Contrary To Leftist Belief, Black People Want Police To Patrol Neighborhoods Same Amount Or More

About a week ago, I wrote a similar article to this one talking about how black communities are the ones who suffer the most from defunding (or abolishing) the police. In that piece, I also mentioned a Rasmussen poll that showed black people (and Americans altogether) were afraid of a police shortage as a result of Leftist demonization of police.
 
This article looks at another statistic: what black people (and Americans in general) want police to do in their neighborhoods, specifically how often they believe police should be seen patrolling those neighborhoods.
 
Gallup has a new poll out showing that 81% of Black Americans want police to spend the same amount of or more time in their area.
 
“When asked whether they want the police to spend more time, the same amount of time or less time than they currently do in their area, most Black Americans – 61% -- want the police presence to remain the same.”
 
20% of Black Americans said they wanted police to spend more time in their area and 19% said they wanted police to spend less time, leading to that earlier 81% of Black Americans who said they wanted police presence to either remain or increase.
 
This stands in stark contrast to how the Left, particularly black Leftists, often portray black people. The Left portrays black people as a victimized and borderline hunted group of people, whose entire existence is at risk by the mere presence of police departments, and who essentially wake up every day terrified that a cop is going to burst into their homes and start firing at will at anyone and anything that they can.
 
The Left portrays black people as essentially being a hunted species, not unlike lions or elephants in Africa (which really shows just how utterly racist Leftists are). Furthermore, they portray black people as being of one hive mind that agrees with these sentiments and wants to do away with all law enforcement. They portray black people as standing in direct opposition to police and as desiring for alternatives to policing black neighborhoods.
 
As is always the case, no matter the topic of discussion, the Left is exceedingly wrong and lying through their teeth. The truth of the matter is, while black people tend to be arrested more than other groups of people (as they tend to commit more crimes), most black people would prefer the police to be around as opposed to any possible alternative.
 
The Left will often talk about how it’s racist that police patrol black neighborhoods more than other neighborhoods, but will often ignore the fact that gangs tend to organize in these neighborhoods, which often end up terrorizing and threatening people in those neighborhoods.
 
Such gang activity is illegal and as it’s so dangerous for their neighborhoods, they must be more policed than other races’ neighborhoods (though Hispanic neighborhoods often have to be policed almost as much, because of gangs like the Latin Kings and MS-13).
 
At any rate, returning to the poll, the survey also asked other races if they wanted police to spend the same amount of time, more time, or less time patrolling their neighborhoods.
 
71% of White Americans said “same amount of time”, 17% said more and 12% said less. 59% of Hispanics said they wanted police patrolling the same amount of time, 24% said more and 17% said less.
 
Asian Americans are the ones who wanted less police presence by a good bit, at 28%, but 63% still wanted the same amount and only 9% wanted more police presence in their neighborhoods.
 
As far as exposure to police, 32% of Black Americans report seeing police in their neighborhood “very often/often”, 41% “sometimes” and 27% “rarely” or “never.”
 
For whites, 22% see them frequently, 42% sometimes and 36% rarely or never. 28% of Hispanics see them often, 37% sometimes and 34% rarely or never and 21% of Asians see them often, 47% sometimes and 32% rarely or never.
 
There are quite a few other statistics that Gallup shares, but for the sake of this article, I will only talk about how confident black people are that police will treat them well upon being interacted with by them and how such treatment affects black people’s preferences for police presence.
 
According to Gallup, only 18% of Black Americans feel “very confident” that the police would treat them with courtesy and respect if they had an interaction with them, as opposed to 56% of whites who feel very confident, 40% of Hispanics and 24% of Asians.
 
However, a majority (61%) of black people are either somewhat or very confident that they would be treated with respect and courtesy by police (43% “somewhat confident” + the 18% who are “very confident”). While that is lower than other races (91% of whites, 77% of Hispanics and 78% of Asians are confident), that is still a fairly solid majority over the ones who are either “not too confident” (27%) or “not at all confident” (12%) that they would have a good interaction with police.
 
Despite the fact that the Left is so wrong about their portrayal of black people, their words and beliefs do still have an influence on some people. I imagine at least some of the reason for black people to feel less confident about an interaction with police is because of some Leftist narratives.
 
Gallup themselves theorize that this gap between races in confidence in police interactions could “either stem from Black Americans’ own negative experiences with the police or from their familiarity with people who have had negative encounters with law enforcement.”
 
And these are pretty valid and logical reasons as well. With more frequent policing in these neighborhoods comes a higher chance for interaction with law enforcement. More interaction means a higher chance of poor or negative interactions, especially if they are looking for one’s own friend or relative because of something they did.
 
The second explanation by Gallup makes a good deal of sense to me as well. Someone else’s interaction means they could tell the story to their friends and they might just lie and say that the cops were hassling him “for no reason” even if there actually was a reason and that leaves an impression for his friends who did not interact with the police to believe that cops are messing with folks who are doing nothing wrong.
 
So I think there are a number of valid and logical explanations as to why the gap is as big as it is in confidence levels for interactions with police.
 
These interactions, in turn, can lead to some black people to sway one way or the other about police presence as a whole.
 
According to Gallup, 45% of “Black Americans who report not being treated with courtesy or respect by the police within the past 12 months want less of a police presence in their neighborhood. Meanwhile, 55% want the same or more police presence.”
 
“By contrast, just 13% of those who did feel they were treated respectfully want the police to spend less time in their neighborhood; 87% want them there as much or more often.”
 
What seems to be the biggest indicator as to how much police presence a group of people wants in their neighborhood is not the actual frequency, but rather, the sorts of interactions that they have with the police.
 
While these hardly get featured anywhere in the news, even in my own articles defending police, there are plenty of videos out there of police having wholesome and heart-warming interactions with kids in various neighborhoods. From playing basketball with them to playing some instrument, there are plenty of times when a cop is featured in a video, not as seemingly doing something wrong or excessive (or just their jobs) but rather doing community outreach and having positive interactions with the people of the communities in which they serve.
 
For example, there is this YouTube video showing a local news segment in Greenville, North Carolina of police responding to a noise complaint (kids playing basketball) and deciding to start playing some basketball with those kids.
 
There is also this other YouTube video of a Compton deputy having a bit of a jamming session, rocking out with local teenagers.
 
These stories never get told by the mainstream media and only sometimes get shared on social media, but they show a side to police officers that the Left wishes to totally ignore: a more human, relatable side.
 
The Left wishes to demonize police officers entirely because it is in their best political interests, but black people (and most other people in general) do not want this. They want either the police presence to stay the same or increase, not decrease.
 
Like I said in the previous article talking about this subject, people want to feel safe. For most people, either owning a gun or having a police presence (or both) is how they feel safe. Taking away people’s means by which they can ensure their own safety is not the humane thing to do, let alone the politically savvy thing to do.
 
Not that I expect the Left to be very humane considering they publicly advocate for and support the genocide of children in the womb.
 
But at any rate, it’s good to see, time and time again, that the reality the Left claims exists does not actually exist. Black people want police in their neighborhoods – they want them to be a force for good. They don’t want fewer cops and definitely don’t want defunct and abolished police departments.
 
Psalm 4:8
“In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”