Poll: Republicans drive decline in Americans who see police violence as serious problem

According to a new Morning Consult survey, conducted April 15-19, 69 percent of U.S. adults view police violence against the public as a “very” or “somewhat” serious problem in the country – down 10 percentage points since a survey conducted shortly after Floyd’s death. The share is also lower than in a July 2016 poll conducted following the shootings of Philando Castile in the Minneapolis area and Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La. Each poll had a 2-point margin of error. As Democrats and Black Americans increasingly cast police violence as a grave issue, the declining threat perception among the broader population is fueled by shifting views among white Republicans: 41 percent view police violence as a serious problem, down 18 points since 2016, while the share of white Democrats who said the same has increased slightly over that time frame to 88 percent. As a whole, Democrats and Black people are twice as likely as Republicans to see police violence as a serious problem, and the share of GOP adults who describe racial discrimination against Black people as “one of the biggest problems facing America today” has fallen 10 points from last summer.