Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Breaking: Shots Fired at Soldiers at Camp Shelby; Darren Wilson Talks Michael Brown; Sex Offender Registry Traps Teens; Sexist Thermostats Based on Men's Body Temperature. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired August 04, 2015 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:30:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up next here, we are one year since Ferguson. The officer Darren Wilson, the former officer Darren Wilson, who shot and killed Michael Brown is now revealing his insights into life, his struggle to find work, and what he really thinks about Michael Brown. We'll talk to a state Senator about what life is like now in Ferguson a year after grabbing the nation's attention.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
[14:34:55] BALDWIN: Breaking news here. We are getting reports that shots have been fired at soldiers near Camp Shelby in Mississippi. This is near Hattiesburg. An officer tells CNN the shots were fired from civilian vehicles. The troops were off base at the training area at the time. Investigators are now looking into who fired those shots, but the officer tells us that this is not, I repeat, not an active shooter situation. Again, shots fired at soldiers near Camp Shelby in Mississippi. No one has been hurt. That's what we've been told. This is not an active shooter situation. We're making phone calls and we'll get you updates live here on CNN.
Meantime, this Sunday, Ferguson, Missouri, will mark the one-year anniversary of the shooting death of Michael Brown. His death at the hands of former Officer Darren Wilson set off days of violence and vocal civil unrest. Now here we are nearly one year later. We are hearing at length from this former police officer. He gave an interview to "The New Yorker" magazine. We're learning new insights into his life. He says he can't get a job because he's considered a liability. He also says he and his family tried to go quietly about their lives but can't because of death threats they're still receiving. Wilson also talked about community policing and the scathing justice report about the rampant racism within the Ferguson Police Department. He has not, by the way, and says he will not read it. He also specifically said this, "I don't have any desire, I'm not going to keep living in the past about what Ferguson did. It's out of my control." And then when asked about Mike Brown, he said this, "Do I think about who he was as a person? Not really, because it doesn't matter at this point. Do I think he had the best upbringing? No, not at all."
Joining me now, just for some community response, I have Missouri State Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal. Senator, welcome back.
STATE SEN. MARIA CHAPPELLE-NADAL, D-MISSOURI: Thank you so much, broke.
BALDWIN: You know, this is the first time we've heard from Darren Wilson in quite a while, and especially how he feels about Michael Brown. He said specifically in this piece that he only knew him for those 45 seconds in which he was trying -- he says Michael Brown was trying to kill him. What's your reaction to how he talks about the situation, how he talks about Michael Brown?
CHAPPELLE-NADAL: Well, obviously, what was in the report yesterday is very reflective with how most police officers, many police officers, look at -- it's obviously a problem. We can go back in history, and the same way African-Americans were abused 150 years ago, it's the same way people are treated today. And it's unfortunate. That means that we have a lot of work to do in the future.
BALDWIN: Are you saying all officers -- how can you say all officers feel that way?
CHAPPELLE-NADAL: I didn't say all officers. There are many officers who are out there who feel the same way as Darren Wilson feel. They don't think about the real lives of individuals who are dying every single day in their hands. So we have to make a change in police departments across this nation because far too many people are being executed for no good reason every single day.
BALDWIN: We did learn a bit more about why he specifically chose to be this police officer in Ferguson, as he points out, it's a higher crime and increased population of African-Americans. This is much different from the community he had come from, Jennings. This is what he said, he wanted to move his career forward. He said, when he left Jennings, "I didn't want to work in a white area." Wilson told me, "I like the black community." He went on, "I had fun there. There are people who will just crack you up."
What does that tell you about how he perceived that community, the community of Ferguson, Missouri?
CHAPPELLE-NADAL: Well, it's very interesting because Jennings and Ferguson are right next door to one another. And while there are good relationships that can be had with police departments and with police officer police officers -- community every single day, you have to really consider at that moment in time when you have the option to deescalate, why didn't Darren Wilson use that opportunity to deescalate a situation? And today we have a young man who's gone and we have several young men and young women who are African-American who are gone. And that is the reality that we have to face every single day.
BALDWIN: Maria Chappelle-Nadal, thank you, Senator, for joining me. Appreciate it.
CHAPPELLE-NADAL: Thank you so much. [14:39:35] BALDWIN: Two weeks after revealing Lindsey Graham's cell
phone number to the world, now it's Donald Trump's turn. The website Gawker blasting out his personal digits and, yet, Trump seems to have the last laugh. His strategic reaction coming up.
And next, what happens when a Sex Offender Registry doesn't quite work the way it's planned? You'll hear one Indiana teenager's nightmare that began with an online dating app. CNN investigates, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Sex offender registries are supposed to be a tool. Names are put on the list to help police track the dangerous predators among us. That's the theory anyway. Not everyone who makes the list is a rapist or a child molester.
Kyra Phillips investigates one Indiana teen's nightmare, how he used an online dating app to meet a girl who lied about her age and how that ruined his life.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[14:45:57] KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For 19- year-old Zack Anderson, it looks like it's been an idyllic summer. Relaxing like any other teenager with his family on the St. Joe river. But looks can be deceiving. This summer is hardly normal for Zack. In fact, his parents say Zack can't even live in their house anymore because his 15-year-old brother lives here, too. And that's not all.
ZACH ANDERSON, REGISTERED SEX OFFENDER AFTER DATING APP HOOKUP: Like using the Internet, going to like -- if you're bored, going to walk around in a park or something.
PHILLIPS (on camera): Can't go to a mall.
ANDERSON: Yeah. Can't go to a mall to buy clothes or anything like that.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): All because Zach is listed in his state's Sex Offender Registry.
ANDERSON: It's like I'm an outcast from society for all the things I have put on me.
PHILLIPS: Here's what happened. Zach went on a racy dating app called Hot or Not, hoping to meet a girl. He did. They had sex. And that's when the problems began.
(on camera): How old did she say she was?
ANDERSON: She had told me she was 17.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): But she lied. She was actually 14. By law, he had committed a sex crime. He was arrested and convicted. Now Zach is on the same list of sex offenders as child molesters and pedophiles, and his parents say that's a colossal mistake. (on camera): When you heard those words, that your son was a sex
offender, what was your reaction?
AMANDA ANDERSON, MOTHER OF ZACH ANDERSON: It's a blatant lie. It's not true. It doesn't even fit our lifestyle. It doesn't fit how we raised our kids.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Even the girl's mother appeared in court, testifying that she didn't want Zach labeled as a sex offender because, quote, "He's really not."
We also obtained this letter that the girl in Question gave Zach's family. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you my age," she writes. "It kills me every day knowing you are going through hell and I'm not. I want to be in trouble and not you."
(on camera): Did it ever enter your mind at any time that she could be under age?
ANDERSON: No, not at all.
PHILLIPS: And was the sex consensual?
ANDERSON: Yeah. Yeah.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): But even if the girl admits she lied about her age and the sex was consensual, as she did in court, it's not a defense in the eye of current sex offender laws. And that's why the judge and prosecutor in Zach's case didn't let him off the hook.
Judge Dennis Wily, angry that Zach had used the Internet to meet a girl, said, quote, "That seems to be part of our culture now, meet, have sex, sayonara. Totally inappropriate behavior. There is no excuse for this whatsoever."
He sentenced Zach to 90 days in jail, five years probation, and 25 years on the Sex Offender Registry.
(on camera): Is that you?
ANDERSON: No.
PHILLIPS: Are you a sex offender?
ANDERSON: Not at all.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): What's happening to Zach sounds unusual, but it's not. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, about a quarter of the 850,000 people on the Sex Offender Registry across the nation were under 18 when convicted.
(on camera): The problem, say experts, is the Sex Offender Registry is one size fits all. Everyone on it is treated as if they pose the same threat, whether they're a predatory child rapist or a teenager who had sex with his girlfriend. WILLIAM BUHL, FORMER MICHIGAN JUDGE: If we caught every teenager that
violated our current law, we'd lock up 30 percent or 40 percent of the high school. We're kidding ourselves.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Former Michigan Judge William Buhl has been trying to fix the Sex Offender Registry for two decades. He says adding teens just takes away resources from monitoring the truly dangerous.
BUHL: They take that example and say, boy, we've got to watch this guy, and so we'll apply that to everybody. And it just doesn't make any sense.
PHILLIPS: Even convicted sex offenders, the very people the registry was set up to monitor, tell us their type of criminal behavior and mind-set is vastly different from some of these teens.
TED RODARM, ON SEX OFFENDER REGISTER: He's not the one that we're going to have to fear. He's simply a teenager.
PHILLIPS: Ted and Rose Rodarm were both convicted of molestation in separate incidents 20 years ago and are part of a ministry now for sex offenders.
RODARM: The registry has become so diluted that you can't identify the truly dangerous, and that in itself is dangerous.
PHILLIPS: So Zach is left wondering about what the rest of his life will be like. The weight of his sentencing came crashing down, his first day back at church after he was are released from jail.
[14:50:08] LESTER ANDERSON, FATHER OF ZACH ANDERSON: He just didn't look right. I said, are you OK? He just shook his head. We went outside, and he just started crying. I said, what's the matter? He just said, "I don't know who I can talk to. I don't know whose hand I can shake. I feel like everybody is looking at me." You know, and to have to deal with that --
(CROSSTALK)
AMANDA ANDERSON: The shame.
LESTER ANDERSON: The shame. That's the biggest issue, the shame of it.
ANDERSON: To me, it honestly doesn't really seem real to me. It seems like a bad dream that I haven't woke up from yet.
PHILLIPS: In Elkhart, Indiana, Kyra Phillips, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Kyra Phillips, thank you very much.
Coming up, the first GOP quickly approaching, and we should know exactly who makes the cut for the main stage. We'll discuss the likely prospect prospects.
And while I am occasionally found in a Snuggie, we're talking of a cold war of sorts. Ladies, have you ever had to put on gloves or sweaters because it's so freaking cold at work? After the break, a new study reveals what so many of us already knew about who rules the thermostat at your workplace, in this case, in the newsroom. Don't miss this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:55:26] BALDWIN: I live here, I work here in New York where the high today is a balmy 90. Outside, of course. But inside this building, some will freeze. Women in the workplace -- I know a lot of you can hear me here -- a new study says workplace standards for air conditioning and heating were created back in the '60s. So archaic. It's based upon resting metabolic rates for middle-aged men, not for both the men and the women. So now a lot of people are asking, because of the study, is there such a thing as a sexist thermostat?
I have two of my favorite people on earth here at CNN sitting next to me, who happen to be our CNN business correspondent, Richard Quest; and our CNN senior director of social news, Samantha Barry.
Awesome to have you on.
Never in a million years did I ever think I'd talk about sexist thermostats on the news, A, and, B, this, a shout-out to my fabulous producer in Chicago. This is her parting gift to me. She would make fun of me in Atlanta that I was freezing cold. But I have to say it's quite warm here in New York. I mean, there are fans. I don't know.
(CROSSTALK)
RICHARD QUEST, CNN HOST, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS: Still complaining! What are you complaining about? Get a blanket.
BALDWIN: What do you think? What's the deal?
QUEST: The thermostat is neutral. It is how it is set that is the Question here.
BALDWIN: Right. Apparently, it's set for men.
QUEST: In new buildings, like this magnificent structure, so here's a blanket.
(LAUGHTER)
BALDWIN: But I don't need your blanket, Richard Quest.
(LAUGHTER)
Sam?
SAMANTHA BARRY, CNN SOCIAL NEWS SENIOR DIRECTOR" It is sexist. It's bad for business because productivity goes down when it's that cold. And it's wasteful.
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: The voice of reason on the panel.
QUEST: I went to find out exactly what this building was like, 22 stories of Time Warner Center. And I discovered Ed, the man --
BALDWIN: Ed.
QUEST: -- the man with his finger on the thermostat.
BALDWIN: Go Ed.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST (voice-over): To discover the secrets of air conditioning, we have to go right to the top. And that means meeting Ed.
(on camera): Where are we going?
EDWARD CAVANAUGH, DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, TM WARNER CENTER: 22nd floor mechanical room.
QUEST: This is the chiller plank. This is quite a piece of operation.
CAVANAUGH: Yes. You can see we're running about 46-degree water.
QUEST: The water is 46 degrees.
CAVANAUGH: Correct.
QUEST: Then when it goes downstairs?
CAVANAUGH: Right. It picks up the heat coming off the floor. The water temperature rises, comes back to here and gets chilled again and goes back down again. It's a cycle.
QUEST: A cycle.
CAVANAUGH: Correct.
QUEST: How precise can you get the temperature down there?
CAVANAUGH: Within two degrees of whatever we set it at.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: What do they set the temperature at?
BALDWIN: Yes.
QUEST: 72 to 74 degrees in this building. And women want it at 75 to 77.
BARRY: It's a man that set it. That's what you're telling us.
(LAUGHTER)
QUEST: The building is set to 72. But, look, here's the real point. You're all ignoring the point.
BALDWIN: I am not ignoring the point.
QUEST: You are.
BALDWIN: I say kudos to Time Warner for setting it at that. I would like it cooler, but that's just me.
QUEST: Look at what you're wearing as opposed to sensible clothes.
BALDWIN: A dress is not sensible?
QUEST: With a proper shirt and a vest and a jacket.
BALDWIN: Love my body language.
BARRY: Your wardrobe probably stays pretty much the same year round.
QUEST: So should yours.
BARRY: So I should be here in the middle of summer in New York in a Polo neck and closed shoes?
QUEST: You don't necessarily have to go that far, but you certainly -- certainly, nothing too skimpy.
BALDWIN: No one is skimpy around here. We are comfortable. It is summer. We like to rock it with our fashion. And, listen --
(CROSSTALK)
QUEST: It's time for men to say there's nothing wrong with the air conditioning.
BALDWIN: I appreciate Ed.
Ed, I appreciate you very much.
I enjoy that it's set a little bit warmer than normal. But I did find the study kind of interesting.
QUEST: That's true.
BALDWIN: That so many people used to set the temperature so low for men and metabolism, et cetera. So now times are ch-ch-changing.
QUEST: Your metabolism is different. But women's metabolism is different from men. And, yes, it is true.
BALDWIN: But look around the newsroom. You see all these ladies?
QUEST: Put a sweater on!
(LAUGHTER)
Dress warmly!
BALDWIN: Richard Quest, Samantha Barry, my favorite Brit and Irishwoman, thank you so much.
Now this.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
[15:00:02] BALDWIN: We continue on here. Hour two. You're watching CNN.
We have breaking news. We are getting reports that shots have been fired at soldiers near Camp Shelby in Mississippi. Specifically, this is near Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
