Two USA Today/Ipso polls show that support for law enforcement is rising from its lows last summer and only one in five respondents want to defund police.
In June 60% of Americans expressed trust in the Black Lives Matter movement to promote justice and equal treatment of people, compared with 56% who trusted local police to do that.
Now, however, attitudes have shifted significantly. Trust in Black Lives Matter has fallen to 50%; trust in local police and law enforcement has risen to 69%, USA Today reports.
Black Americans and white Americans now express very different views: 75% of black people but just 42% of white people express trust in Black Lives Matter, while 77% of white people but just 42% of black people trust local police.
But viewpoints in both demographic groups have moved in the same direction compared with the June 2020 survey. Among black respondents, trust in Black Lives Matter has fallen by 12 points and trust in local police has risen by 14 points. Among white respondents, trust in Black Lives Matter has fallen by 8 points and trust in local police has risen by 12 points, USA Today reports.
Only 18% of respondents supported the movement known as "defund the police," and 58% said they opposed it. Though white Americans (67%) and Republicans (84%) were much more likely to oppose the movement, only 28% of black Americans and 34% of Democrats were in favor of it.
And the responses were even more negative when Americans were asked if they thought the police should be abolished or eliminated, with 67% overall saying they were opposed, including a majority of blacks and Democrats, USA Today reports.
