Faith in police up, support for BLM down among Americans since 2020 protests: poll

The survey results come as Derek Chauvin, the former police officer accused of murdering George Floyd and inadvertently setting off demonstrations last May, had jury selection for his trial begin on Monday.

Last June, 60 percent of respondents said that they trust the Black Lives Matter movement to promote justice, while only 56 percent said the same of police. Nearly a year later, only 50 percent still trusted BLM to promote justice, while 69 percent trusted police officers to do so.

While the results were highly divided by race, the trends were not as divided. Trust in BLM has fallen significantly among both black and white Americans. Among African-American respondents, there was a 14 percent drop in trust towards BLM and a 12 percent rise in trust towards the police. Among whites, the level of trust fell by eight points and rose by 12 points respectively

The results also show that Americans are less trusting of police unions than police themselves. Police unions have often been criticized for protecting officers who have engaged in misconduct, a criticism which, in equivalent form, is often targeted towards other unions as well.

The drop in support for BLM may be related to a spike in support for law and order over protesting. While Americans were almost evenly divided in June of 2020 on whether it was more important to maintain law and order or to prioritize protesting, only 31 percent of respondents now say that securing the rights of protesters is more important.

Many BLM protests devolved into riots during the summer of 2020, causing over $2 billion in property damage.

Of all the institutions discussed in the poll, Americans said that they had most trust in the US military, with nearly 80 percent of Americans saying that they trust the military to promote justice.

The poll also asked respondents about the death of George Floyd. Last year, 60 percent of respondents said that they believe George Floyd to have been murdered. In the latest poll, that number has dropped to 36 percent.

The results were starkly divided by race. 64 percent of African-American respondents believe that Floyd was the victim of a murder, with only 28 percent of whites believing the same. Those who reject the claim that Floyd was murdered mostly believe his death to be the result of negligence on the part of Officer Chauvin.

Nevertheless, most Americans of all races said that they hope Chauvin is convicted.