Brian Levin, J.D.

George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old self-appointed neighborhood watch captain from Sanford, FL has been arrested and charged late Wednesday with second degree murder in connection with the February 26 shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, an unarmed African American youth returning home from a convenience store. The announcement was made Wednesday...

One of the two white men arrested shortly before 2 a.m. Sunday morning for shooting three African-American North Tulsa residents to death and injuring two others appears to have had a racist posting on his Facebook pages. The apparently random racially motivated shootings have terrorized Tulsa's African-American community. The city...

The number of domestic hate and extremist groups in the United States grew to record levels in 2011, led by a surge in anti-government radicalism, according to a report released today by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a prominent civil rights organization based in Montgomery, AL. In...

There are certain losses that just simply tug at your heart because they symbolize not just the passing of a vibrant iconic person, but a bit of our youth as well. For long suffering Mets and other baseball fans from the 1980s the sad loss of Hall of Fame catcher...

This weekend saw one of those poignant front-page contrasts of emergent triumph and final tragedy that leaves fans of sports and music with exuberant joy and deep sorrow. On one day the tabloids are emblazoned with images of a young relatively unknown sports talent making an...

Time is quickly running out to right the wrongs of a bygone era where the most vicious form of violence and hate ran rampant with seeming impunity. It is an era that most of us would rather leave to the anonymity of history. The immersion in...

Anwar Al-Awlaki, 40, an influential English speaking New Mexico born radical Yemeni cleric who harnessed the Internet to promote violent Jihad, most recently on behalf of his terrorist organization, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), has been killed. His death reportedly came today through an aerial strike on his convoy...

"Christ is hidden under the suffering appearance of anyone who is hungry, naked, homeless, or dying," Nobel Prize winner Mother Teresa said of the less fortunate who called the streets of Calcutta home. "Each one of them is Jesus in disguise," she explained. Apparently some entrusted to protect violently disagree...

On 9/11 the worst terrorist attack perpetrated against America left over 2970 dead, including 343 firefighters and 72 law enforcement officers. The full story, however, is not about hijacked airliners, intelligence failures, fanatic murderers or conspiracy theorists. Its about lives well lived that were cut painfully short and the endurance...

The news of a specific, credible, yet uncorroborated terrorist threat to coincide with the tenth anniversary period of the 9/11 attacks highlights the amorphous nature of the contemporary risk landscape. This alert involving possible unnamed Pakistani U.S. residents armed with vehicular bombs targeting metropolitan New York or Washington,...

Daryl Johnson was the main author of a controversial 2009 law enforcement report entitled Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment. It was hailed by some as prescient trend analysis and condemned by others as a politically motivated...

The stunning news that Osama bin Laden has been killed by American Navy Seals in a daring attack in Pakistan yesterday is a tremendous blow to al Qaeda. The radical movement he created, however, even in a debilitated form, remains a serious threat to Westerners around the world, and to...

As a Saudi national was about to be arrested for an alleged plot in Texas to assassinate former President Bush, and weeks after the horrible shooting spree that left 6 dead and a congresswoman seriously wounded, Georgia Congressman Paul Broun reportedly chuckled after a constituent asked, "Who's going to shoot...

Hate groups in the United States in 2010 numbered over 1000 for the first time according to the Montgomery, AL based Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) in a just released annual tally of extremism. The 1002 "hate groups" in 2010 represent the tenth consecutive annual increase and the...

In a wide ranging address late yesterday Dr. Hussein Ibish, Sr. Advisory Board Member of the Center for the Study of Hate Extremism said Mubarak's exit and the Egyptian democracy movement were of crucial importance to the Arab world and beyond. He said that while the situation is fluid beyond...

A dynamic all day conference on Intergroup Relations and Conflict Resolution held by the California Association of Human Relations Organizations (CAHRO) is taking place this Monday, February 7 from 8AM-5PM in downtown Los Angeles on the campus of the California Endowment at 1000 North Alameda Street. The conference, which has...

Milestones not only tell us how far we've come, but perhaps more importantly, they illustrate how far we still have to go. Less than half, 48% of Americans feel that Dr. King's vision has been met. Still, our nation is a vastly different one from the one that...

Several years ago an accomplished network journalist told me every good story needs a hero and a clear set of villains. As investigators, journalists, pundits and the public struggle to make sense of the horrific shootings that left a congresswoman critically injured, 6 dead, and others wounded it is natural...

EXCERPT COURTESY OF CNN
Anger and politics a dangerous mix

The horrific shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, and the killing of six others, including a respected federal judge, outside a Tucson Safeway is not the first time that a member of Congress has faced violent threat or attack.

But...

Reported hate crime in New York State rose 14% in 2009 to 683 from 599 in 2008, according to a new report released by the state's Division of Criminal Justice Services. In contrast national figures released last month by the Federal Bureau of Investigation showed a...