Threats and violence by white nationalists and other extremists targeting law enforcement officers from incidents including the clash in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and the fallout from the FBI’s confiscation of classified documents from former President Donald Trump’s Florida home, will be the focus of the next Conversations on Race and Policing at Cal State San Bernardino.

Michael German, a Fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty & National Security Program, and Arie Perliger, professor and director of security studies at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, will participate the program with guest host Brian Levin, director of CSUSB’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.

The program will take place at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2, on Zoom. The talk is free and open to the public, and can be accessed from a PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android at https://csusb.zoom.us/j/97960458784.

German, who has participated in past Conversations on Race and Policing (Sept. 23, 2020, and Jan. 27, 2021), is a former FBI agent. His work at the Brennan Center focuses on law enforcement and intelligence oversight and reform. Prior to joining the Brennan Center, German served as the policy counsel for national security and privacy for the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington legislative office.

Perliger teaches in UMass Lowell’s School of Criminology and Justice Studies, where his expertise and research interests include political violence and extremism, security policy, and far-right politics (the U.S., Europe and Israel). Prior to teaching at UMass Lowell, Perliger was the director of terrorism studies and associate professor at the Combating Terrorism Center and Department of Social Sciences, at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Levin, in addition to being director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, is a professor in CSUSB’s School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. He was recently appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to the first cohort of commissioners of the state’s Commission on the State of Hate.

Conversations on Race and Policing, also known as CoRP, began in the aftermath of the May 25, 2020, death of George Floyd while in the custody of four Minneapolis, Minn., police officers. A video of the incident posted on social media led to widespread protests, the firing of four police officers, the arrest and conviction of one officer on a second-degree murder and related charges, the other three on charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder – and a spotlight worldwide on race and policing.

The series has featured scholars, journalists, law enforcement officers, lawyers, activists, artists, educators, administrators and others from throughout the nation who shared their experience and expertise on issues related to race and policing.

More than 50 forums have taken place, and video recordings of the sessions are posted online on the Conversations on Race and Policing Lecture Series Archive. 

The fall lineup of Conversations on Race and Policing, each at 1 p.m. on Wednesdays, include:

The series is organized by CSUSB students, staff and faculty, including recent history master of arts graduate, Cecelia Smith; history master of arts student Matt Patino; Mary Texeira, professor emerita, sociology; Jeremy Murray, professor of history; Robie Madrigal, public affairs/communication specialist for the CSUSB John M. Pfau Library; and community member Stan Futch, president of the Westside Action Group.

For more information, contact Robie Madrigal at rmadriga@csusb.edu or Jeremy Murray at jmurray@csusb.edu.

CoRP Nov 2 event flier