Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. (Photo: Office of Mayor Garcetti)

YouGov Poll Finds Only 16% Americans Want to ‘Defund the Police’; 65% Oppose

Democrats calling for abolishing or defunding police departments

By Katy Grimes, June 5, 2020 7:27 am

Earlier this week, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced he was cutting $150 million from the police department budget and would give it to communities of color instead,” California Globe reported. Across the country, Democrats are calling for police departments to be abolished entirely or defunded.

Garcetti, who was photographed taking a knee in with black leaders, even said he will put a moratorium on adding names of people into the CalGang database.

Garcetti’s handlers and pollsters may want to reconsider. A YouGov poll found “despite calls by activists and protesters to defund police departments, most Americans do not support reducing law enforcement budgets. Close to two-thirds (65%) oppose cutting police force funding. Just 16 percent of Democrats and 15 percent of Republicans support that idea.”

The poll was conducted from May 29 – 30, George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer, but before the worst of the rioting in America’s big cities.

The poll also found strong bipartisan support for more training for police officers on how to de-escalate conflicts and avoid using force: 94% support among Democrats; 83% support among Republicans. A similar number of Democrats (91%) and Republicans (82%) support outfitting all police officers with body cameras.

This poll demonstrates that California’s politicians are horrifically out of touch with the people who elected them, along with the main stream media, which is pushing this bad idea.

In a statewide total of 40 million Californians, 135 people were shot and killed by police in 2019:

  • 22 blacks were shot and killed by California police
  • 32 whites were shot and killed by California police
  • 45 hispanics were shot and killed by California police
  • 12 blacks armed with a gun were shot and killed by police

“LA City Council President Nury Martinez tweeted a full copy of the planned motion last night. ‘Today we introduced a motion to cut funding to the LAPD, as we reset our priorities in the wake of the murder of #GeorgeFloyd & the #BlackLivesMatter call that we all support to end racism [sic],’” the tweet reads. “‘This is just one small step. We cannot talk about change, we have to be about change.’”

A statement from the Los Angeles Police Protective League, said their union, which represents rank-and-file officers, learned of the motion through a Twitter post, and called statements in it “offensive,” Los Angeles Daily News reported.

“To declare that the work police officers perform, that we’ve been directed to do, is designed to harm people of color while Ms. Martinez repeatedly sends us into harm’s way is divisive, disrespectful and certainly is no profile in courage,” the statement said.

A friend asked, as Mayor of Los Angeles with Garcetti and his left wing city council are seeking to transfer up to $250 million to “communities of color” outside agencies, how much of that $250 million of taxpayer funds will end up going to the Democrat Party’s Presidential Campaign?

“Nature abhors a vacuum,” Aristotle explained, which means according to the laws of nature and physics, empty or unfilled spaces are unnatural. Wherever there is a void, the universe seeks to fill it.