Return to Transcripts main page

The Lead with Jake Tapper

Ferguson Organizers Call For Police Restraint; Synagogue Attack Sparks Tension Revenge; Former Supermodel Accuses Cosby Of Rape

Aired November 19, 2014 - 16:30   ET

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

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to our other top story, the city of Ferguson, Missouri, anxiously awaiting the grand jury decision in the shooting death of Michael Brown. One activist who has been critical of police in the after math of the shooting is now being asked by the governor to help bring the community together and prevent any violence, so how does this 20-year-old plan to do it? We'll talk to him next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. We have some breaking news on the National Lead. It has a ruling that has an entire community on edge and the FBI on guard and now CNN has learned that the grand jury in Ferguson, Missouri, could decide as early as Friday whether to indict a white police officer for the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager.

Michael Brown's death set off weeks of violent clashes between police and protesters in the St. Louis suburb and there is growing concern over what might happen once the grand jury's decision is finally revealed.

Let's bring CNN justice reporter, Evan Perez. He is in Clayton, Missouri. Evan, what have you learned?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Jake, we've learned that the grand jury is coming back here to the County Prosecutor's Office on Friday. They're reconvening for what may be their last session. They'll hear evidence from the prosecutors before they begin deliberations and possibly make a decision on Friday.

Thereafter, the prosecutors plan to give 48 hours' notice to law enforcement here. As you know, Jake, there are lots of expectations that there are street protests depending on what the grand jury decides and then they'll make a final announcement and a public announcement on Sunday what the grand jury has decided.

TAPPER: All right, Evan Perez, thank you so much. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon is hoping to get ahead of any unrest. He's urging residents to remain calm and he's announced the creation of a commission to study the underlying issues that led to the unrest in violence this summer.

Rasheen Aldridge is the youngest member of the commission. He's 20. He is the director of Young Activists United St. Louis. Rasheen, thank you so much for joining us.

If the decision comes down as soon as Friday, what does that mean for groups like yours trying to make sure we don't see a repeat of what happened in August?

RASHEEN ALDRIDGE, DIRECTOR, YOUNG ACTIVISTS UNITED ST. LOUIS: Well, thanks for having me. If the decision comes down sometime this week, everyone in the city is hoping for no indictment, but the indictment of yes or no, people will be out there, and the youth are going to be out there peacefully protesting like we have been doing for the last 103 days.

TAPPER: What most concerns you if Officer Wilson is not indicted?

ALDRIDGE: I think what most concerns me is the community that continue to not see justice served, the community that continues not to have justice on their eyes or on their end.

I'm not too much nervous about the protesters because me and other youth have been gathering and have been organizing and to organize peacefully out there. There will be agitators that will be out there in the area.

But I'm more concerned that a community that never, ever gets justice is always the justice swings on the other side and we have to change that. We can't keep going down the same old road or we'll have another situation like Mike Brown or another situation like Von Derek Meyers and Gene Powell. We've got to stop.

TAPPER: So you're making it pretty clear that in your view, if Officer Wilson is not indicted, you don't see that. You won't see that as a fair analysis of evidence presented, am I interpreting your remarks correctly?

ALDRIDGE: I think you will see a group of all different type of folks. You are going to see people who have been organizing and continue to organize like I say for the last 103 days and then you're going to have some outside agitators.

We've been seeing a lot of, you know, the Ku Klux Klan have been very active on Twitter and made it very known that they're going to come down to Ferguson and use lethal force. Those are the ones, I think, the agitators that will stir up the pot with the youth that have been out there and we've been organizing each other.

And we're ready to peacefully go out there and not use any violence to get our message across and that means we want justice, justice for all color lines.

TAPPER: Right. But what I'm saying is in your view, justice only equals indictment. There is no way that the grand jury coming up with a different decision interpreting the evidence differently from your opinion is justice. That's what I'm asking.

ALDRIDGE: Yes. Justice is indictment of Darren Wilson, but that also, just because we don't get the indictment does not mean that we will not continue to be out there organizing and trying to change the whole system in the way that is set up.

TAPPER: You live in the community. Do you think that you're treated unfairly by police?

ALDRIDGE: I actually currently live downtown. It's a little ways from Ferguson, but I do feel that I am not treated the same as someone whose skin may be, you know, lighter than mine. I have been targeted by the police. I have been pulled over and said your car is suspicious of another car so let me run your I.D.

And let me, you know, pull you up the car and sit you on the curb for no apparent reason to come back and say, wrong car. So I am targeted. All colored people are targeted by the police, constantly, day in and day out especially here in St. Louis and especially here in North County and especially here in Ferguson.

TAPPER: Do you think that's ever going to change or this is how you think it is going to be for at least the near future?

ALDRIDGE: No, we're going to make the change. If it doesn't change, that's why you have seen so many folks and the youth that continue to go out in Ferguson. Because we're tired of the same old, same old, something happens and then there's no justice and everyone goes home and falls asleep and wait for the next situation to happen.

That's not what's going on happen here in Ferguson, Missouri, if there's no indictment we will continue to, like I say and organize to create the changes that we need one day wake up and know that we're not a target of police. We're not a target of the system and we can wake up and go outside the doors and be treated like everyone else should be treated.

TAPPER: What are you more worried about after the announcement assuming it's an announcement of not an indictment. Are you more worried about the outside agitators and the people who looted and burned down stores last time or are you more concerned about the police reaction?

ALDRIDGE: I'm actually more concerned that it just wouldn't -- it would be so surprising that they wouldn't give Michael Brown's family and the community justice. I'm not too much concerned about the violence. I don't think there's going to be looting.

I think the outside agitators, if you do see anything, they're going to be the ones coming in stirring up the pot and the peaceful protesters are the ones who are causing all of this trouble.

I'm more concerned why does a community not continue to not seek justice when there is an issue or situation that happens in their community? We have to keep changing and we cannot have the same status quo going.

TAPPER: Rasheen Aldridge, thank you so much.

ALDRIDGE: Thank you. TAPPER: Coming up next, Israel's retribution for the terrorist attack in a Jerusalem synagogue yesterday. How Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is punishing the families of those behind the attacks next.

Plus she's now Bill Cosby's most famous accuser, but his lawyer says. It's a lie, he says, but with so many new women coming forward, could charges be filed against the comedian?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. Time now for our World Lead, relations between Israelis and Palestinians were already at a fairly low point before yesterday's attack on a synagogue in Jerusalem. But now more dispiriting developments, Jerusalem police are ramping up security measures in the city after the terrorist attack, delaying plans to reopen roads in and out of the West Bank.

Israeli lawmakers are even weighing whether to ease restrictions on civilians carrying weapons. The attack left five dead including three American-Israeli rabbis and a police officer who was from Israel's Druze Muslim community.

And despite Prime Minister's Netanyahu appeal for Israelis not exact their own version of justice that is exactly what some seem to be doing. The Palestinian news agency reports two attacks against innocent bystanders already.

A group of Israelis in North Jerusalem stabbed a 22-year-old Palestinian man late yesterday and an Israeli settler shot and seriously wounded a Palestinian teen on the outskirts of Ramallah.

CNN international correspondent, Ben Wedeman, is live in Jerusalem. Ben, there have been chants going on behind you last night and earlier today, Israelis on the street shouting death to Arabs. How strained are things in Jerusalem right now?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Very strained, Jake. We were driving around Jerusalem today and it's very strange, normally, a very bustling, busy city, many fewer cars on the street, less people on the street.

And when you go into East Jerusalem where the Palestinian population is concentrated there are lots of checkpoints, lots of police and lots of border guards checking cars, checking papers, asking questions.

Overnight, of course, the Israelis did demolish the home of the family of the man that killed a 3-month-old baby and the woman next to the Jerusalem light rail system. When they blew up their apartment some of the debris fell down and destroyed a neighbor's car.

This sort of really underscores that even though individuals and their families may be the -- on the receiving end of some of these measures, a lot of other people are paying the price. This may be part of the Israeli strategy of making it a costly proposal to attack Israelis on the other side of what's called the dividing line between east and west Jerusalem. But it really goes to explain why there is so much frustration among Palestinians, 75 percent of whom in East Jerusalem live below the poverty line. So there's a lot of resentment and resentment after the attack that left five people killed.

There haven't been the sorts of demonstrations that we were seeing last night. Israeli authorities are extremely concerned about the possibility of revenge violence by Israelis. As you mentioned there were some minor incidents.

But let's keep in mind that last summer, think, a young Palestinian from East Jerusalem was kidnapped and murdered and that set off days of violent clashes in the city.

TAPPER: Ben, that policeman who was critically wounded during the terrorist attack and later died from his injuries. We saw thousands today gather for his funeral. Briefly if you could, what can you tell us about him?

WEDEMAN: He was a 30-year-old man recently married, had a young baby, 4 months old. What was interesting about that funeral is that it was attended by the president of Israel. The interior minister and a lot of people who came bussed in from the neighborhood where he was killed right outside that synagogue.

He's a member of the Druze sect and it's one that traditionally is loyal to the power, the local power, whatever it is in Lebanon and local to the Lebanese government and loyal to the Lebanese and loyal to the Israeli government and they serve along with the Jews in the army and the police and throughout the Israeli government -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Ben Wedeman in Jerusalem, thank you so much. Coming up, the long list of women accusing Bill Cosby of rape just got longer and with Janice Dickinson saying she was assaulted, will charges ever be brought against him? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. And the Money Lead, an entertainment empire years in the making and a trail blazer and an institution all crumbling before our eyes. One day after Netflix announced plans to postpone the release of a Bill Cosby special, NBC confirmed hours ago that it is pulling the plug on a development deal with him as more alleged victims come forward claiming that the comedian raped them.

The tally of Cosby's accusers stand at 15 and that include women who never came forward and were named as Jane Does more than a decade ago and the most recent accusation was levied by a woman who was once a huge star in her own right.

In an interview with "Entertainment Tonight," supermodel, Janice Dickinson accused Cosby of assaulting her back in 1982.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JANICE DICKINSON, FORMER SUPERMODEL: In my room he'd given me wine and a pill and the next morning I woke up and I wasn't wearing my pajamas, and I remember before I passed out that I had been sexually assaulted by this man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Cosby has never been charged with a crime and he's denied these allegations against him. Just hours ago his attorney released a statement saying, quote, "Janice Dickinson's story accusing Bill Cosby of rape is a lie.

There is a glaring contradiction between what she is claiming now for the first time and what she wrote in her own book and what she told the media back in 2002.

Now in Dickinson's memoir, she does talk about a creepy encounter with Cosby in which she claims she shunned his sexual advances. But the book does not include any details about any alleged assault. Dickinson says she was pressured to keep that out of the book.

I am joined now by criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor, Anne Bremner. Ann, thanks so much for joining us.

ANNE BREMNER, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Thank you.

TAPPER: I want you to take a listen to what the former prosecutor in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania had to say to CNN about why he declined to bring any charges against Cosby back in 2005 when that first case with Andrea Cronstan coming forward claimed that she'd been drugged in her home. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That he'd done something that was inappropriate, whether it was illegal in the sense that I could prove it beyond a reasonable doubt became the next question, and I didn't have that last piece. I wanted something else. I had no corroborating evidence. I couldn't do a search warrant. I couldn't look for hairs, fibers or anything that would corroborate because of the time delay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Do you buy that? Is one woman's story not enough?

BREMNER: That's prosecutor speak for I don't want to try this case and I don't want to deal with someone as beloved as Bill Cosby. You don't have blood, hair, fibers in every rape case. In fact, you don't have any evidence in rape cases unless you have a rape kit.

So you look back at this now and it reminds you of Sandusky, doesn't it? When you look back and people say, I couldn't prosecute that and then you look at the avalanche that comes later that says he did it to me and he did it to me, too, and prosecutors look the other way so 15 victims today.

TAPPER: Is it too late for any of these cases to be prosecuted?

BREMNER: Probably. I'll give you a lawyer answer, which is it depends and the factor is if there was force used, if there was a weapon. You have the longer statute, what if the person was under 18 like Barbara Bowman, who is coming forward.

She was 17, is there a discovery rule that would give longer limitations, but these cases go back to 1969. Most likely most would not be prosecutable. The devil is in the details and we need to see what the allegations are in each case and see what the rules are with respect to prosecution, but unlikely.

TAPPER: Some have pointed to the fact that Cosby settled as almost an admission of guilt, but that's not really accurate. There might be other reasons to settle.

BREMNER: There are all kinds of reasons to settle. I mean that's why when you have no settle document saying there is no admission of liability. So that's what he did, but there were other women, 13, willing to come forward back then, the cases from 2004 and settlement 2006.

You see this avalanche today, but you're right. It doesn't mean he admitted it, but it sure looks interesting to people that are supporting these women and to the public and the social media where he's been silent largely in response and the silence is making noise.

TAPPER: I know that it's very, very difficult for rape survivors to talk about it. A lot of supporters of Bill Cosby have been suggesting that the fact that it's taken so long for them to come forward might mean that their stories aren't real, but as somebody who has worked in the legal system, how common is it for rape survivors to not want to talk about it?

BREMNER: It is far more common than uncommon and I've worked with victims of rape, child victims of rape and prosecuted sex abuse cases. There's shame, there's fear and fear of reprisal and fear of not being believed and the general prospect of not wanting to be part of a case. We had a victim go across the street of the building and tried to jump off of it when she was called to the stand to face her accuser, the man she accused.

TAPPER: Ann Bremner, thank you so much. Appreciate your time. That's it for THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. I now turn you over to Wolf Blitzer. He is next door in "THE SITUATION ROOM."