GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — More than four months after the death of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police, a new poll reveals what some Minnesotans think about the role of systemic racism in the criminal justice system.
A new KARE 11/MPR News/Star Tribune Minnesota Poll finds more than half of Minnesotans who responded (52%) believe the death of George Floyd is part of broader problems in the treatment of Black people by Minneapolis police; while 36% believe Floyd's death was an isolated incident.
When asked if the criminal justice system does or does not treat Black people and white people equally, 31% of poll respondents statewide said the system does treat the races equally, while 56% said it does not.
The results varied somewhat by region, with 70% of those polled in Hennepin and Ramsey counties saying the justice system does not treat people of different races equally. That was significantly higher than the 43% who gave the same response in northern Minnesota, although that figure was still higher than the number who said the justice system is equal (35%).
The results were also sharply divided along party lines, with majorities of Democrats (77%) and independents (55%) saying the system is not equal, compared to a majority of Republicans (56%) who said the justice system does treat the races equally.
On a related topic, the poll asked Minnesotans which is the bigger problem: police violence against Black people nationwide, or civilian violence against people and property in U.S. cities?
Statewide, the poll found 52% said civilian violence was a bigger worry, versus 35% who cited police violence as the primary concern. Hennepin and Ramsey counties were the only areas of the state to say police violence (48%) was a bigger concern than civilian violence (36%).
There was also a wide gap between Biden and Trump supporters, with 64% of likely Biden voters citing police violence, compared to only 5% of likely Trump voters who felt that way.
Minnesotans were most split on how they feel about the Black Lives Matter movement: 42% of poll respondents statewide have a favorable opinion of BLM, while 46% do not.
Once again, Hennepin and Ramsey counties differed from the rest of the state, with 58% having a favorable opinion of Black Lives Matter; in the Twin Cities suburbs and the rest of the state, a majority of those responding had an unfavorable view.
Also once again, there was a wide gap politically with only 4% of Trump voters having a favorable opinion of BLM, compared to 76% of Biden voters.
An earlier August poll of only Minneapolis residents showed 80% of people in the city viewed BLM favorably.
The KARE 11/MPR News/Star Tribune Minnesota Poll was conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling and Strategy, surveying 800 registered Minnesota voters by phone (both landline and cell) from Sept. 21 through Sept. 23.
The poll has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.5 percentage points. That means there is a 95% probability that the "true" figure would fall within that range if every single voter were surveyed. The margin of error is higher for subgroups like age and gender.