US: One in three Americans say violence against government is sometimes justified

A recent poll suggested that one among every three Americans believed that violence against the government is occasionally justifiable. The poll was conducted in collaboration with the Washington Post and the University of Maryland and was released on New Year's Day, nearly one year after the deadly attack in US Capitol. As per the report by the Washington Post, the percentage of Americans who were of the opinion that violent action against the government is justifiable sometimes remains at 34%, which is significantly higher than previous polls' results.

The current poll suggests that 40% of Republicans, 41% of independents, and 23% of Democrats believe violence is occasionally necessary. More than half of Republicans believed Trump's claim that Biden won the presidency due to electoral fraud and did not trust election results. Last year on January 6, Trump supporters paraded the US capitol and attacked those who were present there. Trump urged his supporters to "fight like hell" for him, as he believed that the election was a fraud. Five individuals were killed, including a rioter and a police officer who were both shot by law enforcement. Back then, 60% of Americans blamed Trump for the Capitol incident.

Poll participant claims environment people live in now is 'scary'

Some of the people who responded to the poll were interviewed. One of them, a 72-year-old, named Phil Spampinato, who is a political independent from Dover, Delaware stated that he would first argue that brutality is never right and that the environment people live in now is scary, reported The Guardian. 

On the other hand, Anthea Ward, a 32-year-old from Michigan stated that it is no longer a battle between Democrats and Republicans but it is a battle between the forces of good and evil. She stated that she did not support the attack on the Capitol and she would also not take part in any violence in response to the COVID-19 vaccine regulations, according to The Guardian. Ward did, however, remark that other people could be justified in expressing their second amendment right if the government infringed their freedom of choice over vaccines.

Majority bats for non-violence

A majority of people continues to think that violence against the government is never acceptable which is 62%, according to the Washington Post poll. But is significantly low from the 1990s poll when as many as 90% of people said that the violence was never justified.

Image: AP