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IE manufacturing improves – on paper, CSUSB report indicates
IE Business Daily
June 4, 2020
Inland Empire manufacturing roared back in May, one month after one of its worst month’s ever. The region’s purchasing managers index was 56.9, up from an abysmal 41.8 in April, the Institute of Applied Research and Policy Analysis at Cal State San Bernardino reported Monday.
That’s good news, but it needs to be taken with a large grain of salt, said Barbara Sirotnik, director of the institute and co-author of the monthly report.
“Honestly, I think it was more a reflection of how bad April was than how good May was,” Sirotnik said. “The numbers in each report are compared to the previous month, and April was so bad they could only go up.”
Read the complete article at “IE manufacturing improves – on paper.”
It will take time to determine what extremist groups were involved in instigating violence at protests, CSUSB professor says
VOA News
June 4, 2020
Many of the nights following the death of George Floyd while in the custody of four Minneapolis, Minn., police officers have been racked with violence and looting, the news service reports, marring the relatively peaceful protests nationwide.
Analysts and researchers who follow radical groups say they have little doubt extremists were involved in the much bigger stew of unrest, anger and protest. “It will take time to unravel what extremist networks may or may not have been involved,” Brian Levin, a professor of criminal justice at California State University-San Bernardino and director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism, told VOA.
“Some people being arrested appear to be affiliated to the hard left, but others seem to be from the far right. Some of these folks might just be thrill-seeking manipulators or are felonious opportunists and not just ideologues, others are idiosyncratic wildcards,” he added. Distinguishing between them all can be difficult.
“But we have a very fragmented and splintered socio-political landscape in America now, and with institutions under stress, a pandemic and an election year underway, I really think we have to reassess what the threat matrix. There is a deep reservoir of potential extremist recruits,” he adds.
Read the complete article at “Who's Behind the Violence at George Floyd Protests in U.S.?”
Recent protests have sparked online chatter among extremists, CSUSB professor says
VOA News
June 3, 2020
The series of nationwide protests the past nine days over the death of African American George Floyd while in the custody of Minneapolis police have drawn a hodgepodge of outside agitators. They range from anarchists to anti-fascists, radical environmentalists, white supremacists, anti-government militiamen and just straight-up opportunists.
Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, said the protests have sparked more online chatter among extremists than action on the ground.
"Even that action is not always violent and not always easy to confirm until we get the arrest data, which is filtering," Levin said. "Let's see what the arrest logs look like as police departments across the country do a reverse investigation."
Read the complete article at “Sorting out claims of extremist involvement in U.S. protests is challenging.”
CSUSB professor comments on OC deputy wearing extremist patch on his uniform at a George Floyd protest
Los Angeles Times
June 3, 2020
Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes denounced one of his deputies Wednesday for wearing a patch associated with an extremist paramilitary group while policing a Costa Mesa protest over the killing of George Floyd.
After seeing the video of the deputy wearing a Three Percenters patch during a protest this week, Barnes said, “these symbols are not department-approved and are prohibited by policy, and contradict the values of the Sheriff’s Department.”
Brian Levin, an expert on extremist groups and director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino, said display of such a symbol is especially ill-timed “when cities are burned and citizens questioning the level of racial bias in police departments.”
Read the complete article at “O.C. deputy under investigation after wearing extremist paramilitary patch at George Floyd protest.”
These news clips and others may be viewed at “In the Headlines.”