On issue after issue, Americans say things are going better locally than nationally
On issues as varied as education and crime, Americans often have a rosier view of how things are going in their communities than in the nation as a whole.
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On issues as varied as education and crime, Americans often have a rosier view of how things are going in their communities than in the nation as a whole.
More than 44 million #BlackLivesMatter tweets from nearly 10 million distinct users currently exist on Twitter today. Over half of all existing tweets that include the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag were posted from May to September 2020.
Black Americans are critical of key aspects of policing and criminal justice. But their views on face recognition technology are more nuanced.
Public views are tied to how these technologies would be used and what constraints would be in place.
Trust in scientists and medical scientists has fallen below pre-pandemic levels, with 29% of U.S. adults saying they have a great deal of confidence in medical scientists to act in the best interests of the public. This is down from 40% in November 2020 and 35% in January 2019, before COVID-19 emerged. Other prominent groups – including the military, police officers and public school principals – have also seen their ratings decline.
The public is more likely to have heard “a lot” about ongoing confrontations between police and protesters than several other stories.
While declining shares give police forces positive marks for their use of force, treatment of racial groups and officer accountability, there is little support for cuts in spending on local policing.
In April, 78% of Americans overall – but 56% of black Americans – said they had confidence in police officers to act in the public’s best interests.
Black adults are about five times as likely as whites to say they’ve been unfairly stopped by police because of their race or ethnicity.
The use of at-home DNA testing kits has raised concerns about whether consumers are comfortable with the use of their data by police.
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