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 professor discusses police efforts to defuse tensions at recent protests
NBC News
June 1, 2020
An article about law enforcements leaders trying to bridge the gap with protestors demonstrating against police brutality over the death of George Floyd in police custody included an interview with Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.
But even as the actions of law enforcement leaders have been praised, policing experts said that there is no "one size fits all response" and that what worked in these instances could backfire in others.
"The problem is that catalytic events like the killing of George Floyd are a siren call not only to those seeking peaceful reforms, who constitute the majority, but also to the constellation of unstable, angry and violent interlopers who seek to exploit divisions or loot rather than achieve peaceful change," said Levin, who walked a beat in Harlem as a New York City police officer before he became an academic.
Levin said a chief who takes that kind of risk has to know his or her audience — and they have to know him or her, too.
"A chief has to be able to read the crowd, and a lot depends on what kind of relationship the chief had with the community prior to all this," Levin said.
But Levin warned that "peaceful protesters and police can be sitting ducks for any opportunists who want to take advantage of the chaos."
And police can't be seen as picking a side.
"It does put police in a bind in that they are supposed to maintain order and not support a particular police viewpoint," Levin said. "The best kinds of outcomes occur when protesters and police find some kind of alignment, and that happens more than you think. When it doesn't, it ends up on the 6 o'clock news."
Read the complete article at “Police try to defuse George Floyd tensions by locking arms with angry protesters.”
Social media’s role in current protests discussed by CSUSB professor
KNX Radio Los Angeles
June 1, 2020
Social media and its role in the recent protests over the death of George Floyd while in the custody of police was the topic of a segment that included an interview with Brian Levin, director of CSUSB’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.
“We’re talking about social media as a tool for organizing and communication and setting up the time and place were people are going to be,” Levin said.
Social media can also be used fan flames of division. “Don’t underestimate how social media is being manipulated by conspiracy theorists, rumor mongers and those who want to foment division.”
CSUSB professor comments on extremists on both sides exploiting protests
BBC News via KPCC (Pasadena)
June 1, 2020
A segment about reports of organized extremist groups being bussed into cities in the United States to infiltrate otherwise peaceful protests over the death of George Floyd while in the custody of police included an interview with Brian Levin, director of CSUSB’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.
Levin said that the “overwhelming majority of protestors are peaceful and progressive folks, and they’re of all races and all ages. … There are, however, interlopers that come in, and I suspect that, and we have some evidence, but it’s a little opaque and somewhat flimsy, but there is enough there that I think we have to look at this more.”
In the past, extremists from the hard left have taken over and exploited protests, and now it appears that those from the extreme right are also trying to do the same, Levin said.
CSUSB professor comments on outside extremists inciting violence at protests in San Antonio
San Antonio (Texas) Express-News
June 1, 2020
An article about outsiders instigating the violence and looting in the San Antonio, Texas, protests over the death of George Floyd included an interview with Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.
“The question is who, indeed, is exploiting this violence?” said Levin. “Because both the hard left and certain folks in the far right have expressed interest in doing so.
“I think the bulk of the actual individuals out there doing damage are opportunistic looters or hard left,” Levin added. “But that being said, I know that there have been expressions of interest to exploit these rallies to make black people look bad and to also have them confront police. I think there are an array of extremists who have both a motive and an opportunity to infiltrate these protests.”
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said federal authorities believe that “violent extremists” from out of town are behind most of the violence, looting and rioting.
Read the complete article at “San Antonio police chief: Out-of-state ‘extremists’ infiltrating peaceful protests.”
CSUSB professor interviewed about notion of civil unrest being classified as ‘domestic terrorism’
Australian Broadcasting Network Radio
June 2, 2020
Professor Brian Levin, director, Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, was interviewed on the Australian radio about President Donald Trump calling the riots springing out of the protests over the death of George Floyd “domestic terrorism.”
Australia has also experienced similar protests growing into looting and violence as people there protest Floyd’s death while he was in the custody of four Minneapolis, Minn., police officers.
“We have seen a diversification of extremism here in North America,” Levin said, adding that he has discussed the situation with researchers at the University of Maryland who have also seen a doubling globally in extremist movements over the last decade.
And while there are domestic extremists increasingly active in their own countries, Levin said “foreign interlopers” have also been active in causing “civil distress in various Western countries online.”
He said he was not only worried about “looting by opportunistic manipulators, some folks on the hard left, I’m also concerned about the role of hard right … and hate groups who are going to try to make African Americans look bad or target people of color for violence now that there are a lot of gatherings. It’s a bad mix, and we need a presidential leader who is going to bring people together.”
Listen to the interview at “Are the George Floyd riots ‘domestic terrorism.’”
CSUSB professor part of discussion on who may be inciting violence during George Floyd protests
VOA News
June 1, 2020
Amid the ongoing U.S. protests over the death in police custody of George Floyd, state officials have blamed outside extremist agitators, saying they mix with legitimate protesters to foment violence.
Brian Levin, a professor of criminal justice at California State University, San Bernardino, commented anarchists – those who see government as illegitimate and seek to sow chaos.
"For the most part, the anarchists we see here in the United States tend to be more disenchanted with the progressive left," said Levin.
Read the complete article at “Four extremist groups suspected of involvement in protest violence.”
CSUSB professor comments on Iranian foreign minister’s comments on George Floyd’s death and U.S. treatment of Iran
Press TV
June 2, 2020
David Yaghoubian, CSUSB professor of history, was interviewed for a segment on Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who has equated the recent kneeling to death of an African-American man by U.S. police to Washington’s so-called maximum pressure campaign against Iranians.
“The militarization of the domestic American police force, the complete militarization of the American foreign policy and diplomacy, if you can even refer to American foreign interactions as diplomacy these days, there is this commonality of threats of violence, the application of violence, economic depravation and lies that are enabling this crisis,” Yaghoubian said.
Watch the segment online at “Zarif: US has been using same ‘knee-on-neck' technique on Iranian people for 2 years.”
These news clips and others may be viewed at “In the Headlines.”