/https://specials-images.forbesimg.com/imageserve/5f6d2af5cfa0594b32849743/0x0.jpg?cropX1=0&cropX2=5284&cropY1=473&cropY2=3447&w=1200&resize=1200,675&ssl=1 "Poll Finds Sharp Drop In Support For Protests As Views On Policing Revert To 2015 Levels")
Topline
As protests against police brutality toward Blacks flare up once again in response to the new developments in the Breonna Taylor case, a new poll suggests that Americans’ attitudes towards the protests, and their underlying message, have soured considerably since they began in June.
NEW YORK, USA – SEPTEMBER 23: Thousands of Breonna Taylor protestors marched after no officers … [+]
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Key Facts
As the protests sparked by the death of George Floyd stretch into a fourth month, a new AP-NORC poll of 1,108 U.S. adults, conducted from Sept. 11 to 14, found public approval of the protests has dropped from 54% in June to just 39% now, with 44% of respondents now saying they disapprove.
The belief that police are more likely to use deadly force against Black people rose among Americans from 49% in 2015 to 61% in June following Floyd’s death, but has since dropped back down to 50%.
The sharpest drop was among Republicans, with 26% agreeing to that statement in 2015, rising to 35% in June, before dropping below 2015 levels to 17% in September.
The drop in support for the protests coincide with an increasingly hardline anti-protest stance taken by many Republican politicians, most notably President Trump, who has condemned both violence at the protests and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Since Floyd’s death in late May, cities across the nation have been gripped by a mix of peaceful and violent protests against police violence.
Protests surged in several cities on Wednesday night after a grand jury decided not to charge either of the officers who shot Breonna Taylor while raiding her apartment in March, with two officers shot in Taylor’s home city of Louisville, Ky. amid intense demonstrations.
Big Number
75%. That’s the share of Republican respondents to the AP/NORC poll who said they disapprove of the protests, up from 56% in June, compared to 70% approval among Democrats. Among Republicans, 52% said the protests are all or mostly violent.
Chief Critic
“Black Lives Matter is a Marxist organization,” Trump told Fox News host Laura Ingraham during an interview in August. “The first time I ever heard of Black Lives Matter, I said, ‘That’s a terrible name.’ It’s so discriminatory. It’s bad for Black people. It’s bad for everybody.”
Surprising Fact
Trump has even gone so far as to praise violence against not only protesters, but also journalists as part of his argument that “law and order” is the right response to civil unrest. “They grabbed them, they grabbed them, they were grabbing them left and right,” Trump said gleefully during a rally Tuesday of law enforcement quelling protests in Minneapolis. “Sometimes they grab one guy, ‘I’m a reporter! I’m a reporter… threw him aside like he was a little bag of popcorn… it’s actually a beautiful sight.”
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