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Baltimore Police News Conference Underway; Hundreds of People Rally at City Hall; Faith Leaders: Time to Heal America's Racial Divide; Hall Rally Seeks To Heal City After Riots; "Lord of the Flies" Comes To Baltimore; Criticism For Prosecutor in Freddie Gray Case. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired May 03, 2015 - 17:00   ET

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

[16:59:52] CAPTAIN J. ERIC KOWALCZYK, SPOKESMAN, BALTIMORE POLICE: We talked about the importance of this Police Department working with the community to try address violence and try to fight violent crime, that our relationship with the community was fundamental to helping to create a safer Baltimore. Our efforts to continue those community outreach, continue that community outreach effort, the investigations that go on, our patrol officers that are on the street working every day to keep Baltimore safer, those continue and will continue as the days come on

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you give the total number of arrests for curfew violations over the length of the curfew?

KOWALCZYK: I can get that for you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anything that's done (INAUDIBLE) I noticed the different checkpoints, people yelling, screaming, stuff like that, do you have additional resources come in like chap lips or counselors, working on the stress level?

KOWALCZYK: Yes. So, very early on our EODS (ph), equal opportunity section in conjunction with the chief, of our community partnership division, worked together to make sure that our officers were being taken care of. Clearly, that's a concern. So we have been working the last several days to ensure that we have counselors and pastors for officers to talk to so that they are able to express any emotions that they are having or concerns that they have. Obviously, that's something that is very important and we want to make sure that our officers are taken care of.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Critics are saying that police are treating protesters in white neighborhoods different than black neighborhood, is there any disparity there -- (INAUDIBLE).

KOWALCZYK: I think what you have seen with our deployments is that, we and we've said this from the beginning, where we have the largest amounts of people, women ship the largest amount of resource, and so as we are doing enforcement activity, when we're doing curfew enforcement, we're going to target on obviously the largest gatherings of people first and then shift resources to address smaller and smaller groups. And that's been the basis of how curfew enforcement is done. Last night we knew of several gatherings, we were shifting resources to address those gatherings, and that's how that enforcement activity was handled. Give me one second, I will go right here and come right back to you.

(INAUDIBLE QUESTIONS)

KOWALCZYK: You know, we have operating under the incident command model so as part of that, there is a finance section. They have been working very hard to sort of track everything, working in conjunction with our state and local partners and that's something that will continue to be done as we move through this deployment. Yes, ma'am.

(INAUDIBLE QUESTIONS)

KOWALCZYK: So what we don't do is discussion operational procedures, how we deploy officers, how we deploy our resources. We made that very clear from the beginning, as we move into the coming days, we will address hour by hour, situation by situation, how we are deploying officers when we are able to start to scale back deployments, but again, that's something that we said from the beginning that we are not going to discuss until we are through this situation.

(INAUDIBLE QUESTIONS)

KOWALCZYK: You know, I don't want to speculate about why the number is what it is. The fact is that's the number. We have to move to address it. We are doing that. We have investigators that are working very hard to find suspects in these case and we are going to work to make sure that we can do everything that we can to stop the violence that's got to be our concern, is working with neighborhoods, working with partners to make sure that we are addressing violence where it is and that we are working to find the people that are responsible and make sure that we are able to take them into custody. Someone over here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have any trying others thresholds that would cause the curfew to be reinstated?

KOWALCZYK: I don't want to speculate about that. Right now, our concentration has been on the fact that over the weekend, we have seen peace. The decision was made to lift the curfew today. Our focus is on asking people to continue to be peaceful, that as gatherings there is a gathering right up the street from where we are right now, that those gatherings remain peaceful so that we can continue as the police commissioner said yesterday, those steps towards normalcy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was that the mayor's decision?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's the morale?

KOWALCZYK: You know, we have officers and we have gotten this question every day. We have officers that are working really, really long hours that are away from their families that have gone through some very trying and challenging circumstances. And I know that we are incredibly proud of the work that they are doing. They are incredibly proud of the work that they are doing and of each other. We talked about the fact that we had officers that were injured, that didn't want to go to the hospital, they wanted to stand on the line with their brothers and sisters in law enforcement to work to keep the city safe. Our constitutional and moral obligation is to work to keep the city of Baltimore safe and that's what they are doing right now, and they're doing an incredible job of it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the curfew, was that the mayor's decision and more importantly, decision that the Police Department stands by?

KOWALCZYK: You know, yesterday, you heard the police commissioner with General Singh and Colonel Pallozzi from the State Police talk about the group that comes together to evaluate these things and I think that those questions would best be answered by the mayor's office, that's a policy groups decision that's made. So, I don't want to speak for them. Anybody else?

(INAUDIBLE QUESTION)

[17:05:17] KOWALCZYK: I think that what we are focused on is peace, that we've had peace at these rallies, that we had peace through the weekends and that's going to be our continued ask, both on social media and in person that we could see those peaceful expressions. Thank you all very much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Again that was Captain Eric Kowalczyk. That's Eric with the c, Kowalczyk.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: All right. You've just been watching a live press conference from Baltimore police, spokesperson and Captain Eric Kowalczyk, a talking about a number of things in this city saying there at the end that the constitutional and moral obligation of this police force is to keep the city safe and he said, we are doing that and he says, they are doing an exceptional job at doing that. In terms of the deployment of police officers across this city, he said they will, even though the curfew has been lifted, they will continue to deploy police officers in areas where there has been previous violence, in areas where their intelligence tells them there maybe gatherings that could turn violent. And he also emphasized Baltimore can continue to come together, that is our focus right now, they are shifting resources where they are needed, this, as we know, those 4,000 members of the National Guard of the next 72 hours will be pulled away outside of this city as it tries to return to normal.

I'm Poppy Harlow joining you live this afternoon from Baltimore. Let's bring in my panel to talk about the press conference that we just heard.

With me, Danny Cevallos, CNN legal analyst. Tom Fuentes, former FBI assistant director. And Neil Franklin who formerly severed on the Baltimore Police Department. And I need to mention for our viewers, you were let go from the department in 2004, you have a lot of perspective from being a former officer. Thank you all for being here.

Let me begin with you, Neil. What do you make of what we're hearing today in the tone from the Baltimore police? NEIL FRANKLIN, FORMER MARYLAND STATE POLICE OFFICER: Right. I think

you see a different atmosphere here now, fortunately for the city the protests have been extremely calm and how they should be. Monday obviously was a different story and those people will be located, who committed the violence, destroying property, they will be located and of course, prosecuted. But I think it's the right thing to do, to begin to roll back the resources and let the city get back to a place of normal city, in a sense. Yes.

HARLOW: How, Tom Fuentes, as a former police officer, before you were with the FBI, how do you get back to that sense of normalcy, it's certainly not normal to see the National Guard on the streets here, it's surprising to everyone, but as they pulled back and as the cops get back on the beat, what is, how do you get to normal?

TOM FUENTES, FORMER FBI ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Well, Poppy, in one sense, you want to get back to what's considered normal that just means not having 5,000 police and soldiers on the streets of Baltimore. And in another sense, you don't really want to go back to normal because normal meant, you know, difficult relationships with the police.

HARLOW: Very good point.

FUENTES: Gang violence, murders on the street, averaging five, six per week. So, you really, you want a new normal that's better.

HARLOW: That's great, very important point. Danny, to you, legally, when you look at prosecuting, you have got to look these six officers who will have been charged and we'll see what happens from there. On the other side, you had the mayor also talking this morning as the police captain just did there about holding those responsible who were responsible for the violence and the looting that claimed 200 businesses in this city. How far do you think it is to fully prosecute those individuals as well to send a message?

DANNY CEVALLOS, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, there many messages that need to be sent by prosecuting people who took these -- took their protesting too far and violated the law because what it does it creates a chilling effect on those who would come out and protest lawfully and exercise their First Amendment, their rights in the spirit in which they were intended. And that's the problem. When you have a small minority that create trouble and break the law, it becomes very difficult for law enforcement to separate, even though constitutionally in theory, they should be able to separate or they're required to, practically, it's very difficult to parse out who is lawfully exercising their constitutional rights to assemble and to protest and those who are simply breaking the law.

HARLOW: Neil, can you take me back to what it was like for you as a police officer, here, you know, pre-2004, because when you look at the numbers and Governor O'Malley at the time instituting this real crackdown, this zero tolerance policy here, and you saw some stunning things, you saw one-sixth of the population of Baltimore in 2005 arrested. What was it like back then and has it changed? FRANKLIN: Well, what's interesting, when I was here as the head of

training from 2000 to 2004, we were really focus old community policing. We had instituted some really good programs. We had new trainees coming into the department who were going up to Catholic charities and feeding the homeless, putting on aprons, feeding the homeless, we had them interacting with young boys at risk at the O'Farrell Youth Center, these were boys who were incarcerated and we put them there for a week doing workshops and some relationships that were developed there between these young boys and police even exist today. And so, we were focused on community policing but then, it seemed to shift when he brought --

HARLOW: A lack of funding?

[17:10:27] FRANKLIN: Well, I think it was the commissioner that he brought in after Ed Norris. Now, Ed Norris, when he was a commissioner, he did focus, you know, on those hotspots and he was more focused on targeting hotspots and trends and but when we ended up with the commissioner after that, that's when it kind of went to zero tolerance policing, when he formed the organized crime division. He took one-tenth of the department and put into that division to focus on low-level drug dealing and that's where, a year later, we ended up with those 2005 numbers of 108,000 people arrested. So we took, we made a little shift there. And that's not what we initially headed.

HARLOW: Now a big shift clearly has to happen. Gentlemen, thank you very much. Stand by, be with me as we cover this live for the next three hours for you and on this evening here in Baltimore.

Thanks again for being with me. I'm Poppy Harlow joining you live from Baltimore this afternoon as people in this city finally exhaled a bit today when Baltimore's leaders took a giant step towards returning to normal, but also, a new normal, a new normal that is needed in this city as it begins to heal, the overnight curfew has now been lifted. The big question is this, what will that new normal look like? What will be different in Baltimore after this? At points violent, divisive and destructive week.

People and a lot of them, plenty of people, saying the way things were before Freddie Gray died is not acceptable and also saying that the uprisings were needed to cause change, to get people to pay attention. Right now, all around me, all around me, you see hundreds of people gathered here at City Hall for the second straight day, this a rally for change, a rally for justice, a rally for action. A short time ago, Baltimore's mayor and Maryland's governor laid out what is happening as we speak to help this city move forward.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR STEPHANIE RAWLINGS-BLAKE, BALTIMORE: That we want to heal our city, we know we have challenges in Baltimore. We know that there's work to be done, but what you saw in these last few days with the peaceful demonstrations and people coming together to celebrate Baltimore is that that will that we will get better, that we will get through this and we will do it as one Baltimore. GOV. LARRY HOGAN, MARYLAND: Where we have already started withdrawal

of the guard, the trucks are pulling out this morning, it's going to take a little bit of a while. We brought in 4,000 people this week to keep the city safe. We brought in 1,000 extra police officers 3,000 members of the guard and 3,000 volunteers to help clean things up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right. Let's get out into the crowd, among the people of Baltimore who have gathered here at City Hall and across the city this afternoon. Nick Valencia is with them, Athena Jones is also with us. She is joining us from a place that was really the flashpoint of this past week of trouble, the shopping mall that was shut down amidst this curfew, reopened today, a lot of people that work there and depend on it for their livelihood very happy about that. We will get to Athena in just a moment. But Nick, what have you seen this afternoon?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well certainly, a much different tone from the rally we saw here happen at this very place yesterday. This was all about faith, a lot about unity and bringing people together who may not normally spend a Sunday afternoon together in Baltimore. We heard a lot from people saying, yes, they want things back to normal but others say, you know, listen, Baltimore is never going to be the same. This incident, Freddie Gray's death and the demonstrations that followed, that flash point you were talking about, criminal activity on Monday really, you know, upset a lot of people that we have spoken to and we want to introduce somebody here who was at the rally. Joseph, you originally from New York but you've call Baltimore home the past 15 years --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. That is correct.

VALENCIA: What do you think of what's happened in your new home now over the course of the last week?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, for one, it's a shame. Definitely, a shame. And it's nothing new.

VALENCIA: What do you mean by that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I talk about Freddie Gray's death, you know, when people talk about his death, I think about all the death by the criminal justice system, all the death by the police that's not on film, that's not on camera, that hasn't been put in the news.

VALENCIA: Those families who aren't getting the attention so to speak that an Eric Garner, Mike Brown, or in this case, a Freddie Gray, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And there is a case that has touched my heart more than any case, the young man in Ohio in the Walmart, minding his own business, on a cell phone, he picked up a BB gun, a rifle BB gun in Walmart and it's on video and the police came and just gunned him down.

VALENCIA: A story we also covered on CNN. We spent a lot of time here in this community.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

VALENCIA: You know, people were talking to me yesterday, I have heard young men saying that they were disgusted to see this burned out CVS.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right. Right.

VALENCIA: I mean this is a community. You have been, I'm assuming, through West Baltimore before?

[17:15:09] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I live in West Baltimore, my church is about seven blocks from CVS on 1901 Madison Avenue. 1901 Roberts Street between Robert and I believe it's Madison. And we were just out there yesterday. Church was out there. Big red truck, response, so, yes, we care about this community. We care about the people of Baltimore. And we praying, you know? We have been out there praying and, you know, it's -- it's sad. It is really a shame.

VALENCIA: We appreciate you taking the time with CNN. We hope that this rally here made a difference for you and for others.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It did. It really did. It was a blessing. The rally was a blessing.

VALENCIA: You can tell that a lot of people were impacted by the message here today, Poppy, certainly a different tone from what we've saw here yesterday and a lot of people hope that that tone goes forward -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes, it's really nice to see, Nick, I know they have been calling this one Baltimore, the mayor's been calling for and a lot of people talking about that here today. Nick, thanks so much for bringing us the story and the feeling from the people out there. I appreciate it.

I do want to get to Athena Jones. Athena, you are joining us from the mall that was shut down. You know, one of the kids I talked to in Baltimore this week told me, well, I'm not making any money because I can't go to my job at the mall. It really affected people's livelihoods after it was looted and now it's back.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Poppy. You know, this mall wasn't just looted, but that's not the only reason why this is an important symbol in terms of getting back to that sense of normalcy you've been talking about. You see this whole area around the mall, this is where it all began last Monday afternoon. This is where all the unrest began and the confrontations with police. We were here. It was after the police moved on to another section of town that the mall itself was looted. So, now the mall has been reopened. The mayor was here earlier today, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and she said that she was pleased to see it bounce back to see it bounce become so quickly has given her a sense of optimism. So there is some optimism, but we were inside that mall, Poppy, and there is also anger, it is getting back to normal but we saw clear signs of damage. Store windows that were broken that are now boarded up. There was a

jewelry store where all of the display cases had been destroyed. That store was not reopened. We also talked to a store owner who was looting. He said that he watched a live feed of the camera in his store, around 7 p.m. last Monday, watching people come in and clear out his store of clothing, the clothing racks, clear out his store, as some high-end accessories like sunglasses by Gucci and brands like that. He says he suffered at least $100,000 in losses in merchandise alone. And he has been spending three days just to clean up, get restocked and reopened. So, there's some hope here but there's still going to be the aftermath people are dealing with here -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes. And you got to remember, as the governor said at the end of this morning, 200 businesses destroyed because of that violence. Most of them minority-owned. Most of them without insurance. Athena Jones, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Coming up next, we are going to talk about, it is Sunday, and the religious leaders here, many of them who went and led services this morning, what are they doing to help this city heal? We will have that for you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:21:22] HARLOW: All right. You're looking at live pictures of City Hall, clearing out after a big gathering again this afternoon, deemed by many one Baltimore a very peaceful gathering, many religious leaders here talking about how this city, the city of Baltimore can move forward and heal and become a better place for everyone who calls this home. On this Sunday, nearly a week after the violence that struck the city of Baltimore, the city is certainly doing some soul searching. A gathering for a rally of peace outside, as I said, right outside of here at City Hall. Also this morning, Maryland's Governor Larry Hogan, in attendance. The Catholic Archbishop William Lori addressed the protests in his sermon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARCHBISHOP WILLIAM LORI, THE ARCHDIOCESE OF BALTIMORE: We must acknowledge the right of people who see no way out, to make their voices heard and to lift up their frustration and anger publicly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: And the conversations here are shifting as well to the root cause of what happened in recent days. The key question, how do we prevent it from happening again?

I'm joined by Bishop Harry Jackson, pastor of Baltimore's Hope Christian Church. He is also a leader of The Reconciled Church. It is a multiracial, multi-dimension initiative created, created to help heal racial tension. Bishop, thank you so much for being with me.

BISHOP HARRY JACKSON, SENIOR PASTOR, HOPE CHRISTIAN CHURCH: Good to see you, Poppy. HARLOW: I appreciate it. We were just talking in the break, and you

know, you have said that what this movement needs, quote, I'm going to read it here, "Is to own the fact that the church has been separated due to our racism, class, orientation and denomination." Expand on that.

JACKSON: Well, the church hasn't functioned as a unit. In this situation, this is not a black problem it is a black, white, brown, it is a church problem.

HARLOW: An American problem.

JACKSON: An American problem. So, it is going to take call of America to make a difference. So, we have got to come together and begin to build bridges to peace. Our initiative has come up with seven unique bridges, but two of them that are very important are education and also the criminal justice reform.

HARLOW: Tell me about this. You have got a funnel here in, and I asked him, I said, what is this?

JACKSON: Well, it is very simple. What you see, the violence on the street, is really this end of the funnel, small number of people, horrific that people died, the trauma that happens, but the bigger question, the bigger end of the funnel, is in our prison system, you got 2.3 to 2.4 million Americans, 65 million Americans have criminal records. Of the people in prison, 61 percent are black and brown. If we don't fix why people enter the system, move through the system and then there's tension in the community, we will be back here over and over again and we all solve the problem.

HARLOW: And it's interesting because when you bring up, but look, it's an issue that Hillary Clinton, presidential candidate talked about this week at Columbia University, but it's not, and Rand Paul, I was just going to stay, is not political. You ask republicans, ask you independents, libertarians, democrats, they all agree there needs to be reform. I just wonder if you're hopeful that there will be.

JACKSON: I think there will be. Our group is going to be lobbying on the hill. Imagine though, some of the brightest, well-known leader, black, white, brown, Asian, coming together going to the hill, dealing with Department of Justice, dealing with senators and congressmen, then disseminating to our congressmen six questions to ask every politician running about criminal justice reform and then we have got six open laws that need to be adjusted.

HARLOW: I think there should be a debate just on that.

JACKSON: Well, I think there should be, just on that. It would take things to another level and then, the churches have got to reach out and be halfway housed helpers, help people return, minister to their families from prison so we don't have this cycle of confusion.

HARLOW: You know what's interesting is I think some people anecdotally, I don't have the numbers to back this up, but I have heard from a lot of young people, millennials, they've sort of backed away of it, some from traditional religion, religion as we know it but all of them are in search of something. How do we bring them back in, even if -- even if they don't identify as Christian or Jewish or Muslim, how do you bring them in?

JACKSON: I think we are talking about love expressed in the community. We're going to start with the church leading the way, but I think millennials especially, if we were helping people come back home, if we are helping them get jobs being restrained, I think they would like that idea that every individual has human dignity and they deserve a second chance at life.

HARLOW: And every life is of equal value?

JACKSON: Exactly right. I think that's the heart of the Christian message, that's the heart of the American ethos. It is really what we believe in corporately, even if you don't go to church. I think that's America.

HARLOW: Nice to have you on the program.

[17:26:10] JACKSON: Poppy, thank you for having me.

HARLOW: Good to have you with me.

Well, hundreds gathered today in Baltimore and the man who set up today's day of healing joins me right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:30:13] HARLOW: Welcome back to CNN's expanded coverage live from Baltimore, I'm joining you live from City Hall. Here are the latest developments, a large rally right outside of City Hall is indeed wrapping up this afternoon, the event's purpose is to promote healing and try to bring a sense of closure after days of unrest in some violence. In just a moment, I will speak with the religious leader who organized today's event. The city wide curfew has now been lifted, that was announced just a few hours ago and that means that people will not be arrested for being on the street after 10 p.m. The National Guards, 4,000 National Guard members that are in the city right now will be withdrawn over the next 72 hours, even as Baltimore tries to heal, the city will bear the scars for some time. The governor saying today, 200 businesses, most of them minority owned, were lost to those riots and looters. Many of them completely uninsured.

Jamal Bryant is pastor of the Empowerment Temple AME Church in Baltimore and the organize of today's rally. He joins me live here. Thank you for being here, sir, I appreciate it.

PASTOR JAMAL BRYANT, EMPOWERMENT TEMPLE AME CHURCH: It's an honor to be here. Thank you.

HARLOW: What was your goal today and what does it make you feel to have all these people here?

BRYANT: It's overwhelming, just a few days ago this Minister Carlos Muhammad from the Nation of Islam, earlier in the week, we were able to bridge a peace treaty but amongst the gangs so they would do a stop by and assist us in stopping the uprising. And it dawned on me, if gangs can come together, how come people of different faiths couldn't come together?

HARLOW: Amen to that.

BRYANT: Yes. So Minister Carlos and I have joined forces for the Christian body and the Muslim community to be able to come together and try to push back and so today, we have Buddhists, we have Catholics, we have Jews, all coming together fighting for one Baltimore to come together.

HARLOW: You know, it is interesting, when you look at this city, some of the youth told me this week, it's not about race.

BRYANT: Yes.

HARLOW: You know, you have got a majority black leadership here, you have got a majority black police force, you have a majority black city. It is about something more than race, some have said it is about class, economic opportunity. How do you bridge that?

BRYANT: I think it's both, but not in the way that America interprets it. It's about race, but it's not necessarily white against black. We are dealing with a super structure system that has, in fact, been designed to suppress African-Americans. But governor who you just quoted talking about the loss of minority businesses has not done anything to fund minority schools or to give money for small businesses.

HARLOW: So, if you were sitting with the Governor Larry Hogan, right now, what specific policy changes would you ask for?

BRYANT: It's amazing. The interfaith community ask for three things on today, one, of all different faiths, we're all waking up at 6 a.m. for prayer. The second thing is we are asking for the governor to call for an emergency session of the assembly because we asked for 17 amendments to the office's bill of rights.

HARLOW: Okay.

BRYANT: As a consequence, what happened last week would not have happened because those officers were given ten days before they are compelled to give testimony and even after testimony, it's not necessarily admissible to court.

HARLOW: You bring up this issue and it's so important and that is economic opportunity and the ability to rise up.

BRYANT: Yes.

HARLOW: And to do better than your parents did and you have said African-Americans in this community have not had that shot. So I'm wondering specifically what could be done on that front. BRYANT: Well, there has to be an intentionality on how much

minorities are getting contracts for development, how it is that four season, Exelon, Under Armour can go ten years with a tax abatement but small minority businesses, the average one doesn't survive over the first year because they are not given the right kind of support. And so if we are equitable, the same thing you give the major corporations, if we are 76 percent of the population, we ought to be generating some wealth and we are not given that access.

HARLOW: You want to see quotas in terms of how many minorities, you're getting applause here, how many minorities have to be hired by certain businesses?

BRYANT: Well, I think there ought to be some prerequisite, how do you come to the city but there is no covenant made for what you do beyond the Inner Harbor. Most of you in the press have not gone past the splash of the Inner Harbor.

HARLOW: I will tell you, I have and all my colleagues have.

BRYANT: Yes, thank you.

HARLOW: I was in Northern Penn last night.

BRYANT: I appreciate it.

HARLOW: So, we have been there.

BRYANT: Thank you. Now, if you can get the governor to come to North and Penn, that would be a whole lot better. We're glad reporters are there but the governor of the state has not walked that street.

HARLOW: Why don't you invite them, we will bring our cameras.

BRYANT: You heard it right here on CNN. You are getting ready to be the number one journalist, if you can get the governor to walk through Sandtown and see if he could see this, 16,000 abandoned properties in this city with absolutely no plan. So, you can't just blame the mayor when HUD should be here. The President should have been here, Loretta Lynch needs to come here. We are, in fact, the prototype of what needs to happen for the criminal justice system in America.

HARLOW: Thank you for coming to talk to me, sir. We appreciate it.

BRYANT: Thank you so much.

HARLOW: Let me know if that meeting happens. We'll be there.

BRYANT: I'm going to call you collect. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

[17:35:14] HARLOW: Coming up next here on our special live coverage from Baltimore, I'm going to be joined by one of my colleagues at CNN who has written just a fascinating personal opinion piece about why these neighborhoods, including the neighborhood in West Baltimore where he grew up need older men as examples for their youth. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:39:01] HARLOW: Welcome back to our continuing live coverage from Baltimore. Now we will going to talk about this, "The Lord of the Flies" comes to Baltimore. Those words are the words of my colleague, CNN writer and Producer John Blake who returned to the Baltimore neighborhood where he grew up. He is stunned, he is shocked, he is dismayed, the older black men, he says, are, in large part, gone. He compared his West Baltimore neighborhood to the iconic novel, "Lord of the Flies," which depicts a group of school boys on a plane that crash lands on a desert island. All the adults are killed. The school boys descend into savagery.

John Blake joins me now along with him a man we have had on our air this weekend, a war veteran Robert Valentine, a resident of Baltimore who has mediated between a protesters and the police. Someone who represents, I believe, John Blake, what you want to see more of in these neighborhoods. I want to read this quote from your piece that really stood out to me, you said, "What's left are the boys trying to figure out how to be men and to avoid getting big numbers or ending up in pine boxes." What are those big numbers? What are those pine boxes?

JOHN BLAKE, CNN ENTREPRISE WRITER/PRODUCER: The big numbers are the long prison sentences, often from non-felony drug offenses and a pine boxes are people who were killed early. So, when I went into these neighborhoods, unlike now, when you see a lot of men and gentlemen like Robert, I saw men, I saw young boys, women and children. And I said in this story, if you want to break the people, first you killed their men, you destroy their men. And that's what I saw when I returned to the neighborhood.

HARLOW: You said where are the examples?

BLAKE: Yes. Yes. I opened the story with a gentleman named Mr. Shields, he was a working class man who worked at a steel plant in the Inner Harbor and we will see him on the porch at night and he was like a source of strength and comfort. And we will see men like that throughout our neighborhood, coachers, mentors, teachers, who encourage us, they are not there anymore.

HARLOW: Well, Robert, you read the article, and you are one of those older black men, veteran, someone who served this nation, someone who helped try to calm things between the protesters and the police earlier this week. Are there not enough people like you to help lead the youth?

ROBERT VALENTINE, VIETNAM WAR VETERAN: There are, but they don't want to come out yet. I challenge them to come out. They don't need to be sitting at home looking at it on TV. That they give a darn about their community, get out, get busy, support and teach these younglings to respect from where they came. There are charm city, there are charm people. We rise from the ashes. Now is the time for them to come together and be the example. Let's see, our time is over, we're on tick tock time. It's time to pass it on to the next generation, themselves to be better that us, to pass it to a generation out there, to be better than them, and that's when I put my challenge out. Get off your butts, come out here, find your children, take them home, give them the history of what we are here in charm city.

HARLOW: It is interesting, John, you wrote about how one of the iconic images of this week has been that mother --

BLAKE: Right.

HARLOW: -- who came out and hit her son around when he was out protesting. Some people said good for her, some people said that is not, violence is not how you begets, you know, violence begets more violence that is not the lesson. But you have said that is iconic, because it begs a question, where are the dads?

BLAKE: Yes. It's the first thought I had. I mean, I've seen that youth. At a certain point, I think young men start to tune out women, particularly when they become teenagers and you need men at a certain point, women do heroic job. I mean, I'm not putting down this woman, but I think at a certain point, men start to listen to other men and that's what I wondered.

HARLOW: Robert, for you, I wonder what you think could provoke the most change. How do you get the older men the example certificates that are in these neighborhoods out and working with these children?

VALENTINE: I challenge them. If they are a man, stand up and be proud of who you are and pass it on to the generation behind. Don't just sit on your butt and let your life go. You got a whole lot to do still. Giving back to the community so they have something to live for and look up and respect. We, as black men especially, we got bad mark. Seen, I'm not black, I'm not red, white, yellow, green --

HARLOW: I'm an American.

VALENTINE: I'm just American.

HARLOW: Before I let you go, very quickly, John, I just want to ask for you personally what it was like to come back here on an assignment, CNN had you come back home, West Baltimore, what was it like for you to see what happened?

BLAKE: It was very bittersweet, it's always good to see home but it's not good to see home looking like this. And I feel like that there are kids like I was, like maybe someone 16 and 15 and I wonder if they can make a journey I made now.

HARLOW: Yes.

BLAKE: Can they be here? And I have a lot of doubts about that and that's very sad.

HARLOW: Let's hope that those doubts turn into hope. John, thank you so much. BLAKE: Thank you.

HARLOW: Fascinating, fascinating opinion piece on CNN.com. Robert, good to have you on, sir, thanks for your service. We appreciate it very much.

VALENTINE: You bet.

HARLOW: Well, coming up next, my next guest calls the six officers charged with the death of Freddie Gray political prisoners. We are going to talk to the sheriff of Milwaukee, next.

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[17:47:12] HARLOW: You're taking a look at Baltimore's City Hall where the crowds have cleared out after big gathering deemed one Baltimore today lead by religious leaders from across this community.

I'm Poppy Harlow joining you live from Baltimore for a continuing coverage of this story. Thank you so much for being with me. Now we are going to discuss this, the reaction to prosecutor, State Attorney Marilyn Mosby's action in charging those six Baltimore police officers in the death of Freddie Gray has largely been positive, some say it's swift, decisive, professional, but not everyone agrees with that at all.

Let me bring in one of those people, Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke. Sheriff, thank you for being with me, sir, I appreciate it.

SHERIFF DAVID CLARKE, MILWAUKEE COUNTY, WISCONSIN: Thank you, Poppy, it's good to be on with you.

HARLOW: So, you have called the six arrested Baltimore police officers, quote, "political prisoners." Why is that?

CLARKE: Well, let's impact this for a little bit. Alan Dershowitz, the famed legal scholar, smarter guy in the law than I am, he said that there was no substantiation for a murder charge here. He said this determination was made for mob control and when I listen to this news conference of Ms. Mosby, I don't know what she has in the case here, maybe she can prove this beyond a reasonable doubt, I highly doubt it. But she took this thing down a political rabbit hole, when she started using phrases like no justice, no peace, young people, I hear your voices, your time is now. Inappropriate for a charging conference. She is supposed to tune that stuff out, not listen to any of that, read through the reports, sift through the evidence and make a determination based on the rule of law and something that's consistent with our system of justice here in the United States. She went down that political rabbit hole, I had made the comment and I stand by it that these officers are nothing more than political prisoners. They were offered up as a human sacrifice to quell an angry mob.

HARLOW: So, look, you have folks on your side that agree with you, that that being the police union that represents these officers, saying that there should be a special prosecutor, that she can't be independent because they say her husband is, you know, a member of the city council here and this can get political. I do want you to listen to this though, my colleague, Don Lemon, sat down with the prosecutor, Marilyn Mosby, he asked her about her law enforcement family because her father, her mother, and her grandfather were all police officers. Here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARILYN MOSBY, BALTIMORE CITY STATE'S ATTORNEY: Well, I think it gives me a well-rounded perspective, you know, I come from five generation of police officers, so law enforcement is instilled. 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 in 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 hardworking police officers. And so for me, it's about applying justice fairly and equality to those with or without a badge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Sheriff, your reaction to that?

CLARKE: Well, I don't believe that for one bit. First of all, I don't care that her family members, some of her family members are police officers. That means nothing to this case and that means nothing to her decision. That is well she should tune out. We will see. I believe in our system of justice. She has the right to bring criminal charges but now she's going to have to prove this beyond a reasonable doubt. Murder is a very high standard in this country. So we'll see as time goes on. I trust our system. And it's a process now. And the process moves slow. It does not move swiftly in the United States. And I'm glad that it doesn't because when you move too fast, you can make mistakes.

HARLOW: Sheriff, quickly before I let you go, can the relationship between many in this community and many of the police in this community be healed? Can it come together? From your perspective as a sheriff?

CLARKE: Well, first of all, it's a myth that it doesn't. The black community relies on the police officers. The black community has a great relationship with the officers that serve their community. The race baiters, the cop haters, the criminals do not have a good relationship with the American police officer. And they never will. So we're not worried about them.

HARLOW: Sheriff Clarke, I wish I had a whole lot more time with you to discuss. I have to go. But I will invite you to come back on with me next weekend and talk about this, sir. Thanks for being with any.

CLARKE: Any time, Poppy.

HARLOW: We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:55:32] HARLOW: Much more from Baltimore still ahead, but we want to tell you about some of the other huge developing stories around the world. First, a tense situation unfolding in Tel Aviv. A peaceful protest there has turned violent. The unrest grew out of a video showing an Israeli police officer striking an Ethiopian-Israeli soldier. More than 25 protesters were told have been arrested. At least 23 police officers have been injured. We will have a live report from Tel Aviv coming up for you in the next hour.

Also this. Disturbing reports out of Iraq that hundreds of members of a religious minority have been massacred. They are from the group of Yazidis. That is what an Iraqi lawmaker says that at least 200 Yazidis were killed right near Mosul. A political party affiliated with the Yazidis says that number of dead is actually closer to 300. ISIS fighters are suspected of carrying out the atrocity.

And in Nepal, survivors continue to emerge from beneath the rubble one week after a powerful earthquake devastated parts of that country. Rescuers are astounded that a 101-year-old man was pulled out alive on Saturday. A hundred and one years old alive a week after that earthquake struck. So far, the death toll in Nepal now stands at 7,250. More than 14,000 people have been injured. We're going to take a quick break. More special coverage live from Baltimore when we return.

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