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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Family Sues Police After Window Smashing; St. Louis Off-Duty Police Officer Shoots Teen; Relationship Between Police and Communities; Bombers Hammer ISIS

Aired October 09, 2014 - 12:30   ET

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


JOSEPH IVY, LISA MAHONE'S SON: I was scared, but that's what really gave me the courage to keep videotaping, because I was scared and I knew if we took this court we had something to fight against them because police have more power than us. In the video, it shows.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: So that's their side of the story. And obviously the police have their side and their perspective as well. And much of that you will ultimately be public because they had cameras rolling too.

But in another incident, like a story that developed last night where a young black teenager was shot dead by police who say they were shot at, look at the protests that erupted against police right after.

That is a very angry, angry group of people, but is this the new normal and perhaps what is the bigger story at play here when it comes to police and how the community and the two sides can get along?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: So before the break you heard the family's side of the story in that incident in Indiana where the police smashed the window, tased the passenger in fronts of kids.

The police have five-minute dash cam video and audio recordings made by another officer who was at the scene, and that video has not yet been released.

Susan Candiotti has the department's response and also looks into prior accusations of excessive force against some of the same officers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hammond's mayor stands by his 200-member police force, 20 percent of his officers are minorities.

In statement, the police department says the officers were following procedure, "By not keeping his hands in plain sight and going into a backpack, officer safety was threatened." The officer who smashes the window is identified as Lieutenant Patrick Vicari. Records show he's been sued twice for excessive force. In 2007, court paper say, the plaintiff suffered permanent brain injury. The case was settled.

In 2008, a family accuses the same officer of pointing guns at them, battering the mother, and putting a choke hold on a child during a traffic stop. That family also settles out of court.

A second officer involved in this incident was also sued in 2003 for offensive contact. The outcome is unknown.

Neither officer could be reached by CNN.

Now another family is suing the city accusing officers they went too far.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: In St. Louis, meanwhile, the outrage is familiar, but the circumstances of last night's killing of a black, 18-year-old teenager by a white police officer are very different from the Michael Brown case in Ferguson in two key respects.

One, this young man, police say, had a gun, and, two, they say he fired it first.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF SAM DOTSON, ST. LOUIS POLICE: The suspect pointed the gun at the officer and fired at least three rounds at the police officer.

We believe this to be true because there are three projectiles that we recovered with trajectories towards the officer, down the hill, and one piece of ballistic evidence behind the officer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: The officer had been moonlighting for a security firm. He was wearing his police uniform, and he had the OK from the police when he was doing this work.

While he was working, he came across a group of young men who police say began to run away as he approached. They had a tussle, an officer and one of the men, and then, as the police say, one of the men turned on the officer, broke away, and pulled his gun and opened fire, three times according to the police.

The police apparently fired back 17 times. The teenager who died had a lawyer who's identifying him as Vonderrit Deondre Myers. Police are not releasing names but the teenager -- I'm going to quote them -- no stranger to law enforcement.

So, look, these two cases are legal issues, but they are also part of a very big social issue, one that is spiraling as well. Some say out of control.

A lot of people are becoming more fearful of the police. The police say their hands are being tied, that they can't even do their work.

So where is there going to be a meeting of the minds, especially when protests like this break out, after a teenager with a gun fires at police, and, by the way, damaging vehicles, why wasn't anyone arrested?

That's next?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: It is a problem that we are seeing more and more since Michael brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, where people are growing more afraid of police, they say, and the police say they're growing more afraid of people.

I want to bring in legal analyst and criminal defense attorney Joey Jackson and Cedric Alexander, the president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.

Dr. Alexander, let me begin with you, if I could. There is this prevailing thought, it seems, especially among the black community who may be fearful of police, and probably for good reason -- certainly the media has not helped out in terms of what they've been seeing a lot of lately -- that they can say no to a police officer when a police officer asks for some kind of compliance, show me I.D., get out of the vehicle, get up on the sidewalk.

Can you clear it up what is all of our responsibility, no matter what, when a police officer asks us to do something?

CEDRIC ALEXANDER, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF BLACK LAW ENFORCEMENT EXECUTIVES: I don't know if I can clear it up for you, but I can hopefully provide some insight so we can all start thinking about this.

It is clear and evident over the last couple of months, post-the Michael Brown shooting, in particular, we've seen a number of incidents of police and community interactions that have not been of what we would prefer to see and certainly have created some pause in regards to who was right and who was wrong. And that's not going to be determined on a segment of two-minute segment of your news.

But here's what we have to be concerned about, and here's what concerns me as the president of NOBLE. There's an emerging fear that is constantly growing with the police and the community. The community at large across this country is becoming more and more fearful of their local police, and police, quite frankly, is becoming somewhat reluctant in the community and supporting back at them.

Now we've seen some real clear incidents here certainly that are of a grave concern. We can go to the South Carolina shooting for an example where the officer told the gentleman get in his car and then he shot him. That's clear cut. That's something that should not have happened, but it did. But the state of South Carolina did what it should have done; it took immediate action.

But the problem becomes is that one thing we have to convey to the public and it's important we do it, at the end of the day we must comply with police. They are the authority. They're those who represent the laws that have been written and have to be governed and have to be taken out -- or have to be abided by I should say.

But let me say this. We must comply with authority. We cannot just say, I'm not going to get out of the car. I'm not going to pull over because it's night. I'm not going to let you into my home. I'm not going to talk to you. We cannot do that in our society.

So what I would encourage more than anything else, anything else, that every community across this country, every village, every tribal community, every big city, big towns, large, small, whatever the case may happen to be, you need to be sitting with your local police. Police need to be sitting with that community, talking about what are those fears and concerns so they can begin to talk through this.

Because what we have is emerging fear of police and community. And just -- and real quick here, last night, here in my county, DeKalb County, Georgia, a wonderful county, wonderful citizens, law abiding citizens, and we have challenges just like any other community. But let me say this. I'm sitting there as public safety direct in front of 100 people. People that are there as single parents, those that are two parent families, have their young children with them, and the questions that they're asking, they should not be asking. Questions that, should I pull over if I'm stopped by the police? Should I step outside the car if I'm stopped by the police?

BANFIELD: So, bottom line, people need to know, you don't have the option of complying with police officers and often the only result is a bad escalation.

Joey Jackson, I want to take you to another kind of instance where last night police say they shot a black teenager after three teenagers ran from an officer. There was a scuffle and a gun emerged and shots were fired. The police officers respond by firing back. And the protests that emerged afterwards supported the teenager with the gun who shot at police. In fact, the protests were violent. They damaged police vehicles. And at one point there were some extraordinarily menacing moments where the police chief actually said that he was - he was happy that the - that his officers had shown, quote, "a tremendous amount of restraint."

So I'm just trying to understand, at what point does the legitimate movement about treating people with respect out in the streets lose its legitimacy because isn't that exactly what the police were supposed to do when an armed teenager shoot at them?

JOEY JACKSON, HLN LEGAL ANALYST: You know, Ashleigh, it's a wonderful point. And what happens is, is that every given case has to be assessed and judged by the facts of this case. It speaks to a broader issue, and that is the community is not accepting the explanation that's being provided. Why? Because there's a mistrust there. Because there's - and I don't believe you just because you said so. And so if there was a dialog, if there was a relationship, if there was a respect, if there was a trust, perhaps members of the community would accept the notion that perhaps the police acted properly in the event that the officer was actually shot at.

But the police and the community, they're not willing to accept that on face value based upon everything that has occurred. It's about courtesy. It's about professionalism. It's about respect. And until and unless there's a dialog between the community, between the police, and it's not us against them, because when it's us against them, nobody benefits. When police and community act cooperatively, everybody benefits, Ashleigh, but the criminals. Why? Because now the community is working cooperatively with the police to determine who those criminals are and to root them out of the community.

But when you have people, not wanting to show I.D., not wanting to stop, not wanting to get out because they're fearful of their life -- I can't get out, the cop might shoot me, he may kill me and my family -- that's a problem, Ashleigh, and that's when you have to reassess and otherwise evaluate a broader discussion that we need to have because everyone is in it together.

BANFIELD: Amen. You know what, you both hit the nail on the head in this debate, in this conversation, in this frustration. It's a national frustration and the only way is through talking to each other, not screaming at each other or throwing things or shooting at each other. Cedric Alexander, Joey Jackson, thank you very much.

JACKSON: It's a pleasure, Ashleigh.

ALEXANDER: Thank you for having me.

BANFIELD: And please come back and let's have this conversation again.

JACKSON: Thank you.

BANFIELD: So appreciate it.

Coming up, I've got some breaking news for you. Dow taking a huge plunge, down 274 points. What is behind this? The story is coming up next, breaking.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Don't look at your 401(k) today. The Dow is absolutely plummeting.

Alison Kosik, what's going on?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: OK. So we are seeing the Dow down more than 200 points. And we're seeing lots of fluctuations, lots of volatility over the past several days. On Tuesday we saw the Dow down. On Wednesday we saw it go up 200. And then today we are seeing it go down again 259 points. There's a lot of uncertainty going on. First and foremost, what's

driving this sell-off and this uncertainty is the fact that you're seeing the economies in Europe slow down. Everywhere from the U.K., to Germany, to Italy, that's causing a lot of concern, especially since we're on the cusp of third quarter earnings season which begins -- which actually began yesterday. So the worry is, is that the slowdown in Europe will somehow seep over into U.S. companies and affect the U.S. economy as well.

BANFIELD: Oh, it drives me crazy when you say things like that, Alison, because economies don't just happen in an hour. You had some warning this was happening. But we'll keep an eye. Would you keep us updated and let us know if anything changes.

KOSIK: We'll do.

BANFIELD: Thank you, Alison Kosik.

Hey, a U.S. Air Force B1 bomber circling in the sky over the Syrian- Turkish border today. Shortly afterwards, take a look, this, explosions, thick black smoke rising from the city of Kobani. We don't yet know what it is exactly that's burning, but it's big. Monitors on the ground say that allied air strikes killed more than 20 ISIS militants today and that the city is about one third under ISIS control right now, which means two-thirds not under ISIS control. American involvement in Kobani is only air strikes. The ground fight against ISIS is, well, it's going to be left to someone else, presumably the Kurdish folks.

Retired Lieutenant Colonel James Reese is our global affairs analyst. He's live with me now.

A little known fact about you, sir. You were -- it was your squadron that captured Saddam Hussein.

LT. COL. JAMES REESE (RET.), CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Went - I was part of the element in the squadron that was -

BANFIELD: That was you right there, in the spider hole.

REESE: We were there. Absolutely.

BANFIELD: Remarkable. I just wanted to say that because I didn't know that about your past. But you know a lot about these areas. You know a lot about these fights. I keep hearing Kobani's going to fall. Kobani's going to fall. Well, only one-third of it's under control, but it hasn't fallen yet. Does that mean anything?

REESE: It does. One, I think the air strikes continue to do damage to ISIS. I think what you also have right now is something we call the unblinking eye. There's persistent intelligence, ISR, predators, everything that we can put on that to see what ISIS is doing. The unblinking eye. We never stop blinking. So you heard in the reports that they were -- they moved formations, ISIS moved formations in over the night. We see that. We're able to target it. BANFIELD: See, but why aren't the formations actually being targeted

while there are big groups of people? Are they moving formations in unique ways that are, you know, too difficult to spot at night?

REESE: They do. They'll -- at nighttime they'll move them in by individual, single vehicles that you may not be able to get a complete view of what it is. They'll consolidate. And then when the daylight comes, they'll begin their attack and that's where you get 20 ISIS were killed, so you probably have a platoon that was destroyed.

BANFIELD: That huge plume - well, I was just going to say, the big plume of smoke - and we'll do this quickly, we're just about out of time -- but that big plume of smoke that we were showing from the allied air strikes just moments ago, we don't know what the building is or buildings are, but, look, when you see something like that, you can't assume that there aren't civilians at least somewhere close by.

REESE: Well, I don't think you have civilians right there right now.

BANFIELD: Really?

REESE: I mean I think that was a targeted aspect by the coalition forces. Most of the civilians have pulled out.

BANFIELD: You mean hoping to God that whoever on the ground said this is a safe spot, bomb away, was telling the truth?

REESE: Well, again, remember, we have some great technology. We have eyes in the sky that can see these things to help those pilots up there from all the coalition and las (ph) and target those things and drop bombs pretty precisely.

BANFIELD: So what's next? I mean, I keep wondering, are we going to hear from the Turks at any point where they're going to finally say, I just can't have this? And just last line on it.

REESE: Turks have a moral obligation to do this. I don't care what their issues are with the Kurds over the last 40, 50 years. They have a moral obligation. They're part of NATO. They need to get in there and help.

BANFIELD: Colonel James Reese, always good to see you. And thank you for your service as well.

REESE: Thank you, ma'am.

BANFIELD: Do appreciate it.

REESE: Appreciate it.

BANFIELD: Thank you, everyone, for watching. My colleague, Wolf, starts right after a short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, Ebola fears spread. Airport workers are walking off the job saying their health and safety are in danger.