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America's Cops: In the Line of Duty; Officers Charged; U.S. Election 2016; Pacquiao's Shoulder Scandal; Should Boston Bomber Die? Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired May 05, 2015 - 15:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: America's police officers have been front and center in recent days, really recent weeks and months, their roles, their responsibilities, the burdens they carry to protect all of us.

They have also come in for criticism, as we all know. But here in New York, officer Brian Moore reminds of their sacrifices, 25 years old. He died Monday, two days after he was shot in the face at close range. He and his partner had tried to question a man suspected of carrying a handgun. We know he died surrounded by family. His father, an uncle and a cousin are all police officers as well.

[15:30:08] Police union chief Patrick Lynch said New York's police will mourn and then go back to work. I have to read this quote for you.

He said this: "When we're done here, when we square our shoulders and wipe our tears for Brian and his family, those same police officers are going to turn around and they're going to staff radio cars and foot posts... They may have sadness in their eyes, they have bravery in their hearts."

I have Congressman Gregory Meeks with me. He represents this part of Queens where Officer Moore was shot.

Congressman, I hate -- actually -- the circumstances upon which you're here but thank you so much for taking the time. I know that you have not been in touch with Officer Moore's family directly yet. You are going to the funeral on Friday. Tell me what you're hearing from just the community.

REP. GREGORY MEEKS, (D) NEW YORK: Well, what a terrible, terrible, terrible tragedy. And everyone in the community just feels terrible about the shooting and the officer who died. 25 years old whose whole life was about being a police officer following his parents and his grandfather, et cetera. It's a whole tradition. And so the neighborhood is in shock. The individuals around the block is in shock at what took place and all are giving their condolences and sympathies to the officer and his family. When we talk about lives and I think that the motto is "All lives matter", and indeed, this police officer's life matters. BALDWIN: A different parent lost a son. A New York police officer was killed in 2007 and wrote this in the New York Daily News today, quote, "It's so painful, even for me right now, it's painful. I know what they're going through and it's so hard. It's indescribable really. When you come home and you see an empty house and you know it's going to be like that forever, it's not easy."

How do we better protect the officers who protect us every day?

MEEKS: One of the things that I think that is important that we have this dialogue and conversation with officers all the time. I know recently, about a week ago, a week-and-a-half ago, I had all of the community come together. We had the deputy commissioner come in. We had the new commanding officer of a local precinct come in...

BALDWIN: Meeting one another.

MEEKS: ...(inaudible) country, just talking and letting each other know what to do and to have constant dialogue before we have any tragic incidents. Maybe having the community come in doing some of the roll calls in the mornings so they get to talk and get to know the officers on the beat, the officers...

BALDWIN: Did the community seem amenable to that? I mean, it's one...

MEEKS: They did. No, no, no.

BALDWIN: ...thing to talk about these ideas...

MEEKS: They absolutely did. I thought there was a good dialogue. And the officers -- the commanding officers -- were open to it and tried to figure out how we have--. I used to be a district attorney -- a former assistant district attorney -- and it's tremendously important because the police officers...

BALDWIN: You work with a lot of police officers.

MEEKS: ...really cannot -- and they can't do their work without the people in the community and the community cannot be safe without the police officers. So it is -- we need each other. We've got to figure out how we do it in a manner so that the average person or especially what we've had before with reference to African-Americans, that they're not just racially profiled or treated in a bad way but also that we have respect for and understand the hard job and the real responsibility and the tremendous job the police officers also have to do.

BALDWIN: We have been talking a lot about young men, young boys of color. President Obama was just in the Bronx yesterday. You were there launching the "My Brother's Keeper" alliance in which getting these private businesses together to work with these groups to help young people. There's a picture of you with Shaq and John Legend. And so listening to the president, I jotted a note yesterday. He mentioned Brian Moore, being there with the president and he alluded to this is something he may do post-presidency--. What ideas did he share that really resonated to you that could be put into practice? What do you see this organization doing?

MEEKS: Well, with some of the young boys that were there, it's making sure they have exposure and a sense of hope that they are receiving the kind of education that is needed for the jobs that are created in the 21st century and to make sure that they're surrounded with individuals who can give them the appropriate advice. The president talked about yesterday that one of the young boys who are -- young -- who've gone astray could have easily been him had it not been for somebody in his life that gave him the advice at the right time. I can easily say the same thing. I grew up in east Harlem here in public housing but it was individuals -- I was fortunate I had both of my parents who were very important in my life. But I had teachers that were able to give some guidance.

[15:35:03] I've had some other individuals who saw that I had -- who wanted to make sure that I had an opportunity so that they opened the doors. So baseball coach or a football coach of someone of that nature and that's what we need is to surround these boys with individuals who can be a role model to them, one -- other than just an athlete on television -- that they can feel and touch and see and ask questions to.

BALDWIN: A real tangible neighbor, someone in the community. I have heard so many times recently. It is so, so crucial to help these young people.

Congressman Gregory Meeks, a pleasure.

MEEKS: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

Next, the Baltimore police commissioner is speaking out about the Freddie Gray case. Find out what he told CNN and when he was told before those charges were announced involving his six police officers.

All of this as the new Attorney General goes to Baltimore. Hear who Loretta Lynch met with.

You're watching CNN.

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[15:40:15] BALDWIN: The newly-confirmed Attorney General Loretta Lynch is in Baltimore and she just met with the mayor there, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. It was a face-to-face meeting. I hear it came with after she met with Freddie Gray's family. The riots and demonstrations in the wake of Freddie Gray's death in police custody broke out on the day Loretta Lynch was sworn in.

Her sit-down with Gray's family took place in a closed session at the University of Baltimore where Lynch also sat down with city officials and lawmakers and faith leaders. Her office is investigating whether Gray's civil rights were violated.

Meantime, just in to CNN, we are hearing from Baltimore's police commissioner about when he found out about those six charges facing six of his officers in the death of Freddie Gray. CNN's justice correspondent, Evan Perez, just sat down with Commissioner Anthony Batts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COMMISSIONER ANTHONY BATTS, BALTIMORE POLICE: I found out that the state attorney was going on and what she was going to present probably about 10 minutes before she went on. She gave me a phone call and told me what she was about to do and that she was going on live. She told me what the charges were.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: What were your first words out of your mouth when you heard that?

BATTS: I don't want to get into that so much. I can say that I was probably surprised by the information that I heard. I think that the state's attorney was very focused on being independent in this particular investigation. She didn't want to be seen connected to the police organization so the communication was limited as compared to what I'm used to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I'm going to bring in our legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Sunny Hostin. We were standing there on Friday in Baltimore when all of this was breaking. The fact that the police commissioner got a 10-minute heads-up -- does that surprise you or is that par for the course?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It does surprise me, even though as a prosecutor and especially this prosecutor wanted to have this independent investigation and we know she said she was conducting that investigation independently and already had a lot of the facts prior to the -- prior to when the police department gave her their report. It is unusual from a public safety perspective not to loop in the police chief and also the mayor's office. I actually spoke to people within the mayor's office and they told me that they...

BALDWIN: Who you know personally?

HOSTIN: Who I know personally -- that they got 15 minutes' lead time on when this announcement was going to be made. Now from a public safety perspective, that is troubling because generally, the mayor's office and the police chief and the prosecutor's office all work together. They're all -- in a sense -- law enforcement and so they all work together in a case like this. And so I was surprised, not so much that they left out the police chief but certainly that they would leave out the mayor's office.

BALDWIN: OK. More on Evan Perez's interview coming up later on CNN.

Sunny Hostin, thank you very much.

And before the nation knew what happened to Freddie Gray, Baltimore police knew what could happen to an individual who would be left unrestrained in the back of a police transport van. This is according to one lawsuit. This is just one of several that accuse the city's police of hurting, even maiming victims by giving them quote-unquote, a "rough ride".

Christine Abbott says she and her husband experienced one back in 2012.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINE ABBOTT, ACCUSES BALTIMORE POLICE OF GIVING HER "ROUGH RIDE": Every time he broke or hit the brakes, I would slam forward. And then he would start driving again, slam back the other way. I felt less than human the way they treated us and...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: You just heard what it's like to ride in a Baltimore police van. Let me bring in Gary Tuchman, my colleague here at CNN, who can actually show you because, Gary Tuchman, you got inside one of these police transport vans. Tell me what it was like.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, here in suburban Atlanta, the Dekalb County police department and one of its lieutenants graciously allowed us access to a police van. And the first thing you notice is how narrow it is. It's only five-feet wide but it's divided in two so the people who get herded aboard these vans are in an area that's only about 2.5 feet wide but they're generally safe if you're seatbelted. That is the protocol. But in this case, the state's attorney in Maryland says their evidence shows that Mr. Gray was not seatbelted and that he was seriously hurt after he was taken out and put back in on the floor on his stomach with his hands cuffed and with his legs shackled. So we tried to do a demonstration based on the evidence that showed what he might have gone through.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: But if you're face-first like this, lying on your stomach with your hands behind your back and your legs shackled, there's no way for you to get up.

Lieutenant, is there any way to get up if you're like this?

LIEUTENANT: It's incredibly hard.

TUCHMAN: OK. Have you ever seen anyone do that before?

LIEUTENANT: It's almost impossible.

TUCHMAN: OK. So it's almost impossible.

[15:45:01] So if there's a rough ride in this van -- this is theoretically what could have happened. He could be like this, trying to get up, and if this thing stops (inaudible), your head hits the metal, your head hits the metal. Your head hits the metal. That doesn't hurt. I'm just trying to give you an indication of how hard he could have hit it. (END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: Now, there's a lot of talk about if Mr. Gray could have been heard in the back of that van. The answer is yes. They are not soundproof, Brooke. You can easily hear. I had the lieutenant go on one side, I was on the other side, we could talk very softly, hear each other fine even with traffic noise. And the driver up front can hear the people in the back, the people in the back could hear the driver up front if the driver wanted to talk to them.

BALDWIN: We had talked so much about these vans. Just to see you inside really provided just -- it exemplified how narrow and how you could bang your heads on the sides.

Gary Tuchman, thank you so much for that demonstration.

Coming up next, we have to talk politics because there's a new Republican candidate for 2016, definitely a familiar face. He is Mike Huckabee. He is running for the White House for a second go-round. What's different for him this time and the many one-liners he had today as part of his announcement.

Stay with me.

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[15:50:16] BALDWIN: In case you are keeping score, I know some of you are...

You.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Me?

BALDWIN: We are 550-some odd days away from the next presidential election. But already, the field is starting to get pretty crowded.

Today, Mike Huckabee officially launched his second presidential bid. He flew back to where he was born and raised, Hope, Arkansas, to announce his campaign. The southern Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor showed off his folksy charm with plenty of political bytes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE HUCKABEE, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Dealing with radicals who chant "Death to America" and who fund bombs and rockets to murder civilians in Israel is nonsense. So when I hear our current president say he wants Christians to get off their high horse so we can make nice with radical jihadists, I wonder -- I wonder if he could watch a western from the 50s and be able to figure out who the good guys and the bad guys really are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: A lot of zingers from him.

Jake Tapper is with me. You know him from "The Lead" which follows me in nine minutes.

But let's just begin with beyond the one-liners from Mike Huckabee. Let's look at the field and look at some of the polling.

TAPPER: Yes. Huckabee starts off his campaign in a pretty decent place. Take a look at this poll from CNN in March. This is a poll of Republican voters. 57 percent say that he -- that they have a favorable opinion of Mike Huckabee. That's the leading one. Rand Paul, rather, 48 percent. Bush -- Jeb Bush, 45 percent. Marco Rubio, 44 percent. Ben Carson, 37 percent. So he's liked. A majority of Republican voters like him. Now, is he their choice? No. And let's take a look at this poll -- CNN ORC poll from April.

BALDWIN: Oh wow. The bottom.

TAPPER: Bush leads. No, that's not -- this is -- let's say he's the bottom of the first tier 'cause there's Chris Christie and Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina and a whole bunch of others but he's the bottom of the first tier. It is early yet. But Mike Huckabee comes into this race with a solid 10 percent of Republican voters liking him and as we saw, he converted that to a dazzling 2008 Iowa caucus win. He didn't ultimately go in to win the nomination but that was -- that was a big upset.

BALDWIN: He won Iowa but he also -- I mean, he was just somebody who'd been on Fox News for what -- six years? I mean, that's the kind of audience you cannot buy. Talk about likeability. Right?

TAPPER: Republican voters. Absolutely. Republican voters who are watching television on Saturdays.

BALDWIN: Right.

TAPPER: He was able to exhibit his charm to them. He has a lot of broadcasting experience not just on Fox but also he had a radio show when he was in Arkansas. So he does -- he has -- he has great speaking skills, probably second only to possibly Marco Rubio. Maybe he even has the best speaking skills of the Republican possibilities.

BALDWIN: Where is Jeb Bush? When is he going to say -- why are you looking at me like this?

TAPPER: It's a good question. Where is Jeb Bush, the presumptive frontrunner nationally? Although, if you look at the state by state polls, Scott Walker leads in Iowa. Scott Walkers leads in New Hampshire. But he is -- I would say -- expect something end of June, beginning of July. There are a number of things he's going to do first. He has a trip to Europe he's going to take in June. There are a number of other events that he needs to do, super PAC events that he's not going to do as a candidate that he will do before he becomes a candidate. But he'll be in the race. He's definitely running. He just hasn't announced it yet.

BALDWIN: OK. Just wondering.

Jake Tapper, thank you. TAPPER: I appreciate your concern. I'll relay that to the people in the Bush campaign. Where is Jeb Bush?

BALDWIN: You know? People are -- the people are wondering.

TAPPER: The people are asking.

BALDWIN: The people are asking. This guy's up at the top of the hour. Do not miss his show. And also, tomorrow, you will have your governor Mike Huckabee interview...

TAPPER: Yes.

BALDWIN: ...so stay tuned for that.

TAPPER: Back in 2008, I was the Huckabee campaign reporter for a different network so I know him very well and I've interviewed him many times.

BALDWIN: All right. Well, we'll look for that. Thank you, Jake Tapper.

Straight ahead, ISIS claims its first attack on American soil. But were the gunmen operatives or sympathizers?

Plus, it was billed as "the fight of the century." Why gamblers and pay-per-view buyers are suing one of the fighters who may have been hiding something before he stepped foot into that ring.

Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:55:01] BALDWIN: It was hyped as "the fight of the century" but some argue Saturday's Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao bout wasn't even "the fight of the night". One possible reason Mayweather won by decision, Pacquiao was hiding an injured shoulder. Now, disgruntled fans are taking the disappointment to court. A federal lawsuit filed against Pacquiao in Las Vegas seeks up to $5 million in damages because Pacquiao apparently kept his injury a secret. The plaintiffs say fans bought tickets or pay-per-view showings and placed wagers under the assumption that both fighters were in healthy, fighting shape.

And it was subtle but unmistakable. Convicted Boston marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev cried in court today during testimony in his death penalty trial. It happened when his elderly aunt flown in from Russia took the stand. She was sobbing so hard, she was gasping for breath, had to leave the courtroom to compose herself. It was then that Tsarnaev began to silently weep and wipe his face. It is the most emotion that the 21-year-old has shown since he went on trial.

And for much more on the story there in Boston, please tune in tonight. A CNN special: "Murder at the Marathon", what convict5ed Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev did after those attacks. Tonight, 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific. Thank you so much for being with me. I'm Brooke Baldwin here in New

York. (inaudible) THE LEAD a little early today. Jake Tapper starts right now.