Nat Parry<\/p>\n
Recent public opinion surveys reveal somewhat disjointed\u00a0attitudes toward the legitimacy of violence, with Americans on one hand embracing violent policies as they pertain to assassinating suspected terrorists, and on the other rejecting the use of violent protests against police brutality.<\/p>\n
In one recent poll, nearly three-quarters of respondents said that it\u2019s acceptable for the U.S. to use unmanned aerial drones to kill American citizens abroad if they are suspected of having joined a terrorist organization. The survey,\u00a0conducted<\/u><\/a>\u00a0by the Associated Press and GfK in the days following President Barack Obama\u2019s public apology for a CIA drone strike in Pakistan that inadvertently killed American Warren Weinstein and Italian Giovanni Lo Porto, found that only 13 percent oppose the use of drones in this respect, with six in ten supporting the practice of assassinating terror suspects without due process.<\/p>\n Although some have criticized the wording of the survey, such as Dan Froomkin and Jon Schwarz\u00a0noting at<\/u><\/a>\u00a0The Intercept<\/em>\u00a0that the AP itself acknowledged that it\u00a0did not include questions about collateral damage, it nevertheless provides a fairly strong indication of public support for a policy that since 2002 has\u00a0killed<\/u><\/a>\u00a0more than 1,000 civilians in hundreds of strikes against Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan. A similar poll conducted last year also\u00a0found<\/u><\/a>\u00a0most Americans were \u201cinclined to support the government in its lethal attacks on citizens and non-citizens it deems to be terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n With this sort of broad support for the government\u2019s liberal use of lethal force, one might assume that the American public generally agrees that violence is a legitimate recourse in response to potential threats or sources of injustice. But while six in ten Americans consider legitimate the use of drone strikes to kill U.S. citizens without being charged or tried, a virtually identical number considers illegitimate the use of riots to protest police brutality.<\/p>\n