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CNN Live Today

To Mark Anniversary of L.A. Riots, Bush Visiting L.A.

Aired April 29, 2002 - 11:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: It's 10 years ago to the day that the riots in Los Angeles broke out. That city exploded in violence after four white LAPD officers were acquitted in the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King. It is arguably the most notorious case of police brutality in the country. Several days of riots, fires and looting left 55 people dead and about a billion in damage in this city in seven different districts.

Now to mark the anniversary, President Bush is going to be visiting L.A. today. He is promoting his faith-based initiative as a way to heal communities and to boost economic growth as well.

Reverend Cecil Murray, who is pastor of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church is going to be among those listening to the president's message today. Reverend Murray and his church were the community's touchstone for recovery following the riots, and he has been a quite vocal voice for the community ever since then, and he joins us this morning here in our bureau.

We appreciate you taking time to talk with us today, Reverend Murray. I know you've got a very busy day ahead of you.

REV. CECIL MURRAY, FIRST AME CHURCH: Thank you. Thank you.

HARRIS: Now, you are going to be talking with President Bush later today.

MURRAY: Yes, there will be 15 who will talk to him about concrete problems for 30 minutes, and then he comes down to the main assembly and addresses the larger assembly for 30 minutes.

So we hope to listen to him, that he will listen to us as we lay out possible strategies for overcoming.

HARRIS: Now you say "concrete problems." What kind of concrete problems do you have to deal with now?

MURRAY: We need a way to get the corporate community dealing with the faith-based community, tax credits, empowerment zones. We need to know if the government will prioritize inner cities, at-risk communities, economically. Because if the dollar turns over more than one time then the community will begin to lift and to prosper. It turns over five times, and the white community, the Latino community, seven times and in the Korean community, 12-20 times in the Jewish community. We need to find a way to recycle the dollar.

HARRIS: Now you see, you just mentioned there, in that mouthful there, the different layers of this city's makeup. You mentioned Jewish people. You mentioned Koreans, Latinos, African-Americans of course. And you perhaps better than anyone else know about the relations between these communities ever since what happened there. How would you give us the state of the union, if you will, of those communities here today?

MURRAY: The chemistry seems to be recovering. We had a walk on Saturday, some 200 Koreans and some 200 blacks. There were sprinkling of people from the white community, the Latino community, the Romanian community, and we marched and we had a candlelight vigil. We pledged our allegiance to each other. Our church has outreached task forces that reach out into some 15 different ethnicities and communities. The thing we must do is solidify the chemistry with the dollar, because you can't do anything without the dollar. You can't feed. You can't house. You can't clothe.

So if we can find a way to network economically then all of our communities will rise from the ashes.

HARRIS: What is not happening to make that happen? Is it something that a sort of ball the government is dropping? Is it a of ball the community itself is dropping?

MURRAY: This is what we hope to see to date. If the word can come down from the top, then the bottom of the pyramid will catch the feeling. You catch on fire, someone will come out to watch you burn. If we get the top to catch on fire, then other programs can be energized. Our is not a failure of no how. Our is a failure of will. If we will it, it will happen; we just have to prioritize it.

For instance, we have a business capital, a venture capital fund of $10 million. What if that were $100 million? We've been able to empower 50 businesses and so forth. We have a business incubator that will do some 38 startup businesses, a $7 billion dollar building that has been a smart meeting. Multimedia, they will be trained. What if that were replicated on a larger basis. We would fly.

HARRIS: You sound as though you believe this is still very much a work in progress. If that's the case, where would you put I guess the needle, or the dial here, as far as rebuilding of Los Angeles, or at least getting it back from where it was 10 years ago to where you think the place should be now.

MURRAY: I guess we would be a five or six, on the way to a 10. You -- 10 is nirvana. You may never reach it, but you've got to keep trying. For instance, even if we were going at warp speed, it would still too slow, because we have four centuries to overcome.

So right now, we have the Latino population. We have to be concerned, because the dropout rate, of the lack of education going into the 20th century in the black community. One of out of three young black men, 20-29 prison, probation, paroled. We have got to be concerned for that. Because in the next two years, 400,000 men will be coming out of prison, no training, no education. We've got to be concerned about those who don't have.

HARRIS: Yes, and even though you're concerned about what they don't have, there still are a lot of positives, I should say, in this picture.

Reverend Cecil Murray, we know you are going to have quite a bit to talk with President Bush about today.

MURRAY: Thank you.

HARRIS: As a matter of fact, as I remember reading this morning, you were first President Bush's 117th point of light, is that correct?

MURRAY: He was very kind. He and his wife flew out, and several people were named points of light, and we were one of them.

HARRIS: You still are one of them.

MURRAY: Thank you. Thank you.

HARRIS: We thank you for coming and sharing some light with us this morning, Revered Cecil Murray.

MURRAY: Thank you.

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