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March in Washington D.C. Against Police Killings Organized; Mothers of Unarmed Black Men Killed by Police Interviewed; Senate Delays Vote on House Government Spending Bill; Street Artist Profiled; Tornado Hits Los Angeles; Federal Investigation Called for in North Carolina Teen's Death as Possible Lynching

Aired December 13, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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


CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: They're angry and they're motivated. Now thousands are expected on the nation's capital this morning and they're ready to march. Their message -- police killings have to stop.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Neither side seems happy and the president's not either. But a deal has to be reached on the budget or the government shuts down. The question is, can the Senate make it happen on a Saturday?

PAUL: It might have been a small tornado but this one was a big, big, deal. Look at that.

We have more of that to show you in a moment. But we just want to welcome you. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you this morning.

PAUL: We begin in our nation's capital right now where protesters are gearing up for the "Justice for all" march. It's about to get under way in two hours from now.

BLACKWELL: The march is intended to call attention to recent police killings following the horrific high profile deaths of Eric Garner in New York, 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and 12- year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland.

PAUL: Protesters begin their march near the White House, make their way to the U.S. capital, as you see here. Organizers are calling for Congress to take some action here.

BLACKWELL: And demonstrations are also expected to take place across the country. Look at all the spots on the map here. Let's bring in CNN correspondent Sunlen Serfaty. She is at the starting site there at Freedom Plaza.

PAUL: We're also joined by CNN political commentator Van Jones. He's nearby.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: -- on the ground.

PAUL: Sorry, Sunlen, I just wanted to let you know that Van Jones is nearby Third and Pennsylvania where protestors are expected to pass on their way to Capitol Hill. Sunlen, I'm so sorry to cut you off. Set the scene for us. What are you seeing this hour?

SERFATY: Well, Christi, a lot of energy here on the ground. These marches are starting to gather here at Freedom Plaza just steps from the White House. I want to show you a little bit of the scene here. A lot of protesters with tee-shirts and signs out this morning obviously making reference to the high profile killings, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin.

And we have a symbolic meeting of all four of those families. They will be marching together, and this is the first time the four families of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and Tamir Rice are gathering. They will lead the protest down the symbolic place down from Freedom Plaza here in Washington, D.C., all the way down the iconic streetlight of Washington D.C., Pennsylvania Avenue, and end near the steps of the U.S. capital. Earlier we heard from the mother of the Trayvon Martin, Sabrina Fulton. She talked to Anderson Cooper about this march and about her feelings beforehand. Here is what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SYBRINA FULTON, TRAYVON MARTIN'S MOTHER: I don't really believe that people are just going to change overnight. There's a more deep-rooted hatred that people have for African-Americans. And if you are not an African-American, a lot of people don't understand. They don't quite get it. They just think that we are complaining about something that doesn't really exist. And we are living this every day. This is our life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: And a lot of protesters here said that they are feeling a sense of the symbolism of today. I spoke with one protester, her father marched in the civil rights marches in the 60s along the same path. She spoke with him on the phone today. He told her, I'm very proud. There is definitely a sense from a lot of people, a lot of these marchers that this is a symbolic moment. Christi, Victor?

BLACKWELL: Sunlen, there are some comparisons made to the march in '63. I want to go to Van now. Van, they are asking for -- these demonstrators are asking for Congress to do something. They want Washington to act. What likely, if anything, is Congress going to do?

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, I think it is very important to recognize this march is incredibly significant. Congress can legislate, can get more funds and more authority for federal law enforcement to oversee some of these departments.

But, you know, when you have four mothers, four grieving mothers walking together, that's going to be an iconic image really to cap off this entire year. That is going to be powerful. You know, Emmett Till, who was a young man in the 50s who was killed for racial reasons, a whole generation hit the campuses when there were a couple years of that and changed the 60s, changed this country for the better.

You now have four Emmett Tills in the eyes of a lot of African- Americans, and the mothers of the four dead African-American men marching together. It's going to be very powerful. Can that motivate Congress? It absolutely can. We would not be talking about this today were it not for the protests all across the country. I think you are going to see some change the local, state, and federal level in 2015.

PAUL: Van, we heard Bill Clinton say we need to make sure that people feel that everybody matters, that they matter, that their sons matter. How do we do that? Is that something that can be legislated? It seems like it has to be more.

JONES: Well, you know, it has to be both, and the civil rights movement was both. It was both changing heart and minds but it was also changing laws and policies. I thought that Bill Clinton's statements were very welcome and they were very encouraging. To have a former president show the kind of empathy that he did. Of course he's famous for showing empathy. I thought that was important.

But yes, laws and policies can change. For instance, most local district attorneys have to get the support of the local police when they run for office. They want that office. They want those donations from the local police officers union. That is an inherent conflict of the interest at the local level when the police are have to be charged by that same D.A. That is the kind of thing that federal government should step in to make sure we have good checks and balances despite that.

We want to keep electing our D.A.'s, but when the those conflict of interest situations occur we need better laws and better policies as well as more open hearts and minds. I think this protest is going to give people a different window into the lives of these grieving mothers and hopefully D.C. will listen and change the laws and policies too.

PAUL: We'll see. Sunlen Serfaty and Van Jones we appreciate you both, thank you.

PAUL: Now the mothers of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, as he just mentioned, are expected to be there for the "Justice for all" march today.

BLACKWELL: And you know their sons were unarmed when police officers killed them, except for Trayvon, you'll recall he was killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer.

PAUL: In a CNN exclusive Anderson Cooper sat down with all four as well as attorneys to have a really important conversation about race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: This audio has been released of your sister screaming "They killed my baby brother." SAMARIA RICE, TAMIR RICE'S MOTHER: She was actually in the police car

looking at her brother just bleeding there and nobody's doing anything.

COOPER: As a mom, do you -- the video was released. Is that something you even watch as a mother?

RICE: I -- yes. I watched it. I had to watch it. I'm the one that released the video.

COOPER: You are.

RICE: They had to get permission from me to release the video.

COOPER: Why did you want people to see that video.

RICE: I think it's very important that the world knows what's going on with my son. He's only 12.

COOPER: Just hearing this is hard for you.

GWEN CARR, ERIC GARNER'S MOTHER: This is hard. A 12-year-old, not even a teenager. That's horrible. For a mother to see her child laying there dead in the street, I know that was unbearable.

COOPER: I remember early on you and I met and you were talking about your son, about Trayvon Martin. And one of the things you felt very strongly about was that immediately authorities, police were trying to paint a picture who he was and paint a negative picture who he was. Is that something you see happen to all these moms?

SYBRINA FULTON, TRAYVON MARTIN'S MOTHER: I noticed that they blame the victim. And a lot of times that gives people a kind of ease and it kind of justifies why it was done. Regardless of what these kids were doing or even what Mr. Garner was doing, it's minor. Those are minor things that they were doing, and it should not have cost them their lives.

CARR: OK, he did sell loosey cigarettes, but he wasn't selling them that day. He just broke up a fight just minutes before. That's why the police was called, because someone was fighting and he was breaking it up. But when the police game, they looked passed the fight and went straight for him. So they were -- why would they do that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Let's expand the conversation now. The National Urban League is laying out a plan for police reforms that it hopes will keep other African American mothers from mourning their sons. Marc Morial is the president and CEO of the National Urban League. He is in Washington for today's march. Go to have you, sir.

MIKE MORIAL, PRESIDENT AND CEO, NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE: Great to be with you. Good morning. BLACKWELL: So you laid out on action plan. It's "The 10 Point

Journey to Justice Plan." And I want to go through a couple of the recommendations. As we're watching so many people come together and ask for national action, you are calling for a national comprehensive antiracial profiling law as one of the elements that could happen on a national scale. Tell us about this.

MORIAL: Well, we think it is time for a national antiracial profiling law which would prohibit profiling based on race, color, religion, national origin, gender orientation, and the like because we need to be proactive in how we address I think the concerns that so many of us have arising out of these incidents. And a national antiracial profiling law we think is a step.

Now the Justice Department just promulgated a national antiracial profiling guidance. But it doesn't cover state and local law enforcement. And all of these incidences involve state and local law enforcement who are the offenders. So a national law we think is important, and we we've got to begin to have the conversation about that.

BLACKWELL: Let's talk about -- you say state and local. Some of these can be implemented on the state and local level like a review a revision of the police use of deadly force policies and strengthening hiring practices. Do you believe that there is the infrastructure state to state to press? The pressure that we're seeing nationally today at the Freedom Plaza there in Washington, do you think there is that pressure to sustain a push across all 50 states?

MORIAL: Well, there's no doubt there has to be pressure, reform, and change at the local level. And this coming together in Washington is the bringing together of people and a highlight on incidents all across the nation, Ohio with Tamir Rice, New York with Eric Garner, of course Michael Brown in Ferguson, Marlene Pinnock in the state of California.

And I would just make this comment. When I was mayor of New Orleans, I orchestrated and led one of the most successful police reform efforts in the 1990s. We reduced crime. We did it without the kind of incidents that you see here in.

And I want people to know all across the nation that you can have a safe community and a respectful police force that works in conjunction with that community. And that is what we see. So my reforms and the National Urban League's reforms that really embrace the entire civil rights community is about saying let's take this moment and bring about the change that we need. These reforms could take place at the state and local level. Some of them may require national action. But whatever the road to their implementation is, let's walk that road.

BLACKWELL: We heard from Martin Luther King III today that the success of his father's movement in the 60s and all the people who fought for civil rights was not just the march but then the follow-up with the policy soon after. Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, thank you so much for your time.

MORIAL: Thanks for having me.

PAUL: Washington isn't the only city where these protests are taking place. Demonstrators are also expected to march in New York today. So stay with CNN throughout the morning because we're going to take you live to those rallies as they get under way.

Meanwhile, sunny skies, beautiful beaches, sounds like L.A. living. Certainly not this.

BLACKWELL: No.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

What the --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Clearly not something people in Los Angeles are used to seeing it. More of this remarkable video of a very rare twister there.

BLACKWELL: Speaking of rare, it's Saturday and the Senate is open for business, or they at least will be soon. So many people complaining about Congress not actually being at work. Here they are on a Saturday, people, all to keep the government from shutting down. But, as with all things in Washington, a solution will not come easy. The battle inside the chamber next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: In less than two hour from now, at noon, the Senate set to meet many in a rare Saturday session as they try to hash out a massive spending package to avoid another government shutdown. Last night they were supposed to adjourn for the weekend and not resume the debate until Monday. But in the latest example of the fighting in Washington some junior Republican senators defied an agreement reached by the Senate's top leaders and forced lawmakers from both parties back to work today.

BLACKWELL: Erin McPike is live at the White House. Erin, we heard from a lot of senators last night. What went down?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor, Mike Lee, junior Republican senator from Utah as well as Ted Cruz the Republican from Texas, wanted Harry Reid to guarantee that they could get a vote on this amendment that would strip funding from President Obama's executive order on immigration. Harry Reid said no, so there is no unanimous consent and they will with working throughout the day. And they hope to hold the vote on final passage this week. But the conservative Republicans really don't like this bill. Lots of Democrats don't love it either, but President Obama is still urging the Senate to pass it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This by definition was a compromise bill. MCPIKE: President Obama acknowledging the new political reality in

Washington that he has to deal with Republicans.

OBAMA: This is what's produced when you have the divided government that the American people voted for. Had I been able to draft my own legislation and get it passed without any Republican votes I suspect it would be slightly different. That is not the circumstances we find ourselves in, and I think what the American people very much are looking for is some practical governance and the willingness to compromise and that is what that bill reflects.

MCPIKE: But Elizabeth Warren, Nancy Pelosi, and other liberal Democrats are fuming.

OBAMA: There are a bunch of provisions in this bill that I really do not like.

MCPIKE: Specifically it rolls back some of the regulations on Wall Street and it dramatically raises the limits donors can give to political parties.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN, (D) MASSACHUSETTS: The American people are disgusted by Wall Street.

MCPIKE: But in addition to funding Obamacare programs, early childhood education, and manufacturing initiatives, the president points out it keeps the government functioning in crises.

OBAMA: One of the things that was very important in this legislation was it allowed us the funding that's necessary to battle ISIL, to continue to support our men and women in uniform. We put a lot of burdens on our Defense Department and our armed services over the last year, some of which were anticipated and some of which were not. This bill also contains the necessary funding to continue to make progress on our fight against Ebola both at home and abroad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCPIKE: Now what we are expecting to see today is that we think that the Senate will pass this stopgap funding measure that will fund the government through Wednesday which buys them a little bit of time to hash out their disagreement and then vote likely on Monday on the final passage of the $1.1 trillion spending bill. Christi and Victor?

BLACKWELL: All right, Erin McPike in the White House for us, thank you.

No one has seen this kind of weather in Los Angeles for nearly a decade.

PAUL: Yes, that is a tornado tearing across south L.A. roof, tree, trash cans, everything flying.

BLACKWELL: And along with the twister some houses got buried in rocks, debris up to the rooftops, and now it's time to dig out. Details next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the -- Oh. Oh. Oh, look.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Don't you feel his pain?

PAUL: Your morning bleep of the day.

BLACKWELL: Yes, and five to spare.

(LAUGHTER)

BLACKWELL: This is a tornado, and it is tearing across -- or at least it was, several streets in south Los Angeles. It was all caught on tape you see here. The guy who took the video, and you can hear this, was pretty shaken up. And so were a lot of other folks. There's no wonder. Roofs when flying, windows, you see all the debris here. A day care center was damaged. But, thankfully, no reports of injuries. This is the first tornado to hit Los Angeles County in at least seven years.

PAUL: My goodness. And this was part of a wild storm system that just pounded had whole west coast.

BLACKWELL: And now it is moving on through other areas, but there is rain expected. So fortunately the weather's called down a bit. Let's get live pictures here. This is from Camarillo Springs, California, northwest of L.A. where there is a big clean up here. You're looking here at a chimney and a rooftop and all of the rock and mud that has rushed in because of the mudslides, homes buried, debris all the way up to, as we said, the tops of these houses.

BLACKWELL: CNN's Stephanie Elam is there and she got a firsthand look at things beyond this damage, even.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor and Christi, when you look at where I'm standing it is astounding the amount of rock that has come cascading off the mountain and down into the streets. I'm here at roof level of this house. And amazingly, no one was injured.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELAM: Two inches of rain in just three hours pelting southern California. In the heart of the city, a swift water rescue on the Los Angeles River. From the rising and rapidly moving current, first responders pulled two people clinging to trees to safety, including this woman.

Other parts of the Los Angeles area left ravaged by recent wild fires also getting doused with more water than the baked scarred land could handle. Crews began working to clean up the mud and debris enveloping these homes and blocking some streets even as the rain was still falling. In Camarillo Springs, an area that was charred by wildfire in 2013, the downpour was far more punishing, sending mud and tons of rocks cascading down on these homes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have a lot of rock to move here. It's almost like quarry. It's just amazing to look at.

ELAM: The damage so intense officials deemed 10 homes uninhabitable, but, remarkably, no reports of injuries. Cindy Wargo came here to check on her mother, who is safe, but she's still heartbroken for these residents.

CINDY WARGO, RESIDENT: These are a lot of elderly people. This is their retirement community, and this is where they put their money in.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ELAM: And to add insult to injury, more rain is expected at the beginning of the week, which is very necessary for drought stricken California, but for some there is such as too much of a good thing. Victor and Christi?

PAUL: Stephanie Elam, thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: Thousands of demonstrators now gathering in Washington right now gearing up for a march. These are live pictures, this march from Freedom Plaza to the capital all to stand in solidarity against police killings. We're going to take you there, next.

ELAM: And a high school student in North Carolina found hanging from a swing. Was it suicide or was this a lynching? An exclusive report on a case the FBI is investigating now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Live pictures here at Freedom Plaza in Washington D.C. just steps from if White House as thousands of people are expected to begin this march at the end of a week of outrage as it's been called, expected to start in about 90 minutes down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House, hoping to elicit some change and to get Washington to legislate some change as it relates to police killings and to change the environment, change the relationship between police and their communities.

PAUL: So let's bring Defense Attorney A. Scott Bolden into the conversation here. Mr. Bolden, thank you so much for being with us. Do you think that these marches will help expedite the review of cases like this at the federal level?

A. SCOTT BOLDEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Thank you for having me. Absolutely. The U.S. government and local governments are reactionary organizations, and while they may agree with the concerns of the citizens as well as the police, you still have got to make government do what they need to do. So these protesters want to be seen, felt, heard, and they want the decision makers, including businesses, government, and all interested parties and communities across this country, to make a change to, to build a different relationship with the police, more police training, and probably get special prosecutions and special prosecution commissions to make decisions on these type of issues because the relationship with local prosecutors and the police is simply too close to make those decisions.

BLACKWELL: You're in Washington hoping that Congress will take some action, the president will take some action. However, you used the word "relationship," which I think is important, and relationship is person to person. And changing that exchange between an officer and the community he serves, how do you start doing that, because I don't believe that anyone would argue that you can change that from Washington?

BOLDEN: Well, it could start in Washington either through executive order or through federal legislation that requires states and police organizations to do different training to take kind of a holistic approach to these types of situations as opposed to just being task oriented. For example I want to make an arrest, I'm going to make an arrest and I'm not going to consider anything else, that's the first thing.

Secondly, building relationships or requiring police departments to build relationships with communities so that young people's experiences with police black or white shouldn't be life-changing experiences. It ought to be constructive and positive if necessary. And if it's negative then no one should wind up either being abused or losing their life simply because they had a bad encounter with the police.

Police are trained to make a difference. We need them to be better and we need your citizens to be educated and better that one, they cannot rest arrest, and, two, once the police officer makes the decision to make that arrest, they have to go. That is a tough situation for both sides.

PAUL: So let me ask you this. Do you think that the cases such as Michael Brown and Eric Garner are issues solely of race? Was it a question of bad policing? Was it some combination?

BOLDEN: Well, these circumstances take place in split seconds, and split second decisions. If I read -- as I read the grand jury transcript, if there was an altercation with the police, then Michael Brown, sure, should have been arrested.

The second part of the testimony, though, about the officer getting out of the car and wanting to stop Michael Brown, I believe he had been shot once already. He was coming towards the police officer with his hands up. But the police officer was alone. He didn't have a stun gun. He didn't have mace. He could stayed in the car, quite frankly. He had called for backup already. And had he stayed in the car and just followed Michael Brown, notwithstanding his adrenaline, we may not have the situation that we're facing today.

BLACKWELL: I just want to make sure I hear you correctly sir. You said something about a moment ago not only the police need to be trained but the community needs to know not to resist arrest, and once that decision has been made to arrest a person what they should do. Are you suggesting that part of what should come out of Washington is training for community members as well on how to deal with police?

BOLDEN: I'm suggesting that in in every public and private school for young people, even adults quite frankly, most people, the average Joe and Jane on the street, simply don't know their rights or the police rights when they encounter the police. Whether it is a traffic ticket or whether they are a suspect or whether they even called the police, quite frankly. We know about First Amendment. We know about our Fourth Amendment because we watch TV and also had some experience in that regard.

But the reality is you can exercise your First Amendment. You can exercise your Fourth Amendment. You can engage the police. But if you resist arrest, even if the police are wrong about it, you are recourse must come later. That is with the prosecution, the civilian complaint review board, with hiring a lawyer, and all of your rights against incrimination come into play.

But on the street encountering the police, you are not going to win a debate or an argument as to whether you should be arrested or not because then they have a license to bring reasonable force to effectuate that arrest. And if you look at these instances across the country you will find that a number of them, not all, but a number of them begin with this encounter and the police making a decision to make that arrest. And then we got problems.

So training on both sides or teachings on both sides I think would be helpful. It would take a long time, but the obligation is on part of the government and the police to make these changes and to begin a more positive dialogue with communities wherever they are, whether it's Idaho, Washington D.C., or New York.

PAUL: A. Scott Bolden, we appreciate your thoughts today. Thank you for being with us.

BOLDEN: Thank you for having me.

BLACKWELL: Certainly.

Listen to this, a black teenager is found hanging from a swing set. His death is ruled a suicide, but his family says it is something much more sinister.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV. WILLIAM BARBER, PRESIDENT, NORTH CAROLINA NAACP: And it very well could be a lynching or a staged lynching. We don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Now the FBI is investigating the death of Lennon Lacy and if he was actually lynched.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: It's almost unthinkable that in 2014 the FBI has just been dispatched to investigate a possible lynching, yes, the lynching of a black teenager in North Carolina. The case got the attention of the NAACP. And late today, actually right now, a group is holding a rally to highlight the case of Lennon Lacy's death. And earlier this week I travelled to North Carolina to speak with his family.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLAUDIA LACY, MOTHER: I look for him and I don't see him. I listen for him and I don't hear him.

BLACKWELL: The last time Claudia Lacy saw and heard her 17-year-old son Lennon Lacy was around the time he snapped this selfie. The caption, "Last night pick before the game." Lennon was a high school student in North Carolina and a lineman on the football team focused on a professional football career.

LACY: He was a physically fit, 17-year-old, very athletic, down to his food.

BLACKWELL: But Lennon had asthma and had to exercise outside at night after the temperature dropped, something his family said he did often. Lennon headed out for a walk the night of August 28th. They never saw him alive again. The next morning --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hanging from the swing.

BLACKWELL: Lennon's body was found dangling, covered in fire ants in the center of a mobile home park.

PIERRE LACY, BROTHER: It's out in the open. There's trailers all around. People work around the clock at these hours of the day. Someone should have saw something, but no one have seen anything.

LACY: It was unreal. It was like a dream. It was like I was not seeing what I was seeing.

BLACKWELL: The state medical examiner's office declared Lennon's death a suicide. But Lennon's mother believes their wrong.

It do you believe your son was lynched?

LACY: Yes.

BLACKWELL: Pierre Lacy is Lennon's brother.

PIERRE LACY: He may have been strangled somewhere else and then placed there, or h everywhere hung there while people were around watching him die.

BLACKWELL: When questioned by state investigators Lennon's mom said he'd be depressed because a relative had died recently. Lacy said she did not mean that he suffered from depression.

LACY: When you lose someone close you are going to be depressed, upset, and in mourning.

BLACKWELL: Lennon's family says he was focused on football on college and distracted by his ex-girlfriend. His mother says 17-year-old Lennon had been dating a 31-year-old white woman. The age of consent in North Carolina is 16. Still, some people in this small southern town did not like it. Lennon's mother did not like their dramatic age difference.

LACY: I was shocked, disappointed. And I also initially told him how I felt. I did not approve it of it.

BLACKWELL: In the wake of his hanging some wondered if he was killed because he was in an interracial relationship. Racial tension can often exist just below the surface, and here it can break through. Local news covered a Ku Klux Klan rally in a nearby county just weeks before Lennon's body was found.

Are there people in this community who didn't like that a 17-year-old black male and a 31-year-old white female?

LACY: I'm sure.

BLACKWELL: A week after Lennon was buried, a teenager was arrested for desecrating his grave. Reverend William Barber leads the North Carolina conference at the NAACP.

REV. WILLIAM BARBER, PRESIDENT, NORTH CAROLINA NAACP: There are too many questions, and it very well could be a lynching or a staged lynching. We don't know. But what we do know is there has to be a serious and full investigation of these matters.

LACY: The NAACP hired forensic pathologist Christina Roberts to review the case, including Dr. Deborah Radisch's autopsy completed for the state. Her first concern, basic physics. Lennon was 5'9". The cross-bar of the swing set is seven-and-a-half feet off the ground. With no swings or anything else at the scene that Lennon could have used according to the NAACP's review, how did he get up there?

PIERRE LACY: His size and stature does not add up to him being capable of it, just constructing all of this, alone, in the dark..

BLACKWELL: According to the police report the caller, a 52-year-old woman was able to get the 207 pound teen down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do I need to try and get him down?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you can.

BLACKWELL: Then seconds later.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I got him down.

BLACKWELL: According to the NAACP review Dr. Radisch also noted that she was not provided with photographs or dimensions of the swing set. Without this information she would be unable to evaluate the ability to create the scenario. Lacy says she told state investigators the belts used to fashion the noose did not belong to Lennon.

LACY: I know every piece of stitch of clothes this child has. I buy them. I know.

BLACKWELL: The initial report from the local medical examiner, however, notes that the belts appeared to be dog leashes. According to the NAACP's review Radisch said she thought some portion much be missing because there was no secondary cut in either belt, a cut that would have made to take the body down. And Lennon's family says he left home that night wearing size 12 Air Jordans but he was found wearing these size 10-and-a-half Air Force Ones, shoes that were not with Lennon's body when he arrived at the medical examiner's office according to the NAACP review.

PIERRE LACE: Is he going to walk a quarter mile from his house in a pair of shoes that two sizes too small after he takes off his new pair of shoes. And this is a 17-year-old black kid with a brand new pair of Jordans on. He's going to just take those Jordans off and just get rid of them and put some shoes that aren't his, don't know where he got them from, no laces in them, and continue to walk down this dirt road late at night to a swing set in the middle of the trailer park and hang himself?

BLACKWELL: And there are questions in the NAACP review about Lennon's death being ruled a suicide. Dr. Radisch noted her determination of manner of death in this case as suicide was based on the information she was provided by law enforcement and the local medical examiner. She would have likely called the manner of death pending while awaiting toxicology and investigation, but the local investigator had already signed a manner of suicide.

However in the summary of the case written the day Lennon was found, the local medical examiner asked, "Did he hang self? Will autopsy tell us?" And left the conclusion on the manner of death pending.

We interviewed Radisch who declared the death a suicide. Instead a department spokesperson sent CNN a statement confirming the conversation between Roberts and Radisch in writing "The comments that were released by the NAACP were a synopsis of the professional exchange between the NAACP's independently retained forensic pathologist and Dr. Radisch." Local police and state investigators declined to speak with CNN on camera for this story.

BARBER: We don't have confidence in this local group here to be able to carry out the depths of the investigation that needs to be done.

BLACKWELL: Now the FBI is reviewing the circumstances surrounding his death.

LACY: That's all I've asked for, what is due rightfully to me and my family. Justice. Prove to me what happened to my child.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: As for the local police department, it is a small department, only 11 people. It says it referred this case to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. And so far that agency has only acknowledged that it has the case but had no further comment. We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: In week's series "Ones to Watch" we head to Chicago to explore the world of street art. This is a subculture once associated with vandalism, but one artist's iconic images have prompted people to think a little bit differently. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shepard Fairey, the American street artist behind the "Obama Hope" poster, an image he plastered over the streets of America during the U.S. president's first election campaign.

SHEPARD FAIREY, STREET ARTIST: It is a great example, I think, of how grassroots imagery and activism can make a difference.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shepard has used simple images to make a statement and build a brand. He's worth an estimated $15 million thanks to his clothing company Obey, which features his most iconic stencil images, and his prints will sell at auction for upwards of $80,000. And still he takes to the streets to paint.

FAIREY: I used or the far too street to be considered mainstream. Now some people consider me too mainstream for the street. There is validity to both and there are different things about the street and the gallery, but they are both useful platforms. Democratizing art is really been what I've been all about.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today Shepard is in Chicago scaling the heights of a brick wall with a bold message.

FAIREY: What I think it takes to breakthrough as a street artist is tenacity, a willingness to go out there, put work up, and have it cleaned and covered by other artists, and not be too precious about it, to accept that street art is ephemeral. Of course find good places and making imagery that has a unique look that sets your work apart from other people's work is really important, but tenacity is crucial.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: And you can watch the entire "Ones to Watch" show at CNN.com/OnesToWatch.

BLACKWELL: All right, so lots of children are right now working on Christmas lists or maybe they are already done. But what this brother and sister asked Santa to bring them, well, it is going to warm your heart.

Plus we're going take you live out to Washington. You see that hundreds, thousands even, thousands of people there at the nation's capital, setting up for a protest. And demonstrators there are the demanding justice and law enforcement reform. Thousands are expected from across the nation. Live coverage continues at the top of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: When you ask children what they want for Christmas, Typically you get a long list of toys and maybe some electronics.

PAUL: But these children had just one thing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want daddy back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want your daddy back? Well you know what, maybe Santa can help you. I think we found something. There you go.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Oh my goodness. Is Santa just --

BLACKWELL: And it took her a second, like this really just happened?

(LAUGHTER)

PAUL: And don't you think Santa's got a big job next year living up to that. Riley is five. Braddock is two. Dad is Sergeant Michael Archibald, and he is just back from nine months in Kuwait, his first deployment. And he apparently said I'm going to spoil them rotten. Welcome home to you, and thank you for your service and we hope you have a fabulous holiday with your children.

BLACKWELL: Absolutely. Listen, thank you so much for spending your day with us.

PAUL: Yes, make some great memories today. There is so much more ahead next hour on the CNN Newsroom. And we want to turn it over to our colleague Ana Cabrera. Hi, Ana.

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, you guys. I love that story.

BLACKWELL: Welcome homes are always great.

CABRERA: I know. Got to love them. Thank you guys. Have a great day.

PAUL: You, too.