Poll: Young People Reject Defunding the Police

 

A new poll by the Pew Research Center shows solid support for more funding for the police among young people.  The poll, taken in September 2021, found that 36 percent of Americans aged 18-49 support more funding for the police and another 40 percent support maintaining current funding levels.  Less than one in four—23 percent—want funding reduced.

Older Americans are overwhelming supportive of more funding with 59 percent supporting more funding and only 7 percent supporting less.

Americans of all races, ethnicities and political leanings all reject defunding.  Only one in four Democrats wants funding reduced.  Details from Pew appear below.

The unfortunate truth is that the defund the police movement has been terrible for young Americans.

Young people are more likely to live in urban areas than are older Americans and therefore more likely to be in cities like New York, Chicago, Portland, or Boston where funding for the police has been cut by progressive left-wing Democratic mayors. 

The toll on young people from the murder and mayhem resulting from police cutbacks has been enormous. 

Take the case of Chicago.  In 2019 Chicago elected a mayor who backs the defund the police movement.  Since that time the number of homicides involving young Chicagoans has skyrocketed.

In 2019, 365 Chicagoans under the age of 36 we killed.  In 2020, 570 Chicagoans between the ages of 0 and 35 were killed (including 101 teenagers and 14 that were younger than thirteen).  Chicago is on pace to beat 2020.  So far in 2021, 509 young Chicagoans have been murdered. 

The additional deaths of 400 young Chicagoans over the past two years provides stark evidence of the harms caused by the defund the police movement.   

The same trends are evident in Portland, Seattle, New York City, and Minneapolis—all cites with mayors and city councils that have defunded the police. 

Perhaps it is direct experience or that of friends or family with rising crime that is turning young people off to the defund the police movement.  In any event, the newfound appreciation for the police and law and order among young Americans is good news indeed.