After a week during which the unrest was covered extensively by national news media, the number who responded “not sure” fell from 30% to 17% when asked about the residents and fell from 35% to 27% when asked about the police.

YouGov noted previously that there were stark divisions along racial lines regarding the events in Ferguson and what they meant for the country. This week’s survey suggests views opinions about Ferguson, in particular the police reaction to the protests there, have become even more racially polarized: 63% of blacks in the survey say the police reaction has been “unreasonable”, up from 48% the previous week. At the same time the number of whites who take the opposite view – that the police have been reasonable – has increased from 34% to 45%.