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Pennsylvania Police Hunt for Gunman; NYPD Cracking Down on Protestors; Should Muslims Always Denounce Terrorism?; Sony Threatens Media with Legal Action
Aired December 16, 2014 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
Authorities are telling residents of a suburban Philadelphia community to be as vigilant as possible, as a manhunt continues. A former marine reservist is suspected of killing his ex-wife and five former in-laws. CNN's Miguel Marquez is on the phone with more. Tell us more -- Miguel.
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MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Yes. Look, a lot of schools here have modified schedules or have closed for the day because of concerns about this. There was a sighting last night that may have been him -- an individual who tried to steal a car in a nearby town, all of this transpiring northwest of Philadelphia.
One of the neighbors -- this is just horrific, the crimes that this individual is suspected of committing -- one of the neighbors who shortly after they heard gunshots saw Mr. Stone leave the house with his two young daughters.
Here's what that neighbor had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard him say "Let's go, we've got to get in the car." I asked him was everything ok and I saw the kids and the kids' father exiting the house and they didn't have any coats on or anything. They just had their pajamas on and he just said "We've got to go." He was like "She's hurt, she's hurt pretty bad, we have to leave." And he just got in the car and sped off.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUEZ: Perhaps the most hopeful or the only saving grace here is that the two young daughters of Mr. Stone were -- he handed them over to a neighbor, they were left alive, all of this, though, transpiring in the early mornings yesterday after a hung-up 911 call. Police then started to investigate. They were led to three different scenes, six different individuals dead, including the ex-wife of Mr. Stone, his ex mother-in-law, ex grandmother-in-law, ex sister-in-law, her husband, their 14-year-old daughter, shockingly enough, and their 17-year-old son was shot but he is in the hospital and hopefully will survive.
Mr. Stone a former sergeant in the Marine Corps, served time in Iraq in 2008. He was not injured in the military Iraq but he apparently does use either a cane or a walker right now. Authorities releasing two photographs -- one with him bearded, one with him clean-shaven. They say they have information that he was clean shaven the night they suspected he did all of this and right now there is an all-hands search to find this individual and stop him -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Miguel Marquez, reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.
The New York City Police Department says it will start cracking down on protesters who turn on its officers. The flash point came during this protest on the Brooklyn Bridge against the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown. Demonstrators wrestled with two police lieutenants as they tried to stop a man from throwing a trash can on to the street below. Both officers, both lieutenants, wound up in the hospital.
Police later found a bag containing three hammers and a mask. Several officers say before this happened at another Garner protest an officer was punched in the head. Here you can see it in slow motion. This is from YouTube -- there you see it.
Police Commissioner William Bratton put it bluntly quote, "We do not take attacks on our police officers lightly, never have, never will." Police arrested one man for assault. They're still looking for as many as six others who were involved in that scuffle.
On "NEW DAY" this morning Deputy Police Commissioner John Miller said diffusing tense situations takes better training.
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JOHN MILLER, NYPD DEPUTY COMMISSIONER: You look at the number of shots fired by police officers, that's been going down dramatically. The number of uses of force by a police officer have been going down dramatically. The number of civilian complaints against police officers has been going down and went down another seven percent.
So there's a bit of reality, but there's also perception. And when you have this widespread perception driven by the disparity between thoughts in the minority communities of New York, which are now the majority communities; New York is now a majority minority city, where you have those divides. You have to address it directly and that means better community relations, more outreach to the community, better training for the police officers because the simple fact of the matter is if that is how people perceive their police, if that's how they feel, the only way you can do that is through engagement.
Right now the crime picture is pretty good. We're about to have the lowest crime year in recorded history. But when you have a schism between parts of your communities and your police, it's something you have to work on.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: All right. Let's talk a bit more about this with civil rights activist Tamika Mallory who serves on the board of advisors of the gathering for justice. Welcome Tamika and thanks for being here.
TAMIKA MALLORY, CIVIL RIGHT ACTIVIST: Thanks for having me -- Carol.
COSTELLO: You heard what John Miller said, it's really a perception problem, do you agree?
MALLORY: I think there's definitely perception issue but there's also reality. I mean what we saw that happened to Eric Garner on video is not perception. That's reality. And it's something that certainly has outraged New York and all over the world.
COSTELLO: Well, it seems to me that this "us versus them" thing is building across the country, right?
MALLORY: Absolutely.
COSTELLO: So when you see protesters punching police lieutenants in the face because they're trying to stop someone from throwing a trash can off a bridge, that's clearly wrong.
MALLORY: Absolutely it's wrong and certainly the Gathering for Justice and Justice League, which is the committee that has been pulled together to organize some of these protests -- we are totally against it. We condemn actions of violence at protests. We certainly support only peaceful protesting and it has overwhelmingly been that way. This is one incident, maybe two incidents that have happened where people have been out for nights for the last three weeks.
COSTELLO: Yes. But see, it's all captured on video and, you know, we go back to that perception problem, right?
MALLORY: Absolutely.
COSTELLO: As these protests continue to grow larger and larger it's really hard to control people.
MALLORY: Well, certainly. I mean you have people who are going to be infiltrators, agitators -- people who we don't know; people who probably don't even support the cause that will come out. When you have 50,000 people out on the streets of any town or any state, you're going to have these issues. And I think that police officers should prosecute and arrest and people should be prosecuted if they harm an officer. So, you know, we certainly do not condone what happened to Officer Chan or any other officer. And we definitely hope that this situation is resolved.
COSTELLO: Among some police officer there is a sense that protesters are condemning all police. Is that true?
MALLORY: No. Absolutely not. We support and uplift good cops. We're talking about bad cops, people who do go out and perform police brutality and, number one, there is no accountability. That is the major issue here. It is not so much that we don't believe that there will be incidents that will happen and people will get hurt and there will be people who will do wrong.
But at the end of the day, if there is no system that is transparent and accountable then we have a major issue and that's when perception becomes a problem that causes a divide.
COSTELLO: I always ask people this question. Like what's the end game? You have protests every weekend and they're massive and it's great to show, you know, what you believe in. But at the end of the day what is it that protesters want?
MALLORY: We want accountability. We certainly want accountability. And further more, we want Daniel Pantaleo to be fired immediately. So we would like to see that officers who commit acts that are wrong against any person that they be fired and that they also be prosecuted. The fact that there is no trial in this case where we are able to see the facts of what happened to Eric Garner be played out before a jury of this officer's peers and a judge is a problem for the community and certainly we can not see this happen again.
COSTELLO: All right. Tamika Mallory -- thanks so much for coming in. I appreciate it.
MALLORY: Thank you for having me.
I'm back in a minute.
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COSTELLO: In downtown Sydney, Australia the taking of hostages in a coffee shop by a lone Muslim gunman was immediately condemned by Islamic leaders in Australia. That sort of reaction has become almost automatic in these situations.
The attack also prompted another kind of response -- #Illridewithyou. One person tweeted "If you regular take the 373 bus between Coogee and Martin Place, wear religious attire and don't feel safe alone, I'll ride with you." Another woman tweeted, "To the ladies who I shared the cab with this afternoon, Mika and Dixie, thank you from the bottom of my heart." And still another said "I'm not in Sydney but I'm in Australia. And if anyone in Adelaide feels unsafe wearing religious attire, I'll ride with you."
Let's talk about this. Arsalan Iftikhar is the senior editor of "Islamic Monthly" and founder of theMuslimguide.com. Good morning.
ARSALAN IFTIKHAR, "ISLAMIC MONTHLY": Good morning, Carol. It's good to be with you.
COSTELLO: Nice to have you here.
So that hashtag went viral. I mean some of the tweets are very touching.
IFTIKHAR: Yes. I mean it was incredible, the outpouring of support from everyday Australians. This was a viral campaign that went worldwide and it showed how a true liberal democracy responds to acts of terror. They don't marginalize minority demographic groups. They show support for diversity and inclusion all around their country and on behalf of Muslims worldwide -- Australia, we will ride with you as well.
COSTELLO: Although some might argue that in Australia hundreds of clerics immediately came out and condemned the hostage taker.
IFTIKHAR: Yes, you know, Carol, the problem is that whenever a brown Muslim man commits a criminal act the world public expects Muslim leaders and public intellectuals to come out and condemn these acts of terrorism, which we do. The same sort of double standard, of course, is not applied to other minority demographic groups. The Sydney hostage crisis was a criminal act, not an Islamic one, and it's something that Muslim public intellectuals, leaders and religious scholars all around the world will continue to speak out against.
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: But this awful man was trying to hijack an entire religion. So wouldn't it be better to come out and distance yourself from him?
IFTIKHAR: Well, keep in mind, Carol, this man was a crazy lunatic. I mean he was recently charged with 50 counts of indecent exposure and sexual assault. He was charged as an accessory in the murder of his ex-wife. This guy was one of those street corner clerics that you would find on the corner of Times Square.
This guy was a straight up lunatic. He had nothing to do with the religion of Islam. His acts were about as Muslim as the Westboro Baptist Church's acts are Christian. And I think any person with any common sense would understand that this is against any normative teaching of any religious or civilized society today.
COSTELLO: I want to play you something that was said last night on Anderson Cooper. Anderson Cooper interviewed a man named Maajid Nawaz of the "Daily Beast" and he talked about how Muslims need to be more vocal about distancing themselves from deranged people like that hostage taker.
Let's listen.
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MAAJID NAWAZ, "DAILY BEAST": All of us collectively have to start getting real with this problem, recognizing that there is indeed this challenge of these often, you know, pathological individuals who will use this ideology as an excuse to live out their violent fantasies. And we all have to bind together and start challenging this and make this ideology the stuff of yesterday.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: So he's suggesting why not start a hashtag against deranged men like this and distance yourself from someone who hijacks your religion? IFTIKHAR: You know, we have been. Maajid is actually an old friend
of mine and if you look at ISIS, for example, there was a hashtag "Muslims against ISIS" that went viral around the world. Every major act of terrorism that happens, you know, that is committed by Muslims, Muslims around the world, you know, create these viral hashtag campaigns to help push against these meta-narratives.
And I think that's a major reason, Carol, that we saw many Australians come up with this hashtag "I'll ride with you" to show solidarity with Muslims that we're all in this together. That a murder of any innocent human being is a crime against humanity and that people of all religions, colors, nationalities and ethnicities will always stand up for what is right and for promoting human rights around the world.
COSTELLO: All right. Arsalan Iftikhar, thank you so much for joining me this morning. I appreciate it.
IFTIKHAR: Thank you, Carol.
COSTELLO: You're welcome.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, there's a sequel to the Sony Pictures hack. Call it Sony strikes back. After a flood of embarrassing leaks and e-mails, the studio is telling media to back off or get ready for a lawsuit.
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COSTELLO: It was early fall and the King fire was raging in northern California. A dozen firefighters found themselves trapped and there was only one hope for survival.
Robin Meade brings us his story in tonight's "Special Extraordinary People".
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ROBIN MEADE, HLN HOST: Listen to the calls Kevin eventually got out despite dying batteries and a soggy GPS to indicate his location.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Batteries gone, been overrun. We are in the safety zone in shelters. We need transport.
MEADE: Helicopter pilot Gary Dahlen (ph) meanwhile heard an all call from dispatch.
What did you hear on that call?
GARY DAHLEN, HELICOPTER PILOT: "All available helicopters prepare for an emergency launch." I've been doing this 28 years and I've never heard that terminology before. So I just jumped in and started it up.
MEADE: With that, Gary was on a tear to get to the trapped men ten miles away.
DAHLEN: Everything in front of us is on fire. There's a smoke column that's probably up to 30,000 feet. We're right over the fire that was trying to kill the guys.
CAPT. KEVIN FLEMING, FIREFIGHTER: We got in our fire shelters right up over here and then we heard a helicopter.
DAHLEN: I saw the fire shelters down there below me and I looked out this way and I just saw the wall of fire coming.
MEADE: You could tell that if they stayed in those fire shelters --
DAHLEN: I knew if they stayed there they're going to die.
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COSTELLO: Tune in to "EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE". That airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, 6:00 p.m. Pacific time.
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COSTELLO: Sony is issuing a warning to the media. Those leaked e- mails -- stop publishing them or get sued. The studio is fighting back following an embarrassing cyber attack that's embarrassed everyone from movie execs to actors. Now another target of those e- mails -- Oscar-winning screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin is standing up for Sony saying the media should back off.
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AARON SORKIN, SCREENWRITER: There are certainly times when the press should -- has an obligation to publish things that were. You talk about the Pentagon papers but you don't even have to use that as your standard. Loosen the standards a little bit. Is there anything in these e-mails at all that's in the public interest that points to wrongdoing at the company? That helps anyone in any way? There isn't, there's just gossip there.
You can loosen the standards even more but ultimately you have to dispense with standards entirely in order to be ok with publishing these e-mails.
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COSTELLO: CNN's Jean Casarez has more on Sony's strategy.
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JEAN CASAREZ, CNN LEGAL CORRESPONDENT: It is a well-orchestrated computer terror attack that now appears to include blackmail.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: They've already salaries and budgets and scripts and private e-mails and medical records and Social Security numbers.
CASAREZ: For the first time, Sony's lawyer says it is all part of a blackmail scheme to prevent the release of an upcoming motion picture. Attorney David Boies, who is representing the motion picture studio, sent a letter to media outlets, including CNN, which suggests Sony was targeted as part of an ongoing campaign to prevent SPE, Sony Pictures Entertainment, from distributing a motion picture.
That movie is "The Interview", slated for release on Christmas day. The comedy starring Seth Rogan and James Franco has as its plotline the murder of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Take him out.
SETH ROGAN, ACTOR: You want us to kill the leader of North Korea?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
CASAREZ: Sony is asking anyone who has the hacked e-mails, spreadsheets and other day to destroy it even though some of the information has been published and republished for over a week now.
STELTER: This is a tough one ethically for journalist but there's an important distinction to make. The journalists are not the ones hacking into Sony. That would be illegal and that would be wrong. We're only reporting on what has already been made public.
CASAREZ: The hackers say the best is yet to come. "We are preparing for you a Christmas gift. The gift will be larger quantities of data and it will be more interesting. The gift will surely give you much more pleasure and put Sony Pictures into the worst state."
CNN's senior media correspondent Brian Stelter and the host of "RELIABLE SOURCES" says the concern for any corporation being hacked to this magnitude is a chilling effect.
STELTER: It creates a fear of self-censorship, that movie studios or other companies won't go down a road because they're afraid of getting hacked in the future.
CASAREZ: Garnering some of the biggest attention? E-mails allegedly disrespecting President Obama while discussing the types of movies he would enjoy watching at a breakfast with studio executives. Sony apologized for these exchanges. Sony's co-chairwoman Amy Pascal also apologized directly to Angelina Jolie after executives slammed her talent and demeanor in an e-mail.
The identity of the hackers is limited at this point to the Guardians of Peace who say they are attacking Sony for release of quote, "The Movie of Terrorism". That film is presumed to be "The Interview". But mounting evidence indicates that North Korea is likely behind the hack.
Many believe the media are being used to help the hackers intensify their threats. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, the subject of some of the leaks e-mails, says this in an op-ed to the "New York Times". "The hacking group known as the guardians just had to lob the ball, they knew our media would crash the boards and slam it in."
"New York Times" editor Dean Baquet differs with Sorkin but agrees the material does not rise to the level of other more historically significant stolen government material. Andrew Wallenstein, co-editor of "Variety" has his take. . ANDREW WALLENSTEIN, "VARIETY": Don't forget, people are drawing
comparison to something like Edward Snowden. This is not information that had to come out for the public good. So I think that is a false equivalency.
CASAREZ: And with the Guardians of Peace threatening to drop more e- mails, executives around the country are resorting to the old-school business practice of picking up the phone.
Jean Casarez, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: I'll be right back.
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COSTELLO: Americans have wrestled with their weight for years. Obesity is a national epidemic and the sad part is we sometimes pass the problem along to our pets. Here's Jeanne Moos.
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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When you go from this to this, you deserve your own calendar.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here he is. I just pulled him out of bed.
MOOS: Meet Obie. Actually you probably met him back in 2012. That's when he was famously fat.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have a bosom.
MOOS: It's never a good sign when you are introduced with the word "whopping".
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A whopping 77 pounds.
MOOS: Yet, now, he's a calendar pin-up boy with a beach body -- Mr. August, Mr. September.
How did Obie get here from being so obese you could hear his belly drag? And to wear a vest to protect it, he looked like a beached walrus instead of dachshund.
Loving, but elderly owners overfed him human food. Nora Vanatta, a veterinary tech, took custody, put Obie on a weight loss, dry food diet and the pounds melted off -- about a pound a week for a year.
Nora remembers the milestones.
NORA VANATTA, OBIE'S OWNER: The first time he ran. The first time he lifted his leg to pee.
MOOS: After losing 40 pounds, he had so much excess skin --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They did a modified tummy tuck, yes.
MOOS: They had to surgically remove two and a half pounds of tissue. And now he just looks sleek and slim and svelte.
He's maintained the weight of 23 pounds for a year.
Obie's $25, 2015 calendar sounds like a Hallmark card. Every once in a while, a dog enters your life and changes everything.
Dog owners could use a little inspiration -- over half, 52 percent of U.S. dogs are overweight or obese.
Obie isn't into exercise. He eats half a cup of regular, dry dog food twice a day.
VANATTA: I remember the first time he was able to scratch his face with his back leg.
MOOS: Mr. March is a wiener dog with buns he can be proud of.
Jeanne Moos, CNN --
VANATTA: OK, you can go back to bed, silly.
MOOS: -- New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Thanks so much for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.
"@THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN AND MICHAELA" starts now.
