SPRINGFIELD — Ninety-one percent of Massachusetts residents agree with the decision to lock down parts of Greater Boston while looking for the second Boston Marathon bombing suspect April 19 and 86 percent have a favorable opinion of the state police’s handling of the case, according to survey results released Tuesday morning by The MassInc Polling Group.
Steven M. Koczela, president of the MassInc Polling Group, said the acceptance people showed for the all-day security cordon didn’t surprise him as someone who experienced that day himself.
“It sort of felt that way, just watching people’s reaction,” Koczela said Monday by phone. “But you never know until you ask.”
MassInc is an independent think tank based in Boston.
Nearly half, about 48 percent, of polling respondents said they are more concerned that the government will not go far enough to investigate and prevent terrorist attacks compared with just 36 percent of residents statewide who are more concerned civil liberties will be infringed.
“People approved of the response that they saw and are open to giving the government more leeway for any future crisis,” Koczela said.
A recent national poll conducted by the Washington Post found the opposite, with more people worried about constitutional rights than worried that the government won’t pursue and prevent terrorist attacks aggressively enough.
Western Massachusetts residents were more evenly split, though. In this region, 41 percent told pollsters they were more concerned about the government not going far enough and 42 percent were worried that the government would go too far.
As always in these polls, there remaining respondents were split between “don’t know” and “both, it depends.”
Koczela said it makes sense. Most Boston residents are reacting to events in their neighborhoods. The tragedy, while felt, was felt less viscerally here in Western Massachusetts and even less intensely across the country.
William C. Newman, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Western Massachusetts, agreed.
“It seems proximity makes a makes a big difference in these numbers,” Newman said.
He and the rest of the ACLU are concerned that the surviving bombing suspect, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was questioned without being advised of his right to remain silent. The law does have an exemption for questioning pertaining to threats to public safety.
Newman said the national Washington Post poll was heartening .
“I think it shows a recognition that denial of rights is un-American,” Newman said.
Fifty-one percent of respondents statewide thought the government should not place restrictions on the media in during a crisis to curtail misinformation. But a considerable minority of 42 percent does favor such restrictions.
In Western Massachusetts, just 38 percent of respondents called for restriction on the media while 56 percent said no.
“I don’t think that the government should be in the business of censoring the media,” Newman said.
Newman said lots of incorrect news reports such as the ones reporting additional bombs or an early arrest started with Twitter and other social media feeds then got pick up by traditional media.
The poll showed that about 35 percent of respondents checked social media, like Twitter, frequently for updates on the bombing and investigation. But that number trailed local television and news websites.
Residents seem to think Gov. Deval L. Patrick did a good job. He had a 61 percent favorable rating versus a 23 percent unfavorable rating compared with 60 percent favorable and 26 percent unfavorable in December.
U.S. Den. Elizabeth Warren had 50 percent favorable and 29 percent unfavorable compared with 54 percent favorable and 34 percent unfavorable in December.
MassInc polled 500 Massachusetts residents April 23 through 27. The margin of error here is plus or minus 4.4 percent.
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