When Super Bowl 53 kicks off less than two weeks from now, legions of police and federal agents will be positioned to protect fans inside and outside Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, where the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams will face off.
The game will bring international attention, which makes it a potential target for terrorism, said Brian Levin, a former New York City police officer who is director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.
“We fortify these events because we have to,” Levin said. “They’re the brightest bug lamps that attract an array of possible extremists and also unstable people as well.”
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