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Police Arrest Two Journalists in Ferguson; No Video of Teen Shooting; Best Tributes to Robin Williams

Aired August 14, 2014 - 10:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Seems no one was exempt in the chaos surrounding the protests in Ferguson, Missouri last night. Even journalists covering the protests got swept up in it. Two reporters arrested at a local McDonald's while they were recharging their phone batteries. Look at this video shot by Wesley Lowery from the "Washington Post".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm working on it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop videotaping. Let's grab our stuff and go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have a right to videotape you, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hurry up let's go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please don't make me --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see me working on it. Please do not tell me not to use my equipment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Time to go. Let's go. We're down to about 45 seconds. Let's go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now is -- can I ask you --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't have time to ask questions. Let's go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I move my car --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can move your car if your car's out here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is. That's what I was asking. You didn't have time to answer that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go. Let's go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm working on it, sir. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go. Here's a door over here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go. You can move. Let's go. Move.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, please.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's move. Let's move. Let's move this way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. Ryan Reilly from "The Huffington Post" was with Wesley that night. He joins us now from Ferguson. So take us through the night. Take us from the moment that the police entered the McDonald's. What were you guys doing?

RYAN REILLY, "HUFFINGTON POST": Sure. Essentially I think the context is very important because this was very early in the night, barely evening, daylight hours, during a peaceful protest that was happening just down the street at which point as I -- and I had been covering along with my colleague sort of the, you know, the huge SWAT teams that have been brought into what was a peaceful situation at the time. Simply people who are standing in the street blocking traffic, but there's no sort of violence.

And we had sort of switched off and the McDonald's is a location essentially where a lot of journalists have used because it can be easily located and it has, you know, Wi-Fi and outlets and, you know, basically the essentials you need for reporting a story in an environment like this. So it's been sort of a hub.

And the officer started slowly pushing down the street, three of them came inside the McDonald's initially discussed with the manager that they were -- and said they need to keep the business own and left and subsequently returned and I guess getting word from their commander that they're ordered to shut it down at which point everyone in the restaurant was ordered out. And countdowns began for how quickly we could move out.

You know most people were just there eating. They're only -- Wesley and myself were the only journalists there at the time and we were sort of, you know, I was pretty spread out. I had two laptops going. I had, you know, both phones charging and outlets plugged in and trying to, you know, get as much power as I could because I figured it was preparing for a long night.

And, you know, when this -- this confrontation, it was something that 00 it was dramatic video and something that as a journalist I wanted to get on tape. So that was right before I started packing up and obeying the commands of the officer to evacuate the building, that was -- I tried to get some footage of that and tried to -- so I was fiddling with my phone a bit to actually be able to pull up some video. And yes, I guess the officers didn't take too kindly to that. Wesley was the first person arrested. But I think it's also important like we weren't -- we were still packing. I had a lot of things to pack in the car. Simply trying to do two things at once and have a conversation with the officer who was being very aggressive about -- this mentality, especially considering the fact that this McDonald's had been completely tranquil until the -- they moved in. It was like any McDonald's you'll see anywhere in the U.S.

COSTELLO: Ryan -- Ryan, let me ask you this because some people might say, you know, when the police tell you to leave, you leave like right now. It appeared that you didn't. So just address that for me.

REILLY: Well, I think the timing is very important here. This is -- this is in the span of two minutes. This is extremely, extremely limited amount of time in a -- I had been set up there. The only thing I wanted to do was get my phone running as I was packing up. But the officer, fully -- this is a SWAT officer with every military technology -- he came in with an assault weapon and is confronting you.

It's an extraordinary situation that I needed to capture on video as a journalist. I wasn't interfering in any way. There is no public safety need for me to, you know -- I was moving very quickly. But there's no public safety threat. I was not a -- I was not an issue.

The McDonald's employees were all left in the McDonald's to close it down. So I'm not sure exactly, you know, why there is this incredible need to do this immediately. But it was very aggressive tactics they're using. I mean that's -- it was just the mentality that they came in with I think was pretty disturbing.

COSTELLO: Ryan, let me ask you this, too because we've been criticizing the police all through my show today in the "NEWSROOM" so from your perspective was there a reason for that huge police presence there and the rubber bullets and the tear gas? Was there a real reason for that last night?

REILLY: At the early on in the evening when there was peaceful protests I cannot come up with a reason for that. I can understand having them certainly a few blocks away and ready in case anything were to happen but this is a situation where there was a peaceful protest happening and, you know, the number of SWAT officers that came in was extraordinary.

Understood, the caveat here is obviously all these officers have a stressful job and have been, you know, working long hours and, you know, have been dealing with a lot of tough situations and the looting here that happened a few days ago. The situation has changed since a couple of days ago and, you know, as I think it's something that really strikes you in talking to residents. I certainly haven't felt threatened in the community or being amongst the crowds or talking to anyone in the crowd especially in the daylight hours.

But, you know, it's a situation that's, you know, it's tense. It's, you know, these are people who are targeting the actions of the police officers which, obviously, isn't going to go well with police officers. I mean they're attacking police. You're seeing graffiti all over going after police officers. So it's, you know, it's a tense situation and I think that a lot of these officers are on edge and not handling what -- this is an unnecessary situation and honestly a distraction to what should have been more focused on here.

I had a ton of -- I had a ton of great stuff that I would have rather been reporting on yesterday that I gathered all day that I think would have been a better use of my time than to be quasi maybe maximum took 30 seconds out of not packing up my stuff as quickly as an officer would like to take the resources to send me to prison to a jail cell is just extraordinary.

And I think that you saw that sort of based on the actions of the police chief ordering us immediately arrested and some of the statements he's made publicly that that's been something they've regretted. But I wonder what has happened and we don't really know some of the people in the circumstances in which they were taken into custody. Because that -- in this circumstance it seems that if people were taken into custody for just this sort of, you know, civil exchanges with the police that we were having and -- they didn't have sort of multimedia news corporations and, you know, Twitter accounts to be able to, you know -- and they're not members of the media that can get that sort of attention and get the situation rectified.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Did you ask --

REILLY: It's tough --

COSTELLO: Did you ask who the officers were that forced you from that McDonald's and their badge numbers and did you get any response?

REILLY: Correct. So the officer -- after the officer on the way out of the building purposely slammed my forehead into the glass door and then sarcastically apologized I was very upset, I shaken up and I -- you know, I asked repeatedly for the officer's name. We were standing there for at times -- time is tough to recall on the circumstances. I would estimate a good five minutes and I asked a number of officers surrounding, I asked in all of their presence to please give me the name of the officer who's standing next to me. I repeatedly asked the officer's name, his badge number, any sort of identifying information because he assaulted me. I wanted that on the record.

And I -- and with my hands cuffed behind my back and just ignoring all of my requests for some sort of information on, you know, why I was being arrested and who this person was that was arresting me because none of them wearing name tags. It's hard to assign specific blame. If there was -- if there are any incidents of overreach in this circumstance I don't know how they're going to figure out who exactly was the person behind it because there's just no system of accountability.

You have these enormous squads of heavily armed police officers that, you know, it's -- and you can't really pin them down individually. COSTELLO: You said you were assaulted. I notice by your tweets, I

know that they handcuffed you and they used those plastic ties that they use, right. They slammed your head. How did that happen?

REILLY: Sure. My hands were cuffed behind my back and I was being led out of the McDonald's at which point I think I turned to or tried to look behind my back perhaps and say something to the employees to try to get somebody to get this information out and -- that we were being arrested so someone could be notified. I wasn't able to send a tweet about Wesley's arrest because the officer forced me to toe put down the phone.

So I tried to turn around at which point he grabbed me by -- he had his hand on my neck the whole time. Grabbed me by the back of the neck and forced my head into the glass door on the way out and then sarcastically apologized. I also -- I mean, again, like also the people that we were around, there was a man who was in the van in front of us who was complaining, you know, that he was having trouble breathing, heavyset man, who was you know having -- claiming some sort of medical attention and all the officers just completely ignored him.

I think that, you know, the tensions here have really caused this us versus them mentality that's just really disturbing and it's teams essentially. If you're not on the right team it's -- you're sort of a target.

COSTELLO: That's the saddest statement I've heard you say all afternoon. Ryan Reilly, thank you so much for sharing your story. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, police body cams, maybe something that could have eased tensions in Ferguson. CNN's Alina Machado looks at this new technology.

ALINA MACHADO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Carol, as you can see, the cameras are small and lightweight, but they are pricey. I'll show you how this technology works and also tell you why not everyone's working -- using them after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The police chief of Ferguson, Missouri says there is no video of the shooting of Michael Brown. The Ferguson Police Department does not have dash cams and though the department recently bought a couple of body cams for officers, they were not being used on Saturday. Now those body cams are becoming more prevalent in police departments nationwide. CNN's Alina Machado joins us from Daytona Beach, Florida with more on this. Good morning.

MACHADO: Good morning, carol. I want to show you a body cam. This is an example of one. This is a recording device. This is the actual camera. Police here in Daytona Beach, Florida started testing these out in 2011 and they say the cameras have helped ease tensions in several cases.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MACHADO: This is video taken from two body cameras last September when Daytona Beach police officers knocked down a door and saw a man armed with a knife threatening a woman. Moments later officers fired several shots, an action they say saved the woman's life. That's not the end of the story.

MICHAEL CHITWOOD, DAYTONA BEACH POLICE DEPARTMENT: I arrive on the scene 15 minutes later. There's at least 100 residents out screaming at me as I get out that my officers gunned down a guy laying in bed.

MACHADO: The video, Chief Mike Chitwood says, helped ease tensions because it showed what really happened.

CHITWOOD: What could have been a really bad thing in the community, people start to look and say, oh, I understand what happened now. That's not what I was told.

MACHADO: That's not the cases in Ferguson, Missouri where the police chief says no video exists of the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

CHITWOOD: It would make a huge difference.

MACHADO: Chitwood's department is one of more than 1,200 law enforcement agencies in the country using body cameras.

CHITWOOD: The positives so much outweighs the negative.

MACHADO: Daytona Beach Police have 75 cameras right now, with plans to add 50 more by the end of the year. Each camera costs $950. And the department is paying $23,000 a year to store the video. It's a lot of money but the Chief Chitwood says it's money well spent.

CHITWOOD: I can just tell you just from the few incidents that we had here how it has been just a godsend for us.

MACHADO: So why is there so much resistance? Why doesn't every police department in the country have these body cams?

CHITWOOD: Change is number one. Cops don't like change. Cost is number two.

MACHADO: And another reason, according to critics.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every single thing you say is going to be recorded, scrutinized and so forth and I think that would put a hindrance on cops. It would create a problem with them in dealing with the everyday public.

DALE KELLY: I feel that I can do my job a lot better now.

MACHADO: Officer Dale Kelly uses a body camera every day.

KELLY: This camera will protect me.

MACHADO: We were with him as he responded to a call. His body camera engaged, capturing his drive to the scene and what he did once we arrived.

KELLY: What's your name?

MACHADO: When would you say the camera is most useful?

MICHAEL TERRY, POLICE OFFICER: I would say any time that you come in contact with the public.

MACHADO: We wanted to see for ourselves how the cameras worked.

Right now you are recording?

TERRY: Right now we're recording.

MACHADO: Everything you see, everything you hear is being captured by that camera.

TERRY: That's correct.

MACHADO: After a brief demonstration the officer helped me gear up.

TERRY: Line it up with the tabs. And push down until it clicks. Good.

MACHADO: The recording device on my belt, the camera on my head.

TERRY: Ok.

MACHADO: It's not that uncomfortable. It's kind of like wearing a headband. I turned it on. All I have to do is just --

TERRY: You press that button twice.

MACHADO: And went for a walk recording my every move.

Right now we're in the shade.

TERRY: Right.

MACHADO: If I were to walk into the bright sun what would happen?

TERRY: The camera will adjust.

MACHADO: The technology, Chief Chitwood says, is invaluable. Is this the future?

CHITWOOD: In my heart this is the future. It's here. We might as well embrace it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACHADO: The man you saw at the top of the story by the way did survive the police shooting and was later charged with a felony. Meanwhile, there are several companies that make these devices and one of them tells us that their sales have increased 80 percent just in the last year -- Carol. COSTELLO: I can understand why. Alina Machado, reporting live for us this morning. I'll be right back.

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COSTELLO: Many people are still struggling to process the thought that Robin Williams is no longer with us. What's helping is fans are having a chance to share their love for the comic genius.

CNN's Jeanne Moos put together some of the best tributes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What would Robin think if he could see all of the quirky tributes? His own commemorative issue of "Time"; a comedy club sign saying "Robin Williams rest in peace, make God laugh"; adoring cartoons like this one comparing three aces, three of a kind to the joker, Robin Williams, captioned, "one of a kind".

Other comics choked up.

JIMMY FALLON, THE TONIGHT SHOW: We learned that the genius comedian and actor Robin Williams passed away.

MOOS: Some paid tribute by imitation. Jim Carrey posted a vintage impression he once did of Mork.

JIM CARREY, ACTOR: Anyway, until next time this is Mork from Ork signing off. Nanu, nanu.

MOOS: Jimmy Fallon did a montage.

FALLON: He would just -- you get into, like, oh, yes, thank you, the guys sitting at home going, what the hell is going on there, yes, and the kid going, that's not the way, yes, and then he's like Martha grandma, ball and chain and kicking (ph), yes, thank you.

MOOS: WSB Zach Klein wove 22 Robin Williams TV and movie references into his sports cast.

ZACH KLEIN, WSB: Emilio Bonifacio who had some "Happy Feet". Julio Taran (ph) flexed his muscles like Popeye.

MOOS: Some were subtle.

KLEIN: He struggled tonight and eventually gets the "Hook".

MOOS: Just dropped.

KLEIN: 1-0 Braves, "Jumanji".

MOOS: You almost needed a movie poster scorecard.

KLEIN: Seize the day, boys.

MOOS: At least he didn't stand up on his anchor desk. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Captain, my captain.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sit down, Mr. Anderson.

MOOS: This scene from "Dead Poets Society", when students rebel against the dismissal of their teacher --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sit down, all of you.

MOOS: -- became a tweeted out photo tribute as fans took to their desks and table tops.

At the University of North Carolina's Wilson Library where scenes from the movie "Patch Adams" were shot, all hands were on desk.

Even the latest Peter Pan actress Allison Williams dedicated her first training flight to that other Peter who got his Pan back. And Disney tweeted out a tribute illustration showing the genie from "Aladdin" that Williams voiced, as a constellation of stars.

What would Robin say about these tributes?

WILLIAMS: Thank you, boys.

MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN --

WILLIAMS: Thank you.

MOOS: -- New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: That was really nice.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello. "@ THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN AND MICHAELA" after a break.

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