A new Associated Press poll finds that the BLM protesters are starting to wear out their welcome.
The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that 44% of Americans disapprove of protests in response to police violence against Black Americans, while 39% approve. In June, 54% approved. The new survey was conducted Sept. 11-14, before Wednesday’s announcement that a lone Louisville police officer would be charged in the Taylor case, but not for her actual death.
More to the point, this poll was taken before two police officers were shot during protests last night. That probably isn’t going to help BLM’s PR machine any. The good news here is that both black and white Americans have become less fond of the protests by nearly the same amount over time, though black Americans started off much more supportive. As you can see in this graph, black support is down 18 percent and white support is down 19 percent.
Not included in this graph are Latinos whose support for these protests has been lower than white Americans all along. Their support was at 44 percent back in June after George Floyd’s death but has now fallen to just 31 percent. Party seems to be a more important factor than race in the results:
Views of the protests differ by party identification with 70% of Democrats approving and 75% of Republicans disapproving. This partisan difference emerges even among white Americans: 72% of white Democrats approve of the protests while just 9% of white Republicans agree.
The AP story about the poll results quotes both white and black Americans who are tired of seeing riots, arson and looting:
“I was supportive back in June, but after seeing everything up until now, I’m almost dead against them,” said Dave Hipelious, 63, of New Lenox, Illinois, who is a retired pipe fitter in the energy industry.
Hipelious, who is white, said his support for the protests soured when he saw violent unrest, arson and looting that marred the largely peaceful demonstrations following Floyd’s death.
“I was a pretty wild young man,” Hipelious said. “Every time the police stopped me, and every issue I had with them, I was completely in the wrong. I do believe they are doing their job right.”…
BriAndia Andrews, 21, of Bloomington, Illinois, who is Black, said she believes most of the protests have been done “correctly.” Still, she feels “our voices are not going to be heard once you have people looting and stuff like that.”
I’m sure pundits will continue to argue over whether or not the violent protests are going to help President Trump but they’re certainly not helping Black Lives Matter. It’ll be interesting to see if that realization somehow causes them to stop or if the extremists just keep going and driving the numbers down even further.
