NOTE: Faculty, if you are interviewed and quoted by news media, or if your work has been cited, and you have an online link to the article or video, please let us know. Contact us at news@csusb.edu
CSUSB report: Inland manufacturing bounces back
IE Business Daily
Aug. 5, 2019
Only one month after the Inland Empire’s purchasing managers index fell below 50 for the first time in more than two years, the much-watched statistic came roaring back, according a report released Thursday.
July’s index was 55, comfortably above the 50 benchmark that determines if the region’s manufacturing sector is expanding or contracting, according to the Institute of Applied Research and Policy Analysis at Cal State San Bernardino.
More importantly, it was well above the 46.3 index recorded in June, which marked the first sub-50 score since December 2016, ending 29 straight months of expansion.
Because three consecutive months in either direction are needed to establish a trend, last month’s report wasn’t reason to panic, said Barbara Sirotnik, institute director and co-author of the monthly study.
“It was probably an aberration, but we don’t know for sure,” Sirotnik said. “I can tell you there’s a lot of uncertainty about what’s happening in the manufacturing market. There are people who are optimistic, but there are some who are pessimistic.”
Read the complete article at “Inland manufacturing bounces back.”
Manufacturing sector rebounds after June’s weakness, CSUSB report shows
Connect Media
Aug. 5, 2019
The July Inland Empire Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) registered 55.0, a significant increase from last month’s 46.3. Research by the Institute of Applied Research showed the June PMI dipped below 50 and ended 29 straight months of growth in the manufacturing sector.
Barbara Sirotnik, director of the institute at CSUSB, says, “This month we are back above 50. If the index remains above the 50% for another two months, a new trend will have been established indicating conclusively a return to growth in the Inland Empire manufacturing sector.”
Read the complete article at “Manufacturing sector rebounds after June’s weakness.”
CSUSB report: LA domestic hate crimes up 14 percent in 2019
CBS Los Angeles
Aug. 4, 2019
In the wake of a series of deadly mass shootings across the U.S., California State University San Bernardino professor Brian Levin, leading the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, says the data is clear: we live “in an era of concern.” Hate crimes across the U.S. and in Los Angeles, he says, are up.
Levin’s report, shared with Congress, shows in L.A. alone, hate crimes are up 14 percent this year compared to last.
Last year, hate crimes were also at their highest rate in a decade in many of the country’s biggest cities, including L.A., Chicago and Washington, D.C.
“White supremacist homicides are now up the last few years. The terrorist hate crimes: we’ve seen them spike,” Levin said. “Right today, [we] have more extremist homicides in the United States than we did in all of last year.”
In L.A., anti-black hate crimes rank highest, followed by anti-gay, anti-Jewish and anti-Latino.
“We’ve seen increase in anti-Semitic and anti-Latino,” Levin said.
Read the complete article, and see the online video segment, at “LA domestic hate crimes up 14 percent in 2019.”
CSUSB professor comments on President Trump’s statement on weekend’s mass shootings
KNX-AM Radio, Los Angeles
Aug. 5, 2019
The all-news radio station interviewed Brian Levin, the Director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, for his analysis of President Donald Trump’s statement following this weekend’s mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.
At the very least, he did call out by name white supremacists, Levin said. “The problem is, I don’t believe that his delivery was that great, and he combined it with so many other things that it downplayed the real threat that we have from white supremacists’ terrorism.”
Listen to the segment at “09:32 KNX-AM (Radio).”
CSUSB Professor Brian Levin discusses El Paso shooting
Fox 11 News Los Angeles
Aug. 3, 2019
Brian Levin, the Director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, joined Fox 11 Los Angeles in the studio to talk about the alleged manifesto written by the suspected shooter in the mass shooting in El Paso on Aug. 3, mass shootings and hate crimes in the U.S.
There are two videos, one at the top of the web page, and a second, longer interview at the bottom of the web page.
See both videos and an online report at “Southland police reassure after El Paso shooting.”
And Levin also appeared on the station’s Good Day LA show on Aug. 5. Watch the video of that interview at “08:10 KTTV-LA (FOX)-Good Day LA.”
El Paso shooter’s manifesto shows an ‘expanding bible of evil,’ CSUSB professor says
El Paso Times
Aug. 4, 2019
Patrick Crusius blasted into a Walmart in El Paso with an assault rifle on Aug. 3, a professed belief in white supremacy and plans to gun down people of Hispanic descent and ethnicity, according to a hate-filled rant police suspect was written by the killer.
“From the manifesto that we first saw, we attribute that manifesto directly to him,' El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen said at a Sunday news conference updating the investigation.
“If the manifesto is accurately his, this means in one attack we had more people killed than all of the white supremacy/neo-Nazi attacks in 2018,” said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University at San Bernardino.
Hate crimes rose 9 % in major U.S. cities in 2018 for fifth consecutive year — to decade highs, even as overall crime in major cities declined, according to a report published by the center. Hate crimes linked to white nationalist and far right ideologies “continue to be most ascendant,” the report said.
“This is the last in a string of young people between 19 and 21 committing these horrific acts,” Levin said. “It’s the youngest generation that is diversifying the most. That is why that ‘replacement’ theory resonates with this angry, possibly mentally unstable cohort of young males who have easy access to weaponry.”
Levin called the El Paso shooter’s alleged manifesto part of “an expanding bible of evil” and “a really disturbing part of the new extremism.”
Read the complete article at “Walmart shooter allegedly penned white supremacist rant in 'bible of evil.'”
El Paso mass shooting should also be viewed in context of rise of global white nationalists’ radicalization and violence, CSUSB professor says
The Guardian (United Kingdom)
Aug. 4, 2019
Reports that the suspected gunman at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, on Aug. 3, killing at least 20 people, saw his mass shooting as “a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas” has prompted bipartisan calls for the US to treat the threat of domestic “white terrorists” as seriously as the threat of attacks by supporters of al-Qaida or Isis.
But experts, including Cal State San Bernardino professor Brian Levin, who study racist violence say the attack must be understood not just as a domestic problem within the United States, but as part of a global network of white nationalist radicalization and violence.
“There is so much material on the web – treatises, tracts, and manifestos – that would have been extraordinarily difficult to get hold of 25 years ago,” said Levin, the director for the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at CSUSB.
According to a report last week from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism (CSHE) at CSUSB, there were 17 homicides carried out by white nationalists in the US alone in 2018. This constituted the vast majority of the 22 extremist murders that CSHE counted that year.
Read the complete article at “El Paso shooting comes amid global rise in white nationalist violence.”
CSUSB professor interviewed for article about the increase in domestic terrorism
Los Angeles Times
Aug. 3, 2019
When a gunman died after killing three people and injuring 15 others at the Gilroy Garlic Festival last weekend, authorities were left to discern a motive for his attack.
Then, on Saturday, a gunman went on a shooting rampage at a shopping center in El Paso, killing at least 20 and wounding at least 26.
Brian Levin, director of Cal State San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, said it can be difficult to classify attacks. For example, the gunman in the Parkland, Fla., shooting in February 2018 that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School fixated on racist imagery, but authorities did not designate the attack as a hate crime, and Levin’s center did not include it in a recent report, Levin said.
Levin said political polarization and a rise of far-right nationalism is contributing to hate crime around the globe.
“We’re seeing a coalescence of traditional hate crime with political violence,” he said.
Read the complete article at “Deadly violence heightens concerns about domestic terrorism and white supremacists.”
CSUSB professor: Hate crimes and terrorism are increasingly intertwining as the U.S. becomes more politically polarized
USA Today
Aug. 4, 2019
In a country ravaged by gun violence – with two mass shootings less than 24 hours apart – an increasingly relevant question persists: When are these violent acts considered domestic terrorism?
The shooting in El Paso, Texas, falls under this category, according to police. Officials announced Sunday that they were treating this case, in which a lone gunman killed 20 and injured dozens, as domestic terrorism. That announcement came as officials were finalizing a link to an online manifesto espousing anti-immigrant and racist views to the suspect.
Brian Levin, director of Cal State San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, said hate crimes and terrorism are increasingly intertwining as the U.S. becomes more politically polarized. These racist beliefs tend to be behind recent major acts of violence, such as the October 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting and the August 2017 Charlottesville, Virginia, car attack. At the Tree of Life shooting, 11 people were killed, and in Charlottesville, one person was killed.
Levin pointed out, though, that the motives behind perpetrators of mass shootings are becoming harder to categorize. Most shooters aren't part of organizations with a straightforward ideology or mission, which is a characteristic generally associated with terrorism, he said. These people form their own 'idiosyncratic type of extremism,' Levin said.
'It’s not like the James Bond villain who’s representing some kind of country or ideology,' Levin said. 'These people are often a chaotic mix of multiple motives.'
2020 Democrats presidential hopefuls have been urging politicians to label white nationalist attacks as domestic terrorism. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren made this point on the first night of the July debates and tweeted about it Sunday in the aftermath of the most recent shootings.
According to his research, Levin said white nationalism is the most ascendant extremist group at this time.
Read the complete article at “In the wake of two more hate-fueled mass shootings, when do we call it domestic terrorism?”
Political polarization and rise of far-right nationalism contributes to hate crime around the world, CSUSB professor says
The Telegraph (United Kingdom) via Yahoo! News
Aug. 4, 2019
The suspected gunman in the El Paso mass shooting, was being investigated for hate crimes on Sunday as a familiar portrait began to emerge of the alleged shooter. Just as it was the case in a series of recent tragedies in the US, the suspect in Texas was a young, white man who had had apparently espoused racist ideology.
Brian Levin, director of Cal State San Bernardino’s Centre for the Study of Hate and Extremism, said political polarisation and a rise of far-right nationalism was contributing to hate crime around the globe.
“We’re seeing a coalescence of traditional hate crime with political violence,” he told the LA Times last week.
Read the complete article at “Patrick Crusius: El Paso shooting suspect fuels fears of increasing white supremacist threat.”
The most notorious extremist mass killers influenced by bigoted content online, CSUSB professor quoted as saying
Homeland Security Today
Aug. 2, 2019
Jess M. Sadick wrote for the online publication: “With quick, coordinated action, the July 28 deadly shooting attack at a California garlic festival could have been prevented and the lives of three young persons – ages 6, 13, and 25 – saved. That day, though it’s not yet certain how long before the attack, the shooter posted to social media disturbing thoughts and information that, if discovered and reported in time, should have raised red flags. …
“Brian Levin at Cal State San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, notes that, ‘Over the last decade, many of the most notorious extremist mass killers participated in, or were influenced by, bigoted content on social media before undertaking attacks.’ …
“Law enforcement entities need to employ experts like Brian Levin, or have agreements with organizations that do, to interpret suspected extremist material in real time and in short order. It may not have taken very long to share and assess the shooter’s social media activity and to discover his recent gun purchase if procedures and coordinated action had been in place. The popularity of social media with would-be violent extremists requires us to conceptualize, contemplate, consider, and implement new steps to preempt the next Gilroy.”
Read the complete article at “PERSPECTIVE: heightened scrutiny of social media could have prevented Gilroy attack.”
Though digital footprints provides clues, real motive of Gilroy shooter may never be known
Los Angeles Times
Aug. 2, 2019
Five days into the investigation of the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooter, authorities say they still aren’t sure why he launched the attack that killed three and injured 13.
They have gathered evidence in Gilroy, Calif., and Nevada and tried to understand his digital footprint. But they admitted they may never know why he acted.
Before the attack, the shooter posted a photo on Instagram of a Smokey Bear sign warning about fire danger, with a caption instructing people to read an obscure novel glorified by white supremacists: “Might Is Right,” published under the pseudonym Ragnar Redbeard.
The book, published in 1890, includes discredited principles related to social Darwinism that have been used to justify racism, slavery and colonialism, said Brian Levin, director of Cal State San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.
Read the complete article at “Gilroy shooter’s motive may never be known as investigation finds few clues.”
CSUSB center’s study on hate crimes focus of article
MEAWS
An online news site for the LBGT community reported on a recent study by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism (CSHE) at California State University San Bernardino found that hate crimes across the U.S. have risen by nine percent over the last year including against LGBTQ people, Jews and people of color. Their study looked at 2,009 cases in 30 U.S. cities and found that hate crimes have been steadily rising since 2014 with some city increases outnumbering decreases nearly two-to-one. Last year’s nine percent rise “marked the fifth consecutive increase in hate crimes, and the steepest rise since 2015,” according to the study.
Read the complete article at “Number of hate crimes spike to record levels under Trump administration.”
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