Turns out, huge majority of Americans knows exactly what 'defund the police' means, and supports it

[bigtree]

Ben Kamisar @bkamisar 18m
Fascinating new # from Monmouth on "defund the police."
—77 percent of adults say the movement aims to "change the way the police departments operate."
—Only 18 percent say it wants to "get rid of police departments." twitter.com/bkamisar/status/1280881950681595904

report: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/blog/meet-press-blog-latest-news-analysis-data-driving-political-discussion-n988541/ncrd1233158#blogHeader

WASHINGTON — As President Trump is launching new ads attacking calls to "defund the police" and stoking racial and cultural division on Twitter, a new poll shows that an overwhelming majority of Americans don't agree with the way the president is framing the police-reform movement.

The new survey from Monmouth University found that 77 percent of American adults say that "defund the police" means to "change the way the police departments operate," not to eliminate them. That view is shared by 73 percent of white, non-college educated Americans and two-thirds of Republicans, Trump's core voters.

Just 18 percent of Americans say the movement wants to "get rid of police departments," a view shared by only 28 percent of Republicans and 18 percent of independents.

____ Biden does not support blanket cuts to police budgets. He told The Daily Show on June 11 that he supported linking federal dollars to fundamental changes in police departments including abiding by a national use-of-force standard and releasing police misconduct data.

Sixty-two percent of Americans say that Trump's handling of the recent protests on reforming policing has made the "current situation worse," with just 20 percent saying he's made it better. Sixty-five percent say that the actions of protestors in recent months were justified, with 29 percent saying the actions were not justified.

read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/meet-the-press/blog/meet-press-blog-latest-news-analysis-data-driving-political-discussion-n988541/ncrd1233158#blogHeader

new survey from Monmouth University:
https://www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/reports/monmouthpoll_US_070820/

[kimbutgar]

1. Thank you I saw an insane MF45 ad yesterday about defunding the police and putting you on

Hold.

[bigtree]

2. you're welcome

...there was a lot of anxiety expressed here at DU about the possible use of the phrase by Trump.

Turns out folks who originated this slogan knew exactly how to get to the heart of the matter and project that message around the nation in a way that would be immediately understood.

[RobinA]

3. Yes. The Phrase

can mean whatever someone wants it to mean because it doesn't mean what it says (we are told). I'll consider it to mean what it says. If someone can come up with a way of correctly stating what this is supposed to mean, I'm listening. Speaking in some kind of code where meanings are other than as stated is a recipe for disaster.

Joe: Hi! I'm Joe Biden, vote for me. I know how to get this COVID problem under control in three months, I've got the top experts working on it and they said it is very possible.

Voter: Hey everybody, that's Joe Biden. We should vote for him because he's got experts who know how to get COVID under control in three months.

Joe: Wait a minute, when I said "under control" I didn't mean under control, I meant I'm going to study it with a lot of experts and we're going to figure out a way to make it go away faster than if we do nothing. I said "under control," but that does not actually mean under control.

Right! Let's run the country this way.

[tonedevil]

5. Defund the police by 33.8% /nt

[bigtree]

6. that's just my opinion

...it's not some BLM or Democratic strategy.

My thought is that the extreme proposals, made by some, to 'defund the police' obviously struck a chord with Americans. It's not necessarily a BLM initiative, and it's certainly not a Biden initiative or a Democratic one, and Americans polled seem to get that.

I think the anxiety expressed over what Trump might do with the slogan was correct in one instance; he did use it in advertising. However, it backfired, because, apparently, most people either sympathize with the sentiment, or understand that reform is the actual aim of the vast movement of demonstrators around the country.

I think one may find the timidity and caution politics sometimes engenders in those who endeavor in it doesn't always comport with the actual movements which provide them with impetus and causes to organize voters around. But the sentiment remains out here, in communities, among voters.

There's something fundamentally wrong with police forces around the nation who regularly participate in unprovoked violence against citizens, as we saw on display in the weeks of protests. I think most Americans understand and support the sentiment behind 'defund the police,' even if they have a different notion of how to accomplish the goal of reform. That's how movements work, not politics, movements.

[gollygee]

4. Republicans have been running on a policy of defunding various services for decades

Pretty much everybody knows what it means by now. It just hasn't been applied to police departments before.