SCI Director Dr. Erroll Southers spoke with the Los Angeles Daily News about planned protests against the President on November 4, 2017, the Rise Above Movement (RAM), and the potential for conflict between anti-Trump protestors and far-right groups. The protests are being planned by a group called RefuseFascism, and similar circumstances led to violence during a rally in Charlottesville in August. The article reads in part:
Erroll Southers, director of Homegrown Violent Extremism Studies at the USC Safe Communities Institute, says he does not want to be alarmist. But he’s paying particular attention to Saturday’s national day of protest in light of intelligence and past violence at rallies in Charlottesville and other cities.
If local and federal law enforcement don’t know what RAM is, then they’re not equipped to deal with their members effectively, he said.
“It seems this movement is not being taken seriously,” said Southers, who is organizing a one-day conference on homegrown violent extremism at USC on Nov. 14. “We need to take this seriously; this is a public safety threat to the community.”
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