Ahead of the Juneteenth holiday weekend’s demonstrations against systemic racism and police brutality, a majority of Americans say they approve of recent protests around the country.
And despite headline-making standoffs between law enforcement and protesters in cities nationwide, the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds a majority of Americans think law enforcement officers have generally responded to the protests appropriately.
The findings follow weeks of peaceful protests and unrest in response to the death of George Floyd, a black man who died pleading for air on May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer held his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes.
Anne Oredeko, a supervising attorney in the racial justice unit of the Legal Aid Society of New York, one of the nation’s largest public defender agencies, said the New York Police Department’s response to peaceful protests undermined civil rights.
While 7 in 10 black Americans said law enforcement officers responded to the protests with excessive force, about half as many white Americans said that.
