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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Violence Erupts on the Streets of Ferguson; Clergy Urging for Calm

Aired November 25, 2014 - 05:30   ET

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

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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm Deborah Feyerick in for Christine Romans.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman. It's 30 minutes past the hour right now. Our breaking news this morning, a live look at the scene right now in Ferguson, Missouri, parts of that town still on fire this morning.

You can see them battling the blaze in Delwood, Missouri, next to Ferguson so much damage, so much unrest overnight and the consequences still lingering this morning.

This is, of course, in the wake of the grand jury decision not to indict Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown. The demonstrators set buildings on fire. They set police cars on fire in and around Ferguson.

The governor of Missouri announced he is sending in more National Guard troops to bolster security. There are some questions about why there wasn't a bigger National Guard presence overnight.

FEYERICK: Right. The attorney general has said that there didn't need to be National Guard presence. That will be analyzed I'm sure. There was gunfire, rock throwing, looting throughout the night. Many protesters breaking store front windows with what appear to be bats that they brought.

They cleared shelves of items and went on to the next store. All of the moments of unrest unfolding just moments after St. Louis County prosecutor, Bob McCulloch, announced the grand jury decision.

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ROBERT MCCULLOCH, ST. LOUIS COUNTY PROSECUTOR: After their exhaustive review of the evidence, the grand jury deliberated over two days making their final decision. They determined that no probable cause exists to file any charge against Officer Wilson and returned a no true bill on each of the five indictments.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: Overnight, there was a temporary restriction placed on incoming flights to the main St. Louis Airport. Also a no-fly zone in the skies above Ferguson because there were shots fired into the air. We want to get to the streets right now.

Our Chris Cuomo, who has been there all night covering the unrest, so much happened, Chris, overnight. I guess my first question is what is the situation right now? And what do the next few hours look like in Ferguson?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Very tough for first responders, John and Deb. You saw those pictures as really active fires, big buildings. A lot of them had a lot of flammables and explosives inside of them. Auto parts stores and situations like that.

One of the buildings that was of particular there was looted was the grocery store where Michael Brown and his friend stole those cigarettes or cigarillos or whatever you want to call them. That place, that wasn't so much a crime of opportunity as it was one of intention.

We knew that that place was being targeted. We heard it in the crowd and then it happened. So while people are off the streets. That is the good news. Hopefully some cooler minds will prevail here. It's still a very ongoing situation.

Those are big fires. There is a lot of wind here. We know wind is a turbo charger to fires. This is going to be a problem. They could not get on it early last night because of the threat of violence and flurry of gunfire that was coming out.

It is an ongoing situation. We have to see what the daybreak brings. The absence of leadership, and there was very little of it out here in the streets last night, you don't know where the people are in terms of what will happen next.

FEYERICK: Well, you know, Chris, it's interesting. Because you say an absence of leadership, I know that the police chief was working very, very hard with community leaders to try to stage a peaceful response to whatever the grand jury came back with.

But also it seems that police wanted to set a different tone than in August so they did pull back and they were fired upon by some of the agitators. Do you think what happened changed the policing that there should have been in this case many more people on the streets there, perhaps as there were in August?

CUOMO: Well, it is hard. You know, because hindsight is 20/20. There was a lot of training. There did seem to be a lot of restraint by the officers last night, say for the use of tear gas. They said they don't think they'll need the tear gas because of new techniques.

And what they were going to act against and what they weren't, and as you can see in the pictures there and as we all know here firsthand all too well there was a ton of tear gas used last night. More than there was the last time. As for the National Guard, they have become such a metaphor for use of force. That optically there was a big push to keep them out of the way.

But they could have been very helpful last night. You had so many different sites of trouble that were so disbursed. You really needed a show of force to keep some control and you need leaders on the ground, Deb.

It is not enough to have meetings before the fact. People have to see you. They have to know that you are here that is what often is the difference between order and chaos.

BERMAN: Chris, this is all in reaction to a legal decision, the decision by the grand jury which met some 23 days and decided not to indict Officer Darren Wilson.

Overnight, we read the transcript of Officer Wilson's very unusual testimony before the grand jury. It really does seem as if at a certain level, the grand jury bought his version of the story. That his decision to shoot and ultimately kill Michael Brown was based on fear for his own life. That's his claim.

CUOMO: I mean, I think that is a very reasoned representation of the situation, John. It does not have to unanimous, and yet it was. You could have had people with a vote of conscience say, no, I think we should indict. You did not have that.

You had three people who were black on that jury and people who are black or white will not be fair in terms of meeting out justice against members of their own race or the opposite race.

But again, it was unanimous. You also know something else about the processes. When you have evidence or testimony that is in conflict with other testimony, you then wind up relying more on what is in check.

By that I mean, Officer Darren Wilson, being the only person who was party to the event, testifying in full before this grand jury was going to wind up being impressive to them because there was so much contradiction.

Chris Cuomo, on the streets, we know you have a big show coming up in 20 minutes from now. Full three hours from the ground in Ferguson. A lot of important questions still to ask. We appreciate you being with us on EARLY START right now.

FEYERICK: Yes, and anxious to get the context as to where you were when that tear gas was fired. All right, thanks so much.

Now let's talk with Robert White, a St. Louis pastor and the president of Clergy United. He is stationed around the area to help people remain calm.

The first question, did you have enough people on the ground to quiet the folks who were doing the rioting and doing the looting? Because there were many good people, but the agitators sort of outweighed everybody else.

ROBERT WHITE, PRESIDENT, CLERGY UNITED: Well, I think one thing that Chris mentioned was the absence of leadership. The first thing I'll say to that is we were out there. We were out there in numbers. We did as much as we could. We are not lawmakers or officers of the law.

Our job was as peacekeepers to do whatever we can to assist the law. We are concerned even now with all this planning and tactical planning that was mentioned and the press conferences leading up to this moment, what was the plan to protect these businesses that they talk so highly of.

When 10 minutes into it, I was next to Chris and to everybody when the tear gas came, where was the fire department in all of this? Did they not expect that possibly fire would take place? And if so, why is it blamed on the civil leadership that we were supposed to stop this?

BERMAN: You know, I don't think anyone is blaming you this morning. At least we're not here blaming you for this. I think what we are doing is we are looking at these pictures of at least 12 buildings on fire. Some of them still burning this morning.

You know, they didn't get set on fire by themselves. Obviously they were set ablaze by people last night. I understand it is not all of the demonstrators or protesters. But someone set these buildings on fire. The question is who and what will keep them from doing it again later today or tonight?

WHITE: Well, what will keep them from doing it is let's take the surrounding counties where the police in Hazelwood were driving up and down the streets. What happened last night was there was a huge concentration of police on South Florissant where the police were concentrated to keep the protesters under control.

Where you got most of the fires on West Florissant, the police concentration was so light. So what we are asking the police as much as they talked about their tactics and as much as they talked about that they were going to protect our community and protect our citizens that did not happen.

FEYERICK: So interesting because the response was so different from the response we saw in August when there were too many officers. In this case, there were too few, you are saying. Maybe what happened? Did the pendulum swing too far in the other direction?

WHITE: I think so. Particularly we were out there as clergymen and we identified through our orange shirts. One particular incident, we became the target. Because the Officer -- Captain Johnson asked if we are not going to help him do exactly what he wanted to be done, we were going to be arrested.

We were actually threatened by him and his officers that if we moved, we would be arrested. We could not even help and assist unless we did what they told us to do which simply the folks were out in the streets protesting. We are a little lost as to what are our rights and what freedoms can we operate under. If every time something kicks off, the game plan changes.

BERMAN: I would think that everyone wants all the help they can get to keep thing calm there. I know when I see these buildings burning this morning, Robert, it breaks my heart to think about the small business owners.

The people who own the cell phone shops or the liquor store or beauty shop that may well be gone when the sun comes up this morning. I'm wondering what your thoughts are as you look at these fires.

WHITE: This is our community, John. I mean, I drove through here a few minutes ago and tears were brought to my eyes. One thing that Chris just mentioned was there was knowledge of certain particular areas that were going to be targeted.

If we had this knowledge, how come the police didn't do a little bit more of protecting those particular businesses? Because there are family-owned businesses that were known that were going to be targeted. That is what we wanted the lawmakers to concentrate on.

Now the crowd where folks were angry and rightfully so and expressing their anger but not violently. So if this information was given out ahead of time then why not have the concentrated officers around those particular buildings to save them?

FEYERICK: Right. So they didn't have the operational information. All right, thank you so much. We really appreciate your insights. We are obviously going to follow-up on the whole issue as to why the pastors and clergymen, the leaders who were there to try to quell the violence, in fact were threatened with arrest. All right, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

BERMAN: Robert White, and again, we wish you the best of luck today. You have important work ahead of you I think over the next several hours and into the night as well.

We will continue our breaking news coverage of what's going on in and around Ferguson, again, fires still burning. What will happen when the sun comes up? Stay with us.

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BERMAN: You are looking at live pictures right there again of buildings still on fire right now in and around Ferguson, Missouri. Of course, the unrest developing just after the decision from the grand jury was announced not to indict Officer Darren Wilson.

There was gunfire, there was looting, there was arson. The grand jury again decided not to indict Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting death of Michael Brown back in August.

Police did confront protesters with tear gas. Our reporters reported a lot of it. They made 29 arrests. There were questions why they were not out in even greater forces in some areas. As you can see the demonstrators did set -- some demonstrators set buildings on fire and also police cars.

There was looting and they broke out store front windows and removed items from the shelves. Our Stephanie Elam has been up all night covering the unrest and I should note covering the calm on the streets right now in Ferguson.

Calm that we hope will continue throughout the day. Stephanie, good morning to you. Give us a sense of what you are seeing right now and what you expect to see in the next several hours.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. Right now, it is calm, quiet. The streets are open here in front of the Ferguson police station. It looks like a normal morning except for the fact you have media out here. It is also very cold.

So it is keeping things quiet as well. It took a few hours to get to this point though, I have to say, after being out there and watching what was happening in Ferguson on the streets. Just massive loss of control is what we witnessed on West Florissant earlier tonight.

It was really sad to see actually how everything unfurled and how it declined so quickly out there with people looting and smashing in doors and breaking windows and throwing things.

We even had trash thrown at us while we were live on the air last night. At one point, our colleague Sara Sidner being hit in the head with a bottle overnight as well. It did get dicey out there at different points when you saw the buildings start to catch on fire.

And the firefighters coming in and them having to leave because of gunshots coming too close to where we were. It took a lot to get to where we were right now -- John.

BERMAN: It's sad to see. It will be sad to see when the sun comes up as everyone gets a chance to assess the damage that was caused overnight. Hopefully it will lead to something bigger though, some positive messages.

There are big questions to face. I know that community will be facing them all day and for the weeks and months. Stephanie Elam, thank you so much for being on the ground for us. We appreciate it.

FEYERICK: Yes, the smell of smoke heavy in the air there. Well, let's take a look at what is coming up now on "NEW DAY." Alisyn Camerota, Michaela Pereira join us -- Alisyn, Michaela.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Nice to see you, guys. Good morning. We will have the latest on the breaking news out of Ferguson, Missouri. Mayhem erupting after the grand jury failed to indict Officer Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown.

There has been looting, destruction and tear gas used on protesters. Our Chris Cuomo was in the middle of it all. He will co- anchor with us from Ferguson. MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Alisyn, the question is now what is next for the city of Ferguson, what's next for Michael Brown's family and Darren Wilson, the officer involve, and for the relationships between white cops and black Americans.

There is a whole lot to break down this morning. Chris is live in Ferguson. We will have complete coverage. "NEW DAY" begins at the top of the next hour -- guys.

BERMAN: OK, guys, look forward to that. We'll see you in just a little bit. The big questions this morning as the sun comes up, will it bring calm? Let's hope calm comes down in Ferguson after everything that went on overnight. We will have the latest from the ground just ahead.

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FEYERICK: Violence and vandalism erupting overnight in Ferguson, Missouri. Protesters angry about the grand jury decision in Ferguson swarm New York's Times Square. They can be heard calling for justice for Michael Brown. Demonstrators even sprayed fake blood on New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton. We're told that at least one person was arrested.

BERMAN: In Oakland, police have cleared out protesters from a highway and reopened one lane of traffic there. Earlier demonstrators stopped traffic for about 30 minutes by blocking the west bound lane with Interstate 580.

Officers stopped vehicles moving in both directions on the freeway for protesters' safety. Patrol cars and motorcycles then lined up on the highway to kind of contain the demonstrations.

FEYERICK: And much more on Ferguson straight ahead.

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BERMAN: Less than two hours until sunrise in Ferguson, Missouri. When that sun does come up, it will shine a lot on a lot of damage overnight, fires still burning there, so many questions still remain to be answered.

FEYERICK: Yes, the story in Ferguson not over by a long shot. A lot of people weighing in on exactly what happened, how it played out and why it went so bad so quickly.

BERMAN: "NEW DAY" fixed up the story right now.