WASHINGTON — Despite massive protests, Americans say by 2-1 that the federal government shouldn’t charge the white police officer who shot an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, according to a new McClatchy-Marist Poll.
Voters say by 61 percent to 31 percent that the Justice Department, which is investigating the shooting, shouldn’t bring civil rights charges against Darren Wilson.
Whites overwhelmingly think Wilson shouldn’t face charges, by 68 percent to 23 percent. But Latinos lean toward charges by 50 percent to 44 percent, and African-Americans think by 75 percent to 14 percent that he should be charged.
Also among the findings of the poll, conducted in the wake of back-to-back decisions in Missouri and New York not to charge white police officers in the deaths of unarmed black men:
Voters think by 55 percent to 40 percent that the two cases are isolated incidents rather than reflections of the entire criminal justice system. Sixty-one percent of whites think that; just 20 percent of blacks do.
A solid majority, 73 percent, have a great deal or fair amount of confidence that police treat blacks and whites equally. That confidence ranges from 77 percent of whites to 50 percent of blacks.
By 43 percent to 34 percent, voters overall think that President Barack Obama’s race has helped, rather than hurt, race relations. African-Americans dissent, and think it has hurt.
“The overarching reaction has been very different along racial lines,” said Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion in New York, which conducted the survey. “They have a fundamentally different view of what’s going on.”
In November, a St. Louis County grand jury decided not to indict Wilson in the August shooting death of Michael Brown. Days later, a Staten Island grand jury declined to charge white police officer Daniel Pantaleo, who was involved in the July death of an unarmed black man, Eric Garner.
The two deaths galvanized protests in much of the country. Although many have been peaceful, the Brown shooting led to days of rioting, vandalism and looting in Ferguson before and after the grand jury decision.
Voters tend to think the protests after Ferguson hurt rather then helped, saying by 64 percent to 21 percent that they had brought negative attention to the issues instead of positive attention. Again, that was a racially polarized view, with whites saying by 68 percent to 18 percent that the Ferguson protests had a negative impact, Latinos saying the same thing by 59 percent to 19 percent and African-Americans saying by 43 percent to 35 percent that the protests had a positive impact.
“What the protests are about haven’t gotten to Americans,” Miringoff said. “They’re not connected to what they’re seeing.”
Some have blamed Brown’s stepfather, Louis Head, for inciting riots after he used tough language, including swear words, when addressing demonstrators. He’s since apologized.
By 63 percent to 31 percent, voters don’t think Head should be charged with inciting the riots. It’s a rare point of agreement between whites and blacks, by percentages of 64 percent to 30 percent and 78 percent to 16 percent, respectively.
Looking at police generally, 79 percent of all voters said they had confidence in local police to protect them from violent crime. That includes 61 percent of African-Americans.
In the poll, voters disapproved by 47 percent to 44 percent of the way Obama is handling race relations.
The first African-American president dives into the national debate over race reluctantly, usually only after a high-profile incident, and he hasn’t made it a central focus of his presidency. This year, Obama has spoken numerous times about Brown’s case and has unveiled a spending request, including $75 million to buy 50,000 body-worn cameras for local law enforcement.
The poll found voters similarly divided over whether the president’s race had helped or set back race relations.
Whites and Latinos think it’s helped, by percentages of 44 percent to 35 percent and 46 percent to 25 percent, respectively. But African-Americans think it has hurt race relations rather than helped, by 42 percent to 33 percent.
Methodology
This survey of 1,140 adults was conducted Dec. 3-9 by the Marist Poll, sponsored in partnership with McClatchy. People 18 and older residing in the continental U.S. were interviewed by telephone using live interviewers.
Landline telephone numbers were randomly selected based on a list of exchanges from throughout the nation from ASDE Survey Sampler Inc. The exchanges were selected to ensure that each region was represented in proportion to its population. Respondents in the household were selected by asking for the youngest man.
To increase coverage, this sample was supplemented by respondents reached through random dialing of cellphone numbers from Survey Sampling International. The two samples were then combined and balanced to reflect the 2010 census results for age, gender, income, race and region.
Results are statistically significant within 2.9 percentage points. There are 923 registered voters. The results for this subset are statistically significant within 3.2 percentage points. The error margin increases for cross-tabulations.
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