Only 10 percent of blacks think police do a decent job treating all races equally

As the protests in Ferguson, Missouri — and the response to them across the country — laid bare, different racial demographics in the U.S. have strikingly different views of local law enforcement. And driving that point home, a Pew Research Center/USA Today survey released Tuesday found that a tiny 10 percent of African-Americans think police do either an "excellent" or "good" job of treating all racial and ethnic groups equally. In contrast, 21 percent said police do just a "fair" job on that front, while a whopping 70 percent said law enforcement do a "poor" job of it.

Meanwhile, the breakdown among white Americans: Excellent, 9 percent; Good, 29 percent; Fair, 33 percent; Poor, 25 percent.

And when it comes to the treatment of whites and blacks in particular, a robust 62 percent of African-Americans said they have "just some" or "little" confidence in police offering equal treatment. Among whites, that total was just 26 percent.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up