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500 Million Yahoo Accounts Hacked; Protests in Charlotte. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired September 22, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:02]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: All right, top of the hour, 3:00 p.m. Eastern. I'm Poppy Harlow, in for my friend Brooke Baldwin.

We're back now with the latest out of North Carolina, where two very different stories are emerging about the death of Keith Lamont Scott. His family will be speaking soon and we will bring that to you live as soon as it begins.

Right now, though, a major American city is under an official state of emergency, violence erupting in the streets of Charlotte after the shooting death of the African-American man by a black police officer. For roughly seven hours last night and into the morning, police in riot gear fired tear gas to disperse crowds of protesters and some vandals in the city's Uptown district.

They threw rocks, set fires, looted and smashed windows and cars. We can tell you one person was shot amid this chaos last night. That person is still in critical condition, although the circumstances of the shooting are still a bit murky.

Today, some surprising revelations from the Charlotte police chief about the video of Scott's death, a video the public may never get to see.

Let's bring in Ryan Young. He is live in a protest zone in Charlotte.

The police chief said they are going to work to show it to the Scott family. We don't know when that might happen, but he said basically they should see it. But then he also said he doesn't think that the public needs to see it or should see it. Why?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, people have been talking about this constantly. As we have stood here and we talked to people in this community, one thing they keep saying over and over is, show us the video. Show us the video.

They believe since it exists, why not just show it to everyone to clear all this up, especially with social media talking so loudly that the young man -- the man had a book in his hand? That is something that stuck in their minds. And the chief says he wants to have that special request so the family can come and watch the video.

But a lot of the people in this community say they hope the family gets to see it in the next 24 hours or so. The chief said this today during that news conference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KERR PUTNEY, CHARLOTTE-MECKLENBURG, NORTH CAROLINA, POLICE CHIEF: What I can tell you that I saw -- and I was very clear when I talked about this before -- is that the video does not give me absolute, definitive visual evidence that would confirm that a person is pointing a gun.

I did not see that in the videos that I reviewed. So what I can tell you, though, is when taken in the totality of all the other evidence, it supports what we have heard and the version of the truth that we gave about the circumstances that happened that led to the death of Mr. Scott.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: So you see the police presence that still remains here on this corner. This is near where the man was shot just last night. People were saying it was a peaceful protest and after the shooting things turned. We actually talked to a woman who was in a bar just down the way.

They had to lock the door and shelter in place. They heard those flash bangs and those -- tear gas. They said they were terrified as they got evacuated out of the back. There's also a parking garage that is just near us where a man was attacked by several other men. His clothes were taken until several people who were watching this came over and tried to get his clothes back. That man was badly bruised as he walked away.

He was just someone who was walking down the street. But I can tell you everyone that we have talked the so far says they would really like to see an open part of this investigation because they believe that's the only way the healing will begin. Everyone is sort of waiting to see what happens next because they think with a few hours of planning this could have another long night ahead for us as well.

We will have to watch and see, Poppy.

HARLOW: That's a question. Ryan Young, thank you very much for that. We know you will be standing by. We will see what happens when the sun goes down.

Meantime, Attorney General Loretta Lynch making an appeal today for calm in Charlotte, speaking directly to the rioters and the looters who escalated that otherwise peaceful protest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LORETTA LYNCH, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: But I urge those responsible for bringing violence to these demonstrations to stop, because you're drowning out the voices of commitment and change and you're ushering in more tragedy and grief in our communities.

And too many times, we have allowed ourselves to be pulled down the easy path of blame and accusation, rather than the harder path of empathy and understanding. Let us choose that path.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: I want to take you now to my colleague and fellow CNN anchor Ashleigh Banfield. She is standing by outside the police department in Charlotte.

Ashleigh, you have been there all day. You did your show live from there. What's the sense you're getting in the city and also sort of the legal line that they're walking, right, on whether or not they will release this video?

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

Well, first of all, it's a beautiful day in Charlotte, the typical Charlotte you expect when you get here. It's nothing like what we saw breaking on the news last night. But you know what?

[15:05:00]

We're two days into this and everyone is on tenterhooks that it could happen again tonight. Here's what's so frustrating. So many people you saw in the street last night, those who were protesting peacefully, those who were protesting aggressively, violently, many of them want the same thing. They want transparency. They want justice.

And for so many people on this, that might actually lay on the videotape that's not being released. So right now, we're sort of in a holding pattern, Poppy, with the police department behind me holding a news conference and saying it's not going to be released.

One week from now, a brand new law takes effect this state. To be real technical, it's HB-972. But to be common parlance about it, it's a law that says it's not public record. Those videos from dash cams and body cams will not be considered public record, which means you, me, and everybody else on this sidewalk just doesn't get the right to see that stuff.

The family, however, of Keith Lamont Scott, they will have the right to see it, see it, not copy it, not take it with them, just see it. They put in that request and the police have said they will try to effectuate that request for them.

In the meantime, there are a lot of people who are sitting in mistrust of the police, and I'm not sure that that will help, hinder the process. Last night, there was gunfire and there was a victim of gunfire and it was fairly quickly that the police came out and said the person who was shot and ended up in critical condition was shot by another protester, not by the gun of any of the police officers who were on location.

That is not necessarily what everybody believes, however.

Pastor Steve Knight from the Mission Gathering Christian Church here in Charlotte is live with me here now to talk a little bit about what he witnessed. You were at the protests last night. They were peaceful. You were

forming a pastors' barrier, so to speak, between protesters and the riot police.

PASTOR STEVE KNIGHT, MISSION GATHERING CHRISTIAN CHURCH: That's right.

BANFIELD: Things started to get out of control quickly, and then you heard gunfire. Take me from there.

KNIGHT: Yes, I was with a clergy colleague of mine. There were a group of us.

We had gathered for prayer earlier in the evening, knowing that there were going to be protests in the city and wanting to go out. Members of the police were with us. They knew what we were doing. We were wearing yellow armbands to signify that we were with clergy.

We went out into the city in groups. When we heard that the protests were happening Uptown, a group of us, a couple groups of us went there. Initially, it was peaceful. The protesters were marching. They were not engaging the police.

Frankly, I was out the night before and the protests had gotten -- the protests -- members of the protest got more violent the night before. This protest, more people in the city, but it was not violent.

BANFIELD: That's suddenly when the gunfire was erupting. What happened next?

KNIGHT: Yes. We had been -- we had followed the police. I would say we had been marched up the street by the police. They had led us into this contained area of this entryway to the underground parking outside the Omni Hotel, what felt to me like an ambush, Ashleigh.

And it didn't need to happen that way. As soon as we -- the crowd -- and I was in the street further back from where the entrance was, but not far away. As soon as we reached that area, tear gas, we heard the bang. I saw the body on the pavement at that point and my clergy colleague and I rushed across towards the body. Protesters were surrounding the body on the sidewalk.

BANFIELD: To be really clear, the person is in critical, although it was earlier reported that that person had died. That person is in critical condition, so the victim was on the ground, and you witnessed that?

KNIGHT: Yes. Yes.

We saw the body on the ground. I saw two members of the fire department come out and go through the crowd to reach the man, lift him in the air and carry him back.

BANFIELD: Extract him from...

(CROSSTALK) KNIGHT: Yes. The people who were there were trying to administer to the man, but they came through to get him and get him medical attention.

BANFIELD: And you are skeptical of the immediate claims that it was not a policeman's bullet that caused that. Why is that?

KNIGHT: I am.

It was such a chaotic scene. It was such a chaotic situation. It happened so quickly that for the police to -- as soon as we got back, we regathered at the church last night, and we began to hear media reports the police are telling the media they have a gun, it was a protester shooting another protester.

And it was too chaotic of a scene. We heard the police chief say yesterday morning in his press conference almost in the same breath Mr. Scott had a gun, we don't have all the facts, we can't say anything definitively.

Those things contradict themselves. And for the scene that I witnessed last night, it's a contradiction for the police to be able to say so quickly we know what happened in the shooting.

BANFIELD: So, Pastor, as a witness, it's not that you're telling me forensically you're able to determine that you're suspect of the police claims. It's more culturally, whatever is happening in this city and the feeling towards the police, that's how you feel. You're not sure.

[15:10:10]

KNIGHT: Yes.

I can tell you the crowd that was on the street immediately felt as if the shot had come from the direction of the police. That was the immediate reaction of the crowd that I was in last night.

BANFIELD: So, can I ask you? I'm guessing you're probably going to be activated once again tonight. If there are protests in the street, will you be out in the same role again trying to provide that buffer zone between clergy, protesters and the police?

KNIGHT: I know there are some members of the clergy that are going to be going out.

We're going to -- our church, Mission Gathering Christian Church here in Charlotte, has opened its doors. We are going to be doing a nonviolent direct action training this afternoon because we want people to be trained in nonviolence. And we will see what happens tonight.

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: Quick question for you. I have to send it back. But do you think the decision by the police chief to withhold the video, dash cam, body cam, because the law doesn't go into effect until next week, to be clear.

KNIGHT: That's right. Yes. Yes.

BANFIELD: Do you think that is going to make things better or worse on the streets tonight?

KNIGHT: Until we see we have transparency, until that video is released, the community is going to distrust the official story that's being told by the police.

BANFIELD: Pastor Steve Knight, I appreciate you talking with us, and please be careful. And our best goes out to you and your colleagues as you do your work tonight.

So, there you have it. That's sort of the issue, is that it's a transparency issue, and what that does in terms of manifesting itself in crowd behavior, Poppy, it could be a long night.

HARLOW: I think that's the key. That's the central question. Ashleigh, thank you so much for that.

Coming up next, he was in the middle of that chaos last night that you just heard all about. He hugged police officers. Some protesters did not like that. I will speak live with this man about that confrontation next.

Also breaking news, Yahoo confirming 500 million accounts have been hacked, 500 million. Hear who the company is blaming. This is a major development next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:16:12]

HARLOW: As rioting and looting took over Charlotte, North Carolina, last night, anger at police over a man's death at the hands of an officer seemed to be most intense when CNN's cameras captured this moment.

This man had been hugging police officers in full riot gear. You will see it in just a moment. And some of the protesters taunted him for it. So, he turned to the protesters and he explained to them the police need our compassion as well.

That's what he said, so, later, an officer came over and thanked him for that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEN NWADIKE, FOUNDER, FREE HUGS PROJECT: I see them as human beings, just like I see everybody on this side as human beings.

We're all human. This uniform doesn't make him a robot, just like your uniform, your skin color doesn't make you a criminal. And that's what I need people to understand.

(CROSSTALK)

NWADIKE: This man gave me a hug. And he wants to fight me because of that. How does that make sense, spreading more hate into the world? That's what's frustrating me, that we can't love one another?

Your community was burned down and destroyed because of the Rodney King riots.

(CROSSTALK)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: That man is with me now, Ken Nwadike. He is the founder of the Free Hugs Project. He started this after the Boston Marathon bombings.

Thank you for being here.

And, you know, we couldn't hear what this officer said to you when he came over to you last night. We know he thanked you.

NWADIKE: Yes.

HARLOW: What did he say?

NWADIKE: Well, he came over. And he let me know that he's seen my work before.

He saw the Dallas video when I attended the Dallas vigil. And he said just keep doing what you're doing. Keep it up. It's really important, and it's making a difference.

HARLOW: You were not in Charlotte, by the way. You were, I believe, in South Carolina, right, set to give a speech.

NWADIKE: Yes.

HARLOW: And when all this broke out, you just got in your car and drove to Charlotte?

NWADIKE: Exactly. Yes, I was giving a speech on spreading more love and peace in the world at the University of South Carolina.

And when I heard that the protests were taking place, I figured it's only an hour-and-a-half, let me just race out there and try to help keep the peace.

HARLOW: I wonder what your perspective is. Look at what broke out in Charlotte last night, the looting and the vandalism, amid many peaceful protesters.

That vs. the way that a police-involved shooting of another black man in Tulsa in the last week was handled. Last night in Tulsa, you had about a thousand people, black and white, coming together in peace talking about the root cause of the problem and a path forward together as a community. Why do you think two very different responses?

NWADIKE: Right.

I think that there were probably issues on both sides. I think there was a little bit of aggression from the police officers, but also the people in Charlotte yesterday, I think there were a lot of young people out there.

And maybe, I don't know, it could have been lack of leadership, who knows, but just the community not really coming together and organizing that protest. I think it was just individuals that came out and all decided, well, here's how I want to lash out my anger as an individual.

And protests don't work like that if there's no cohesiveness. I think the reason why Tulsa worked out, because, like you said, there are diverse groups and organizations that came together and said, this is how we're going to do it.

So, leadership must have been the issue there.

HARLOW: You said that you have been to a number of these protests and you said for the first time last night you felt scared.

[15:20:01]

NWADIKE: Yes, definitely, I think, again, from both sides.

I wasn't sure what to expect from the riot police because I did see a number of peaceful protesters that were pepper-sprayed or maced, a number of them that were arrested just from trying to keep the peace. As the police officers would march forward as they wanted more of the blocks that we were standing on, they would just grab people.

So if I'm standing with my hands up in the air with two fingers up signifying peace, I wasn't sure if I would get grabbed by the police officers, but also on the protest side, because there was so much anger and frustration there, I didn't really know what to expect.

HARLOW: One see that we do in this video -- and you posted a lot of it on Facebook -- is that we see some people appearing to taunt you and to make fun of what you're doing.

What were they saying? Why were they saying that? You have been doing this for some time. You have even gone to political rallies, Donald Trump rallies, doing this. What do you make of the people that were taunting you for this?

NWADIKE: Yes.

Again, I think they were young. I think they don't really understand the message of unity. They looked at the police officers, even the police officers that were there, as the enemy. And what I was trying to help them understand was that these individual police officers that are standing here are not the reason why the protest is even taking place, these men did not shoot anyone.

And these kids felt that, just based on the uniforms that they wear, that that makes them all guilty by association. And what I was trying to explain to them is to generalize or categorize police officers that way, that would be like someone saying, well, this black man did this, so, therefore every black man is now a criminal, every black man is guilty, and it's not right.

And some people may say, yes, but that's their profession, they're supposed to protect and serve. But there's good cops and there's bad cops. And the majority of cops are good. And so every time that we have one of these cases that pops up, we can't go and get upset at the other 90-something percent of police officers that are really just trying to do their job and do it well. And we're really only hearing about these cases.

That can't make them the enemy.

HARLOW: Ken Nwadike, thank you so much for being here. It's pretty remarkable what you're doing in the face of all of this. Thank you.

NWADIKE: Thank you.

HARLOW: All right, coming up next, breaking news, Yahoo just confirming as many as 500 million of its accounts were hacked, 500 million. So what if you have a Yahoo account? What does all this mean for you? And wait until you hear who Yahoo is squarely pointing the finger at for doing this next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:27:28]

HARLOW: Breaking news for any of you who have a Yahoo account, and that's a lot of people around the world.

The company just now confirming a report that hundreds of millions of user accounts have been hacked. We're talking about 500 million accounts.

CNN's Brian Stelter, senior media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES," is here with us.

This is a huge hack. There's a lot of important things to get to, including who they are blaming, which is fascinating and scary.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Right.

HARLOW: But, first off, what information did these hackers get?

STELTER: Names, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, in some cases security questions that you use to reset your accounts, not actual passwords, but a lot of other data of about 500 million Yahoo users.

It could be one of the biggest cyber-security breaches ever.

HARLOW: Ever.

STELTER: And for Yahoo, one of the biggest media and tech companies in the world, in the middle of being sold to Verizon, it comes at a really hard time for them.

(CROSSTALK)

STELTER: There's no good time for this, but it's even worse now. And, by the way, Poppy, this happened in 2014. We're only hearing about it now.

HARLOW: Why? So, some of the big tech blogs, Re/code said Yahoo was going to confirm this, and then they have. But this came out a few weeks ago.

(CROSSTALK)

STELTER: Yes. There were rumors about this a month ago.

HARLOW: But if this happened in 2014, is that a huge red light, a transparency question? Why did you not tell the public about it sooner?

STELTER: That's the first question I have. And so far Yahoo isn't explaining that part.

They say they only recently became aware of the stolen information and so they figured out what happened. But it's awfully embarrassing, sort of on top of the other embarrassments, that this happened two years ago.

HARLOW: That's a very important point, though. It may have happened two years ago. They may have had no idea until now.

STELTER: Right. Right.

HARLOW: They should have, but it's not saying that they knew for two years at all.

(CROSSTALK)

STELTER: Right.

And maybe the reason why they didn't know is because of the way this happened. Yahoo is saying a state-sponsored actor, which usually means Russia or China or some other foreign government, was behind this hack.

HARLOW: But what I think is fascinating is, yes, they come out, they said a state-sponsored actor, but they don't say who. They don't say Russia. They don't say China.

Why go that far, but not say who you believe it is?

STELTER: Perhaps they're still trying to figure out that and perhaps the U.S. government is telling them not to give away too many details. In some of these cases, some of these breaches, there are sort of

digital fingerprints that are left behind. In other cases, it's very difficult to verify how this hack happened.

HARLOW: Needless to say, people need to change their passwords, those key questions that remind you of what your password is, et cetera.

STELTER: Right.

HARLOW: Much more full coverage on CNNMoney.com.

Brian, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

STELTER: Sure.

HARLOW: A lot to get to this hour.

Still ahead, New York's mayor blasting Donald Trump for suggesting that stop and frisk policies could reduce violence in America, Donald Trump's campaign now clarifying.

Also, moments from now, the family of Keith Lamont Scott will speak about his death at the hands of a Charlotte police officer. You will hear what they have to say live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)