Nation

Gallup: 81% of Black Americans Want Police To Spend The Same Or More Amount Of Time In Their Neighborhoods

Published

1 year ago

August 5, 2020

Staff Writer

New data from Gallup shows high numbers of Black Americans wanting police to spend the same or increased amount of time in their neighborhoods — while few of these individuals feel an interaction with local police will go well.

The report shows 61 percent of Black Americans want the police presence to remain the same while 20 percent desire the police to spend more time in their area — just 19 percent want the police to spend less time.

Notably, the number is similar to the 67 percent of all U.S. adults preferring the status quo, including 71 percent of White Americans.

Black Americans were the second-highest group to want more police presence — just behind Hispanic Americans at 24 percent.

“Fewer than one in five Black Americans feel very confident that the police in their area would treat them with courtesy and respect,” the report finds.

This number is similar to the 24 percent of Asian Americans who feel this way. Other groups, however, have quite different numbers: 40 percent of Hispanic Americans and the 56 percent of White Americans feel confident that the police will treat them with respect.

“When factoring in those who are at least somewhat confident that the police would treat them well, a majority of Black Americans (61 percent) are generally confident, but this is still below the 85 percent seen nationally, including 91 percent of White Americans,” Gallup found.

The information was found in a June 23-July 6 Gallup Panel survey. For the full findings, click here.

Nation

Boston Celtics Player Legally Changing Name to ‘Enes Kanter Freedom’ to Celebrate U.S. Citizenship

Published

3 days ago

November 29, 2021

Staff Writer

Photo by Omar Rawlings/Getty Images

Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter is celebrating becoming a U.S. citizen in an incredible way. The 29-year-old athlete from Turkey is having his citizenship oath ceremony Monday, and will legally change his name to Enes Kanter Freedom.

Kanter is an outspoken human rights advocate who had his Turkish passport revoked in 2017 after he criticized Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Mediaite reports “he has also criticized NBA stars Michael Jordan and LeBron James for not doing enough to help the Black community and not speaking out against exploitative labor practices in China respectively.”

Celtics head coach Ime Udoka told the Boston Globe the team is “all for” the player’s name change. Kanter’s manager says the player will complete his legal name change to have Kanter become his middle name and Freedom be his new last name at Monday’s ceremony.

“We congratulated him as a group for getting his American citizenship last week,” Udoka said. “That’s who Enes is, we’re proud of him. Enes is who he is. He’s passionate about his stances and the name change; you look at [Ron] Artest [who changed his name to Metta Sandiford-Artest in the middle of the COVID-19 outbreak] and guys that have done it in the past. It’s something he wants to express and we’re all for it.”

Kanter has already changed his official Twitter account to Enes Kanter FREEDOM with his new last name in all caps. Freedom made waves when he tweeted the following on November 18: Money over Morals for the ‘King’. Sad & disgusting how these athletes pretend they care about social justice. They really do ‘shut up & dribble’ when Big Boss [inserted Chinese flag] says so. Did you educate yourself about the slave labor that made your shoes or is that not part of your research?”

The tweet included photos of basketball shoes he wore painted with human rights depictions and phrases such as “hey still researching and getting educated?” as well as “I am informed and educated on the situation.”

The statement is with regard to his criticism of LeBron James’ partnership with Nike. “Nike remains one of the NBA’s biggest sponsors as both organizations feed off their partnerships with China” reports Mediaite. Kanter Freedom also made an offer to take Michael Jordan and Nike co-founder Phil Knight to China in order for the men to “visit these slave labor camps and you can see it with your own eyes.”