June 10, 2020

Public Support for Cutting Police Funding Is Low

Krista Kennell/ZUMA

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Over at NRO, Ramesh Ponnuru points to a YouGov poll showing weak public support for cutting police funding:

The results for “cut funding for police departments” was that 16 percent favored it and 65 percent opposed it. The highest support for the idea, 33 percent, was found among black respondents, but a narrow plurality of 36 percent of them still opposed it.

Fine, but this poll was taken only a few days after George Floyd was killed. Have things changed since then? Here’s a YouGov poll taken a couple of days ago:

So approval for cutting police funding has increased from 16 percent to 22 percent. That’s not huge movement, but it’s not bad for a single week. Nevertheless, it’s still nowhere within light years of a majority. “Defund the Police” has a long way to go to get the public on its side.

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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