing police in their
neighborhoods.
The poll
also found 41% of black Americans say they sometimes see police in their
area which corresponds to the national average. A further 27% say they
never or rarely see them.
Despite
reporting seeing police with greater frequency than other demographics
the poll also found that black Americans do not with to see changes to
their local police force.
A
third say they would like to see cops spend less time close to their
homes although most adults, 56%, believe police should spend the same
amount of time, with 10% wanting more police presence.
While the poll suggests that black
Americans are comfortable with the number of officers on patrol where
they live, there have vastly different opinions on what kind of
treatment they believe they would receive should they face an encounter
with law enforcement.
In the poll,
fewer than one in five black Americans felt confident the police in
their area would treat them with courtesy and respect.
A
similar number of Asian Americans (24%) said the same. Hispanic
Americans are far more optimistic with 40% believing the experience
would be polite, while 56% of white people felt the same.
1 comment:
The squeaky wheel gets the tear gas.
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