UPDATED: Polling On Use Of Force Against Rioters
Guy Benson at Townhall has an enlightening article regarding two recent polls on public attitudes toward the use of force by police during the recent riots. I offer this for comparison with recent polls that show Trump trailing. I simply find it very difficult to reconcile the results of these two use-of-force polls with the notion that Americans think Biden and the Dems would deal with civic violence more effectively. So, here's the link for the full article: WaPo Poll: Three Times As Many Americans Say Police Used Too Little Force to Stop Rioters, Versus Too Much Force .
Now, Benson buys into the idea that there's been a big shift in public opinion, indicating that many believe police use excessive force against African Americans (57% of Americans, 49% of whites). My own view is that those polling results reflect a number of factors. One is the reluctance of many Americans to avoid expressing opinions on controversial matters--or to state what they believe is the safe view. Another factor is the effect of the disinformation fed to the public. Most people have seen pictures of Floyd with a white cop's knee against his neck and believe that Chauvin killed, or even murdered, Floyd--despite the fact that the medical examiner's report shows that to be a false view. Far fewer, in my belief, have any particular knowledge of the actual details of what went down--drug use, the call to the paramedics, the autopsy report, etc. There's plenty of time before the election for the public to become more informed and to feed that into what happened.
UPDATE: Not to put too fine a point on it, I believe that when people realize that they've been had once again, that the George Floyd event is most likely something in the nature of the Trayvon Martin event, that realization will add to the backlash against the Left's violence and general craziness. The voting public will not see the Dems as the party that is likely to restore order, but--coupled with the Russia Hoax--the party of hoaxes designed to sow division.
Now here's the meat of what was found. As you'll see, despite sympathy for Floyd--likely based on disinformation--Americans are very unhappy with what followed:
... police are still viewed favorably by most Americans -- and a new Washington Post poll shows that one major critique of the police is that they were too timid in dealing with violence, rioting and looting:
An overall plurality of 47% believe police didn’t use enough force on violent actors, with only 16% believing they used too much and 34% “about right.” Few demographics thought police used too much force on rioters and looters, but almost every demo thought they didn’t use enough — except Democrats, who split 37% “about right,” 36% not enough force, and 24% too much force.
And this was from a few days ago:
Josh Kraushaar@HotlineJosh
NPR-Marist poll:
56% of registered voters believe police behaving appropriately or not aggressively enough
Only 34% believe police too aggressive.
http://maristpoll.marist.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/NPR_PBS-NewsHour_Marist-Poll_USA-NOS-and-Tables_2006041039.pdf …
In the WaPo numbers, just 16 percent of Americans think the cops were too rough on the rioters which almost perfectly parallels the percentage of Americans also support defunding or slashing budgets from the police. It's a fringe. The overwhelming majority of the country wants order in the streets and laws enforced, even if some tactics and accountability metrics need to be reconsidered.