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Arab Nations Join Fight Against ISIS; Actress Arrested because Police Thought She Was a Prostitute

Aired September 15, 2014 - 08:30   ET

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: And that's something society has to deal with. But we haven't yet, Mr. Moore.

MARTIN: We haven't. And, Chris, as we were talking about, if you were to overlay the percentage of infractions that happen in the NFL into society, you would see those infractions drop precipitously in society.

CUOMO: Keith, George, thank you very much. This played out in real time. I didn't like what George said last time he was on the show. I started slapping him around. People had to pull me off him. It was a really ugly - no, I'm just kidding. George, thank you so much.

MARTIN: Good to see you.

CUOMO: And the book.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Great. Thank you.

CUOMO: Yes.

MARTIN: And, by the way, go to my website.

CUOMO: Tell us the title. Yes.

MARTIN: Georgedmartin.com and you can get all the information regarding the book. It's a wonderful read. Thank you.

CUOMO: Will be done. Gentlemen, thank you very much. Important discussion.

So this is. Secretary of State John Kerry says some 40 nations are signed up to fight ISIS, but it's the nations who aren't on board that is really noteworthy. We're going to tell you the list.

And, police detain a Hollywood actress. She says they thought she was a prostitute after she was seen kissing her white boyfriend in public. But there's more to the story. Actress Danielle Watts is here, along with brand new audio from the incident so you can decide for yourself.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, here we go with the five things you need to know for your new day. At number one, after the beheading of a third westerner, Secretary of

State John Kerry is in Paris trying to build an international coalition to defeat ISIS. He says some Arab nations have been supportive, however Iran says it will not cooperate.

Reports say that Ray Rice is set to appeal his indefinite suspension by the NFL. He was cut by the Ravens and suspended by the league after TMZ released a video of Rice knocking his then fiancee unconscious in a hotel elevator.

The attorney for GM will announce how many deaths have been linked to General Motors' faulty ignition switches. The company has linked 54 accidents and 13 fatalities to the defect, but government regulators say they believe those figures are even higher.

Two out of control wildfires have forced hundreds of people in California to flee. One near the lakeside resort town of Oakhurst has forced 1,000 people out of some 400 homes. Further north, east of Sacramento, a separate wildfire may force some 400 more evacuations.

Meanwhile, Baja, California, getting slammed with a cat two hurricane. Hurricane Odile blowing out windows and knocking out power in beautiful Cabo San Lucas.

We do update those five things to know, so be sure to visit newdaycnn.com for the very latest.

Another war in the Middle East and another international coalition, but who is helping and who's not? The answers may surprise you. We will break it all do down.

And an African-American actress say police mistook her for a prostitute when she kissed her white boyfriend in public. They're going to tell us the whole story live as new audio is released of the incident.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Hold on. Can't be telling me jokes while we're back on TV, Rick.

We've been down this road before. Another conflict in the Middle East. Another coalition in quotes. Why in quotes? Because we have to understand what's really going on here.

Now, Secretary Kerry says some 40 nations are behind us in the ISIS fight, including several Arab nations. Now, who are they? What exactly are they going to add? Do we really have a plan in place to do more than just bomb? Let's get on the map. Let's show it to you and depict it. We have CNN military analyst Lieutenant Colonel Rick Francona.

Rick, thank you for being here with us as always.

LT. COL. RICK FRANCONA, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning.

CUOMO: All right, let's take a look here. Take a look at the map and let's kind of put out the situation. As we said last week, it's complex. And now, as people are starting to learn, it's the complexity that counts.

So here's Syria. The dark is the region where ISIS is. Now, help me. The plan, as I understand it is, we're going to arm the Syrian rebel army.

FRANCONA: Exactly.

CUOMO: And that they're going to do the fighting so that we don't have to be on the ground but we'll help them with bombing.

FRANCONA: Yes.

CUOMO: They want to fight Assad. They are not doing well in that fight. So our plan is to now give them some equipment and training and bombing and have them fight two sets of bad guys at once?

FRANCONA: Yes. Well, they're doing that already. The problem is, if we think this -- these people are going to be our boots on the ground in Syria with the U.S. and allied air power supporting them, it's going to be very problematic. Now, Colonel Riad --

CUOMO: What does that mean, problematic? Now work?

FRANCONA: Well, problematic means it probably won't work initially because Colonel Riad, who's in charge of the military wing of the Free Syrian Army said that his goal is to overthrow Bashar al Assad, not to fight ISIS. Now, they've had to fight ISIS because ISIS is in there trying to expand their control over everywhere. So he's willing to take the weapons, he's willing to take the training, but he wants a commitment from us that we will continue to support him after the ISIS problem is handled. He still wants to go to Damascus.

CUOMO: Important to note he doesn't have complete trust in the U.S. because he thought we were going to bomb Assad for him once before and we wound up not doing it.

FRANCONA: There's a lot of mistrust between not only the Free Syrian Army but any of these groups in the Middle East. And we have to be very careful how we portray this. This is not an American war. This needs to be portrayed as a coalition including the Arab countries.

CUOMO: Do you believe that, colonel?

FRANCONA: It's very difficult, especially when we find very little commitment. I know the secretary of state is in the region right now trying to generate a lot of support.

CUOMO: He says it's not a war.

FRANCONA: It's not a war. It's a conflict. It's an effort --

CUOMO: Do you buy that?

FRANCONA: No. CUOMO: OK. So -

FRANCONA: When you have young men dropping bombs, it's a war.

CUOMO: That's a war, right, and that's happening right now as we speak.

FRANCONA: Yes.

CUOMO: But that's OK because we have this huge coalition of 40 countries and they're going to do the fighting for us, right?

FRANCONA: Ah, that's -

CUOMO: Take a look at the map.

FRANCONA: That's the theory. Yet when we look at actually what's been agreed to, we see a lot of support.

CUOMO: What does that mean?

FRANCONA: I think it means money. I think it means intelligence. It means some training. But I don't see any commitment for actual force. Maybe one country has agreed to provide some air power and -

CUOMO: Why not? ISIS is a direct threat to them, not the U.S.

FRANCONA: Well, it's a direct threat but not an immediate threat. If you look at the map and you look at the distances involved here, the nearest point of advance from any ISIS unit to Amman, Jordan, 300 miles. From the nearest point of ISIS to Riyadh, 600 miles. So they feel that they've got time and space yet to figure out what's going on. Whereas in Iraq, of course, you've got conflict going right now. You've got Americans on the ground there. You've got American air power being used.

CUOMO: If you and I were going to bet dinner right now, Turkey, boots on the ground or no?

FRANCONA: No.

CUOMO: Saudi Arabia, boots on the ground or no?

FRANCONA: No.

CUOMO: Jordan?

FRANCONA: No.

CUOMO: Who puts boots on the ground?

FRANCONA: The United States.

CUOMO: No, we say no boots on the ground. Politicians are afraid of the polls. FRANCONA: Well, here's the key. If this is truly a threat to the

United States, as the president has said, we really cannot rely on other people to do this. It's going to come down to, are we willing to put up a fight a threat to us, or are we going to rely on the Iraqis and the Peshmerga to do this for us?

CUOMO: Can Peshmerga get it done?

FRANCONA: They can do it in Iraq. What happens when we get to Syria? I do not see the Iraqis going into Syria. I do not see the Peshmerga going into Syria. So who's going to be the boots on the ground in Syria if the Free Syrian Army can't do it? That leaves only us. And are we willing to do that? I don't see that happening.

CUOMO: Not right now. Congress is talking about it. They won't even vote. And you know what, you also have to remember here is that right now what Rick is talking about is the easy part. The fighting is the easy part. Where does the political stability come from: Where does the cultural stability come from? Why does that matter? Because if you don't have those in place, guess where you wind up? Right where we are right now. This has happened before. We were all there. We all saw it.

Rick, thank you so much.

FRANCONA: Sure thing, Chris.

CUOMO: Because we've got to ask the questions now, otherwise we're just going to pay the price for bad answers later.

Now, a Los Angeles actress, she says cops arrested her. They thought she was a prostitute she says. Why? Because she was kissing her boyfriend who was white. Is this racial profiling or something more? Danielle Watts and her boyfriend are here, along with brand new audio of the incident. Take a listen, make a judgment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

DANIELE WATTS, ACTRESS: Bonjour.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bonsoir.

(inaudible)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

PEREIRA: That was actress Daniele Watts in the 2012 film "Django Unchained."

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

PEREIRA (voice-over): That actress says Los Angeles police detained her last week because they allegedly thought she was a prostitute. Watts, who's African-American, and her white boyfriend claim police racially profiled the two of them after they were seen kissing in public. Her boyfriend took this video that we're showing you right now of her in handcuffs. This morning, TMZ released new audio of the encounter.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

PEREIRA (on camera): We're going to speak to the couple who are with us in Los Angeles in a moment, but first I want to let you listen to this audio from TMZ.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Somebody called the police saying that there was lewd acts in the car.

WATTS: No lewd acts happening (inaudible)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doesn't matter, I have to ID you.

WATTS: We're not doing anything.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Somebody called - -

WATTS: I'm on the phone with my dad. This is my boyfriend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay, I want to see your ID.

WATTS: We're sitting in front of a public place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Somebody called which gives me the right to be here, so it gives me the right to identify you by law.

WATTS: Do you know how many times the cops have been called just for being black? Just because I'm black and he's white. I'm just being really honest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who brought up a race card?

WATTS: I'm bringing it up because - -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I said nothing about you being black.

WATTS: I have every right to be here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I have every right to ask your ID.

WATTS: And I have every right to say no.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, you do not have every right to say no.

WATTS: And if you'd like to demand it, you can take me down to the court office and I can make a scene about it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

WATTS: You know what, I have a publicist and I work as an actress.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm mildly interested you have a publicist, but I'm going to get your ID.

WATTS: For what?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you see what time it is? 15 minutes ago, I would have been gone.

WATTS: But because I didn't give you my ID, you felt that that was enough?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is enough ma'am. It is enough.

WATTS: That's fine. You know what? This is not a problem for me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay.

WATTS: Because I'm going to get all of your names.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's obviously a problem for you.

WATTS: No. What is a problem for me is that you think you're better than me, and you think you have more power than me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think I do have more power than you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: Police are saying they are investigating the incident. Daniele Watts and her boyfriend Brian James Lucas join us now from Los Angeles. And I watched you clutch your chest when you heard all of that. I'm curious, Daniele, often times when we go through these situations or any kind of traumatizing situation, if we get an opportunity to see it like we've been able to here on video, sometimes we feel differently. Do you feel differently watching it than experiencing it?

WATTS: I feel like it's something that I'm very appreciative is being made aware, you know, to the people of this country. I feel humbled by the experience, and I know that there's a lot for us all to grow and learn from it.

PEREIRA: That's actually a very good point. Why don't we break down as best we can what happened. We understand police said they received a call to 911 from somebody claiming that a man and woman were involved in a quote unquote sexual act. You guys say you were just making out in a car like a couple does.

WATTS: Yes.

PEREIRA: The police show up. Take us from there.

WATTS: So the police show up. I'm outside of the car at this point talking to my dad on the phone. He comes to speak to Brian and asks for my ID, doesn't talk to me. Asks Brian for my ID. When I overhear that while I'm on the phone, I interrupt them and I say to Brian, I say no, he will not be giving you my ID because I haven't done anything wrong and I know that I'm not required to do that. I'm talking to my dad. Nothing personal, but I'm walking away. And when I walked away -- yes --

PEREIRA: So let me ask you, why not? Extrapolate on that a little bit more Daniele, because I think some people might not understand why you wouldn't just easily give them your ID and let them carry on their way and you on yours.

WATTS: Well it's because I believe in America and what it stands for and I believe in freedom. I think that a country that calls itself the land of free and the home of the brave, if I'm within my amendment rights, my constitutional rights to say no, unless you're charging me with a crime I will not be giving you my ID. That is a right that I stand up for because of the shoulders that I stand on, because of the people who fought so hard for their rights that came before me. Black, white, all people have been fighting for these rights for freedom. It's beyond race at this point.

PEREIRA: I know that we asked a couple of our legal analysts, because we wanted to understand what the law is in California. Because many of us wonder, do police have the right to ask you for ID? In California the police, if they have reasonable suspicion, they are permitted to detain an individual for a reasonable amount of time in order to ascertain the person's identity. You also heard on the video there, the police officer even saying look, if you just give me your ID, 15 minutes ago I could have been gone. Do you regret just not handing him your ID now or do you still feel strongly like I didn't have to?

WATTS: I still feel strongly like I didn't have to. I feel that it raises awareness. I'm thankful for the experience. Not to say that I feel like I have to go through it again. It's causing a lot of discussion and I feel like that's the purpose of the media, of artists, of actors and celebrities to talk about things and raise awareness so that we can all decide what kind of society we want to live in.

PEREIRA: Well, and it is important to have discussions about this so assumptions are not made. And it sounds as though maybe some assumptions were made initially. For example, the call that was generated to 911. They thought they saw something. Let me be frank, were you two doing something you shouldn't have been doing?

WATTS: In my opinion, it's not a crime to be fully clothed, showing affection on a public street in our own car. If we're fully clothed and -- it doesn't matter how passionately we're making out. It's my right and my pleasure to enjoy myself. And I don't feel like I should feel shameful for that or feel like I should have to apologize for that.

PEREIRA: Now Brian, let me ask you about this because I know the two of you - - you're two different people, you were both involved in this scenario.

BRIAN JAMES LUCAS, BOYFRIEND OF DANIELE WATTS: Yes.

PEREIRA: You see it a little differently than Daniele. You think that this was racial profiling. I'm not putting words in your mouth, am I?

LUCAS: Well, you know, the only reason I even suspected that one bit is that the clip didn't show the beginning. The clip that you played, that was like towards the very end. In the beginning, he came up and said I had a call that there was a black and white couple. And he's the one that actually brought that up, and she even mentioned. I became a little bit of a discussion at the beginning when she tried to get him to talk to her dad when she was on the phone when he wanted to speak to her.

He was definitely, like, edging me on a bunch as well. Like when he pulled up, he asked me questions that - no, he didn't ask me directly about the fact that -- just made me feel like I was like a client and she was a prostitute. The questions he was asking and the way he was doing it -- throughout the whole experience, he kept on doing it. Like towards the end, he told her, do you want me to call the paramedics? Throwing out the innuendo that she was crazy. Just things like that that were just, like, very displeasing.

PEREIRA: Do you see, either of you, how it could have been misconstrued initially, and then on the outset? And then, if so, how - - let's put your - - because again, you're talking about awareness.

WATTS: Yes.

PEREIRA: It's important to have these conversations. Put yourselves in the shoes of an officer and they encounter a situation. How would you have done it if it were you?

WATTS: Well, I've actually played an officer before and I've thought a lot about this. I think it comes down to seeing the humanity in another person, and having empathy and awareness, you know, for what your actions are and the repercussions of your actions. So, when the officer came up, he didn't even ask me for my ID. He asked Brian. So he didn't even give me the respect of telling me what happened.

For me, if he had come to me and said excuse me ma'am, like, you seem like a respectable person, but, you know, someone made a call. Can we just talk to you for a second? The whole situation would have been different. But he came at it with a very condescending manner, that I feel like is typical of what's happening in law enforcement across the country right now. And if we're the country that's supposed to be representing freedom and equality for all, then I think that our police officers should be trained in treating people with that sort of dignity. It's just common sense to me.

PEREIRA: Let me just mention here quickly because the LAPD has provided a response. We gave them an opportunity and they said quote, it was a call generated by a citizen. There was an indication on the radio call that a male, white and female, black, I hate that terminology but it is police speak, were involved in a sexual act inside a Mercedes with a vehicle door open. Two people were briefly detained, but it was revealed that no crime had been committed. That's a spokesperson for the LAPD. We're also reporting today that an internal complaint investigation has been initiated regarding this matter. So we should let you know, the whole matter is under investigation to the point of how it ended. How was it that it then ended, that you were allowed to go on your way?

WATTS: Well, Brian was tired of seeing me in handcuffs, humiliated outside of the studio that I worked at. So he got my ID, gave it to the cop. They searched it, find out that they had nothing to charge me with. No priors, nothing that would indicate probable cause and they had to let me go.

PEREIRA: But again, and I'm not trying to harp on this.

WATTS: Yes.

PEREIRA: You gave your ID to Brian. He gave it to the police. You see that if you had done that earlier, it might not have escalated this far?

WATTS: I certainly understand that, but I do, again, feel like part of my role as a public figure is to raise awareness and be strong enough to stay and do the things that maybe people who don't have the advantages that I have aren't strong enough, or don't have the know how, or don't have the awareness to do. So because I'm aware of the history of our country, I went to college, I've studied the law, I've studied these sort of situations.

For me, standing up for that constitutional right was a gift and a blessing that I had the opportunity to do that because now there's some kid going through the same thing that doesn't have the same opportunity to talk to the news the way that I do. And that kid can watch this and go you know what? I don't have to be afraid of police officers anymore because I live in a country that says that we're free.

PEREIRA: But again, the ACLU generally advises people the best course of action is to give the police your ID so they can ID you and carry on.

WATTS: Yes.

PEREIRA: I just have to say that so that we don't have a situation. It ended positively for you. I don't want a situation to spiral out of control for someone else who doesn't have the kind of spotlight that you have. Daniele Watts, Brian James Lucas, thank you for getting up awfully early to tell your story here first hand for us. Okay?

WATTS: Thank you for talking to us.

PEREIRA: Alright.

WATTS: God bless you.

PEREIRA: You too.

Chris?

CUOMO: Alright, Mich. A lot of news this morning. What's going to happen with this ISIS plan? Is there really a coalition going on? A lot of news coming out of the NFL and it's not good.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Time now for "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello. Good morning, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, we have it all. Good morning. Have a great day. Thanks so much.

NEWSROOM starts now.