Column: ‘Eye-popping’ new survey on Americans’ acceptance of political violence should be a wake-up call to leaders in the U.S.
The head of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus, on Sunday blamed President Barack Obama for inciting violence in the United States.
“There’s no question that he instigates violence with his rhetoric,” Priebus told reporters in a conference call when asked about the recent wave of anti-police protests in cities across the country.
“The president is instigating violence in our cities. If you look at the last three years, if you look at the unrest that we have seen, it’s not because the president’s statements on these issues are bad or the violence is caused by that behavior, it’s because those who are inciting the violence aren’t doing it for the right reasons. The president is inciting violence in our cities,” Priebus said.
In the past two months, riots over the police killing of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, and a subsequent crackdown by the local police department have turned into nationwide protests over racial injustice and the systemic police abuse that continues in several U.S. cities and towns.
While not a “perfect” or exhaustive survey on Americans’ acceptance of violence against police, Pew Research found in June that while an overwhelming majority of American adults — 86 percent — said they think it’s bad for police departments if a person uses force against the police — or is a police officer — the number of those who said the exact same thing was more than cut in half since the last time Pew did the survey.
The poll found that the number who said it’s better for a person using force against the police or another public official to use force to enforce the law or to deal with an emergency situation was only slightly more than half, or 51 percent.
“Police have been dealing with violent offenders for centuries,” said Danah Boyd, who studies police use of force for the Crime Prevention Research Center at Northeastern University. “But the use
