WASHINGTON — Who’s to blame for recent violent police encounters, and does the Maryland criminal justice system treat African-Americans and whites the same?
It depends whom you ask.
A Washington Post-University of Maryland poll reveals African-Americans and whites have very different opinions over what has sparked tense violence between officers and members of the public.
One area of agreement: 68 percent of all Marylanders support the decision to charge six police officers involved in Freddie Gray’s death. More than 80 percent of Baltimore City residents and African-Americans approved of the charges, along with 57 percent of whites who participated in the poll.
Far more disparate is the question of which is the bigger cause of violent encounters between police and the public. Almost 70 percent of African Americans blame police treating law-abiding people like suspects and using force too often, while 60 percent of whites blame people disrespecting police and not following orders.
Seven months after Gray’s death sparked riots in Baltimore, the poll finds 46 percent of Marylanders believe race relations have remained the same, but 36 percent feel relations have worsened.
Only 8 percent of African-Americans believe blacks and other minorities get equal treatment as whites in Maryland’s criminal justice system, but 42 percent of whites think the playing field is equal. The responses of whites are divided along political lines. Democrats are far more likely to believe the legal system is biased.
According to the Post, the survey is of 1,006 randomly selected Maryland residents interviewed Oct. 8 to 11. The overall margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points; the error margins for results among white and black respondents are 4.5 and 6.5 points.
