Support for Defunding the Police Has Dropped Since Last August

According to a USA Today poll, just one out of five Americans now support defunding the police.

Over the weekend, USA Today released the results of a poll in conjunction with Ipsos Poll. The survey tracked Americans' support of the movement calling for defunding police and redirecting those funds to comprehensive social programs. According to the poll, the movement's support has dropped since August, when near-daily protests erupted worldwide in response to the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. 18 percent of respondents supported defunding, while 58 percent opposed it.

67 percent of white Americans and 84 percent of Republicans opposed the movement, while just 28 percent of Black Americans and 34 percent of Democrats were also opposed to the movement.

The responses were even more negative when respondents were asked about abolishing the police. 67 percent overall said they were opposed, including Black Americans and Democrats. However, when asked about the idea of redirecting funding from police to social services, 43 percent of Americans supported the idea. Those numbers represent just a slight decline from August, when 47 percent of respondents voted in favor.

"I don't like that concept," wrote Mary DeLucco, a Democrat from Portland, Oregon. "I thought the minute it came out 'defund' was a horrible word. 'Reallocate' would be the correct word...police are already defunded. We're already understaffed in Oregon for police issues. We had five shootings yesterday, and cops are having a hard time to get to those locations. They're just not enough of them."

Jury selection for the Derek Chauvin trial has been delayed until at least Tuesday, as the defense appealed over the addition of a third-degree murder charge.