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Peaceful Protests At City Hall In Baltimore; Aired 3-4p ET

Aired May 02, 2015 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:16] POPPY HARLOW, CNN HOST: Hi, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow joining you live from city hall in the center of the Baltimore. This is the center of the protests today over the death of Freddie Gray.

Across the country right now large rallies and small rallies from New York to Los Angeles. People are out there demanding justice, not only for the man who died in police custody, Freddie Gray, but also for this city, Baltimore. They are standing by Baltimore as the process begins of healing and dealing with the police officers that the state's attorney say are responsible for the death of that 25-year-old black man.

The marches began here just a couple of hours ago, crowds walking from Freddie Gray's neighborhood to city hall. So far today's protests have been loud, they have been focused and they have been peaceful.

Not so peaceful last night after a citywide curfew went into effect. Many people who refused to go inside were convinced otherwise by Baltimore's police officers. The streets were mostly calm and clear by midnight.

And one group that is definitely not happy with the charges levied against six Baltimore police officers is the union, the union that represents those police officers. They take issue with the state's attorney, Marilyn Mosby, and say they made a rush to judgment and also they say they have not done a complete investigation of the death of Freddie Gray. We're going to get to our reporters in just a moment. But I want you to take a look at some images.

This is an aerial view of city hall, downtown Baltimore, where you have hundreds if not thousands gathered. This is a peaceful gathering. This is a rally. Some here are saying that they are celebrating the life of 25-year-old Freddie Gray. Remember, this comes one day after the state's attorney, Marilyn Mosby, made her case that these six police officers are responsible for the death of 25- year-old Freddie Gray last month. Let's take a moment and listen in to what they're saying.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, now look around you. I'd like to thank each and every one of you for doing a great job. It's because of you that we have the attention of the president. It's because of you that everybody is talking about police brutality and police criminality. I want to ask the elected officials, what would you do? What would you do if every time you look around, you're a young black man or young black woman is killed because of police brutality and the police do not pay for it. What would you do? What you do is what you all are doing right now. So I'd like to thank

you. And I want to remind you that what we're doing and what you're doing is a movement. Don't get involved for the moment. Do not follow any of those false misleaders like a foolish man following the Judas goat to the slaughter.

I want to ask a strong message to President Obama, Hillary Clinton and everybody that's running for office in 2016. What are you going to do? What are you going to do to ensure that police brutality is a thing of the past? What are you going to do? What laws are you going to put in place? I thank everybody for coming out. I want to introduce the attorney --

HARLOW: Listening into this rally right here. We're going to step aside from listening to the rally right here in downtown Baltimore for just a moment as we continue to monitor. We are going to go to our Nick Valencia who's been in the streets of Baltimore all morning marching with some of the protesters.

Nick joins me now. Nick, what are you seeing?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, what we saw was throughout that six-mile march, I'd say from the spot where Freddie Gray was arrested, was a demonstration that started with about 100 people, blossomed to about 200 at the height, maybe 300 people marching from that spot to city hall where they have joined the rest of the demonstrators here. It was a peaceful march, a peaceful demonstration. It wasn't until sort of the end of that six miles that we started to see police presence.

At one point there were state troopers that tried to block off the demonstrators from going through a main lane of traffic. The demonstrators sort of got around them. There was no incident. By and large, though, we saw people from all across the United States, not just here in Baltimore.

I spoke to a young lady from North Carolina, another one from New York. People are saying they are coming here far and wide and what has united them, multi-cultural faces, they're united by humanity. Some in that crowd that we marched with felt that they had been done wrong by police. Others felt that this isn't just about black lives, this is about others, this is about a systemic problem within the police force.

What we saw, though, was the police allow them to go through the streets blocking off traffic. These demonstrators, again, it's not -- it is worth reiterating how peaceful they marched from the spot where Freddie Gray was arrested to join up here the rest of the crowd. And you see this power in numbers, Poppy. It is an impressive rally to say the least -- Poppy.

[15:05:36] HARLOW: And Nick, I'm glad you pointed that out because I was walking with the protesters in Philadelphia on Thursday night where thousands gathered, and it was overall peaceful for six-plus hours outside of 20 minutes of confrontations with the police. That's largely what we've seen here, isn't it, Nick, since some of that violence broke out on Monday night?

VALENCIA: You know, interestingly enough, one of the main threads of narrative that we've heard today speaking to residents is I've spoken to a lot of young black men who are disappointed with what happened in the city on Monday night.

They are frustrated. I spoke to a young man named Aaron Cook right there at the corner of north avenue and Pennsylvania avenue at the site of that infamous scene, we saw the CVS pharmacy burned down and looted. He started to choke back tears, Poppy. He said, you know, this is our only pharmacy in the neighborhood. This is where people have tried to make an honest living for a few. When he called that up, he is rooting for everybody else.

They don't want Monday night to be indicative and representative of what the community stands for here. And I think that's what we're seeing today. We are seeing those numbers march peacefully. And really try to get their message heard, that they aren't just protesting for Freddie Gray, but they're protesting for a list of people who they feel have been done wrong by the police -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Absolutely, Nick. Also I wanted your take on what you're seeing on the streets in terms of sort of the rebuilding of some of those businesses that were looted. If you're still with me, Nick, I'd love your take on that.

VALENCIA: Well, I think, you know, that's one of the main concerns is, you know, you see local residents loot. On Monday night you saw that criminal activity. And when you talk to some of those people here, they say, you know, we did it because you, the media, weren't paying attention until we did. National attention wasn't brought here until we saw those scenes. Now, that may be the narrative of some people at maybe how they see it. Whether or not that's true, that's what we were told in the streets marching with these people.

But, you know, Poppy, I can't begin to stress enough just how beyond Baltimore this has become. This has become such a bigger issue than this community here and we see that by so many people coming from outside of Baltimore to show their support for those here in this city -- Poppy.

HARLOW: All right, Nick Valencia joining us from the middle of this rally. Thank you so much, Nick. Stand by.

I do want to get to our Ryan Young who's been here all week reporting on this as well.

Ryan, what are you seeing?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know what, we've been walking through this crowd for most of the afternoon. We have seen a difference over the last few days. Look, Tuesday was tense, Wednesday started to get a little lighter and then Thursday and Friday got so much better. If you look at this crowd, you can see such a difference because we see people from all different nationalities here. People have been talking for several hours. And there have been conversations about what should change.

As we get closer to the crowd, you can see how large it is. In fact, you know, we talked about not only are they listening to music and all generations you can see here as we walk along the way. There's a couple that's getting married here. People have been talking to us about the change that Baltimore needs. Everyone keeps talking about how what's going to happen next when the camera leaves. So people are registering to vote. Trying to get together with community organizations.

We've talked to people from Japan and California, Poppy, who said they really wanted to get into this movement. They wanted to be here for today so they could see this crowd. As you look back this direction, it's just enormous, as they continue to march and talk about changing things.

HARLOW: Ryan Young, thank you very much. I think we have our Sara Sidner as well. Is that right, guys? Do we have Sara Sidner with us?

Hi, Sara. It's Poppy. Hi, Sara, it's Poppy.

SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Sorry. I couldn't hear you.

HARLOW: There we go. Hi, Sara. Hi, Sara. What are we seeing?

SIDNER: Look, I want to give you an idea of where we are right now. Just behind me is the market where the wagon stopped when Freddie Gray was still inside and it's the stop that none of us knew about until far, far after we knew about all of the other ones.

But let's spin the camera. This is Macedonia Baptist church. And this is where the mayor was just a few moments ago handing out food. This church does this on a regular basis. However, they had to do it more, we're told, because of what happened on Monday with the looting of stores in the area.

A lot of the folks that live here, the elderly folks that live here that don't have transportation have difficulty getting, you know, good, healthy food and now some of the stores that they're used to going to and the mall that they're used to shopping at went through all that destruction so there's a lot of frustration. They wanted to make sure that they are here for the community, make sure that people at least have some nutrition that's very nearby.

We did talk to the mayor a little bit as she was working and asking her about the department of justice and what this city is doing in conjunction with or talking with the department of justice about this particular case. They have been working with the department of justice in the past on these very policing issues. But she said yes, indeed, they are in touch on the Freddie Gray case. They cannot talk about the details, but they're certainly in touch and talking but some of those details together -- Poppy.

[15:11:19] HARLOW: Sara Sidner reporting for us live in another area of Baltimore. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be back live from Baltimore in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:15:03] HARLOW: Welcome back to our continuing live coverage. I am joining you this afternoon from the center of Baltimore. You see a huge rally, very peaceful rally and gathering of thousands of people right outside of city hall.

We're going to discuss now the latest that we know in the case and also the police tactics that the state's attorney says were used, she says, in the death of Freddie Gray. Baltimore's police starting to regain and working to regain the city's trust after six officers were accused of participating in the death of a young African-American man named Freddie Gray.

Joining me now to talk about it, author and educator D Watkins, he grew up in Baltimore. Also, former FBI assistant director and former police officer himself, Tom Fuentes.

Gentlemen, thank you for being here. I appreciate it.

And D, I do want to read an excerpt from this article that you penned, this op-ed, for "The New York Times." You wrote for our generation, police officers have been the most consistent terrorists in our neighborhoods. Plus we are currently in a culture war where a cop can shoot if you put your hands up or if you follow their directions or if you lie down or if you are asleep. You go on to write, I swear they see black skin and think bull's-eye. This comes from a very personal place for you. Tell me why you wrote it and your thoughts today.

D WATKINS, AUTHOR: It comes from dealing with the Baltimore city police department. Not just for myself and my friends and everybody in the community, we all feel the same. We feel like there's just a huge communication barrier. They have issues communicating with us and we don't understand them and we have issues communicating with them. So the essay came from a personal place and it came from like all of the emotions I had inside of me from being a person who is a victim of brutality myself and knowing what my family and friends have been through.

HARLOW: I spent some time yesterday with a group of high school kids, 17 and 18-year-olds and some of them voiced frustration about their interactions with the police. Another one told me, look, we know most police officers are good. We know most are trying to protect us. How do we get to a place in this city where there's more of a feeling like that? Because as you well know, you've had some very bad experiences, they're not all alike.

WATKINS: Yes, I think, again, it's a communication problem. I think if more police officers spent more time in the communities where they work or more police officers lived in the city, then maybe they can build those connections with community members that and not resort in violence.

HARLOW: Tom Fuentes, not only you're a former FBI director and police officer, you are also a former police officer. So for you how does that bridge begin to be built?

TOM FUENTES, FORMER FBI ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: I think one of the problems that helps create this lack of communication is that so many departments around this country are being increasingly under resourced. And they don't have the officers to take off the street and put in schools and community groups and recreation centers with the kids like there used to be when I was a cop. We had that all the time. But now you see departments like New York City go from 40,000 police officers to 33,000 or 34,000 and many of the other departments in town it's kind of the same story. And you couple that with Baltimore averaging five murders a week over the last two and a half years and commissioner Batts says the majority are being committed by gangs fighting for turf, people random confrontations and the black guerrilla family.

So now you want the police to reduce the murder rate, you know, and it just creates a difficult circumstance for them to deal with violent criminals on the street but yet not alienate the individuals that aren't violent criminals.

HARLOW: Tom brings up an important point, because I think when you look at the situation in Ferguson, Missouri, a very different situation in terms of the individual we're talking about. But when we talk about the police, in Ferguson you heard a lot of people saying the police force is almost all white and we are a majority black community. Here you have a majority black police force representing a majority black community. So it goes beyond race, doesn't it?

WATKINS: It goes beyond race. It's bigger systemic issues. So it is like it's not just a problem understand the black community have with the police department. It's a problem with our schools, it's now problems with unemployment, it's a collection of problems that make up the whole crime element and enter the cops. And then you mix all these things together in a cocktail and it explodes.

HARLOW: You talk about, you know, economic disparity people have been talking about all week. You look at this city where you've got a 37 percent unemployment rate for black young men and a 10 percent unemployment rate for white young men. Almost four times, Tom Fuentes.

FUENTES: And he's exactly right. He is exactly right. You under resource the community, starting from the birth of these kids. Lack of preschool assistance for the mothers so they're off working, the kids are running free. The schools are under resourced so they don't get a good education. And then they're not prepared to have jobs. Many drop out of school. And now the 18, 19, 20-year-old on the street can't get jobs, can't get employment. And as a society, what we say is, OK, police officers, they're all yours, you deal with it.

What can the police do? Can't get them jobs, can't get them an education that they have missed for the last 15 years of their lives. So that is a big -- I completely agree that there is an economic disparity in these communities that almost sentences many of these kids to continuing a life of poverty. It almost dooms them to a life where they're not going to be to have gainful employment. Then we say to the police, your problem. You deal with it.

[15:20:32] HARLOW: Tom Fuentes, appreciate you joining us. D Watkins, you too. If you haven't read this op-ed in "New York Times," it is called the Baltimore, we are all Freddie Gray. I appreciate you sharing your personal experiences with us, D.

WATKINS: Thank you for having the conversation. I think it's helpful.

HARLOW: I do too. Thank you, sir. Tom, thank you very much.

We're going to take a quick break. And I just want to remind you later in the show, you are going to hear from some of the youth of Baltimore who are going to talk about their experiences with the community, with the police and what they need to succeed. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:24:53] HARLOW: Welcome back to our special coverage live from Baltimore this Saturday afternoon. What you are looking at is a huge rally right at city hall in downtown Baltimore. A completely peaceful rally, a gathering of people. Many community leaders, representatives from the religious community here speaking.

You're hearing some calling this a celebration of the life of 25-year- old Freddie Gray. This follows weeks of protests after his death. His attorney says a death at the hands of six police officers. That will be ultimately decided by the courts.

Let's bring in representative Elijah Cummings who joins me now, who is a familiar face in this state and a familiar face in this city right now. Thank you for being with me, sir.

REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D), MARYLAND: Good to be here.

HARLOW: As I and the world have been watching this city, you have been on the streets. You came out at night, even at times when the protests got violent. Tell me your reaction to what we're seeing today, this very peaceful gathering.

CUMMINGS: I am very pleased. And when I look at -- that is extremely important because what it means is that we have a united community that understands that there's a problem and it's going to take the sensitivity of the entire community to bring the healing that needs to be brought about and to bring about the change that needs to be brought about.

HARLOW: Well, change comes from people like you. Change comes from lawmakers.

CUMMINGS: Right.

HARLOW: And that means as many people voting as possible having their voices heard. We've seen these rallies, we've seen violence, we've seen peaceful protests. We have today's gathering. What do you want to see next?

CUMMINGS: What I want to see next is government -- our elected officials, foundations, universities, entities in our area coming together to address education, training, health care issues, housing, all of those things. But it's all of us. We've got to put a mirror up to ourselves and do -- and -- but first we need to listen to our young people and then try to bring about the changes so that they can have going to their futures, bold, strong and well educated.

HARLOW: I'm glad you brought up young people. I spent yesterday afternoon sitting with 17 and 18-year-old high school students, just extraordinary young men and women. One of the women told me I'm scared. I'm scared that when you leave, when the cameras leave, I'm scared that no one is going to make the change.

CUMMINGS: Yes. And that's one of my biggest fears. But I promise them that we're not going to let that happen. We just began meeting yesterday, a group of us, with our foundations, our universities and government officials and coming up with a plan to begin to address the systemic issues that we find.

HARLOW: What's in that plan?

CUMMINGS: I don't want to reveal all of it right now, but it deals with the very things that our children are talking about. One of their biggest complaints is they want a better education. A young lady came to us the other day and said I'm 16 years old. I am reading from a book that was published in 1973. We are -- our country and our city, we have to be better than that.

HARLOW: You know, one of the kids told me yesterday why is money going into casinos and new buildings and not my school?

CUMMINGS: Yes. And I agree with her. We've got to make sure that we address issues like training. A lot of young people dropped out of school and they had absolutely nowhere to go and they weren't trained. We've got to deal with that. We have to deal with health care issues, a lot of health problems, both mental and physical. So it's going to -- I'm telling you, we've got to take this energy and take this pain, turn it into passion to do our purpose, and we will.

HARLOW: The world is watching and the kids of Baltimore need it. Thank you, Representative Cummings. I appreciate you coming to talk to you.

CUMMINGS: Thank you very much.

HARLOW: My colleague, Don Lemon, sat down for an interview with the prosecutor, Marilyn Mosby. He asked her about her certainty in this investigation. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARILYN MOSBY, BALTIMORE CITY STATE'S ATTORNEY: As a prosecutor, you should not bring charges if you don't believe that you have probable cause that these individuals are responsible for the charges. I understand the time, the commitment, the sacrifice that these police officers make, time away from their families on a day-to-day basis. You know, risking their lives for the betterment of our communities. But at the same time recognizing that these officers are making those sacrifices, and I'm not saying and particularly with this case those officers that usurp their authority, you have to be able to hold them accountable because it does a disservice to the really hard-working police officers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Let me bring in criminal defense attorney Danny Cevallos. He joins me now.

Danny, thank you for being here with me.

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: My pleasure.

HARLOW: Let's talk about these charges against these six police officers, all the way from some more minor charges, false imprisonment, to major charges, including the highest charge here, second-degree depraved murder. That is the charge against the driver of the van that Freddie Gray was in.

CEVALLOS: That's correct.

HARLOW: Tell us what that charge means and if you believe, knowing what we know, that's an appropriate charge in this case.

[15:30:04] CEVALLOS: So the three charged murder is a bit of a misnomer. It is really not an intentional murder at all. It is, especially, Maryland, when somebody acts so (INAUDIBLE), with such a high degree of recklessness, that they absolutely should have been certain even if they didn't intend a death to result that a death was substantially likely to occur.

In law school we're often taught the example of somebody that plays Russian roulette. You don't know every time that you pull the trigger that it won't result in your death but if it's a revolver with six shells and only one bullet, you know there is a very high likelihood that that could happen and that's where we get the phrase depraved hard murder.

HARLOW: So the union that represents the police officers have said that these charges are unfounded. The attorney representing one of them said they are ridiculous and the union is calling for a special prosecutor. They clearly do not believe that Marilyn Mosby can prosecute this in an unbiased way. One thing they point out, her husband is a member of city council here. They say his political future depends a lot on what happens in this case. Do they have a point?

CEVALLOS: This has been a growing concern. We've seen this in many cases that when the police are implicated, the argument is that because they work so closely with the district attorney's and the prosecutors that an independent prosecutor is warranted. The irony here is that the prosecutor is not being accused of showing favoritism to the police but instead it's the exact opposite, that she is now, according to what I've heard, she's being accused of succumbing to the political pressure to charge these officers. And of course the police union is obligated to defend their members, and they're going to do so, so it's no surprise they take that position.

HARLOW: Before I let you go, Danny, very quickly, this question has been talked about a lot which is whether or not indeed it is the case that oftentimes when we see police officers charged, it is very rare that we see a guilty conviction.

CEVALLOS: Well, yes, absolutely. There are many reasons for that and of course, criminal defense lawyers like me have railed about this for a long time, but it makes sense. I mean, after all, when you have a police officer as a defendant, this is somebody who is very well educated in the law. They know how to prepare a report and they're very good at testifying if they need to.

There may also be something to be said about that subtle bias. Maybe not an outward bias, but that subtle bias when a prosecutor in a small town is reviewing charges against somebody who may just live two or three blocks away. They work closely together, hand in hand, in arresting and prosecuting criminals. It's natural to think there may be some maybe unconscious bias in their favor.

HARLOW: So if there is an indictment from the grand jury and if it does result in a trial, it will be interesting to see if that trial is heard here or if they try to move it or not. We'll certainly see.

Danny Cevallos, thank you very much. I appreciate it.

We're going to take a quick break. As we go to break, take a look at this growing rally here on a sunny Saturday afternoon in Baltimore, Maryland. Completely peaceful. People having their voices heard. We're back with much more in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:37:05] HARLOW: Welcome back to our continuing coverage from Baltimore, Saturday afternoon here. And you see thousands of people gathered in downtown Baltimore. People of all ages, all races, all religions, all beliefs. This is truly as representative Elijah Cummings just put it a rainbow. A rainbow of people gathered in what is a very peaceful coming together of people voicing their opinions, coming one day after the state's attorney, Marilyn Mosby, said that six police officers she believes are responsible for the death of 25- year-old Freddie Gray. Let's listen in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: While they prosecute this case, we will hold Baltimore and America thoroughly accountable, thoroughly accountable. These streets are quiet for a moment, but if you harm this prosecutor who is prosecuting these cops, it only take one time, it only take one time, black power, no justice --

CROWD: Peace.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No justice. CROWD: No peace.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me take one more step here. We must have freedom for all political prisoners. All prisoners who are locked up in the Baltimore jail, they are political prisoners. We want freedom for all political prisoners and amnesty for everybody. That's what I said. We want amnesty for everybody. Look, let me tell you something about these youth. The ones that you all are trying to -- all of these youth out here and the ones in the streets, I'm talking about the ones --

HARLOW: All right, I want to go to our Nick Valencia who spent the morning walking here to city hall with number of people who came to congregate here.

Nick, I saw you earlier on the air talking to people, really of all ages, all races, people from Baltimore, people who have come from here New York, from North Carolina, what's their goal today?

VALENCIA: Well, their goal is to bring attention to police brutality and injustice. I'm joined by one of those demonstrators. Tell me your name.

BEN, DEMONSTRATOR: It's Ben.

VALENCIA: Ben, how far did you come from to be here today?

BEN: I haven't away really. It is like two miles away.

VALENCIA: So you're from here. What have you seen transpire in your city over the last couple days?

[15:39:53] BEN: Well, there's been a culture of distrust towards police for the past -- as long as I've lived here, which is about seven years and for decades before that and I think the media needs to go in and investigate the causes of that culture of distrust and not just come here for the riots and leave.

VALENCIA: Do you believe that this was a racial issue or is this a police/non-police issue?

BEN: The jury is still out. I don't want to speak to that, so that's why I'm here. You know, I know that there's this culture of mistrust here and I know there's a lot of anger. And you know, knowing the Baltimore city police, you know, I've been treated very respectfully a lot but stories from my friends especially, my black friends, I don't hear the same level of -- I don't hear the same kind of stories. There's been so many people -- yes, that's really all I have to say. Thank you.

VALENCIA: Thanks for joining us, Ben.

So very sharp words there from one of the demonstrators. We've heard a lot of emotion, a lot of passion. But as you look out here into the crowd, a multi-cultural presence, a peaceful presence. People are listening to what the speakers have to say. And they want to continue this conversation of healing. They're talking a lot -- when I was on the corner of North Avenue and Pennsylvania, there was so much conversation about what can we do next to rebuild this city. Where does the city go from here next? I feel that those conversations are happening right now. And people wanted to show up to be a part of that. That's why we've seen so many people from all walks of life presenting here today, Poppy.

HARLOW: Nick, thanks so much. I appreciate it. We're going to check back in with Nick in just a moment.

But as we continue to follow the gatherings, the rallies, the protests, you've got to think about the businesses here. A lot of the local businesses reeling from big losses from some of the looting, from a citywide curfew that has been in place that means that they're shutting down a lot earlier than they used to. Just a few years ago one of the city's biggest names, ace of cakes star and founder of charm city cakes talked about how Baltimore was a great place for entrepreneurs just like him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DUFF GOLDMAN, FOUNDER, CHARM CITY CAKES, BALTIMORE: I own charm city cakes here in Baltimore, Maryland. At this point I'd probably call myself an entrepreneur here in Baltimore. And Baltimore is a great place for a business because here in Baltimore you can run a business. You show a little bit of talent, a little bit of verve, you know, a little dedication and you're going to go far. The thing about the community here in Baltimore and people here in Baltimore, Baltimore is just a big small town. Everyone really knows everybody else.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right. Duff Goldman joins me now from Los Angeles. Sir, thank you for being with me. I am in your great city and I know you call Baltimore the best city in America. I'm sure seeing what has happened this week has been difficult for you to watch. Tell me your reaction and if you're hopeful.

GOLDMAN: You know, it is difficult to watch but I am very hopeful and everything that I said in that video a couple of years ago is still true. Baltimore is the greatest city in America. And I think you're seeing that there in that rally. They're being peaceful. They're angry, people are frustrated, but they're peaceful and they are making themselves heard and making themselves heard in a way that everybody is listening.

Nobody is discounting what they're saying because they're throwing bottles, because they're burning things down. The very first night of the riots, you know, I was tweeting about it. I was like, I know everybody is looking at Baltimore right now and everybody is really down on Baltimore, but watch. Tomorrow we are going to in the streets and we are going to be cleaning up and that's exactly what happened.

HARLOW: You know, one thing you've talked a lot about, we heard it from some students that I met with yesterday and we just heard it from representative Elijah Cummings is education and opportunity for these kids. You've talked a lot about that. What do you want to see on that front?

GOLDMAN: What I really wanting to see and Elijah Cummings is absolutely right. Cummings are Cummings is a fantastic guy. What we need to see is that the education that starts in elementary school continuing on. And you know, we spend a lot of money on our kids in public school in Baltimore. And I think everybody is trying to figure out what's happening between elementary school to middle school to high school and then to college and beyond. What is happening to the children of Baltimore and why are they becoming so disenfranchised between the ages of, say, 10 and 16.

HARLOW: You know, you talk about opening a business and look at a lot of things. You want to open in a place where you can counting on a constant stream of customers, you want to open in a place that will grow and you want to open in a peaceful area. When you see what happened to this CVS, that is not emblematic of this city but it worked out a lot of attention. How do you convince business owners to come here and for the citizens here to open up businesses in these neighborhoods that have been torn apart?

GOLDMAN: Well, you know, I think, you know, entrepreneurs are critical thinkers. And critical thinkers can, you know, no offense, they can turn on CNN, they can see CVS burning but they know that's one CVS in one neighborhood. They know the rest of the city is awesome. Baltimore is a great place to open a business. It is a great place to do business and the people of Baltimore are all fantastic people. It's a great place.

[15:45:11] HARLOW: Thank you so much for being with me. I'll make sure to stop by Charm City Cakes before I leave Baltimore. It's nice to hear from someone who's so proud of the city he comes from and my time here certainly, it's been great to meet the people here and talk to them. Thanks so much, appreciate it.

GOLDMAN: Any time. Stop by and get a cupcake.

HARLOW: I certainly will. Thank you, sir.

We're going to take a quick break. We'll return live from Baltimore, our special coverage, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:49:00] HARLOW: All right. We're continuing our live coverage from Baltimore, coming to you live from city hall where thousands of people have gathered in a very peaceful rally. They want their voices heard. And one thing I've been thinking about a lot while I've been here is the children, the kids of Baltimore. What does this mean to them? How do they process this? Because the death of Freddie Gray and the ensuing riots and protests may be one of the defining moments of their young lives. So we went and sat down with a group of them, 17 and 18-year-olds, all members of the college-bound foundation. And they are the future of this city. So I asked them to talk about what's unfolding right in their own backyard.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) HARLOW: You live right near where Freddie Gray lived.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

HARLOW: What's your life like there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was tough. A lot of people don't care. You've got people not eating every day.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're here today to show the positivity of Baltimore. We're here to show there's more to Baltimore than just saying there's a whole bunch of thugs.

[15:50:01] HARLOW: Did it hurt you to hear some people use the word thugs?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It did hurt because I see us as human beings and not thugs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watching the media, the world portray us as thugs, I thought that was highly disrespectful. It is naming of people who were lying, people weren't trying to find out why. They were just pointing the fingers, stereotyping, blame on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They constantly looking at your back assuming you're about to steal something from a store or they cause this (INAUDIBLE). All because our pants are sagging. Maybe I forget my belt at home. There's more to us than what we are treating.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm glad you guys came to hear what we had to say as the youth of Baltimore city watching all this. And I don't think it's a matter of race anymore, you know. It's about what the police brutality and, you know, someone who was here to protect and serve me, I shouldn't be afraid of. I shouldn't be nervous when I'm pulled over by the police officer. I shouldn't have to worry about where I'm going to put my hands and what should I say. You know, I shouldn't worry about that. I shouldn't -- when the cops are shooting at me, who am I supposed to call?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are we human? When did we lose characteristics of being human? It's sad to say that -- and I do appreciate what the police do for us. Anything that goes wrong, the first people we call on are who? The police.

HARLOW: You're worried that our news cameras are going to leave and the spotlight isn't going to be on Baltimore anymore and nothing's going to change?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I do feel that way. I feel like if the cameras hadn't been here, it wouldn't have been a big issue like it is. People are going to forget about us and move onto the next topic. And I wish it wasn't like. I wish that when the cameras leave, people realize OK, they are gone. Now we actually really need to make the change that they talked about on the cameras.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the media, I feel as though as minorities we are shown as -- we're -- they show the negative stuff. No one shows the positive things that we do, you know. When we are together at community centers and recreational centers. No one shows that. But as soon as we act out because we have a reason to act out, it's publicity like it's everywhere.

Martin Luther King said riots are the language of the unheard and I believe that's true because he -- he really explained what was happening in the past, but it's still happening right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel like we're fed up. I see a lot of anger in this city. And I agree because there is so much more positive than I see a lot of negative being spread around on the media and that's not -- that's not us. That's not our city, you know. Baltimore's got so much potential. We're greater than what -- than what's being shown.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to better this country. I believe we can be a lot better than we are right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: My thanks to those kids for sitting down with me. You're going to hear more in our 5:00 hour here on CNN. But let's listen in to another one of Baltimore's youth. This young girl speaking at this rally.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need more mentorship programs in our communities. These children are crying. If you care about Baltimore, CNN, and all these people out here with money, if you care about this community, do something about it. Something positive. Don't talk about us. Don't call our children thugs. Don't call them animals. You brought us over here on those ships. You --

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TANARA COLLINS, DEMONSTRATOR: It's not just a Baltimore problem. It's not just a national problem. It's all of the world. There's a authority problem. People think because they have authority that they have all this power to lord over people. And that's not right. We elected officials to take care of us. And some of them are not doing their job. Shout out to Marilyn Mosby. But there are others that we have elected into office and they're not doing their jobs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tell them your name one more time.

COLLINS: I'm Tanara Collins. Remember my face because I will do something in our community.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come on. We got another youth. We got another youth.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello. My name is (INAUDIBLE) and I live in Baltimore city. I want to let everyone know that we are not thugs. We just want to be heard. We have schools that don't have enough funding. We have hardly any rec centers open. Where is the money going? These kids like youth program. These kids want (INAUDIBLE). We have nowhere to go. So we are not thugs.

Some of us are actually doing really, really great things. Some of us are trying to start our own Web site. No one even wants to hear what we have to say. So like this is something I'm going to remember for the rest of my life. Seeing people from, you know, all different neighborhoods in Baltimore, people from all over the country. There was a brother up here from Dayton, Ohio. People from all over the world. This is not just a Baltimore problem. This is a national problem. This is a world problem.

Again for those of you who did not hear me the first time, we are not thugs. We want to be heard. And right now, I'm standing up here to be heard. And I'm standing up here on behalf of all the young people of Baltimore and nationally the black young people. We want to be heard.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Unfortunately, we don't have enough time for all of the youth to stand out here. But what I want to do is again, guys, listen, if you are a youth in this audience, won't you made your voice be heard right now. Thank you. Listen for the male youth. I'm sorry, guys. One more time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd first like to stand and give honor to God for bringing everyone here today. I need peace. I need peace. I need peace. I need y'all quiet. I need peace. We're making history right now. This has to be done the right way. The arguing, the fighting that's not going to change anything. We have to do it the right way. No justice, no peace! OK.

Everything that's going on is not right. It's not right. But it's all for a good purpose. We're here for these mothers of these sons who are brutally murdered by Baltimore city police department. And they have not (INAUDIBLE). But cry as if it was you. As if it was someone in your home. These people are here today for their families and you are acting like fools. We need to get it right. Get it correct. If you want to see change, do it the right way. I sit in the schools. I sit with the teachers. I work for meet me halfway men's run program. It's messed up. The city needs to fix it.

I'm in the Baltimore Sun today. Take me out. Take my name off. That's not who I am. If you can post a picture of me just holding a sign, ask me why I'm hurt. Ask me why I'm yelling. They don't print that in the paper. But they'll say I'm holding a sign. It's more than a sign. It's more than us out here. This has to stop. No justice, no peace.

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello. My name is Nathaniel. I'm 25 years old. I've been a resident Baltimore city the whole 25 years here. First of all, I want to say I applaud the people, we came together, we stayed together and we brought our city back.

Contrary to believe, our youths are not thugs and vandals. But today, they gave us a treat like they always do. And we've been served an injustice. We must spit back in our face. Any time a child who bust a window out of a police car, his bail was $500,000. $500,000 and then men took that boy Freddie Gray and they bailed him with $350,000. We cannot allow them to tear democracy up in our face while we pay for it. While we pay for it.

HARLOW: If you're just joining us, it is 4:00 eastern. I'm joining you live from Baltimore. I am at city hall where thousands of people have gathered for a very peaceful rally. You heard a number of different people speaking, community leaders, members of the community, religious leaders joining us. Let's listen for minutes to hear what they are saying as you look at these aerial shots of the gathering here at city hall.