Americans face a steep generational divide on how they view the renewed debate on racial tensions and policing practices in the U.S., said a new poll released on Friday.
Data from the latest YouGov/Yahoo News poll showed that younger Americans, aged 18-29, are far less likely to trust police than those belonging to an older demographic, aged 65 and up.
According to the survey, 44% of younger adults have some faith in police officers, with only 8% saying they had a “great deal of trust.” However, a large majority of that older group — 79% — did, which 36% feeling especially trusting of those in uniform.
Overall, a 60% majority of adults have at least some trust in police, while 40% have little to none.
The viral video of George Floyd’s death — showing a white police officer kneeling on the neck of a black man for eight minutes and 46 seconds as he pleaded for help — sparked a nationwide outrage. Protesters have marched for more than a week against racial inequality and demanding substantial changes to policing practices in the U.S.
The divide extends to the debate around liberal movements to abolish or defund police and radically restructure policing practices in the U.S. — highlighting just how differently these generations see the issue.
Younger Americans were more likely — 27% to 14% — than older adults to embrace the calls to defund police departments. Conversely, 28% percent of this older demographic found no problem with policing at all in the country, compared to only 11% of the younger group.
Though, a slim majority of each — 51% of younger adults and 58% of older adults — still believed reforms would be enough to address the problems within the system.
The trend continued in how each generation viewed the recent string of protests and unrest across the country.
More than half of the younger group accused the police of being violent at the protests, while the same amount of older adults lodged the same accusation at the protesters.
Fifty-seven percent of the younger ones said the protests were “motivated by a genuine desire to hold police officers accountable,” while 50% of the older demographic said it was rooted in a long-standing bias against officers.
The poll was conducted from June 9-10. It surveyed 1,570 adults in the country, 236 of which were in the 18-29 range and 357 were ages 65 or older.
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