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Hillary Clinton Remarks on Ferguson and New York Grand Jury Decisions; An American Woman Was Found Dead in a Shopping Mall Restroom in United Arab Emirates
Aired December 04, 2014 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Just past the bottom of the hour. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.
As we mentioned just moments ago, we have now heard from Hillary Clinton. She addressed unrest both in Ferguson, Missouri, along with the nation's criminal justice system, speaking also about what happened here in New York with Eric Garner in non-indictment there. She's speaking in Boston in the Massachusetts conference for women. Here she was.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: I want to say a few words about the pain and frustration that many Americans are feeling about our criminal justice system. I am very pleased that the department of justice will be investigating what happened in Ferguson or Staten Island. Those families and those communities and our country deserve a full and fair accounting as well as whatever substantive reforms are necessary to ensure quality, justice and respect for every citizen.
Each of us has to grapple with some hard truths about race and justice in America because despite all of the progress we've made together, African-Americans, most particularly African-American men, are still more likely to be stopped and searched by police, charged with crimes and sentenced to longer prison terms.
The United States has less than five percent of the world's population yet we have almost 25 percent of the world's total prison population. Now, that is not because Americans are more violent or criminal than others around the world. In fact, that is far from the facts. But it is because we have allowed our criminal justice system to get out of balance. And I personally hope that these tragedies give us the opportunity to come together as a nation to find our balance again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Come together as a nation to find our balance again.
Let me have you react to this, Shaun King. Shaun King, activist and justice reporter of "the Daily Kos." We thought you would be the perfect person now that we're hearing from Hillary Clinton. What did you think of what she said?
SHAUN KING, JUSTICE REPORTER, THE DAILY KOS: Well, I appreciate the sentiments of what she said. But I'm convinced that if it weren't for protests all over the country, she probably wouldn't be saying that at all. And so, the conditions that created the problems in our justice system, they're not new. They've been building for decades and decades. And so, I think it's the pressure that protests all over the country are putting on leaders and politicians like her that really force them to have to make a statement.
BALDWIN: You know, we talk about protests we saw pictures from last night. It's not often you see in New York city pockets all over shutting down the west side highway in the middle of the city. And when you see that, the really relatively peaceful, I think, only a handful of arrests. But then you just supposed that with what we saw in the wake of the non-indictment in Ferguson, Missouri, and the looting and the rioting there, what do you think is the key difference?
KING: Well, I think some of it is just geographic. I mean, New York and St. Louis are in very different parts of the country with very different populations like -- until Mike Brown was killed, I actually never even heard of Ferguson. So, you're not going to have this international groundswell right away because most of us haven't even heard it.
But the truth is that there are way more similarities between what's happening in New York and Ferguson and also Cleveland and other cities where police brutality is happening because a lot of the same leaders in Ferguson are actually leaders now in New York like great leaders like Charles Wade and Sharell Brown (ph) and others who were leaders in Ferguson have actually started to lead in New York in powerful ways as well. And so, I think what you really see key differences are just New York is a different place with more people and more resources.
BALDWIN: Let me talk about leaders and who is really organizing this. We heard from Spike Lee, Anderson Cooper talked to Spike Lee last night before Spike himself headed out to one of the protest. He made this interesting observation. Let's play this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SPIKE LEE, FILMMAKER: It was diverse New Yorkers, black, white, Brown, Asian. All chanting black lives matter.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR, AC 360: And a lot of young people.
LEE: And lot of young people. You know, young people in this generation get a bad rap. They are the one that leading in this. Watching you inspired me to get out there with these young cats, young women and men, and be a part of this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: It was the young people, the young cats comment. I just wanted to ask you about, Shaun.
KING: Yes, absolutely. I mean, I think the energy, the fuel, the life blood of the protests in New York and Ferguson, I have a 12-year- old daughter who walked out of school the day after they decided not to indict mike Brown and so --
BALDWIN: Twelve?
KING: Yes. She was 12. And over 200 kids at her school here in L.A. walked out and protested and kids in schools all across America took Mike Brown's death personally and people were taking Eric Garner's death personally. And Spike is right. While it's not necessarily a youth movement, if you look out there, it's young people leading it. And I think one of the reasons why it is catching on all over the country and around the world is this movement doesn't really have one key central leader that everybody is waiting on. People are acting on their own frustrations, their own feelings about what they see as a grave injustice. And you know, I heard in an earlier segment somebody was saying that they felt like education was the answer and I went to Morehouse, I went to grad school and I get that. But education is not the cure all to police brutality. We see --
BALDWIN: Do we know what the cure all is?
KING: Well, it is obviously it is better policing. It is better training. I think if we had to really lay it all out, there are probably 20 different factors that we could look at one by one. But for anybody to say that if African-Americans pursued education more --
BALDWIN: That was a Morehouse professor.
KING: Yes. He was on the panel but it wasn't him that made the statement. But his counterpart -- there was a graduate who was killed in Charlotte. There was a young man in Pasadena, (INAUDIBLE) McDade, who was a college student and all-state football player who was killed.
And so, people aren't being killed for lack of education. People are being killed and harassed because of bad policing. And certainly education is a great thing and I suggest it for everybody. But this is a comprehensive problem that really needs a comprehensive solution.
BALDWIN: Shaun King, thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate it.
KING: Thank you.
BALDWIN: Still ahead, some serious questions today about whether the Cleveland officer involved in the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice should have been hired in the first place. We're learning all kinds of new details about how he quit his previous police post after his superiors noticed he had this immaturity, emotional issues, couldn't manage his stress, had a dismal performance in firearms training. We'll talk about that coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Cleveland police have a pattern of using excessive force. That is from a brand new department of justice review unveiled this just a short while ago. The federal government and city officials signed a deal requiring an independent monitor to oversee reforms inside of Cleveland's police department. Now, this report comes just a couple weeks after a rookie Cleveland police officer shot and killed a 12-year-old boy clutching a toy gun.
Let me give you back story. In case you are not as familiar, but just to warn you, the story on Tamir Rice includes graphic images that not appropriate for kids up there in the room. Give me a minute to get them out.
The parents of Tamir Rice absolutely emotional at their son's funeral yesterday. They say he loved basketball and swimming.
Our correspondent George Howell has more on Tamir Rice's final moments.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This video was recorded on a security video in a Cleveland park, and it shows Tamir Rice moving in and out of view. Keep in mind, these are the last few moments of this 12-year-old's life. Video his family, want you see.
First, we see Rice pacing the sidewalk brandishing what looks to be a weapon, at one point, even taking a two-handed shooting stance. All the while, police say he was being watched.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The gentleman sitting in the gazebo is the gentleman that called into our dispatch center.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sitting in the park at West Boulevard by the west boulevard Rapid Transit station. And there's a guy in here with a pistol. and it's probably fake, but he's pointing it at everybody.
HOWELL: The caller points out twice the gun is probably fake.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The guy keeps pulling it in and out of his pants. It's probably fake, but you know what, he is scaring the (bleep).
HOWELL: What happens next happens very quickly. Officer Frank Garmack driving and another officer Timothy Loehmann in the passenger seat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The officers ordered him to show his hands and to drop the weapon and the young man pulled the weapon out and that's when the officer fired.
HOWELL: In dispatcher's audio, you can hear the officer's call for help.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shots fired, male down, black male, maybe 20, black revolver, black handgun. Send EMS this way.
HOWELL: Even as they call for help, the officers still not understanding they shot a 12-year-old boy carrying a toy gun.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not an effort to exonerate. It's not an effort to show the public that anybody did anything wrong. This is an obvious tragic event where a young member of our community lost their life. We've got two officers that were out there protecting the public that just had, you know, to do something that nobody wants to do.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: I want to talk a little bit more about this. The father of that Cleveland officer who shot and killed Tamir Rice is defending his son's actions. Fred Loehmann was interviewed by cleveland.com, a police officer himself. He recalls his son saying quote "I was right there and he went for the gun. I had no choice." That father, actually a former New York police officer, said his son was excited about his new job with the Cleveland police force. The father says quote "he loved the action." Yet Tim Loehmann once had such a grim performance review that his boss wanted to kick him off the force.
Officer Timothy Loehmann dismissal review came when he worked in another smaller Ohio town. According to the Cleveland plain dealer, the deputy chief of police there described Loehmann as, his words, distracted and weepy during firearms training. He said Loehmann quote "could not follow simple directions."
Joining me to talk about that, private investigator, security specialist Rashid Abdul Salaam who also worked for years and years and years as a police officer in Missouri.
Rashid, welcome back.
RASHID ABDUL-SALAAM, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: Thank you for having me, Brooke.
BALDWIN: So when you hear the Cleveland reports reportedly said that they actually never looked at Loehmann's file from his previous job before bringing him on, should he have been on the streets in the first place?
ABDUL-SALAAM: Well, it's apparent from the information that you just read that he certainly should have had a great deal more scrutiny and maybe he could have had some intensive training, so I'm not going to dismiss it all together and say that he shouldn't have been hired. But it certainly should have been reviewed properly and taken in due consideration given to that. But someone weeping that the fire range, the pistol range, at the shooting range, that's a problem. That's a serious problem.
BALDWIN: What is that say to you? I don't think I have ever heard that before, somebody being weepy?
ABDUL-SALAAM: No. You know, I've never heard of it at all. And I certainly, the training that I went through, I went through the regional police academy in Kansas City, Missouri, and I can guarantee you, had that been the situation with any of the applicants, they would have been taken from the range immediately because of officer safety and they certainly would have had some intensive questioning and counseling and therapy and I believe ultimately washed out of the academy. BALDWIN: I'd love to talk to this police officer's father. It sounds
like really he has many, many years under his belt, even I think even on a federal level in law enforcement. But, you know, Cleveland police, is it at Cleveland police where she not doing their homework on this higher from this smaller Ohio town or is it the officer himself for not addressing his documented performance weaknesses?
ABDUL-SALAAM: Well based on what the attorney general, his report today and his statement today, they have been under investigation, they have completed a thorough investigation of that department historically. And the evidence points out that they are remiss, that they are deficient in their training. They are deficient in their application process. There are basically three prongs, I was taught going to the police academy, to where is the department is liable for putting an officer on the streets. Number one is negligent hiring, that he wasn't even a decent applicant to even be considered for hiring. Number two would be negligent train, that he or she was not trained properly. And then, number three would be negligent retention. Any of those three prongs is enough to where somewhat can seek legal recourse against an officer and a department.
BALDWIN: As you pointed out, the attorney general speaking from Cleveland today addressing issues of excessive force investigating. Rashid Abdul-Salaam, thank you.
ABDUL-SALAAM: Thank you.
BALDWIN: Still ahead, an American teacher stabbed to death. A suspect caught on tape. Investigators say she was hatching a plot to take another victim just before they caught up wither had. Becky Anderson is following the story for us. She will join me next.
You're watching CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: A woman has been arrested in the stabbing death of an American teacher half way around the world, in the glitzy glamorous capital of the United Arab Emirates.
CNN's Becky Anderson reports from Abu Dhabi.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Forty-eight hours after the stabbing death of an American woman in a shopping mall toilet, UAE police raid the house of an emirate woman in her late 30s and take her into custody. The woman is suspected of stabbing to death 47-year-old Ibolya Ryan on Monday. These images show a vale (ph) figure on a mission of malice. Police now say shortly after the stabbing attack, the mysterious suspect was already aiming at her next target, another U.S. citizen, this time, a Muslim-American doctor with a homemade bomb. Fortunately, this plan was foiled. But who is this woman and what are her motives?
How old is the suspect? What does she do? And are you dealing with this as a terror case?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's nearly 58-years-old and she is looking from (INAUDIBLE). And about last (INAUDIBLE) and I cannot tell you this yes or not.
ANDERSON: What authorities will say is that the suspect probably meant to spread chaos and fear. The car in which she fled the scene at the killing had several knives and walkie-talkies. Whatever the circumstances, they are certainly highly unusual in a city renowned to safety. And the police video, reporting to show the suspect's arrest, capture as drama few would associate with the UAE.
Now the Emirates is on guard. Ever since the gulf nation took on a leading role in the coalition fighting is, it's been increasingly susceptible to extremist retaliation. And on top of it, there's a glaring rift in the region between moderate and radical factions. The Emirate foreign minister highlighted the existential dangers at the U.N. assembly earlier this year.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's indicative of the threat that everybody feels is common. Nobody is basically immune. Everybody has threatened the way of life, the values. This is, I think, a danger to all of us, terrorism. And I think it's indicative of how the coalition was built on the sense that we need to act. We can't be passive.
ANDERSON: The UAE has long enjoyed a reputation as an oasis of calm in a turbulence and often violent part of the world. It's the modern face of the Middle East attracting millions of tourists with its beaches, shopping and golf courses and known Dubai international airport, one of the world's busiest. But for now, the uncertainly over this mysterious woman and her intentions has this normally peaceful nation on edge.
Becky Anderson, CNN, Abu Dhabi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: All right, Becky. Thank you.
And before I go, I don't know if you've seen this before but we just really wanted to show it you as New York braces for more protests tonight, more marches, peaceful protests are scheduled. I just want to share this one, I think it is incredibly powerful, this image capturing this growing outrage and pain and frustration felt by so many over Eric Garner's death by a police chokehold and really specifically in the wake of the non-indictment of that police officer. The Staten Island grand jury coming to that decision, making it public this time yesterday.
So this is the image, this news out by "the New York Daily News" cartoonist (INAUDIBLE). And you can see for yourself lady liberty down on the sidewalk gasping for air. Her body stretched and scale of justice no longer in her hands. And lady Liberty's words echo Eric Garner's -- Lady Justice, forgive me, saying the words, I can't breathe. Make sure you stay with us here at CNN. I will be in the state of a
lot of the protests here as we continue to cover the story here in New York and beyond.
I'm Brooke Baldwin. "The LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.
