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CSUSB professor discusses hate crimes, hate speech and anti-Semitism Jewish Herald VoiceNov. 8, 2018 Brian Levin, CSUSB criminal justice professor and director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, discusses the “massive under-reporting” of hate crime incidents in Texas. Levin, who has testified before both houses of Congress and various state legislatures on hate and terrorism, contends police agencies in major Texas cities need to review their training, policies and outreach with regard to hate crimes.“When police departments start doing a better job of responding to hate crimes, their reporting efficiencies will also increase. We will see a rise in the number of hate crimes in Texas. Increased numbers do not mean police are doing a bad job. It’s a mark of better reporting efficiency.”Levin also discusses anti-Semitic hate crimes across the country.“We forecast a third consecutive rise nationally for all hate crime when FBI comes out with new data in a couple of weeks,” said Levin. “We forecast anti-Semitic hate crime to be well over 700, the highest total since 2012, and the third consecutive annual increase. Jews are among the top few targets in most of the largest cities.“We’ve also seen an explosion of anti-Semitic rhetoric on the darker corners of the internet. And, since Charlottesville, we’ve seen the largest number of mega-rallies in many decades. [Mega-rallies are public demonstrations by anti-Semites and/or Nazis of 100 or more people].”However, Levin opposes limiting or criminalizing hate speech.Levin’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism was one of the signatories of the Hate Crimes Coalition Policy recommendations: “The right to free speech is a core value, but the promotion of hate should be vehemently rejected.”“The First Amendment protects hateful speech,” Levin said. “As Jewish Americans, we’ve found that if we want to live in a society that protects individual liberties, it’s key to maintain protection for ideas that remain out of the mainstream or are even hateful.”Read the whole article at “What Hate Crime Statistics Tell Us – And Don’t Tell Us.”
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