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Attorney General Launches Probe of Baltimore Police; Small Plane Crashes on Atlanta's Beltline; Thousands Gather to Mourn Slain Officer; Security Level Raised at U.S. Military Bases. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired May 08, 2015 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:29:50] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just the other day when the mayor was talking about asking you about the investigation, she was also touting a 46 percent drop in complaints about excessive force; 54 percent about just officers being discourteous.

Is that any indication that things are already getting better? Is that a foundation for you or is that just kind of out the window this morning.

LORETTA LYNCH, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: No, I think all the data that's been gathered today will factor into our investigation. It's really premature to say what that data means. I think we've all seen situations where you can have numbers that look great but if you're the person who is involved in an unfortunate incident for you, you know, it feels like it's 100 percent.

So, you know, we'll be looking at all of those issues and incidents but we're looking at the larger issues of whether or not the police as they work to stop, arrest and detain people how they are in fact implementing their policies. We'll look at excessive force, the use and the guidance that they have and the training that they have already.

So that will factor into our investigation. It's premature right now to say how it will impact on it.

Alright. Thank you all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. The Attorney General Loretta Lynch talking about launching an investigation into the Baltimore City Police Department. In case you are just joining us, I just want to sum it up for you very quickly. Some of the questions that will be addressed by this Department of Justice investigation: Did Baltimore police conduct unlawful searches, seizures and arrests? Did Baltimore police violate the constitution and the community's civil rights? And also the Justice Department will continue to improve the Baltimore Police Department while this investigation is going on.

With me now to talk about what the attorney general just said, CNN justice reporter Evan Perez, our national correspondent Suzanne Malveaux who is in Baltimore and CNN law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director Tom Fuentes.

I want to go right out to Baltimore Suzanne and get the reaction from there.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know Carol, it's interesting because the first when I was covering this story, it was a local story and then it turned into a national and international story and it was before the riots broke out and before the community actually took to the streets and helped the police and the law enforcement and those community activists gained their streets back in peace in this community.

A lot of people came up to me after seeing that video of Freddie Gray and very quietly told their own stories. Stories about one man who had been strip searched on the streets, his pants pulled down. He was half naked. And everybody had a chance to see this on the street.

Another young woman who had her cell phone taken from her by a police and smashed on the ground, another person who told me that they saw somebody beaten up and then just dropped from a police van -- these were the kinds of stories that people would tell you off the record, quietly, just coming out of their homes because they wanted to give a sense of what it was like to live in that community and what their own experience was in that neighborhood.

I think what you're going to hear from people in the community is that they finally are heard, that this is not something that through violence in the streets or through the community activists coming out and trying to quell the violence but some real movement with teeth if you will. The federal government, the Justice Department and potentially some real actions to follow if in fact they find this is a pattern and practice.

That's what I'm getting from people here because these are folks who did not just a couple weeks ago, Carol, feel empowered at all. They felt demoralized. They felt diminished. They didn't even want to go on camera. We have seen a dramatic turn in this community in Baltimore as the spotlight is on those folks on the ground.

I think that's going to be very critical to see what the Justice Department does. Obviously we're not going to get the answers soon but it is a step forward.

COSTELLO: Ok. I was going to ask you that question, Evan. How long might this investigation take?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, I think it's going to take a while. I mean right now the Justice Department had 16 consent decree agreements with police departments around the country from the New Orleans Police Department to Albuquerque. Right now they have nine ongoing investigations including the one in Ferguson that we've talked about in the past.

What I thought was interesting about the attorney general's statement was she described a frayed relationship between the community and the police frankly and she said it's an understatement because it's to the point of being severed. So she is using some very tough language to describe what a big job this police department has in Baltimore to try to regain trust there.

COSTELLO: Tom, something else that intrigued me about what Loretta Lynch said. She said that this investigation and others will be helpful to police departments across the country. Is that right?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Absolutely, Carol. And first of all, I would like to say I have the highest respect for Loretta Lynch. I worked with her when she was a young assistant United States attorney in the eastern district of New York when I was working in the organized crime program.

She prosecuted many organized crime cases where she worked closely with FBI agents, other federal agents, local police officers. She went to China in one of our cases to work with the Chinese police officers that worked jointly with us. She goes back a long way having an outstanding relationship with law enforcement officers.

[10:34:58] And I think one thing I would like to commend her on that something her predecessor didn't do when he went to Ferguson. When she went to Baltimore she went and met with the police also. She recognizes that this will take the community, the political leaders and the police to work together even in the pattern and practice.

And just to explain to the viewers, the FBI investigation of civil rights cases is done by FBI agents with the purpose of possibly a federal criminal prosecution by assistant attorneys from the civil rights division of Department of Justice. The patterns and practice is not done by police officers or FBI agents but basically it's a review of all of the statistics, who has been arrested, what were the circumstances, the complaints, all of those things.

In this case, she intends for it to be a very collaborative effort with all of the members of that community and the law enforcement agencies together. I think that she's sincere. She's outstanding. And again, I've known her for many years.

COSTELLO: I love what she said about the greatness of the city of Baltimore. That was awesome.

Tom Fuentes, Suzanne Malveaux, Evan Perez -- Thanks to all of you. I appreciate it. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:39:50] COSTELLO: All right. We do have a bit of breaking news, tragic bit of breaking news to pass along to you. This is happening right outside of the city of Atlanta, northeast of the city to be exact. A small plane has crashed on a major highway that would be I-285 -- that small plane departing from DeKalb Peachtree Airport.

We don't know how many people were on board this plane yet but the wreckage is of -- we believe the type of plane to be a Piper PA32. And as you can see it is barely recognizable. Traffic is now stopped in both directions as emergency crews continue to work at the scene. When I get more information, of course, I'll pass it along to you. But again this plane went down on I-285 northeast of the city of Atlanta.

Also this morning, you are looking at live pictures from New York -- tens of thousands of officers coming together from across the country to mourn the death of their colleague, Officer Brian Moore. Moore is remembered as an exceptional officer by the New York City Police Commissioner. His funeral at a Long Island church will begin in just about a half hour.

30,000 police officers from across the country are expected to make their way to Long Island to honor this fallen police officer.

Joining me right now to talk more about this is New York City Councilman Mark Levine. Thank you for being with me. I appreciate it. First of all, reflect on this officer's service because he was exceptional even at the young age of a 25.

MARK LEVINE, NEW YORK CITY COUNCILMAN: Yes, the son of a family of police officers. And what a hero putting his life in danger in a tough neighborhood to serve others. I think his death really is a blow to the heart of all New Yorkers who mourn his passing.

COSTELLO: 30,000 from across the country -- it's a lot of people coming to honor him.

LEVINE: And he deserves it. He deserves it and I'm heartened by the level of support that people in New York City and around the country have shown in this moment. Let's hope it brings people together towards something positive as we mourn the loss of this hero.

COSTELLO: Officer Moore was killed with a stolen .38 caliber revolver. He was sitting in an unmarked police car. He asked a guy walking outside of the car what he had inside his waistband. That man pulled that .38 allegedly and shot him three times -- shot him in the face and killed him -- right.

So we know that this gun was stolen from a pawn shop in rural Georgia. Actually 23 guns in all were stolen from this same store. Nine of them have shown up on the streets of New York City. Senator Chuck Schumer calls this the iron pipeline. That's not so unusual for guns to come from states like Georgia into the city.

Tell me about that and tell me about the problem that --

LEVINE: Well, Carol time and time again the guns that are killing people on the streets of New York City are coming from a handful of southern states like Georgia, which have lax gun laws. Clearly we need a federal response to this. It's not enough for New York City alone to restrict gun sales here because we live in a big country with poor states that makes it very easy for someone to go down south and purchase guns.

In the case of the gun that killed Officer Moore, yes it was stolen but it's legal to buy dozens of guns at once. Why would someone need to go into a store in Georgia and buy dozens of handguns? Is that for hunting? Now, it's almost certainly for distribution. These are arms dealers. They're going to the south where access is easy and they're coming north to places like New York.

We need federal rules to protect New York and cities everywhere.

COSTELLO: In this particular case though I believe the guns were stolen from this pawn shop and the store owner was quoted as saying that, of course, he's sorry about what happened but he said that the guns that are then sold on the streets of New York from Georgia go for a good price -- high price.

LEVINE: Well, there's a big markup. Entrepreneurs realize that they can double or triple the price. And so they are going down and filling up vans and coming back north. That's the iron highway. It would be very easy if we simply limited the purchase of handguns to say one a month and that would put an end to this kind of arms dealing.

COSTELLO: Going back to Officer Moore, five New York City police officers died in the line of duty this year alone -- 40 across the country. We know it's happening in cities like Baltimore and also in New York City. This is just an uncomfortable time. It's a sad time because the police and the community don't trust one another. So what should we be feeling right now as we honor this officer?

LEVINE: Well, we lost two brave officers in December. Two officers were shot in January in the Bronx. They lived, thankfully. Of course, we have now lost Officer Moore. So this is five shootings in five months -- far too many.

But to put this in perspective, New York City is so much safer today than it was in decades past. In 1971, there were 12 officers shot and killed in one year. We are not in a situation that's nearly comparable to that. But we need to do much more to protect our officers while continuing to reduce crime and while making sure that communities of color in New York City are not subjected to unfair or overly aggressive policing. That's tough to do simultaneously. But through smart policy we can do it.

When you look at things like cameras as part of standard equipment for police officers, that protects people on both sides of the shield. It protects officers too who might be accused wrongly and now have protection of the video. And we also think that it makes communities safer.

[10:45:07] We're retraining officers in New York City so that every one of the 35 cops is learning more about conflict de-escalation and that's good, again, for both sides. This kind of policy can achieve these often contradictory goals of making the city safer for cops and the general public.

COSTELLO: Councilman -- thank you so much for being here this morning. I appreciate it.

LEVINE: My pleasure -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right.

We're just getting this news into CNN. The threat level has been raised at military bases across the country because of quote, "concerns of jihadist activity".

With me now to parse this out is our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr, defense analyst Lt. Col. Rick Francona is on the phone, and Tom Fuentes is standing by as well.

But I want to start with you Barbara, tell us more about this threat level being raised.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Carol -- here is what we know at this hour. Late last night the head of the U.S. Northern Command who overseas all U.S. military bases in the United States raised the security protection levels at all bases in the United States.

The new level, it is called Force Protection Level Bravo -- you see it there. This means a quote, "increased and predictable threat of terrorism."

[10:49:57] What U.S. military officials are telling me in the last few minutes is they do not have a specific credible threat at this time but this comes hours after FBI Director James Comey publicly talked about the fact there may be thousands of people in the United States with jihadist leanings who are online, who are communicating with jihadist groups.

So U.S. military officials, saying the threat of violent homegrown terrorism has contributed to the decision to raise security levels at U.S. military bases. So again, it's not that they see a specific imminent threat but given what is going on with U.S. law enforcement, given what we saw this week in Garland, Texas where that attack happened, a feeling by the United States military, by the Pentagon that they have to take action to raise their own security levels at U.S. bases.

What will this mean? If there's a military base in your town or community, there are likely to be delays getting into the base. There will be more vehicle ID checks. There may be 100 percent personnel ID checks, showing your pass to get in. more guards on station, more guard posts. More people on duty -- that sort of thing.

Maybe people have questions about the Pentagon because a lot of Americans are familiar with the Pentagon. This is a building where every day security conditions are changed around and they are very random, very unpredictable and very high level. This building, the Pentagon, where I'm standing -- always a potential terrorist target in the eyes of the United States.

This has been the new normal that unpredictability and changing up security measures so potential attackers cannot plan on how they might get to a military base through that security perimeter. One U.S. military official saying this is going to be the new normal -- more security, more unpredictable security and trying to keep potential attackers off guard -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Barbara -- standby. I want to go to Colonel Francona. Hi Tom Fuentes -- I'll get to you in just a second.

Colonel Francona, what Barbara just said, they want to remain unpredictable. What exactly does that mean?

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST (via telephone): Well, it means they're going to change up the security day by day. One day there might be 100 percent ID check, the next day they'll go back to just the driver needs to be checked. But I suspect with the force level protection going up to Bravo, they'll go back to the 100 percent ID check. It's going to be much more difficult to get on a military installation.

It used to be that only one person in the car had to have an I.D. Now everybody will have to have an ID. Public areas on some military installations such as museums and visitor centers -- those will probably be closed or much more difficult to get into. So it's just an awareness that there's a real threat out there. I think this has been a long time coming. I think it's a prudent move.

We've already seen some attacks on military installations. So I think the Pentagon is now realizing that they need to address this because the situation is not going to improve. The threat level is going to increase as ISIS becomes more and more capable and we have more and more Americans returning from overseas. This is going to be not only a military problem, it's going to be a law enforcement problem.

COSTELLO: I also have General "Spider" Marks. So General, when Barbara and Colonel Francona say this the new normal, things aren't going to change any time soon, right?

MAJ. GEN. SPIDER MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST (via telephone): Absolutely. The issue remains how do you provide protection for your military personnel and how do you maintain readiness within that level of protection. The issue also to Rick Francona's point, not only is there what I would call the immediate access issue and challenge under each military installation but it's also enhanced connectivity between those law enforcement agencies that are outside the gates of the military installation and the relationships and information sharing and intelligence sharing that they have with those that are inside.

So this is not only what I would call an inside defense, it's also an outside defense type of requirement. This is the new normal. These are random access measures of protection that must be in place so it keeps our adversaries guessing as to what our capabilities are and what we know about what they're doing.

COSTELLO: And Tom, I want to ask you about this Bravo level of security -- increased in predictable threats of terrorist. That's what that means -- the threat level above it is Charlie which means imminent threat of terrorism. What kind of intelligence do you suppose they're getting militarily?

FUENTES: Well, again, Carol, they are probably picking up social media expressing an interest to attack a military installation and kill people on a base. The problem is, as General Marks and Colonel Francona mentioned is that, you know, it's very difficult. You can do additional screening as people come in and you're going to have long lines because many of these bases are small or medium-sized cities. Fort Hood is the size of Peoria, Illinois.

[10:55:08] So, you already have people that are coming in and out of there every day to work. Then you have people inside the base walking around. In some cases they are getting weapons training, explosive training. They might be walking around in fatigues so everybody looks like they're in some form of preparation for war. And you've already had the situation with Col. Hasan so they also have to worry about members of the military becoming radicalized and killing fellow members of the military.

So this is a very difficult situation to protect these bases in and out.

COSTELLO: Tom Fuentes, Barbara Starr, Gen. Spider Marks, Lt. Col. Rick Francona -- thanks to all of you. I appreciate it. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: All right. I have an update on that terrible plane crash in suburban Atlanta. This is on I-285 northeast of the city of Atlanta. A small plane, a Piper PA32 crashed into the concrete barrier between the highways there. The plane is like totally gone. You can see emergency vehicles on the scene right now. We have confirmed that four people were aboard that plane and all of them are dead.

There's a small regional airport close to this location. We don't know exactly what happened. But of course, we're continuing to follow the story.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

[11:00:04] "AT THIS HOUR" with Berman and Bolduan starts now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Hello, I'm John Berman. Kate Bolduan is off today.