A poll taken since a white policeman in Missouri shot dead an unarmed black teenager shows blacks and whites sharply divided on how fairly the police deal with each group and a rising feeling, especially among whites, that race relations in the country are troubled. But when asked about their own communities, both races said their relations with the other were good.
The latest New York Times/CBS News nationwide poll shows most whites reserving judgment on whether the fatal shooting of the teenager, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Mo., was justified. Most blacks say it was not.
'Whether they robbed a store, pushed a man, or whatever the case may be, there are other strategies and tactics the police officer should use before excessive force and brutally killing someone in cold blood,' Felicia Irving, 28, a high school English teacher in Hampton, Ga., who is black, said in a follow-up interview.
Jean Smith, 75, a retiree in Hartford, Ala., who is white, said she could not determine 'with just two or three facts' whether the officer, Darren Wilson, had been justified in shooting and killing Mr. Brown. 'To know whether it was justified, I'd have to know the whole thing from beginning to end and look at it as objectively as possible,' Ms. Smith said.
The poll also shows significant differences in how blacks and whites view the unrest in Ferguson after Mr. Brown's killing. Most whites said they thought the actions of the protesters had gone too far, while blacks were more evenly divided. Thirty-eight percent of blacks thought the protesters' actions had been about right, compared with 15 percent of whites. A vast majority of the protesters in Ferguson have been black.
Since Aug. 9, when Officer Wilson shot and killed Mr. Brown, protesters have marched just blocks away, sometimes peacefully, other times with acts of violence. The police have dressed in riot gear, driven armored vehicles, and used tear gas and rubber bullets.
The public is split over the police response, with equal numbers saying that the police have gone too far and that they have been about right in their efforts. But black Americans are nearly twice as likely as whites to fault the police.
The issue at the heart of the unrest in Ferguson - the suspicion among some that a white policeman was trigger-happy when faced with a young black man - is also at the heart of what divides black and white Americans. An overwhelming majority of blacks said they thought that, generally, the police were more likely to use deadly force against a black person; a majority of whites said race was not a factor in a police officer's decision to use force. Forty-five percent of blacks said they had experienced racial discrimination by the police at some point in their lives; virtually no whites said they had.
When asked whether police forces should reflect the racial makeup of the community they serve, nearly six in 10 blacks said yes; whites were about evenly divided. In Ferguson, which is two-thirds black, the police force of 53 officers includes three blacks.
About six in 10 blacks polled said they had little to no confidence that the investigation being conducted by the local authorities into Mr. Brown's shooting would be handled fairly, while about the same share of whites said they were confident the investigation would be fair.
The poll did find consensus that the military-style equipment used by the police in Ferguson should not be in officers' hands. Two-thirds of all Americans said assault rifles and tanks should be reserved for the military and the National Guard.
'There are too many people on the police force who act without thinking,' said Lisa Scenk, 60, a retiree from Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., who is white. 'And they shouldn't have access to assault weapons.' Simone Grant, 36, a saleswoman from Corum, N.Y., who is black, agreed. 'I think some of the local police forces do things they are not supposed to do, and if they had these kinds of weapons, they would use them to their advantage.'
Questions about race relations posed in Times/CBS polls have shown a seesaw effect, often apparently related to events. In the summer of 2008, for example, 59 percent of blacks and 34 percent of whites said race relations were generally bad. Nine months later, after the election of President Obama, that number had dropped to 30 percent among blacks and 21 percent among whites. Likewise, in the last four months, the percentage of whites who consider race relations to be bad has risen to 41 percent from 27 percent, possibly influenced by events such as those in Ferguson.
Similarly, a survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press showed that after the 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager in Florida, 60 percent of whites thought the issue of race was getting too much attention. After Mr. Brown's killing, Pew asked the same question, and 47 percent of whites agreed.
At the same time, when asked in the Times/CBS poll about race relations in their own communities, Americans painted a positive picture. About three-quarters of both blacks and whites say the situation is generally good. A majority of whites, however, say they interact regularly with only a few blacks.
Half of black and white Americans say that most people are generally uncomfortable talking about race with a person of another race. However, most said they themselves were comfortable having such conversations.
The nationwide poll of 1,025 adults was conducted Aug. 19-20 on landlines and cellphones, and for purposes of analysis, blacks were oversampled. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus four percentage points for all adults, five percentage points for whites and eight percentage points for blacks.
Posted by Unknown on Thursday, August 21, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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