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Cory Booker Furious over Beating Video; Cops Work to I.D. Remains in Cabin; Fashion Week Not All Glamour, Fun. Folic Acid May Lower Autism Risk; Gun Violence Victims See SOTU Speech.
Aired February 13, 2013 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Newark, New Jersey's mayor is furious. Furious over a brutal beating that was videotaped and put online. Now, this video, which went viral, shows a Newark teen forced to strip naked and repeatedly whipped with a belt. Police say the victim was targeted because his father owed the attackers $20. Three people have been charged in the case including the camera man.
At a news conference this hour, Mayor Cory Booker said the city will never tolerate that type of cruelty.
Well, the mayor joins us now.
And, Cory, I have to say, when we watched you, really, just about 20 minutes ago, you were angry. You were visibly very angry. Why?
CORY BOOKER, (D), MAYOR OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY: There's a lot of things that is sort of community anger and condemnation. First and foremost, this level of cruelty and viciousness against this young man took place in and of its first place. That beating was about human degradation. It was an act of brazen, unchecked violence. And in my opinion, just behavior that was patently evil.
But the second thing that got me upset is that happened in August. And there were people that we have reason to believe, a number of people who watched that happen. No police report was made whatsoever. And this is what is frustrating to all of us of good conscience. It's frustrating to all of us who know the history of humanity, is that the only thing that's necessary for evil to be triumphant is for good people to do nothing.
And so when people --
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: Why do you suppose, Cory, that people were just watching around? Why do you suppose people were just standing around watching that happen? Why do you suppose that is the kind of culture that we are in at this moment?
BOOKER: Well, first of all, it's not the prevailing culture. And I've got seven years as mayor seeing extraordinary acts of human kindness, sacrifice, engagement. But we do know from terrorism, acts of viciousness, cruelty, throughout history that many people have lots of good excuses for doing nothing. There are good excuses like fear for my own safety, I didn't want to get involved in something that wasn't my own business. To me, those so-called good excuses are not good enough. And it's unacceptable. And so to me, this level of inaction means you are actually a participant in that evil itself. And you --
MALVEAUX: And, Cory --
BOOKER: You failed to stand up, to speak up.
MALVEAUX: And, Cory, I want to bring up the fact --
(CROSSTALK)
BOOKER: You have participated in it.
MALVEAUX: Sure. You say this is not part of a widespread culture. Clearly, there are a lot of people that do good, but you had 40,000 people that clicked on that video that went viral. Why do you think that was the case?
BOOKER: Well, actually, I think that was a good thing. Remember, this would've not -- this was never reported. We would not know about it if people on social media, if people who saw that video didn't engage. And we immediately started getting a whole bunch of folks from Newark and elsewhere, sort of bringing it to our attention that triggered an investigation that took only four days to get these people apprehended. So if it wasn't for this collective community of compassion, of concern, of outrage, this would be another one of those crimes never reported, never addressed, where an individual who was a victim who never saw any state of justice.
MALVEAUX: And, Cory, we know that you told us three people are now in custody. And then there's -- I believe the fourth is a camera man. But for the people who you said are just watching around, who saw this happen, are you going after them? Do we expect more arrests?
BOOKER: Look, you know -- you know, the law probably as well as I do. If you watch an injustice like that, there's nothing legally -- there's not much legally we can do. But there is a moral standard in our country that goes beyond the letter of the law, the obligations of citizenship. We would not be where we are today as a people if folks just thought that our democracy was a spectator sport and they can sit on the sideline and give color commentary about what was going on. We are who we are as a nation because good people of good conscience got up and did something, even if it meant putting themselves at risk. That's the spirit that's been helping to move our city forward and that was the spirit we need that day in August when a young man was being viciously beaten by a bunch of brutal, sort of vicious individuals who now will see their day in court.
MALVEAUX: So, Cory, just to be clear, here, are there other people you'll be pursuing? People who were simply watching this thing happen as participants?
BOOKER: No --
(CROSSTALK)
MALVEAUX: Or you feel you have everyone in custody who was responsible?
BOOKER: No. No, the law enforcement, prosecutors, as well as the detectives involved have the people that we have actionable legal laws to use to go after them. But as the mayor of this city and talking to other elders in our community, other block leaders in our community, we all need to condemn those who sat back and did nothing who watched injustice and remained silent. That is an unacceptable standard and is an affront to the history of Newark, to the history of the United States.
MALVEAUX: All right. Mayor Cory Booker, thank you very much for joining us. We really appreciate your time. Thanks again.
We're going to have more on this story after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Authorities in California believe that the long, frantic manhunt for ex cop, Christopher Dorner, is now over. Ended in a violent showdown. This happened near Big Bear Lake. Video from CBS News capturing the gun battle at a cabin in the woods. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: You guys down?
(GUNFIRE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Police say that Dorner barricaded himself inside the cabin, which burned down to the ground. The sheriff's deputy -- a sheriff's deputy was killed, another wounded in the shootout. The deputy is the fourth person to die in Dorner's rampage.
I want to bring in CNN contributor, former FBI assistant director, Tom Fuentes, joining us via Skype.
Tom, we have a lot of questions here that have surfaced, particularly around this scanner traffic, on the scene, and what police were saying, what they were heard saying, "Burn it down," before the cabin was set aflame. I want you to listen to this.
(BEGIN AUDIO FEED)
61 LINCOLN: We're going to go -- we're going to go forward with the plan with the burner.
CONTROL: Copy. We're going to open up all the lanes.
61 LINCOLN: We have the burners deployed and we have a fire.
CONTROL: Copy, seven burners deployed and we have a fire. 61 LINCOLN: Be ready on the number four side. We have fire in the front. He might come out the back.
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Ready.
61 LINCOLN: Sounds like one shot fired from inside the residence.
CONTROL: Copy. One shot fired from inside the residence. Confirming you still want five to roll in.
61 LINCOLN: Rollin and stage
CONTROL: Copy. They're staged at Glass and 38th.
61 LINCOLN: 61 Lincoln to all units, all perimeter units, standby and maintain your discipline.
The one-two corner fully engulfed.
We have ammo exploding inside the house.
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Is there any propane or anything back there we need to be aware of?
61 LINCOLN: No, not that I can see from my position.
UNIDENTIFIED LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Do you want to have fire start putting water on it once the roof starts to settles down a little bit, and like starting to collapse?
61 LINCOLN: Affirm. Give me some time here. We're not quite there. I still have the two and three corner that's vulnerable.
We have ammo going off in the fire.
(END AUDIO FEED)
MALVEAUX: Tom, can you make sense of what is happening here based on this audiotape?
TOM FUENTES, CNN CONTRIBUTOR & FORMER ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, FBI: Suzanne, it's hard to tell with absolute certainty what's going on or, you know, what their intention is. It sounds to me as though they're trying to maybe start a fire at one corner of the building with the hope he'll come out the other end and they can train all their focus on one location, and not end up in a cross-fire where officers that have the bending surrounded would end up shooting at each other and the risk of friendly fire. That's a strong possibility to me that they're trying to get him to come out of one specific exit from that building that they can concentrate on, and only the officers on that side of the building would engage him in a shootout and not have everybody in a complete circle shooting at each other.
MALVEAUX: There is something on the audiotape that suggests that a shot was fired. Does that suggest that perhaps he killed himself? Or was that the shot that killed the -- one of the deputies. Do we know? FUENTES: No, we don't know. And that's just going to have to be determined if the pathologists, when they do the medical examination of the body, if they can determine if there's a gun shot hole in the skull if the body was preserved enough to at least identify whether the skull had been penetrated by a bullet. That may reveal the firing of a bullet at close range, it may not. It'll depend on their determination or their estimation of what happened to the body.
MALVEAUX: When you listen to that tape, does it indicate that the negotiations were over, that that was done with? It was just time to go in and get this guy?
FUENTES: I would think so. It sounds like there may not have been much negotiation on the part of Dorner, that he was in any mood to talk to them or have any kind of a discussion about what he was doing. And, you know, it seems like his response to every situation was to open fire. It usually is the aggressor rather than the defender, as he was in this case. I don't know, I don't think the police had any reason to believe that he could be talked out of it or he's going to surrender or this is going to end any way peacefully in terms of that. I think all it took for the police department to have to determine before making the assault was that he was absolutely alone and that there was no risk of danger to other innocent people that might have been in that cabin.
MALVEAUX: All right. Tom, thank you. Really appreciate it. Still at lot of unanswered questions.
He persuaded the guests of the State of the Union address last night to give up their tickets, but Congressman Jim Langevin used them for a good cause.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: New York's Fashion Week comes to a close tomorrow. A lot of runway shows, fittings events, of course. Not all glamour and fun. Some fashion insiders work marathon day, even during that snowstorm.
Alina Cho gives us an hour-by-hour look behind the scenes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Top model, Lu Wen; "Paper" magazine editor, Mickey Boardman; Bergdorf Goodman's Linda Fargo, our cameras simultaneously followed them on New York Fashion Week's first big day.
LINDA FARGO, BERGDORF GOODMAN: We already have --
CHO: 9:00 a.m., Fargo's at the office.
FARGO: Let's go through our schedule. We're up to 70 appointments this week, and shows. It's getting kind of crazy.
MICKEY BOARDMAN, PAPER MAGAZINE EDITOR: We're still looking for that old scroll -- CHO: 9:30, Mickey's Boardman is at his office downtown.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who are you going to see today?
BOARDMAN: Kate Spade, Jason Wu.
CHO: He's off to the shows.
Hey, Henry.
(MUSIC)
BOARDMAN: Hello, hello. Hello.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you coming to the party tonight?
BOARDMAN: I think so.
CHO: Noon already.
LU WEN, MODEL: How are you?
CHO: Model Lu Wen is backstage at Jason Wu's show.
WEN: Sometimes you're real tired. Just eat a little bit of chocolate, make you happy.
(LAUGHTER)
CHO: Front of house, we're back with Boardman.
BOARDMAN: Even if you're invited and you're in the front row, it's a lot of pushing, shoving, waiting, standing, sitting, get up.
CHO: Fargo is still en route, planning her schedule for Europe.
FARGO: Hello, Milan.
CHO: When she arrives --
(on camera): what are your tips for surviving the week and month?
FARGO: I think there's a little bit of just say no. No, thank you. People call this Fashion Week and you have to remember it's really fashion month. We go to London and then Milan and Paris.
CHO: In New York alone, there are more than 300 shows over the course of eight days. It's one of the biggest media events in the city bringing in some $200 million to the local economy -- hotels, cabs, parties a lot of running around.
(MUSIC)
CHO (voice-over): 1:00 p.m., on the cat walk, Boardman and Fargo are there. 3:00 p.m., another show with Fargo, who is looking for inspiration for her store and for the windows. Off to another appointment.
FARGO: The other thing is always to find your car when they all look the same.
CHO (on camera): Right.
(voice-over): 5:00 p.m., the rag and bones show. Look who's here.
BOARDMAN: Trying to lose you all day.
(LAUGHTER)
CHO (voice-over): 6:00 p.m., in the car with Lu Wen.
WEN: So great. Of course, tired.
CHO: 7:00 p.m., fitting with Diane von Furstenberg (ph).
DIANE VON FURSTENBERG (ph): It's kind of nice. OK.
FARGO: Let me guess, 7:45?
CHO: We end the day with Fargo at an event celebrating new designers.
(on camera): 11 hours later.
FARGO: 11 hours, that's not so bad.
CHO (voice-over): Alina Cho, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: And you can watch Alina's special, "Fashion: Backstage Pass," Saturday at 2:30 p.m. eastern here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: If your teenagers have having babies in America, according to the CDC, there was an 8 percent drop between 2010 and 2011. About 3 percent of teenagers had children in 2011. That is an al time low. A researcher who studies teen pregnancy at Johns Hopkins University believes the reason is more teens are using birth control.
For years, doctors have told women to take folic acid if they plan to get pregnant to prevent birth defects. Now, a new study finds folic acid might have another benefit.
Elizabeth Cohen takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: As autism rates grow, many parents are wondering is there anything they can do to help decrease the chances that their child will get autism. Well, really, there is not much out there that parents can do, which is why experts are so excited about this new study out of Norway. These researchers, they followed about 85,000 women during pregnancy and then they took a look at the children and followed up on them for many years thereafter. What they found is that very few of these children developed autism. It was less than half of 1 percent.
But they did find something interesting. And that is that when the moms took folic acid early in their pregnancy, they were 39 percent less likely to have a child with autism. So these moms, they took folic acid supplements very early in the pregnancy, before the eighth week. That's before some women know they're pregnant, which is why doctors would recommend you actually start taking folic acid before you get pregnant.
Now, this link between folic acid and decreasing the chances of getting autism, it is not solid, it's not for sure. More research needs to be done. But doctors do know that women should take folic acid supplements very early in their pregnancy to prevent spina bifida and other neural defects. It is a good idea to take the supplements anyways. It couldn't hurt and it certainly does help.
Back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: Thanks.
Victims of gun violence received a special honor at the State of the Union. We're going to talk to one of the honorees, up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: President Obama got a long-standing ovation last night during the State of the Union address when he said that gun violence victims deserve a vote in Congress.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hadiya's parents are in the chamber tonight along with more than two dozen Americans whose lives have been torn apart by gun violence. They deserve a vote.
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: Gabby Giffords deserves a vote.
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: The families of Newtown deserve a vote.
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: The families of Aurora deserve a vote.
(APPLAUSE)
OBAMA: The families of Oak Creek and Tucson and Blacksburg and the countless other communities ripped open by gun violence, they deserve a simple vote.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Congressman Jim Langevin persuaded his colleagues to give up their guest passes so that gun violence victims could actually come to the address.
Sami Rahamim was one of the guests. He was in the gallery. He joins us now.
Sami, first of all, very good to see you.
SAMI RAHAMIM, SON OF GUN VIOLENCE VICTIM: My condolences.
I know you lost your father just last year, that your father was shot at work, and I know that this must be a very difficult year for you. What did you think about? How did you feel, the fact that you came there and you were personally invited to be there with the president?
RAHAMIM: Yes, my Congressman, Representative Keith Ellison, of Minneapolis, invited me to be his guest at the State of the Union. I've known Congressman Ellison for a few years now, through various political activism type of works and I was really honored to have the congressman invite me and be a part of the State of the Union.
I had the opportunity to meet with President Obama last Monday in Minneapolis when he came to discuss gun violence and gun violence prevention. And he was absolutely right when he said that we all deserve a vote.
MALVEAUX: Sami, when you talked to the president, what did you tell him? What do you want from him?
RAHAMIM: Well, really, the main thing I said to the president was a big thank you. He has been bold and courageous, as Gabby Giffords implored him to do, as she implored Congress to do as well, that the time is now. The time is absolutely now. The president has said that multiple times. He's also said that if we can save even one life from gun violence death, then we have the obligation to try.
And I've said I believe that if we pass background checks, if we pass an assault weapons ban, an effective assault weapons ban, and limit high capacity magazines, we'll save many more than simply one life.
MALVEAUX: Sami, how does this impact you personally? I know there is nothing that could possibly bring your father back, who was shot and killed. But what does this mean for you personally?
RAHAMIM: Well, this is how we can honor him. The president said to me, you know, Sami, you can't change the past, but you can change the future. You can change how the past affects you.
And we have a serious problem, an epidemic of gun violence in our country. 33 Americans are killed every day. 12,000 will be killed this year unless we act.
And I believe that I can honor my dad's memory and the others who have fallen through the plague of gun violence if we act and introduce and pass measures that will effectively reduce this epidemic.
MALVEAUX: What does the rest of your family think? They must be pretty proud of you right now.
RAHAMIM: Yes, they're all very proud. But this is a team effort. I cannot be doing this without them. My sister, Maya, is doing great work herself. She lives here in D.C., and she's very accessible to the federal legislature, as I'm working very hard at the state level of Minnesota, and have been blessed to have the opportunity to be here for a survivors lobbying day with mayor Bloomberg's coalition, Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
MALVEAUX: All right, Sami, we wish you and your family the very best. Thanks again. Thanks for joining us. Appreciate it.
RAHAMIM: Thank you. Thanks.
MALVEAUX: Sure.
All right, so you see this fluffy cute little guy? His name, Banana Joe. Just wowed the judges at the Westminster Dog Show. We'll tell you all about him, up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Here is the dog, named Banana Joe, wins best in show. The affenpinscher won the 137th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show in New York last night. Banana Joe, of course, going out on top. Westminster was his final competition. Banana Joe, beating out five other dogs that won in their own categories to be the top dog.
(LAUGHTER)
CNN NEWSROOM continues right now.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Homestretch. The nightmare cruise is getting closer to shore. But the next 24 hours could be the worst yet.
I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.
