Where Americans stand on policing today

[DonViejo]

Source: Vox

Americans overwhelmingly support reforms — but many still trust police.

By Li [e-mail] Apr 9, 2021, 9:10am EDT

Roughly a year after the start of a national reckoning over police violence and racism toward Black Americans, support for reforms remains strong — as does broad trust in police, according to a new poll from Vox and Data for Progress.

The data comes as the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, who has been charged with murder in the death of George Floyd, has prompted renewed discussions about how policing still needs to change.

Per the Vox/Data for Progress survey, conducted between April 2 and 5 of 1,209 likely voters, a majority of voters would like to see lawmakers pass police reforms in Congress that have been stalled for months: Nearly all of the key provisions of Democrats’ police reform bill — the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act — have a majority of voter support, including a federal ban on chokeholds (71 percent), mandated body cameras for federal officers (84 percent), a prohibition of racial profiling (71 percent), and an end to “qualified immunity” for officers in legal cases (59 percent).

These figures are consistent with the support that many of these reforms had in July 2020 as well, according to a survey conducted by the University of Maryland School of Public Policy last summer.

Read more: https://www.vox.com/22372342/police-reform-derek-chauvin

[no_hypocrisy]

1. I can only speak about my own community.

It's a relatively small town, less than 10,000 residents, mostly immigrants and renters and non-white.

We have pretty good security. If you wanted to go to your car at 4:00 a.m., you wouldn't be taking your life into your hands. You see the Police cruising around and you actually wave to them. If you have a problem, you can go directly to the Department, even to the Chief. We haven't had anyone dead because of an encounter that went out of control.

The only thing I could complain about is the Police busted down my front door when I was at work at night b/c they were investigating someone yelling "Help me! Help me!" and my light was on and there was no answer. This is called a Wellness Check. (No harm, no foul. My councilman arranged for a cruiser to be parked by my house overnight until I could get a locksmith to repair the door.)