Last month I wrote about how, in spite of media narratives to the contrary, support was strong in the black community for either maintaining the current police presence in local communities or increasing it, according to a comprehensive Gallup poll.
Two more polls released a month later also show that despite the media’s best efforts to boost both the radical Black Lives Matter movement and the “peaceful protests” they’ve put on over the last four months, support is dropping steadily for both.
Last week, Pew Research Center published the results of a survey they did of voters on the Black Lives Matter movement and found that since June, overall support for the group had dropped 12%:
A majority of U.S. adults (55%) now express at least some support for the movement, down from 67% in June amid nationwide demonstrations sparked by the death of George Floyd. The share who say they strongly support the movement stands at 29%, down from 38% three months ago.
They noted that the drop in support was primarily due to whites and Hispanics:
The recent decline in support for the Black Lives Matter movement is particularly notable among White and Hispanic adults. In June, a majority of White adults (60%) said they supported the movement at least somewhat; now, fewer than half (45%) express at least some support. The share of Hispanic adults who support the movement has decreased 11 percentage points, from 77% in June to 66% today.
Though African-American support for BLM “remained virtually unchanged”, Pew reported that there was a 9% decline in support from those who said they strongly supported the movement:
By comparison, support for the Black Lives Matter movement has remained virtually unchanged among Black and Asian adults.[…]Some 87% of Black Americans say they support the movement, similar to the share who said this in June. However, the share of Black adults expressing strong support for the movement has decreased 9 points, from 71% to 62%.
On the Black Lives Matter protests, the drop in support is even more pronounced. On Thursday, the Associated Press released the results of a poll they conducted on the marches, which showed a 15% drop in overall support:
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.
Though the AP emphasized that the drop in support was most notable among whites, support from the Latino and African-American communities for the protests also declined to a significant degree:
Just 35% of white Americans approve of the protests now, while 50% disapprove. In June, 53% approved, while 34% disapproved.[…]Among Latinos, 31% approve, compared with 44% in June; 63% of Black Americans support the protests, down from 81%, with more now saying they neither approve nor disapprove.
A University of Michigan political scientist quoted by the AP boiled the decline in protest support, particularly among whites, down to “compassion fatigue” and people allegedly wanting to move on and get back to their lives. But a voter they talked to who said he supported the protests until the widespread looting, violence, and arson started is probably closer to the mark.
Even if people aren’t hearing much about the riots from traditional media sources thanks to deliberate media efforts to sanitize and manipulate what their audience sees and reads, they are seeing it on social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
Those places are where videos of rioters looting and setting fires, injuring law enforcement officers, destroying businesses, blocking cars and confronting drivers, assaulting people, harassing restaurant patrons, storming neighborhoods, etc. are being shared and viewed daily by thousands.
Over time, the disturbing videos and images of some major American cities looking like war zones as a result of the riots have had a sobering effect on some who watch them, while it has galvanized others to oppose the protests all the more.
Both of these polls, and the one released by Gallup last month, help better explain the sudden pivot from Democratic “leaders” like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and presidential nominee Joe Biden on condemning the riots and violence against police.
As I’ve said before, there are those who will be fooled by Democrats and their seeming 180 on protest violence. But the people who’ve watched these same Democrats coddle rioters and shower them with high praise for months now as innocent people’s lives and neighborhoods were destroyed won’t be.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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