America’s gun control laws are rooted in racism and disproportionately affect lower income people. These hurdles and restrictions make keeping and bearing arms more expensive and difficult for the people most often affected by crime.
Those two facts probably play a large part in Gallup finding that, despite cities defunding and cutting back police services nationwide, 81% of black people (and 83% of Hispanics) want either the same or more police presence in their neighborhoods.
It’s not so much the volume of interactions Black Americans have with the police that troubles them or differentiates them from other racial groups, but rather the quality of those interactions.
Most Black Americans want the police to spend at least as much time in their area as they currently do, indicating that they value the need for the service that police provide. However, that exposure comes with more trepidation for Black than White or Hispanic Americans about what they might experience in a police encounter. And those harboring the least confidence that they will be treated well, or who have had negative encounters in the past, are much more likely to want the police presence curtailed.
– Lydia Saad in Black Americans Want Police to Retain Local Presence
