Majorities of both black and white Americans support the decision to prosecute a group of Baltimore police officers for the death of Freddie Gray
With yet another death of a black man where police have been involved, this time in Baltimore, Americans seem more supportive of bringing indictments against police officers: in this week’s Economist/YouGov Poll, majorities of both whites and blacks approve of the indictment of the six police officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray, who died in custody in a police van.
There is video of Gray being arrested by the police. There was also video of the shooting of Walter Scott by a police officer in North Charleston, South Carolina, and of the arrest of Eric Garner, who died afterwards in Staten Island, New York. In both those cases, Americans say there should have been indictments of the police officers involved – which there was in South Carolina, but not in New York.
In all three cases, Gray, Scott, and Garner, blacks and whites agree. Majorities of both races approve of charging the police officer who shot Scott with murder and charging the six officers transporting Gray in Baltimore; majorities of blacks and whites disapprove of the Staten Island grand jury’s decision not to charge the police officer involved.
But there are still racial differences in the earliest of the recent cases, the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Like the recent killing in Baltimore, that death brought protests which occasionally led to violence. Unlike the three other cases, there was no video of the shooting. And the races disagree on the outcome: 73% of blacks disapprove of the lack of an indictment of the officer involved; 53% of whites approve.
But support for the grand jury’s decision not to indict in Ferguson has dropped since January, and in this week’s poll, Americans are closely divided on whether or not the officer who shot Brown should have been indicted. Agreement with the grand jury’s decision has dropped among both whites and blacks.
Americans point to another culprit, too. There is agreement across racial lines on how the media has handled both the deaths of black men in police custody and the community protests that have followed in some of those cases. They are not seen as doing a good job. Both whites and blacks agree that the tone of the media coverage of both has been more unfair than fair.
There is also agreement that local police departments shouldn’t investigate themselves. 78% approve of the recent Wisconsin law that requires deaths in police custody to be investigated by outside organizations. However, in general, whites prefer police misconduct investigations to be handled by the state; African-Americans what the federal government to take charge.
The apparent racial agreement on several of the deaths of black men through police involvement doesn’t mean relations between whites and blacks are improving – at least not according to Americans in this week’s poll. They agree on a lot of questions about race, including a belief that things are headed in the wrong direction. 61% of whites, along with 50% of blacks, think that race relations have gotten worse since 2009, when Barack Obama, the first black President, took office.
Economist/YouGov poll archives can be found here.
