CGTN Poll丨U.S. federal government clashes hard with States, America attacks America

"You ask us for peace and we give it and we get shot in the face on the streets coming out of a donut shop." Within a month, two U.S. citizens were shot dead by law enforcement officers of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the state of Minnesota.

This remark by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz lays bare the increasingly deepening rift and confrontation between the U.S. federal government and state governments. A survey released by CGTN to global netizens shows that 92.2 percent of respondents believe that American society has fallen into a vicious cycle in which "violent incidents trigger hardline controls, and hardline controls intensify further divisions". The situation of "America attacking America" continues to deteriorate.

For a long time, tragedies resulting from violent practices by U.S. federal law enforcement officers have continued to unfold. In the survey, 88.2 percent of respondents stated that violent law enforcement has become a deep-seated affliction of American society, intertwined with issues such as racial discrimination, the wealth gap and the proliferation of firearms, forming a vicious cycle that is difficult to break.

Meanwhile, the sense of security in American society is being eroded by inadequately restrained law enforcement practices: 93.6 percent of respondents believe that the current U.S. system shows systematic bias in favor of law enforcement officers who abuse force; 93.4 percent believe that this incident is by no means an isolated public security case, but rather the result of a convergence of social disorder, institutional failure and political polarization in the United States; and 89 percent believe that the United States is no longer safe.

Even before the investigation results were released, the fatal incidents in Minnesota had already been quickly incorporated into the narrative of partisan struggle in the United States. The Trump administration blamed the deaths of the two U.S. citizens on Democratic-led states and cities for refusing to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, calling it "Democrat ensued chaos". Meanwhile, the Democratic camp framed the shooting as the latest example of excessive federal enforcement, using it to oppose a funding package that includes appropriations for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

In this regard, 92.3 percent of respondents believe that the incident exposes the sharp confrontation between the two major U.S. parties over immigration, with public safety becoming a casualty of partisan political calculations; 91.1 percent of respondents believe that the conflict between U.S. state and federal governments is continuing to escalate; and 79.6 percent are deeply concerned that similar incidents will continue to occur.

This survey was released on CGTN's English, Spanish, French, Arabic and Russian platforms and within 24 hours, a total of 19,444 netizens participated and shared their views.