68% Of Californians Say Crime A Very Vital Problem, CBS Information Ballot Finds – CBS San Francisco
OAKLAND (KPIX 5) – A poll by CBS News found that most Californians consider crime a major state issue, including more than two in three who they consider very important.
Crime is often a hot political issue, but how people see it often depends on their individual life experience. And now there are numbers to prove it.
CONTINUE READING: UPDATE: Cache Fire Destroys Dozen of Lake County Homes; 1,500 residents evacuated
CBS News commissioned a survey of 1,800+ Californians on major problems facing the state. Forest fires and the coronavirus topped the list with 77% and 72%, respectively.
“But crime is at the top, very close to the Californian hot topics at 68%,” said Anthony Salvanto, CBS News Elections and Surveys director.
Oakland is often in the news about crime problems, but even there there are differences in how people view the scale of the problem.
“I wouldn’t say crime is a bigger problem here than anywhere I’ve ever been,” said Aidan Thompson-McTaggart, a college student from Oakland. “That doesn’t bother me much.”
• MORE RESULTS: CBS News YouGov Poll – THE CALIFORNIA DREAM
Shawn Granberry is a lifetime resident of Oakland. “Crime is definitely an issue in Oakland,” Granberry told KPIX 5. “Anyone who says crime is not an issue in Oakland doesn’t live in Oakland.”
Granberry said Oakland has become a city of the haves and the dispossessed, and young blacks don’t feel they have a great economic future. At 72%, this feeling is strongly reflected in the survey results on crime prevention.
CONTINUE READING: A’s fall to White Sox, drop 4th straight
“The most important thing many Californians are saying is that more economic opportunities for people would help reduce crime,” said Salvanto. “Similarly, many Californians said that more mental health services could help.”
Mental health services scored 68% in response to crime prevention. Collin Vaughan agrees, saying it made a huge difference to him and likely saved his life.
“Because mental health treatment has changed my life,” said the 23-year-old. “Without the drugs, the therapists, everything … I would be dead now.”
About half of the survey said fewer guns would help, and the other half would like more money for the police. But the relationship between the police and the Oakland black community has not always been good.
“They don’t live here, they don’t go through church. They just drive their cars and show up when something happens, ”Granberry said. “You don’t know the community.”
The survey shows that 50% of those questioned feel “protected” by the police and 8% feel “threatened”. But 31% feel a mixture of both, like Tara Jones, who, as an African American, is not afraid of the police, but rather for the safety of her teenage son.
“When you live it, it changes the way you move, how you act, how you can actually enjoy the world,” said Jones. “Someone from a gated community probably enjoys the world very differently than my 6’8” and 18-year-old son. “
MORE NEWS: San Jose Reid-Hillview Airport will be closed due to lead levels following the vote by district regulators
Jones said there is no escaping the threat in her neighborhood. Crime seems to be a universal problem, but with individual implications.
