Bob CollinsGallup has released a poll today that isn’t surprising at all. Non-whites are less likely to believe that police will protect them from violent crime than whites are.
It’s a fairly large gap but another question on the poll gets to a deeper problem and a larger gap — those who respect what the police do and those who don’t.
Gallup attributes more recent degradation to Ferguson, Missouri.
The case stemming from the August shooting of black teen Michael Brown is yet another example of the strained relations between police and the black community in the U.S. With its mostly white police force in a largely black municipality and some citizens’ allegations of prolonged police harassment, Ferguson has been at the center of conversations about the challenges many blacks face in their relationship with their local police.
While about half of nonwhites hold some higher degree of confidence in the local law enforcement to protect them, a sizable number don’t have any faith in police at all.
Related: Pointergate reveals a key cause of city's cop problems (Star Tribune).
