I suspect a much higher percent of people in Phoenix are dumb enough to trust the police. Just my opinion, no facts to base it on.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-rahm-emanuel-crime-poll-met-0203-20160202-story.html
Distrust of Chicago cops helps drive Emanuel's low approval on crime
Bill Ruthhart and Lolly BoweanContact Reporters Chicago Tribune
A strong majority of Chicagoans don't think the city's cops treat all citizens fairly and believe a cover-up "code of silence" is widespread in the Police Department, helping drive a record-low approval rating for Mayor Rahm Emanuel's handling of crime, a Chicago Tribune poll has found.
The survey's results illustrate a deep-seated distrust of the Chicago Police Department put in stark relief by a series of revelations about the death Laquan McDonald, a black teenager shot 16 times by white Officer Jason Van Dyke in October 2014. Police dashboard-camera video showed McDonald walking away from police when he was shot, but police reports show six officers claimed the teen had moved or turned threateningly toward them.
Prosecutors eventually charged Van Dyke with murder, but not until 13 months later, hours before the court-ordered release of the shooting footage. The chain of events led to weeks of street protests, calls for the mayor's resignation and a federal civil rights investigation into the Police Department.
The poll found a dim view of the Police Department across racial and ethnic lines. Only 20 percent of voters said they believe city cops treat all citizens fairly, including just 6 percent of African-Americans surveyed.
Just 3 percent of Chicagoans said they don't believe cops use a code of silence to protect one another, while nearly two-thirds said they think such a code is a widespread problem.
The high-profile police problems have amplified Emanuel's previous struggles to gain Chicagoans' confidence on addressing violent crime, the poll found. Just 19 percent of Chicagoans approved of the mayor's handling of the city's crime problem, a number that dipped to 10 percent among African-American voters — both record lows for the mayor in Tribune polls.
The mayor's rating on crime was lower than his overall job approval, which stood at 27 percent. The Tribune reported Monday that the vast majority of Chicagoans don't consider Emanuel honest and trustworthy, don't think he was justified in withholding the McDonald video and don't believe his statements about the controversial police shooting.
While the survey indicated that voters view police shortcomings as systemic, a slight majority of Chicagoans said they were not confident that Emanuel would be able to address the problems.
"I think at this point, he just wants to save his job, so he will say whatever he can," said Chrystal Calvin, 42, a black poll respondent who lives in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood on the South Side, disapproves of the mayor's job performance on crime and disagrees with his handling of the McDonald case.
"He is not owning up to any real responsibility for the things that have happened," Calvin said before alluding to the emotion the mayor has shown since the release of the McDonald video. "The crying and all that — he's still not taking responsibility."
Record-low approval
The survey was taken during the midst of a particularly violent January, which included 51 homicides, the deadliest start to a year in Chicago since at least 2000.
Getting a hold on Chicago's violent crime long has been an intractable issue for its mayors, including Emanuel. In recent years, the city consistently has led the nation in homicides, even though New York and Los Angeles have more people. And Emanuel has weathered a particularly high spike in killings in 2012 and a spate of high-profile shooting deaths involving young children and teenagers.
But through it all, Emanuel's approval rating on crime never has been lower than it is in the wake of the McDonald controversy. The 19 percent rating is down significantly from 34 percent approval in a January 2015 Tribune poll and a previous low of 30 percent in August 2014.
Emanuel job approval hits record low as Chicagoans reject McDonald video explanation Disapproval runs deepest among voters who also give the mayor low marks for his overall job performance and want him to resign. The poll found that 94 percent of those who want the mayor to resign and 90 percent of those who don't approve of his overall job as mayor also believe he has fallen short on handling crime.
Among those who disagreed with Emanuel's withholding of the McDonald video, 82 percent disapproved of the mayor's handling of crime. And of those who didn't believe Emanuel's statements on the McDonald case, 87 percent didn't approve of the mayor's handling of crime.
James K. Nelsen, 80, a poll respondent who lives in River North and once supported Emanuel, falls into both of those groups.
"Rahm hid all that stuff. The kid should have never been shot," said Nelsen, who is white. "He was dead wrong for hiding that video. That was just about protecting votes. Now I just don't believe anything he says."
Unfairness perception
Public outrage after the late November release of the shooting video led Emanuel to acknowledge that not everyone is treated the same by police.
"When African-American mothers, fathers and grandparents feel it is necessary to train their sons and daughters to behave with extreme caution when they are pulled over by police and have both hands visible on the wheel, what does that say?" Emanuel told the City Council in December in a rare speech. "We have a trust problem."
Emanuel apologizes for Laquan McDonald police shooting
The new poll backs up that perception of unfairness across racial and ethnic lines. One in 3 white voters thought the police were fair to everyone while 53 percent said they were not. Twenty-three percent of Hispanics thought the police were fair to all, while 69 percent did not. Among African-American voters, only 6 percent said cops treat all citizens fairly while 85 percent said they don't.
Lonnie Morgan is in the latter group. The 63-year-old retired painter said he too often sees officers pull young black men out of cars as they just try to hang out in his neighborhood, Greater Grand Crossing.
"Too many of these officers look at this neighborhood and say, 'Oh, these are black people,' and they just don't care," said Morgan, a poll respondent. "They come out and have an attitude. You can look at them and they've got a nasty scowl on their face. They look at you like you are dirt."
Susan K. Power, a 91-year-old Native American, said she doesn't notice a heavy police presence where she lives in South Shore.
"I've never met a police officer who didn't offer direction or try to help," said Power, a poll respondent who approved of Emanuel's handling of crime. "I feel we've gotten too critical. We have become so criminally minded that all we talk about is crime."
'Code of silence'
In his speech to aldermen, Emanuel also publicly stated for the first time that he believed a code of silence existed among Chicago cops to cover up wrongdoing. The mayor offered that assessment after the city released records in the McDonald case that showed police reports dramatically at odds with the footage.
Nine in 10 Chicagoans said they believed there's a code of silence in the department, with just 3 percent saying it didn't exist. Overall, 64 percent of voters said the code of silence is a widespread problem, while 26 percent said they believe it's limited to a handful of bad cops.
Among white voters, half said the code of silence was widespread, while 38 percent called it an isolated problem. Just 16 percent of black voters called the code of silence limited, with 79 percent saying it's widespread.
Timeline: Chicago police controversies during Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration Nelsen, from River North, said "there are corrupt policemen and we know that. Yes there is a code of silence. ... I know they back each other up."
Calvin, from Chicago Lawn, said she's lost trust in the police.
"They have God-like attitudes. They abuse their power," she said. "Now, I don't even call the police, because they will treat me like a criminal."
But poll respondent Michael Gillot, 30, criticized "a code of silence with citizens," saying "violence continues because residents don't want to talk to police."
Gillot, who is white and lives in Ukrainian Village, said he believes the code of silence among police is limited to a handful of cops and contended the public too often doesn't consider the tough situations police encounter.
"In every profession there are co-workers who will help you out," he said. "Chicago has always been a violent city. It's not the police scandals that made criminals or made it more violent. It's just the way it is."
Split on confidence
With policing issues expected to be a major focus this year, voters were split on whether the mayor will be able to fix the vexing problems.
A majority of voters, 51 percent, said they don't have much confidence in Emanuel to address the policing problems, and among that group, 30 percent said they were "not at all confident." Forty-three percent showed some faith in the mayor to tackle the issues, but of them, only 12 percent said they were very confident in Emanuel to do so.
Among white voters, nearly 6 in 10 had some measure of confidence in Emanuel on the matter. That number was flipped among black and Hispanic voters, with 61 percent saying they had little confidence in the mayor.
Much like his predecessor, Emanuel repeatedly has blamed easy access to guns and lax gun laws as a main culprit in the city's high number of shootings. He's also called for tougher sentences for gun crimes.
Bloody start to year as homicides hit 50, worst January since at least 2000 The poll found that overall, 42 percent of voters said easy access to guns was the top contributor to Chicago gun violence, followed by 24 percent who said a lack of jobs and 13 percent who blamed weak sentences for crimes. Only 6 percent blamed ineffective policing. The survey was conducted by Research America Inc., featuring live landline and cellphone interviews with 985 registered voters from Jan 20-28. It has an error margin of 3.2 percentage points.
Pamela Washburn said she worked as a police officer in a small town in Wisconsin many years ago. The 69-year-old poll respondent, who is white and lives in Lincoln Park, said the crime problem here was due to "so many guns and so many people who are totally unqualified to handle them."
Washburn said her own insight into what it's like to be on the streets fighting crime led her to disapprove of Emanuel's handling of it.
"I think Mayor Emanuel has wonderful instincts and is a truly caring person," Washburn said. "But I think he has not had much experience fighting crime. There are a lot of mayors who aren't handling crime well right now. He's certainly not alone in that."
Chicago Tribune's Rick Pearson contributed.
bruthhart@tribpub.com
lbowean@tribpub.com