Donna wrote:Do you have any evidence that public opinion toward racial justice is negatively changing as a result of the George Floyd protests?
That depends on how you define "racial justice". Trump supporters will have radically different views from BLM supporters over how that looks like, as I can assume you understand.
But more importantly, the reaction doesn't happen just due to the
content of whatever the revolutionaries want, but more importantly,
it happens due to the means they use to achieve their ends: The reaction begins because the revolutionaries go too far in their attempts to
impose the order they want, and the rest react. And yes, there is evidence that there might be a reaction:
YouGov wrote:But Americans are less certain about how to classify the protests that originated in Minneapolis after Floyd's death and have spread across the world. Many protesters have marched peacefully in the streets, while others have engaged in looting or arson. The Minnesota Star Tribune reported that at least 255 businesses across the cities were vandalized as of Sunday morning.
Americans describe the protests in Minneapolis as "mostly violent riots" (51%) over "mostly peaceful protests" (10%). About two in five Democrats (42%) describe the protests as an equal mixture of peaceful and violent, while almost three-quarters of Republicans say the protests are mostly violent riots. White Americans (57%) are much more likely than Black Americans (32%) to believe that the Minnesota protests are defined by violence.
Another problem is that one of the proposals that's becoming quite prominent doesn't seem to have too much support:
YouGov wrote:Despite calls by activists and protesters to defund police departments, most Americans do not support reducing law enforcement budgets. Close to two-thirds (65%) oppose cutting police force funding. Just 16 percent of Democrats and 15 percent of Republicans support that idea.
The reforms that seem to have most support are quite different in nature:
YouGov wrote:There is strong bipartisan support for training police officers how to de-escalate conflicts and avoid using force (94% support among Democrats; 83% support among Republicans). A similar number of Democrats (91%) and Republicans (82%) support outfitting all police officers with body cameras. The body cameras, which are worn on an officer’s uniform, can provide footage of their interactions with citizens. A 2015 Reuters report found that despite heightened interest in body cameras after police misconduct reports, they are often unaffordable for many police departments.
Four in five (80%) Americans favor implementing an early warning system to identify problematic officers. This is supported by strong majorities of Democrats (89%) and Republicans (72%), as well as white (81%) and black (88%) Americans.
YouGov wrote:On Thursday, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy expressed support for a federal ban on police choke holds — a key passage of the police reform proposal drafted by Democrats to overhaul police procedures in America.
A federal ban on choke holds would prohibit police officers from restraining someone by restricting their breathing. The Economist/YouGov Poll indicates that such a ban would receive bipartisan support from the public. Three-quarters (75%) of registered voters favor it, including majorities of Democrats (87%), Independents (69%), and Republicans (63%).