Poll: Over half of Calif. Democrats in favor of free speech restrictions

FILE -- White nationalists riot with counter protesters in Charlottesville, Va., Aug. 12, 2017. FILE -- White nationalists riot with counter protesters in Charlottesville, Va., Aug. 12, 2017. Photo: EDU BAYER, NYT Photo: EDU BAYER, NYT Image 1 of / 83 Caption Close Poll: Over half of Calif. Democrats in favor of free speech restrictions 1 / 83 Back to Gallery

A recent poll conducted by UC Berkeley reveals that over half of California Democrats are in favor of free speech restrictions for white nationalists and other "hate groups."

According to the poll, 53 percent of the state's Democrats believe that white nationalists should not have the right to demonstrate, compared to 42 percent of the state's Republicans and 39 percent of independent voters.

Statewide, 46 percent of voters support free speech restrictions, 43 percent believe that there should be no restrictions, and 11 percent have no opinion.

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The poll was conducted by Berkeley's Institute of Government Studies from Aug. 27 to Sept. 5, and included 1,200 registered California voters.

"I would have thought the liberals would be defending the right to demonstrate in general," the poll's director, Mark DiCamillo, told the San Jose Mercury News.

Sixty-six percent of the participants also believe that race relations have worsened in the past year, and 67 percent have "little to no confidence" in President Donald Trump's "ability to handle the country's race relations."

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Forty percent of white participants were in favor of restricting the free speech of white nationalists, compared to 51 percent of Latino participants, 58 percent of African American participants and 59 percent of Asian American participants.

UC Berkeley will be hosting conservative speaker Ben Shapiro on Thursday night, and Milo Yiannopoulos, Ann Coulter and Steve Bannon will give on-campus speeches later this month as part of the currently unsanctioned "Free Speech Week."