Race and justice

The shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown by police and the resulting civil unrest in Ferguson, Mo., has once again pushed into the limelight differences in how Americans view the criminal justice system based on race. On Aug. 20, pollster Gallup released data revealing the drastic differences in how people view these issues. While 59 percent of whites said they were confident in the police, only 37 percent of blacks echoed that sentiment. The same percentage of whites said they were confident in the honesty and ethics of police officers, compared to only 40 percent of blacks. When asked why a disproportionately high percentage of black males are incarcerated, only 19 percent of whites said they believe it was mostly due to discrimination in the justice system, compared to 50 percent of blacks.