Most Americans, including a majority of President Donald Trump’s Republican Party, support sweeping law enforcement reforms such as a ban on chokeholds and racial profiling after the latest death of an African American while in police custody, according to an opinion poll released on Thursday.
AMERICANS WANT TO BAN RACIAL PROFILING
The national survey on June 9-10, shows the public broadly on the side of Democratic lawmakers, who proposed a series of changes to police departments (here) in the United States as protesters gathered nationwide to condemn the death of George Floyd and racism.
The poll conducted online of 1,113 U.S. adults showed bipartisan support for many of the Democrats’ proposals. For example, 82% of Americans want to ban police from using chokeholds, 83% want to ban racial profiling, and 92% want federal police to be required to wear body cameras.
It also found that 89% of Americans want to require police to give the people they stop their name, badge number and reason for the stop, and 91% support allowing independent investigations of police departments that show patterns of misconduct.
Trump, who has been trying to win back suburban voters by positioning himself as a “law-and-order” president, called on states to crack down on the protests. Trump had previously said that he could use military forces if states did not quell protests, which have been mostly peaceful apart from some arson and looting and clashes with officers.
Trump also has tried to tie Democrats to calls for “defunding the police” by activists on the left. The term refers to eliminating or cutting spending on police departments, often the largest expense for municipalities, and using the funds for education, social welfare, housing and other community needs.