Justin McCarthy reports for Gallup:
Three in four Americans (76%) say they have "a great deal" of respect for the police in their area, up 12 percentage points from last year.
In addition to the large majority of Americans expressing "a great deal" of respect for their local police, 17% say they have "some" respect while 7% say they have "hardly any."
Gallup has asked this question nine times since 1965. The percentage who say they respect the police is significantly higher now than in any measurement taken since the 1990s and is just one point below the high of 77% recorded in 1967. Solid majorities of Americans have said they respect their local law enforcement in all polls conducted since 1965.
How about the ethnic breakdown?
For this issue in particular, the anti-police hate group known as Black Lives Matter is directing its toxic message specifically to African-Americans, and a separate polling result would be helpful in seeing how much that effort has succeeded. An upturn of 14% among African-Americans and not just among "nonwhites" overall would be welcome news indeed.
Even so, the poll is very encouraging. Perhaps the "war on cops" will be short-lived.
Four in five whites (80%) say they have a great deal of respect for police in their area, up 11 points from last year. Meanwhile, two in three nonwhites (67%) report having the same level of respect, an increase of 14 points from last year.I find Gallup's classification of its respondents as "white" or "nonwhite" irksome, and it is particularly so on this question. The notion that everyone not classified as "white" is a member of a single group with distinctive views on issues is contrary to experience. Classifying people by ethnic origin at all is distasteful, but sometimes it is necessary. Lumping different groups together is even worse.
For this issue in particular, the anti-police hate group known as Black Lives Matter is directing its toxic message specifically to African-Americans, and a separate polling result would be helpful in seeing how much that effort has succeeded. An upturn of 14% among African-Americans and not just among "nonwhites" overall would be welcome news indeed.
Even so, the poll is very encouraging. Perhaps the "war on cops" will be short-lived.
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