From USA Today:
“USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll: A
majority of Americans say cities under siege by protesters”
As protests against systemic
racism continue across the U.S. and law and order becomes a major theme in the
2020 presidential race, a new poll shows most Americans say cities are under
siege. Roughly two-thirds (64%) of those surveyed say they believe protesters
and counter-protesters are overwhelming American cities, according to a USA
TODAY/Ipsos poll. That majority shows stark partisan divisions that echo the
messages coming from Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic nominee
Joe Biden: Significantly more Republicans than Democrats say cities are under
siege, 83% to 48%, respectively. Those who live in rural areas (71%) are more
likely to agree with that sentiment than those in urban areas (59%). As
Americans reckon with racial injustice and inequality after a series of
high-profile deaths of Black people, protesters have called for change,
especially in terms of policing. Violence and looting have broken out at
several protests, though the movement is staying largely peaceful.
The summer of strife has played
out while the nation is in the throes of an increasingly contentious
presidential race. Biden denounced violent agitators but said he believes the
protesters' message is right. Trump has ramped up his rhetoric, referring to
himself as the "law and order president" and calling for law
enforcement to crack down on the protesters, calling them "thugs" and
"very bad people." Trump's Department of Justice on Monday labeled
New York City, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle "anarchist jurisdictions"
that may lose federal funding because of the violence. Trump has used the unrest as a direct appeal
to white suburban women to back him again after he won their support over
Hillary Clinton in 2016. Suburban voters are crucial in the 2020 battle for
several swing states, including Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Michelle Brown, who lives in Beaverton,
Oregon, a suburb of Portland, says Trump has “done a lot of good for this
country.” Portland has seen weeks of protests since the killing of George Floyd
in Minneapolis, and Trump sent in federal law enforcement.
The use of federal officials in
U.S. cities was highly controversial, but more than half (56%) of Americans say
they believe the government should deploy more police to get protests and
unrest under control, according to the Ipsos poll. Fifty-four percent say
people should arm themselves to protect private property during protests. “I
think Portland is under siege because of all of the Black Lives Matter
movement,” says Brown, who answered the poll and plans to vote for Trump. “They
want to just cause strife. They don't care about the life, they just want to
cause breakdown in the United States as a whole.” Brown, 51, says demonstrators
in Portland have taken over, pointing to a sit-in by protesters in the lobby of
Mayor Ted Wheeler’s condominium. The
poll was conducted between Sept. 17 to Sept. 18, with 1,108 adults surveyed
online in English. There is a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage
points.
Crime and coronavirus are
voters' top issues Crime is one of the top concerns for Americans,
according to the poll, second only to the coronavirus pandemic. More
than one in three (34%) Americans say crime, violence or unrest is the most
worrying topic, and COVID-19 ranks No. 1 at 44%. There is again a partisan
divide in which unrest is the top issue for 42% of Republicans compared with
27% of Democrats. The majority of Democrats (56%) say their top concern is
COVID-19. Despite many protesters calling for justice for those who have
died or been harmed by police violence, almost two in three (63%) Americans say
they believe assaults on police officers have gotten worse in the past six
months, according to the poll. That's more than the 49% who say assaults by
police officers has gotten worse. Cornelia Cheatham, of Kyle,
Texas, says she doesn't feel safe in
Trump's America because of the racial climate. "If Trump wins, I
feel it will be dangerous for minorities," Cheatham, 60, says.
"Because we have no guards to feel safe anymore. Everything's been
stripped away from us. The way he's dividing the nation. Everybody's going to
get guns, and people are scared, and they'll shoot you on sight." Cheatham,
who supports the Black Lives Matter movement, says she believes that if Biden
is elected, "there'll be a change, and he'll bring everybody
together." "If not, I think it will be eventually a race
war," she says. Dawn Tuller, 42, of Hebron, Nebraska, says that
although she doesn’t know exactly what the president has done to address the
protests, she agrees with his messaging. “I like the way that he's been doing
things,” she says.
What causes the violence at
protests? There are various factors Americans say make protests more
dangerous. Poll respondents point to both conservative and mainstream media, as
well as the president. Six in 10 Americans say the mainstream media has
made the protests more dangerous, followed by the Black Lives Matter movement
at 59% and Trump at 54%. A majority of Americans say antifa (53%), conservative
militias (52%) and conservative media (51%) contribute to protests becoming
more dangerous. Less than one-third (29%) say Biden has made the
protests more dangerous. Among Republicans, 81% say the Black Lives
Matter movement makes protests more dangerous, compared with 41% of Democrats.
Comparatively, 72% of Democrats say the same is true about conservative
militias, compared with 41% of Republicans. When broken down by party,
25% of Republicans and 85% of Democrats blame Trump for making the protests
more dangerous. More than half (58%) of Republicans and only 7% of Democrats
say the same of Biden.
^ I believe (and have from the
beginning) that those guilty of these violent protests across the US are: the Pro-BLM
Protesters, the Anti-BLM Protesters, the State Governors (of Washington,
Oregon, New York, Illinois, etc.), the Mayors (of Seattle, Portland, Chicago,
New York City, etc.), President Trump, the ultra-Liberals and the
ultra-Conservatives. Every single one of them have helped either to create the
violence or to allow the violence to continue and intensify. Until these politicians
and people step-in and actively denounce these violent protests they will only
continue to wreak havoc across the country and more property will be destroyed
and more people will be killed and wounded. ^
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.