Wall Street has been occupied by protestors for a month now, and the movement is showing no signs of slowing. And New Yorkers are apparently just fine with that.
A Quinnipiac poll released on Monday found that residents of the financial capital of the world are unfazed by the presence of the protestors, who have been mostly in the financial district’s Zuccotti Park but also made their way to Times Square on Saturday night, and that two thirds of New Yorkers agree with the views of Occupy Wall Street.
72 percent polled in the city said that if protestors obey the law they should be allowed to stay as long as they want. 24 percent said they should be limited. There was a trend based on income within those findings, but not what you might think: the lower the income group, the more likely a the respondent would say OWS protests should be stopped at some point. Only 16 percent of those who make over $100,000 felt OWS should be halted in the future, while 34 percent of those who make less than $30-thousand thought so. Still, a majority of all groups said it should continue as long as the protesters aren’t breaking the law.
“It’s a free country. Let them keep on protesting as long as they obey the law, New Yorkers say overwhelmingly,” said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in a release. “Critics complain that no one can figure out what the protesters are protesting. But seven out of 10 New Yorkers say they understand and most agree with the anti-Wall Street views of the protesters.”
The Quinnipiac survey also showed wide support for a tax on millionaires, the so-called Buffett rule, and harsher regulations on Wall Street financial firms themselves. 61 percent said that millionaires should be taxed more, and 73 percent said that firms should have tougher rules.
The Quinnipiac poll used 1,068 live telephone interviews with New York City residents conducted from October 12th to the 16th. It has a sampling error of three points.
Kyle Leighton
Kyle is the Poll Editor at TPM. He graduated from Beloit College (WI) and began working in politics before getting an M.A. in magazine journalism from New York University, where he interned at TPM and the website of The New Yorker.
Facebook Conversations
Questions about commenting with non-Facebook accounts like Yahoo, or other concerns? Click here to read the TPM Commenting FAQ.