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Ferguson Video to "Villify" Victim?; New MH 17 Video; The Rising Costs of Higher Education; Charity Supergroup Records Song to Tackle Ebola
Aired November 17, 2014 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: An effort to, quote, "vilify" the victim and put the shooter on a pedestal. That's how attorneys for the family of Michael Brown, the unarmed Missouri teenager who was shot and killed by Ferguson cop Darren Wilson, reacted to newly released surveillance video. That surveillance video shows Officer Wilson just after the incident. The video, along with audio from before and after the shooting, all being made public over the weekend by "The St. Louis Post Dispatch."
CNN's Stephanie Elam in Ferguson this morning with more. Good morning, Stephanie.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
Yesterday actually marked 100 days since Mike Brown was killed on August 9th. And now we're, for the first time, we are hearing Officer Darren Wilson.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELAM (voice-over): These are the first images of Officer Darren Wilson in the white t-shirt captured just hours after Michael Brown was killed on August 9th. It is unclear in the video if Wilson was suffering from any injuries, but police have said that Wilson sustained bruises and had a swollen face after his alleged struggle with Brown.
BENJAMIN CRUMP, BROWN FAMILY ATTORNEY: From the beginning, Dorian Johnson, who was with Michael Brown Jr., said the officer wasn't hurt that he saw.
ELAM: The surveillance video obtained by "The St. Louis Post Dispatch" shows Wilson leaving the police station after the shooting for the hospital. Later the video shows him returning, according to the paper. "The St. Louis Post Dispatch" also obtained police audio, publishing a timeline of events from that day, beginning with a theft.
DISPATCH: Sir, we've taking (ph) a stealing in progress from 9101 West Florissant.
ELAM: Nineteen seconds later, dispatch issues a description of a suspect.
OFFICER: He's with another male. He's got a red Cardinals hat, white t-shirt, yellow socks and khaki shorts. He's walking up (INAUDIBLE).
ELAM: Minutes later, Officer Wilson offers assistance.
OFFICER WILSON: Twenty-one to 25 or 22, you guys need me?
ELAM: The paper says shortly after, Officer Wilson stops Brown and his friend Dorian Johnson for walking in the middle of the street. Officer Wilson calls for back up.
OFFICER WILSON: Twenty-one. Put me on Canfield with two. And send me another car.
ELAM: According to the paper's timeline, Brown's fatal encounter with Wilson took less than two minutes. At 12:07, this call came in with someone apparently screaming in the background.
DISPATCH: Frank (ph) 25.
OFFICER 25: Get us several more units over here. There's gonna be a problem.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ELAM: And here in Ferguson, people are waiting the grand jury decision on whether or not to indict Officer Darren Wilson. One woman telling me that she is not worried but she's concerned, mainly for her school- age daughter and making sure that she's able to get to school and that school's not cancelled and able to get home safely, Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Stephanie Elam reporting live from Ferguson this morning.
Joining me now from St. Louis, Reverend Renita Marie Lamkin. She's a pastor and has also been on the front lines in Ferguson where she took part in protests against the Michael Brown shooting.
Good morning.
REV. RENITA MARIE LAMKIN, ST. JOHN A.M.E. CHURCH: Good morning.
COSTELLO: You're hearing from your congregation and the community. What are they saying?
LAMKIN: People are on edge. Tensions and anxieties are high. And we're all just ready for the announcement.
COSTELLO: You know, "The New York Times" had an interesting article in the paper this morning about the influx of groups coming into Ferguson since the shooting and the strategies they're developing in light of this grand jury decision. With so many different groups, I mean how -- how do you make sure that everyone is on the same page?
LAMKIN: Well, some groups that have come into St. Louis have been very positive. There's been a lot of community organizing. Over 1,000 people in the city have been trained in non-violent resistance. Protests. Lots of good things have happened with outside groups. The outside groups that mean us harm, we are training ourselves to look, be watchful and to be mindful of people who are instigating our regular people, the people who are normally on the streets, and to keep an eye on those who just look like they shouldn't be there. Who look like they're up to --
COSTELLO: Well, let's say that you guys notice like a group that's instigating violence, what do you do?
LAMKIN: They handle it. They remove people from the group.
COSTELLO: Who's they?
LAMKIN: We have a group of peace keepers and clergy and other concerned adults that our within the group is just to keep an eye on what's happening within the big crowd.
COSTELLO: Brave people.
LAMKIN: It's very important to be able to -- for the young people to be protected and for the police to be protected. And what we experienced before was massive assault on the group of protestors because of what one person did. And so we want to make very clear that one person will not be allowed to compromise the entire group.
COSTELLO: So in other words, you guys are not afraid to make a citizen's arrest?
LAMKIN: Not (ph) essentially, no, we're not.
COSTELLO: There is one umbrella group, it's called the Don't Shoot Coalition. It's made up of 50 smaller organizations. It's proposed rules of engagement with police. And they cover everything from clear communication between police and protestors, to 48 hour notice of the grand jury decision. Do you think that those things will help?
LAMKIN: As of now, the police have not agreed to accept those 19 proposals. There has been some compromise on a few of those. But, yes, those proposals would help very much.
COSTELLO: I talked with a Missouri state representative, his name is Jeff Roorda, to get his thoughts on the protest and the incidents that happened during these massive protests that went on. Here's what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: What do you expect to happen when the grand jury decision comes down?
JEFF ROORDA (D), MISSOURI STATE HOUSE: I expect incredibly violent protests or violent celebrations if Darren would be indicted, which I don't expect to be the outcome. I expect that there would violent celebrations. You know, in -- after the Rodney King verdict, 53 people were killed, 10 by polices, the rest by violence in the crowd. We need to take aggressive steps to keep the people of Ferguson and even the protestors safe. And I hope that politicians don't get in the way of that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Reverend, do you think that kind of language helps?
LAMKIN: No. I think it's very inflammatory. For the past 100 days, there have been basically two days where there have been violent types of eruption. And the group is very committed to maintaining non- violent civil disobedience until police and policies and practices and protocols change.
COSTELLO: So when all is said and done, after the grand jury's decision comes out, what do you hope to see on the streets of Ferguson?
LAMKIN: Well, I hope to see a lot of togetherness. There has been much togetherness. There's been so many wonderful connections being made between people in the community, and I expect to see more connections being made. I expect that there will be lots of voices being raised, lots of demands being made and I expect that we will continue moving forward with local government and with our citizens to create a better community.
COSTELLO: I hope so. Pastor Renita Marie Lamkin, thank you so much. I sure appreciate it.
LAMKIN: Thank you. Thank you.
COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, fire, smoke, horror. New video supposedly showing the catastrophic crash of that airliner in Ukraine. CNN's Phil Black is live there this morning.
Good morning.
PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.
Four months after the MH 17 air disaster in the skies over Ukraine, the wreckage from the site is finally being collected as the conflict in this region continues and there are fears it could get a lot worse. We'll have details after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: This morning we have new details on the Malaysian airliner that was shot down over Ukraine last summer. Dutch investigators have begun hauling away the first massive pieces of the wreckage. Crews are racing the approach of winter and the intensifying fights between government troops and Russian backed rebels. And this apparent cell phone video, it claims to capture the very first moments after the crash that killed all 289 people on board. These images first appeared online. CNN's Phil Black is in Donetsk, Ukraine. He joins us live with more.
Hi, Phil.
BLACK: Hi, Carol. Yes, those incredible pictures have taken four months to come out.
What they appear to show, based on the time that we've spent at the site, is the main impact point for the largest piece of wreckage from MH 17. It broke up over the sky. What hit the ground there was the main section of the fuselage, the wings, the engineers, the undercarriage. It is also that section of the aircraft that has been the focus of Dutch investigators over the last couple of days as they begin now for the first time collecting parts of the wreckage to send back to the Netherlands to help piece together precisely what happened.
The investigators are on the ground supervising Ukrainian workers as pieces of the wreckage are hauled onto trucks, some of them cut into smaller pieces to make them easier to handle. What they're also been finding as they've been moving that wreckage is further human remains that have not been discovered up until this time. That's pretty important because of the 298 people aboard that aircraft, nine are unaccounted for. Nine have not been identified. It is obviously very significant for the families, the loved ones of those people that that happen. The government has warned it may never happen. But the more remains they recover from the site, the greater the chance that that could happen in the near future.
It's also pretty important that this is happening now, even though it is very late, because in just a few weeks it is very likely that entire site will be blanketed in snow.
Carol.
COSTELLO: Phil Black reporting live from Ukraine this morning. Thank you.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, higher education, deeper debt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The rise in student tuition is unsustainable. We cannot continue to charge significantly more year after year after year without running into some kind of a brick wall.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Is college worth the cost? We'll talk about that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: How much is the cost of higher education squeezing out the middle class? The median income of the United States is NOW a little under a $54,000 a year. But you'd need more than that to put one student through one year at these schools. The total cost of a year at Sarah Lawrence, including tuition, room and board, is more than $65,000. That's according The Chronicle of Higher Education. Harvey Mudd is not far behind. Columbia, NYU, and the University of Chicago also make up the top five priciest schools.
Want more evidence that the cost of a college education has gotten out of control? Check out this clip from the CNN film, "IVORY TOWER". It airs Thursday night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The rise in student tuition is unsustainable. We cannot continue to charge significantly more year after year after year without running into some kind of a brick wall.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: College tuition has increased more than any other good or service in the entire U.S. economy since 1978.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: So let's talk a little bit more about this. Joining us, Anthony Carvelli (sic), the director and research professor of the Georgetown University Center of Education and the Workforce. Good morning sir.
ANTHONY CARNEVALE, DIR., GEORGETOWN UNIV. CTR ON EDUCATION & WORKFORCE: Good morning to you.
COSTELLO: Thanks for being with me. Universities are also getting less money from the government, which means their costs go up. Tuition goes up, financial aid diminishes. It's not all on universities, is it?
CARNEVALE: The government's basically getting out of the higher education business. And it's always been the prime support, so states have to fund Medicaid and build roads and bridges and fund prisons. And you can't get a prisoner to pay for their room, so in the end, higher education is something you can lay off on a family. They will pay tuition. Much same is true of the federal government. So more and more students and families are paying the cost, and the cost is too high.
COSTELLO: Many would agree that the cost is extraordinarily high. I want to hear what you think about this. Millennial parents who want only the best for their kids often demand these pricey facilities like fabulous dormitories or state-of-the-art gyms. Are they in part to blame for the rising cost of a college education?
CARNEVALE: Yes, in part. That is, we have more and more built institutions that will attract upper middle-class students and they are used to living in a pretty luxurious life-style. So the quality of the room, the food, the library, the gym, et cetera. In order to attract students, when you're challenging a lot of money, you've got to offer a lot of service. And, so in the end, a college is a complete living environment for those who get residential education and that's expensive.
COSTELLO: Well, let's talk about the university's part in all of this. How does -- I don't know -- is it everything together that's driving up the cost of education or is one entity more to blame than another?
CARNEVALE: The most rapidly rising costs are the costs of administration and the cost in non-instructional parts of the higher education budget. So the cost creep is not so much for the actual teaching that goes on in colleges; it's for all the other stuff. So, in a way, especially with residential education, it is now out of the reach of most American families in a pricey liberal arts college, which is in many ways the ideal Americans carry in their head for a college experience.
COSTELLO: OK, final question, because this is something I don't understand since I went to a public university. Why do parents choose schools that cost $65,000 a year, knowing they can't really afford it and knowing that their kid's going to have this huge debt? Why not just go to a public university that costs much less? If you go to a public university in Ohio, for example, it's $10,000 a year.
CARNEVALE: The ideal college education is still the pricey liberal arts college. The truth is that what you're going to make with your college degree depends very little on where you go and depends on what you take. A petroleum engineer is going to make $150,000 a year; a major in psychology is going to make between $30,000 and $40,000 a year. And it doesn't matter which school you went to. Americans haven't learned to do shopping for value in higher education.
COSTELLO: I so think they need to do that, because you know what? Kent State gave me a great education and here I am. Anthony Carnevale, thank you so much for your insight. I appreciate it.
CARNEVALE: Thank you.
COSTELLO: A reminder -- you're welcome.
A reminder: you can watch "IVORY TOWER: IS COLLEGE WORTH THE COST?" right here on CNN Thursday night, 9:00 Eastern Time.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Remember those band aid charity supergroups from the '880s and '90s when stars teamed up to take on world issues like hunger? Well, they're back, but this time to fight Ebola.
(MUSIC)
COSTELLO: CNN's Max Foster live in London to tell us more. Good morning.
MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, it was only recorded on Saturday, went on sale this morning, according to the brain child behind this new recording and the original, actually, Bob Geldof, sales are manic. He says they'd gone bonkers on iTunes. And just a few minutes after the video was premiered last night on British TV, they made more than $1 million dollars. So, so far so good on this cause.
(BEBIN VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER (voice-over): The biggest names in British music showed up in solidarity in the fight against Ebola: One Direction, Ed Sheeran, Coldplay. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's going to a really good cause and
there are some really good celebrities doing it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's really good because it's nice to know they actually care and good to know celebrities are joining up to do things together.
FOSTER: Inside, it was down to work.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hopefully it gets to number one and raises a lot of money for a really worthy cause.
BONO, U2: As a group, as a movement, we want to make sure that people have what they need fight the next Ebola. That's what this is all really about.
FOSTER: The video was turned around in near record time to emphasize the urgency of the Ebola crisis.
(MUSIC): It's Christmas time; there's no need to be afraid. At Christmas time, we let in light and we banish shade. And in our world of plenty, we can spread a smile of joy
FOSTER: "Do They Know It's Christmas" was first recorded 30 years ago for famine relief in Ethiopia. It was the brain child of Bob Geldof, who's using the same concept now to raise funds to tackle Ebola in West Africa.
BOB GELDOF, SINGER-SONGWRITER: They don't have the doctors, nurses, hospitals, state systems that they have in Texas or Madrid, and so once again, through no fault of their own, this virus is out of control in states where there are no systems because there's no money.
FOSTER: It's a familiar song that's achieved great results in the past, this latest incarnation made relevant for a modern day crisis and today's generation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER (on-camera): One notable absence, though, Carol, in that recording was Adele. Bob Geldof said she failed to show up, but her representative, her publicist actually, said she was never booked to appear but she has made a donation, which is the main thing.
COSTELLO: We love Adele. Thank you very much; Max Foster reporting live from London.
The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.
(MUSIC)
