Report: Majority of Americans Support Black Lives Matter Protests

The June 2020 Daily Kos/Civiqs Poll asked 1,472 adults in the United States about the Black Lives Matter protests, policing, police funding, Confederate Civil War monuments, and the ongoing effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

Black Lives Matter Protests

In the weeks following the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, protests against racism and police brutality took place in every state in America. The vast majority of Americans (84%) are aware of Black Lives Matter protests in their local area, with one in ten (11%) Americans attending a protest themselves. The protests are being driven by younger Americans: over half (53%) of those attending a Black Lives Matter protest were 18-34 years old.

Nearly two-thirds of Americans (59%) -- including a plurality of white Americans (49%) -- see the deaths of Black Americans during encounters with police in recent years as signs of a broader problem.

A majority of Americans (55%) support the Black Lives Matter protests, with positive sentiment for the movement at a historic high. Support for the protests is heavily split along party lines, including nine in ten Democrats (91%), 55% of Independents, and 10% of Republicans. By a nearly two-to-one margin, most Americans (64%) believe that the protesters are peaceful, not trying to incite violence or destroy property. A plurality of Americans (44%) also believe that the police have used too much force in their response to the protests. Only one in five Americans (18%) say that the police are doing a good job of handling the protests, and 31% believe that the police are not doing enough.

As the protests continue, many local governments are removing Confederate Civil War monuments. By a 49%-40% margin, most Americans support the removal of these monuments and the renaming of buildings named after Confederates. Nine in ten Black Americans (91%) are in favor of the removal of Confederate monuments, compared to 38% of white Americans.

Police Funding

The Black Lives Matter protests have raised questions about police services and funding in the United States. A plurality of Americans think that police departments should receive either much less (24%) or somewhat less (19%) government funding than they currently do.

Additionally, the majority of Americans support policies that would effectively decrease funding for police departments. Over half (55%) support reallocating some police funding to crime reduction programs such as mental health services and social work, including 89% of Democrats, 56% of Independents, and 12% of Republicans. Over half of Americans (56%) also support trained and unarmed professionals responding to non-criminal calls instead of police.

Despite these policy views, the survey finds that when asked directly if “police departments in the United States should be defunded,” only 28% say yes. When asked if “police departments in the United States should be abolished,” 6% respond yes and 87% say no.

COVID-19

With the recent surge in coronavirus cases across the United States, concern about the pandemic -- which had been steadily decreasing for the past several months -- has returned to a high not seen since April. Two-thirds of Americans (65%) are either extremely or moderately concerned about a coronavirus outbreak in their local area.

Concern about state re-openings has also increased. Last month, one third of Americans (31%) were extremely worried that state re-openings would cause an increase in coronavirus cases. This is currently up to 44%. However, the proportion of Americans wearing a face mask remains largely unchanged: 48% now wear one whenever they leave the house, compared to 44% two months ago.

Satisfaction with the U.S. government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak has consistently decreased since March. For the first time, a majority of Americans (51%) are not satisfied at all with the Trump administration’s efforts. Satisfaction with state and local government response also continues to wane, but remains much higher than perceptions of the federal response. The majority (53%) of Americans are either completely or mostly satisfied with their local government’s response, compared to 57% last month and 60% in May.

Please visit civiqs.com for additional daily updates on Americans’ level of concern about the coronavirus epidemic, and views of the response to the coronavirus outbreak by the U.S. government and state and local governments.

Civiqs surveyed 1,472 adults in the United States from June 27-30, 2020. The survey was conducted online, among selected members of the Civiqs research panel. Sampled individuals were emailed by Civiqs and responded using a personalized link to the survey at civiqs.com. The survey results are weighted by age, race, gender, education, party identification, and region to be representative of the population of adults in the United States. The general design effect due to weighting is 1.07. The survey has a margin of error of ±2.6% at the 95% confidence level, accounting for the design effect.