As COVID-19 rages on, so does police violence, racism, and protests across the nation. Donald Trump makes his feelings known with regularity (just look at his Twitter), as do people who protest to reopen economies to get haircuts, and as do, too, activists and advocates for toppling statues of Confederate soldiers and colonizers. But what do the majority of Americans think? Checking out the latest Civiqs data uncovers some very intriguing answers when it comes to Black Lives Matter and police budgets. Specifically: Are we allocating too many funds to the police? If so, where should that money be reallocated? And perhaps the biggest picture question, period: Should we not only defund the police but abolish them altogether?
As some background, this Civiqs poll surveyed 1,472 adults in the United States from June 27-30. Polling was done online. Survey results are weighted to be representative of adults in the U.S. The survey has a margin of error of ±2.6%. You can check out the full cross-tabs here.
Close to 65% of respondents view the protests against racism and police brutality as peaceful. And 33% view them as not being violent or destructive. Over 80% of respondents are aware that protests are happening in their local area, though just one in ten respondents report attending one. Of those who have attended, 53% were between 18 and 35. Close to 45% of respondents believe that police have used too much force while manning protests.
Interestingly, more than one-quarter of respondents believe police departments should be defunded, while only 6% believe they should be abolished. There are a lot of differences between calls to defund the police and calls to abolish the police (though there can also be overlap or a forward momentum between the two); you can check out this deep dive into what calls to defund the police mean, or check out the Daily Kos YouTube video embedded below. You can also check out this round-up of reform efforts.
Either way, close to half of the respondents of this survey do want to see less money going into police departments. Nearly one-quarter of respondents (24%) want to see much less, while close to 20% (19%) want to see somewhat less. On the other side, 18% of respondents want to see much more, and 14% want to see somewhat more. Only 17% want to see funding stay the same.
If we approach police departments (and funding) in terms of reform, more than half of survey respondents (55%) want to see some government funds go to mental health and social service programs. This breaks down into 89% of Democrats, 56% of Independents, and 12% of Republicans. A close percentage (56%) want to see reform in terms of process, specifically that properly trained, unarmed people can respond to calls that don’t involve crimes; so, for example, mental health or wellness checks.
Almost 60% of respondents believe the killings of Black Americans by police are part of a bigger-picture issue, as opposed to being isolated incidents. Almost half of white respondents agree (49%), while 95% of Black respondents do.
You can also check out our Making Progress interview with Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza, where she discusses what to do if you support a progressive cause, but not its tactics.