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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake Declares Curfew in Baltimore; Unrest in Baltimore; Baltimore Native Stopping Looting Youth; Press Conference of Maryland Governor Larry Hogan. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired April 27, 2015 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:00] MAYOR STEPHANIE RAWLINGS-BLAKE: I'm going to ask Colonel De Souza to speak and then I will ask council president Jack Young -- Colonel?
COL. DARREN DE SOUZA, BALTIMORE PATROL CHIEF: Thank you, ma'am. Good evening, everyone. I'm Colonel De Souza, Colonel Darren De Souza. I'm the chief of patrol for Baltimore city police department. At this point I just want to mention a couple of things real quick is that like the mayor said, we love our Baltimore city. Right now we're seeing unprecedented type of violence throughout the city, mainly towards the west side of Baltimore. We're not going to tolerate tat. The police department is not going to stand for that.
We're fully deployed at this point. We canceled leave for all of our police officers, so they're deployed on the streets as we speak. Each shift is fully staffed. We called in outside resources from all over the state of Maryland to give us an assist here. We're not going to tolerate this. Our priorities right now is to restore order in the city, our priorities right now is officer safety, and the safety of the community. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good evening. I am deeply saddened by what is taking place in the great city of Baltimore. This reminds me of 1968, when the riots were taking place during the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King where people were destroying their own stores and properties in their own community.
This is unacceptable. This is not what Freddie Gray's family wanted. They asked that there be no pro tests, marches, or anything of that nature today. And the organizers of those marches are not participating in what is taking place today.
As the mayor has stated, these are thugs who are seizing upon an opportunity to show their anger and their distrust and their frustration at the police department. This is not the way to do it. We have the department of justice in here along with our states attorney that is doing the investigation of this murder or killing, whatever you want to call it, some are saying murder, some are saying a killing, but we have to let the department of justice and the state attorney office do their job. We can't rush to judgment. A lot of people are saying let's, you know, get this answered now. Our job is to get it right. It is your job as the media to report that.
And I just want to say this, I'm heartbroken and I'm disturbed about how the news media are focusing on the negativity of this city and not looking at the great things that are going on in this city. We have young people who are out there protesting peacefully but you're not focusing on them. You're focusing on those that are burning down buildings and rioting throughout the streets of Baltimore.
Show the positive people who are out there trying to stop these folks from doing this. These are not the people who live in Winchester that out there looting and burning down the stores. These are people that is not even connected to their community. So the media need to make this perfectly clear. It is not the people that are living in Winchester or the people live in Gilmore homes. These are opportunists that are out there destroying our city, and we're not going to tolerate it.
And I thank the mayor for asking the National Guards to come into the city of Baltimore so that we can get some order and some peace in our city because justice will prevail but we cannot resort to violence and destruction of property.
RAWLINGS-BLAKE: Thank you very much, council president. I would like, before I take questions, I would like to hear from Councilman Scott and I'll open it up for questions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, madam mayor. I won't be as nice as everyone else. I am simply pissed off. This is the city that I love. This is the city that I chose to dedicate my life to and we cannot stand idle and let as thugs, whatever you want to call them, I don't even say they're thugs. We're going to call them cowards, ruin our city. So what I'm going to say here today is if you are an adult, and you're out there participating in this, you are ruining the future for these young people. And I'm calling on every able man and woman who wants to stand up, get out there and stand in between these folks. When we leave here, I'm going out there.
Get out there and stand tall and stand up for your neighborhood. We cannot let this be a repeat of 1968. The neighborhood they're in there is still burned down from 1968. This is what we have to a flew (ph) or form these people. These young people are showing frustration. They're still our young people and we have a lot to work to do with them, and folks who have to do -- this is going to be the starting point for that. We're going to have a lot of healing to do, but we cannot continue to let this go on. We have ignored them for far too long. Adults have to step up and be adults and take control of our children and take control of our future.
[20:05:10] RAWLINGS-BLAKE: Thank you. I open it up to questions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Madam Mayor, what do you say about a lot of people are saying you waited five hours all day before you made your first announcement about what is going on inside your city?
RAWLINGS-BLAKE: Well, we have been managing the situation. I understand that there is a call for -- that there is -- you have to balance actually doing the work of managing with having press events and the police department throughout the day has been putting out information. I've been working to make sure that we're managing this. There is a lot of moving parts and I wanted to make sure that I was dedicated to that before we came out and spoke.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: But also, I mean, at this particular time, it is in the 7:00 hour, you look at the monitors behind you, this is your city that you ran for to become mayor of, are you proud of it tonight?
RAWLINGS-BLAKE: I am proud of the people from the community who have come out to say they don't want this anymore. There are people who are marching right now to bring calm to our community. There are people who want so much for there to be peace and to protect the values of our community. There are people who want so much for there to be peace and to protect the values of our community. I'm proud of them.
I'm also very concerned because what I'm seeing is not -- it is just not acceptable. And I shouldn't -- went to one of the elementary schools near the -- in the western district, Gilmore elementary school this morning, and talked to some fourth graders. And the first question the young lady asked me is why are people trashing my neighborhood? I didn't have a good reason -- I didn't have a good answer for her. It is so frustrating that people think that this makes sense to destroy our community, when we know that those people who live there that are already hurting, are going to be the ones that pay for that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) -- injuries so far?
RAWLINGS-BLAKE: Not yet. We can get that information to you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: What do you make of the criticism that your -- may have encouraged some of the activity on the streets today?
RAWLINGS-BLAKE: I'll say the very blatant mischaracterization of my words was not helpful today. I was asked a question about the property damage that was done. And in answering that question, I made it very clear that we walk a balance -- we balance a very fine line between giving protesters -- giving protesters peaceful protesters space to protest.
What I said is, in doing so, people can hijack that and use that space for bad. I did not say that we were accepting of it. I did not say that we were passive to it. I was just explaining how property damage can happen during a peaceful protest. It is very unfortunate that members of your industry decided to mischaracterize my words and try to use it as a way to say that we are inciting violence. There is no such thing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: There is no (INAUDIBLE) for the police to hold back to let some of this happen.
RAWLINGS-BLAKE: Absolutely not. Absolutely not. And I never said anything to that fact. Absolutely not. What we did was manage a peaceful protest in the best way possible and it -- when it got violent and destructive, we responded to that. We have an obligation to protect people's first amendment rights. We also understand through the best training and best practices that we have to do everything that we can to de-escalate and those were the tactics that were deployed yesterday. Did people exploit those tactics or that space that we gave to, you know, that we facilitated to have peaceful protests for bad? Yes, they did. But we didn't endorse it. We didn't, you know, I didn't -- we don't endorse it. We didn't allow it. We went into it -- we went in using best practices to --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: You don't think it is a mistake?
RAWLINGS-BLAKE: To allow people to have a peaceful protest?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: For the de-escalation strategy?
RAWLINGS-BLAKE: That's best practice. Any other questions?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) night is falling.
RAWLINGS-BLAKE: So as I mentioned, we have the juvenile curfew for 14 and under, that's 9:00 p.m. We will be enforcing it, 14 to 17 is 10:00 p.m. We will be enforcing it. Tomorrow there will be a city wide curfew as I said, 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. in the morning. Let me be clear what that means is if you are not -- if you are on the streets, it will be for two reasons, medical emergency or you're going to work. That's it.
[20:10:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Updates on the police officers who are injured? Seven were injured. One was unconscious. Do we have an update?
RAWLINGS-BLAKE: Do you have -- you have to -- (INAUDIBLE) OK.
DE SOUZA: So unfortunately at this point 15 police officers were injured. Of the 15, two are still being hospitalized at this moment. The others have been released, major injuries at this point.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Do you know how those officers were injured, hospitalized, how were they injured?
DE SOUZA: So what we know right now, just preliminarily is that objects, bricks, bottles, I'm not sure exactly specifically what it was, but it was flying debris that caused the injuries.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Did they have helmets on? Did they get hit in the head?
DE SOUZA: Some did, some did not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Do we know how many groups there are or how large this -- how many people are involved in this?
DE SOUZA: In terms ms of a number, I can't really tell you. I can tell you earlier part of the day, around dismissal time of schools, I know around the hub. We did see in excess of 75 to 100 school aged kids that was causing a lot of problems up there. Majority of the officers that were injured and the incidents that occurred around that hub was coming from, like I said, flying debris. And from what we can tell, it looked like it was school aged kids. The good thing is we have a lot of video that we're easily able to over the next couple of days really and safely say we track them down and find out who is responsible.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Didn't your department know on social media this was going to happen? Everyone knew that Mondawmin mall was mentioned on social media and the students were planning on meeting there. Could more have been done by the department to stop this before it got out of control?
DE SOUZA: So, yes, we monitor social media. No surprise. And we did know that there was mention of something that was going to occur there. So what we did is we pre-deployed. So we were out there before dismissal time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Are you satisfied with how the department handled the response at Mondawmin looking back?
DE SOUZA: You know, what I can say is that I'm not happy that 15 officers were injured at this point. I'm not happy at all. Could we have done things differently, you know, we have to sit back and really assess that. But it is right now, you know, like I said, the 15 officers were injured. It is two of them still hospitalized. It is unacceptable.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER: Have there been any fatalities --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Ballpark figure, like, generally speaking, how many people did you pull off the streets through all of this?
DE SOUZA: Prior to me coming over here, maybe 27 arrests. That was about maybe 30 minutes ago.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: Quick question, moving forward, what role will the National Guard play in assistance with the police and how do you -- what role will the National Guard play in assistance with the police and how do you see all of this ending? It certainly seems from what we have seen today that this looks virtually impossible to stop. I know it is not, but it appears that way. How do you plan on getting a hold of this whole situation --
RAWLINGS-BLAKE: Cooperation with the Baltimore city police department. There are several I was they can be used and we will -- we will determine that. It has not been determined yet. We will once we get the exact number that will be deployed, we will make determination of how to best use that number to provide backup and support for the Baltimore city police department.
With respect to how do we get to order? Let's be clear. You know, the council president and I share the frustration of the negative images that are being shown of our great city, but best belief that we're going to use all of those images to hold the individuals who are destroying our city accountable. So once people start getting arrested, for the looting, for the destruction, I think they will understand that this is not a lawless city. And the thugs and the -- it -- I'm at a loss for words because it is idiotic to think that by destroying your city that you're going to make life better for anybody.
And after we -- as we start to review the, you know, the tapes that we have from all, you know, our own police video as well as what we're able to see from the different outlets, we will be holding people accountable.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One more, guys. (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- is that the sort of invitation you welcome?
[20:15:03] RAWLINGS-BLAKE: Anyone who wants to add to the calls for peace in our city is welcome. If Reverend Sharpton wants to come, if parents want to encourage their children to, you know, act within the law, I met with young people this afternoon, young people who want peace, young people who want justice, they were giving their own suggestions on how young people themselves can add a voice and try to add a sane message, a message that says we don't -- not in our name that you are doing -- that you are destroying our city. Anybody that wants to be a part of sending that message I welcome it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mayor, thank you.
RAWLINGS-BLAKE: Thank you. We're working that out with school police, I mean with the school system. Thank you very much.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening. Thanks for joining us. That was the Baltimore mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and other city officials and community leaders. The mayor declaring a city wide curfew lasting a week starting tomorrow, not tonight, starting tomorrow, 10:00 p.m. Again, not tonight. She said there is a curfew already in place for juveniles under the age of 13. This starts at 9:00 p.m. over the age of 14 and over starting at 10:00 p.m. tonight.
Now, we want to set the scene now. The sun setting right now on the mayor's city, smoke rising over parts of it, a state of emergency in effect. And according to police, there are reports of new looting is under way at a local mall. There are live pictures of it. Baltimore police say they have reports that several people are inside that mall, looting and destroying property. That is the scene outside the mall there. There is now a police presence outside the mall. We're not clear on exactly what is happening inside. We do have a correspondent there. We'll go to him shortly.
Just the latest on a whole string of incidents today. Maryland's governor, Larry Hogan's emergency activating the National Guard comes after a day after open warfare in some parts of the city between protesters and police. He's expected to speak shortly. We have already seen police cars set on fire today. We watched rioters loot a drugstore, torch it, and attack the firefighting effort, cutting the fire hose in two instances. We have seen liquor stores and check cashing shops ransacked.
And new numbers at least 15 officers hurt according to authorities in running battles with rock throwing protesters, bottle throwing protesters all of it, following the funeral of Freddie Gray who was fatally injured while in police custody. As we said, the Maryland National Guard has been activated and we're
waiting to hear from Governor Hogan.
Joining us now, Miguel Marquez in a neighborhood where new looting appears to be happening.
Miguel, what is the latest where you are?
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is ugly. Night is falling. It is only going to get uglier. This is -- looking up that way, that is up towards North Avenue where we had the fire at the CVS earlier. That seems to be out for moment and the police push everybody back. But here we are on Pennsylvania Avenue and Roberts. There is a large police presence here. They just left. But all of these stores, you see down this side of the street here, all of those stores while they look perfectly fine on this side, they have been looted from the back. The alley way is completely strewn with boxes and with open stuff that people have been pulling out of the stores. There was a liquor store up the way here that was completely looted with people coming out of it. You can see the individuals going back into the alley there and that's what is happening in this location right now as soon as the police left. And they arrested, we sat here and watched them arresting perhaps a dozen people. As soon as they pulled out of here, those individuals came back and started looting. You are from this neighborhood. Why are you dressed this way and what is going to happen tonight?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I mean, the city is in uproar. We want to seek justice. We want to see everything. We want to know what's going on. I mean, like, when you live in the city like us and grow up in the neighborhood, it is kind of hard. And some of the things that we're doing wrong, we're doing it wrong. This is not what Freddie family really wanted. We're doing it wrong. Take it from me. We're doing it wrong.
MARQUEZ: This is your neighborhood.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir. I grew up in this neighborhood. I'm from Drew Hill and lots and lots division around the corner from here. I have to deal with these thugs when you guys go away. I have to deal with the people in the neighborhood when you go away. You loot it. You stole medicine from old people and everything. We're doing this the wrong way.
MARQUEZ: What do you fear will happen tonight?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know, man. I just hope all the kids and everybody stay off the streets and maybe we can calm down, but if we don't get justice, we're not going to calm down. Period.
MARQUEZ: Thank you. Good luck. Take care.
I want you to listen here real quick, Anderson, that is the sound of an alarm just been set off. Individuals are gone to the rear of this store now. Every store along this block here, the back side of them being looted and people getting in there. And with the police now having left this area, we will probably be doing the same -- Anderson.
[20:20:08] COOPER: Miguel, in terms of where you were earlier in the day, because you showed us earlier in the day firefighters trying to set up a hose to battle the blaze in the CVS, then while you were broadcasting, an individual or two individuals, I couldn't tell, took knives or box cutters and cut into that hose trying to stop the water pressure from being able to put out that blaze. Where are you in relation to that scene that we saw earlier and just describe a little bit about what happened earlier?
MARQUEZ: We are about six blocks from there, literally you can see if you point the camera up that way, Adrian, you can see the lights flashing all the way up Pennsylvania Avenue. That's where we were earlier. That's where the CVS was. That's where the firefighters were trying to set up the hose.
It was unbelievable to watch firefighters drive up in a melee, basically, with individuals throwing rocks and stones at them as they're trying to get this fire out. People coming out of that CVS, having looted it, choking, trying to steal things out of that CVS, and -- what's going on? What's going on? And there was -- it was unbelievable to watch. These firefighters, they set up that hose very quickly, and then the police line was about 20 feet back from them. So the hose was exposed to the public basically. We were right next to it when we were talking to somebody and literally just as they got it going, somebody walked up, stabbed it with a knife and then somebody else right after that stabbed it again, a different person, stabbed it again with a knife. Unbelievable to see.
The police were able to get it under control. I want to show you what is happening here, which is really kind of remarkable. The police left here 15 minutes ago and now there are throngs of people going into the alley way, robbing all of the stores on this block as quickly as they can. And clearly as word gets out, which spreads very quickly more are showing up.
I think the people in this neighborhood are shocked by what is happening and you have some people who are taking advantage and others who are trying to stop it. It is an awful, awful night in Baltimore, Maryland.
COOPER: Miguel, I'm going to ask you another question, but if you feel you need to go from that situation, I know the police are not currently there, you tell me and you just go.
The head of the city council a short time ago said that the people who are doing this are not from the community. They're not from that local community. The gentleman you were just talking to, he is from that local community. He's concerned about what he's seeing. From your understanding, are these people who are looting, who are taking things right now as we're looking at it, are they -- do they live locally?
MARQUEZ: Look, these people are from down the block. I saw people stealing toilet paper. I saw people stealing paper towels. I saw people stealing crates of liquor out of the liquor store up the way here. The people that have just showed up here in the last few minutes are from, you know, they're coming from down the street.
But what you are seeing in this neighborhood are people who are trying to establish control and maintain control and those who really don't care and are taking advantage of the situation. This is an opportunity for them. What was peaceful for days became slightly violent on Saturday night, but controllable and then today turned into an absolute melee.
I think nobody really expected it because of how things blew out on Saturday, and then the funeral being today of Freddie Gray. It just is a horrific confluence of events.
COOPER: I'll let you leave from that location and we'll continue to check back in with you when you relocate. Stay safe.
I want to go next to Brian Todd on the reports of looting at that local mall.
Brian, what is happening there now? Because earlier we saw a number of people entering that building, it does seem like there is a police presence. What is going on?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Yes, Anderson, we're at the Mondawmin mall in northwest Baltimore. There was a lot of looting going on. (INAUDIBLE) from the police, I say 30 minutes ago, there was looting going on here. We arrived a short time ago, see a heavy police presence here. We're outside the (INAUDIBLE) store with a lot of broken windows.
Police commander on the scene here just told me that they told me they did arrest some people in here, that they have gotten them all out and now they're cordoning the police around this section of the mall. Hopefully we're showing it to you now.
We were just -- I heard Miguel talking about the area where he was. We were not too far from Miguel's on the corner Fulton Street and North Avenue. And it was absolutely chaos. We saw a liquor store being looted. We saw a tavern being looted. It was no police presence at that intersection at all. We also felt that we were in danger. We had to pull back from there and that's when we got word that some of the looting had gone on here. Bur we were told now the looters have been taken out of at least a section of the mall. We're going to try to move around some other areas of the mall, see if any other looting is going on.
But very chaotic night in Baltimore. And it has filtered over into this area. This is the Mondawmin mall, in northwestern Baltimore. It is an area where a lot of this rioting started this afternoon. And it filtered back into this area a short time ago. But we saw some looting down in the western part of Baltimore, near the CVS. We were outside that CVS when firefighters were really struggling to get that fire under control. One of the firefighters told us that their lines were cut, their hoses were cut, I heard Miguel mention that a short time ago.
We witnessed firefighters going into that building and really trying to get that fire under control, really struggling to do that, putting water in there. Again, the hoses being cut, it was a real struggle.
[20:26:05] COOPER: Yes. We should also point out firefighters -- we should point out firefighters working at great risk to themselves in front of police lines, you know, they were at least 100 feet or so in front of the police line trying to get some water pressure on to that hose. And then when they did establish it, that's when the hose was cut twice.
Brian, the mall you are at now, how far is it from the CVS that we see on the right-hand side of the screen burning from earlier? We're now seeing your picture from the right, from the mall. How far is that from the CVS?
TODD: Anderson, I say it is probably eight to ten blocks away. So not too far overall. The crowds are moving. There is a group moving north towards this direction. I don't know if they were marchers or rioters. There wasn't much order on the street as we saw moving toward this area. I'm not sure if those were the people who started looting this mall. They may have been because of what direction they were moving and the timing of when this was looted.
They may very well have been the group traveling here to loot this mall. So I think that was about eight to ten blocks away from here. We got reports earlier of -- I heard the mayor, people talking earlier saying police officers were injured. We got reports earlier police officers were getting bricks thrown at them, some got injured. There were cars with police in them with bricks thrown at them.
We just witnessed at the corner of Fulton and North was absolutely chaos. There were objects being thrown all of -- near us and no police presence. Our team of photojournalists and our security guy and I decided to pull back from there, just too dangerous.
COOPER: And that just occurred. You were saying that was just a very active kinetic situation where you were?
TODD: That's correct. I say that was probably about less than 30 minutes ago we witnessed that situation. And we talked to some people who were -- we actually came -- we were pulling back, we talked to a few gentlemen who were wearing masks on their faces, they were local residents. They were trying to protect locally owned liquor store from being looted. Kind of cord one around the front door and had the screen door shut and no one was going in. There were five guys standing right at the doorway there.
But all around us at that point, Anderson, objects being thrown, bottles being broke, and no police presence there at that time. I don't know what it is now at the mall, where there has been looting here. But I can tell you that -- sorry, go ahead.
COOPER: Yes, Brian. Just for our viewers, we are looking at, and I want to ask another question, but on the right-hand side, of course, we're awaiting the governor's (INAUDIBLE) any national guard declare say the press conference. He has called in the National Guard and declared a state of emergency. We are waiting for comments from him. At the right-hand side of the
screen, Brian Todd's image from outside the mall, you see a line of police officers in riot gear outside that mall. On the left-hand side of the screen, another line of police officers, that's at our location about two or three miles away from the mall where correspondent Joe Johns is. And we'll go to him shortly. That's a completely different location. It gives you a sense of -- I'm trying to give our viewers a sense of the distance of all of this, because it is obviously, you know, makes it seem as if the entire city of Baltimore is facing these kind of street riots, but I'm trying to give you a sense of the context here.
But Brian, outside that mall, we're seeing on the right-hand side of the screen, it is really interesting when we look at images from a short time ago, it is not just people who are on the street breaking into that mall, there are vehicles arriving with people in them with bags to specifically come to that location to loot that location. I mean, were you actually were looking at those pictures from earlier, you see a vehicle arriving right there and you'll see people run out of it. One, right there, even has a black bag that he's running with. I mean, it seems like there is a level of communication or information has past so people know -- wait a minute, you know, folks are looting at this mall, and then people head down there.
TODD: Yeah, there does seem to be some communication there, Anderson. And of course, it is very loose communication. On the street in some of these neighborhoods, as you move around, they know what areas are not protected. They're moving into these businesses and other places that are not protected. Then the liquor store and the tavern that were right across the street from each other were just being ransacked right in front of us. And, you know, we saw a little bit of it, we pulled back again, there were objects being thrown running all around there.
So, yes, there is some kind of communication among the looters and among the rioters as to what is going on. I'm not sure exactly how they knew to come to this mall, other than that the fact that there has been disturbances here earlier in the evening. But it's, again, police struggling, really, struggling to get some of these areas under control, Anderson.
COOPER: Brian Todd, we'll consider check back in with you. Earlier, in the mayor's press conference, we heard from the city council president who frankly was critical of the media for in his words focusing on the negative. I'm not sure what he thinks cameras should be focused on at a time when police cars are being destroyed, lit on fire, 15 police officers are being injured, and stores being looted, I'm not sure exactly what images he would like us to be photographing at this time, but it seems pretty important that authorities know what is happening in their own city and it doesn't seem all that clear that the mayor at this point does have a firm grasp on it. When she was asked about how resources are going to be deployed, the National Guard who have been called in, and other resources, other law enforcement resources from outside the city, she said, and I quote, it hasn't been decided yet. She said she would let people know when it has been decided. That's obviously a worrying statement for people who are living in this -- in these communities that are under attack by individuals on the street. And also ironically, after blasting the media for taking these images, the mayor said she would be sure to use these images in order to find and track down the people who were looting and who were breaking the law.
So on the one hand, they're attacking the media for taking these pictures. On the other hand, they are certainly grateful because they plan to use some of these images to try to affect some arrests. I want to go next to Joe Johns, he's with police and protesters a few miles away from the mall.
And Joe, I'm not sure protesters is even the right word for a number of these individuals. It doesn't seem like they - there is much protesting. It is frankly just - it's law breaking, it is looting. What is the scene where you are?
JOE JOHNS: Yeah, I totally agree with that, Anderson. I don't think you can call that protesting. Look, that you were talking about the sensitivities in the community, and I've had people walk up to me right out here on the street, explaining to me how they feel that this is going to do a lot of damage to the city of Baltimore. Its image and all that. But the fact of the matter is, the images are what they are right now and what you're seeing out here on West North Street is a line of police officers in riot gear, they have been standing here for at least two or three hours, and they're not moving except forward to clear the streets when it gets too busy.
Now, the point of all of this, number one, there is what we are calling loosely an extraction team behind them on the street. And those individuals back there, also police officers, will come out and arrest people in the event they're unruly, misbehaving, or being disorderly what have you. We saw one example of that a little while ago. A woman out here who was kind of rebel rousing. I actually believe that they took her into custody for her own safety because people in the crowd were so irritated with her. But the point of this line of police officers is that far in the distance, perhaps 100 yards back there, you can see fire engines and they have been tending to the fires, and they need protection because people in the crowd were causing them trouble.
And once again, we too have heard the stories of the fire hoses being cut. We saw a tweet that came out from the police department saying one fire hose had been cut. We have been told out here three fire hoses cut. So that makes it very difficult environment for a fire department to try to put out fires that people have started. And, yes, general lawlessness, chaos, I think you would call it, the looting very disturbing.
[20:35:00]
JOHNS: We're about two miles, almost exactly two miles from the mall right now. But from our vantage point, we haven't seen that. What we have seen is the smoke and finally the fire department able to put down that fire. We don't see so much now and not far from us we see two cars that obviously burned out because the fire department couldn't get through the crowd to stop it, Anderson. COOPER: So, Joe, and I may have to interrupt you for the governor's
press conference, but can you talk about the police tactics. Because you rightfully pointed out the danger that these firefighters are under. Obviously, this is a very tense time for police. Earlier we saw some police in riot gear, some police not. We heard from the head of patrol for the Baltimore police department a short time ago saying that some of the officers had riot gear, some did not, which raises all sorts of questions.
But in terms of the tactics, has there been an evolution of tactics? Because it does seem - you know, we have seen a number of lines created by the police, trying to at least contain, I guess, the spread of some of the violence. Are they moving into arrest people and then regrouping in lines or are they just maintaining those lines?
JOHNS: Right. I can tell you that it is -- my impression is given what we have seen out here on the streets, for the last several hours, I think the police have been -- they have given people a lot of room. There goes one of the police cars you can see that has been damaged in the melee out here. But the truth is I think the police have been fairly flexible with people who have been exercising, if you will, the First Amendment rights. And but if somebody is getting out of control, they seem to be moving in quickly now to do something about it. I have seen a couple of instances out here this evening where the police officers just moved away from the street when they thought the, you know, the average people, the ministers, the Fruit of Islam from the Nation of Islam, this other group called the 300 or whatever, when they saw that these other people were taking control of the block, the police moved out of the way.
So they have given these -- they have given people room to breathe, but it is clear that they're not taking as much as they did a couple of nights ago.
COOPER: Well, Joe, let me also -- I want to kind of zero in on something you just brought up. Because I do think it is a very important point and we have seen it throughout the day now, since this violence began in the afternoon, we have seen a number of times where members of the Nation of Islam, I believe it's members of the Nation of Islam, gentlemen wearing suits, bow ties, we've seen also pastors from local churches, there is a group I think as you said there called the 300 Men standing between police and people throwing bottles, throwing rocks and not just standing, but actively going in, going after guys who are throwing things not with any weapons, but just trying to get them to stop doing that. Even saw them standing and blocking access to several businesses that were in the midst of being looted at great risk to themselves.
JOHNS: Yes. And very important to say there are a lot of people I've talked to out here who are very frustrated that this is going on in their community. They're upset about it and they're trying to figure out how to get it under control. There are people calling on the pastors to come out into the streets and stop this. And they're pointing out that it is a very small number of individuals who have been causing all the trouble. So you have to say that there are great concerns about this community. And I know that CVS over there, you know, when are they going to get their CVS back in this neighborhood? People understand that who live here that once you burn down the resource that helps the community, it is going to be a long time before you get that resource back. So there is frustration about that. And I can't emphasize enough that there is a small group of people out here causing a huge amount of problems and the people who live here from Baltimore, a lot of them, you know, they walk up to you and tell you, I don't like this. I want this to end.
COOPER: Joe, I want to go to -- we'll check back in with you. We're on until the 10:00 hour tonight on this broadcast. I want to go back to Miguel Marquez, he's now made his way to the Western district police station where we saw the sight of so many peaceful protests over the last more than ten days or so as the, you know, outrage over the death of Freddie Gray has increased.
[20:40:03]
COOPER: What is the scene there, what are you seeing?
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Extraordinarily tense, I can tell you. The police officers here are in full riot gear. They have gas masks on and they are prepared for anything. They say that they're not hearing of anything specific coming their way tonight. But if you keep swinging around this way, I can show you how they have increased the security here. This is the first time we have seen this. The security barrier pushed all the way back to the corner here and then all the way back down the street on this other side. So just an enormous backing off from the neighborhood. This is also -- I want to point out this, this is Mount Street, just about six blocks up this way, this is where Freddie Gray was arrested. We did hear what sounded like gunshots not too far away, a short time ago as we pulled up. We also saw the street was filled with smoke a little while ago. So I don't know if they are using - we did see some of the people running around using smoke bombs of some sort, the rioters were. And I'm not sure if they're using them in this area or they've started to light fires in this area. But there is a disconcerting how few people are on the streets right now and how fearful this city is. Anderson?
COOPER: Miguel, also just to give our viewers a sense of the geography of all of this, how far are you roughly away from the CVS? How far are you roughly away from the mall?
MARQUEZ: We're about half mile away from the CVS. We're about a mile away from the mall. The CVS is right up that -- straight up Mount Street and took a right on to North Avenue, you would hit the CVS, it's the biggest, newest -- or it was, anyway -- store in the area. And then if you kept going, if you took a left there on Fulton and you kept going up about another half mile, you'd run into Mondawmin Mall, which is the big mall around here, there's several high schools around there. That fact that it closed at 2:30 and they - the looters somehow got in. At 7:30 p.m. after police - every time police move from one area, individuals move into it. The fact that they left the mall and that they got in and they are now running free in there is shocking. Anderson.
COOPER: Miguel, I do want to ask you, because you have been on air reporting all of this street by street, brick or bottle that was thrown by brick or bottle. How have you seen, if you have seen, police tactics evolve because the mayor, as I said just a short time ago, says it hasn't been determined yet how extra resources are going to be deployed. I don't think anyone would argue that several hours ago the police had enough resources on the street and we'll talk to some police experts about that coming up over the two hours. But how have you seen an evolution in police tactics or can you at least talk about how you have seen the police -- what their tactics have been?
MARQUEZ: Well, immediately in front of us we see a very heavily armored vehicle from Ann Arundel County. So, they're bringing in resources from other areas trying to help out the Baltimore police. But I can tell you, from the protests, the angry, but peaceful protests for several days here, the police were basically taking a standoff sort of approach. And that was what may have been another gunshot. Unlike in New York, when the protesters marched for nine and ten miles, the police marched right alongside them, keeping them safe, out in front of the protesters with changes, the protesters move would block traffic where a complete - were at presence the entire time the protesters were out.
In Baltimore, police only put themselves behind barricades and never put themselves directly in the line with protesters. That's how much worse the relations are between police and the protesters here. And protesters felt they had the upper hand, could do anything they wanted and it has only grown, unfortunately. On Saturday night, I saw groups of officers unaware that protesters were coming, they got surrounded by them, it turned very, very nasty and there was - there was some violence then. Anderson.
COOPER: Miguel, you know, we're going to check back in with you. I want to go back to our Joe Johns. Joe, the situation that we're seeing, we're seeing protests -- looters, potential looters, young people on the streets, looks like they're taunting toward police lines, looks like there is a man -- what is going on?
MARQUEZ: Yeah. Right. Well, that's exactly what is happening. And I think one of the things that this points out, if you look down there at the young people who are taunting the police and this man, with Vietnam Veterans jacket on, it shows you just how young we're talking about here. We're talking about kids who are engaging in this behavior. Not so much adults. The adults will have conversations with you, but the kids taunt.
[20:45:00]
JOHNS: And we're lucky that we have not seen any, you know, things thrown, no projectiles, what have you. But, yeah, this one individual steps out of line, and sort of telling those kids to go away.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go!
JOHNS: Just like that as a matter of fact. Now we see this -- Jay, watch out. This fire department vehicle moving out of here, and the kids are gone like that. And so for out here on the street, Anderson, quite frankly, we've had a lot of people, we've had a few people and, you know, it comes and goes. But when you see the children taunting the police, you wonder, one, where are the parents. Why aren't they home? Don't they have to go to school? And how do you control that when you have such young individuals causing the trouble, Anderson?
COOPER: The mayor points out there's ...
JOHNS: Let me go over here and just ...
COOPER: Go ahead, Joe. Go ahead.
JOHNS: Let me see if -- Anderson, sir, who are you?
COOPER: Just a soldier.
JOHNS: And you sort of took it upon yourself to tell those young people to go away?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
JOHNS: Weren't you a little bit concerned about your own safety? I mean there is a lot of bottles and rocks and things ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I (INAUDIBLE) number one. I did 30 years, OK. Came out of -- I've seen more than all of this. I've been through the vice already. This right here is not relevant. They need to have their butts at home. They need to be in their home units with their families studying and doing something with their life. Not out here protesting about something that is not really about nothing. They do not respect this young man's death. You know. Now, mama and daddy, they lost a child. That could be them. So I'm very pissed.
JOHNS: So what's your name?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Valentine.
JOHNS: And your first name?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Robert.
JOHNS: Robert Valentine. And you're a Vietnam vet.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
JOHNS: And you just decided to come out here and stand up against these guys?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
JOHNS: You know, a lot of people would think twice, wouldn't they?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love my country. I love my Charm City. And I'm an American. I'm not black, white, red, yellow or nothing. I'm American. JOHNS: Are you concerned about what is happening to the community?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
JOHNS: Thank you very much, Mr. Valentine. Anderson, back to you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got to say, Mr. Valentine is just a hero tonight from in that city. We're going to talk to the governor. But we're going to hear from the governor, but we want to talk more about Mr. Valentine in just a moment. Let's listen to what the governor has to say.
GOV. LARRY HOGAN (R) MARYLAND: Just recently I spoke with the president of the United States. I've also been in communication with the mayor of Baltimore, with the president of the Maryland senate and the speaker of the house. We're here in our emergency operations command center, which has now been activated. All state agencies are actively engaged in this situation. We have partnered with Baltimore City and all other agencies in Maryland as well as neighboring states. This evening, as a result of the serious violence and looting, which has led to the destruction of property and put innocent Marylanders at significant risk, I have declared a state of emergency at the request of Baltimore City. This order deploys the Maryland National Guard in order to help restore order and to end the unrest that we witnessed today and tonight.
I've not made this decision lightly. The National Guard represents a last resort in order to restore order. Look, people have the right to protest and express their frustration. But Baltimore City families deserve peace and safety in their communities. And these acts of violence and destruction of property cannot and will not be tolerated. I strongly condemn the actions of those who engaged in direct attacks against innocent civilians, businesses, and law enforcement officers. The resources of the state police and the National Guard have already been deployed in support of all law enforcement in the city. They will exercise discipline restraint and provide the support necessary to ensure safety and to bring law and order to Baltimore City. We have got our entire team here. I'm going to turn the podium over here for a moment to Colonel William Pallozzi, who is the superintendent of our state police.
[20:50:00]
HOGAN: and then we will hear from General Linda Singh and -- who is the general of the Maryland National Guard, and also Clay Stamp, who is the director of the Maryland Emergency Management Agency where we are here tonight. So I'm going to start now with Colonel Pallozzi of the state police and then we'll be happy to take your questions after everybody has spoken. Thank you.
COL. WILLIAM PALLOZZI, MARYLAND STATE POLICE: Good evening. As the governor said, I'm Colonel William Pallozzi, superintendent of the state police. And the governor's actions today are huge. We have been here along with many of our ally law enforcement, over 500 strong since Wednesday working with the city of Baltimore in various capacities helping to maintain as much order as possible. As you have seen many groups continue to splinter and move around the city of Baltimore, looting, committing crimes, in certain areas, setting places on fire. Our mission has been and will continue to be the preservation of life and the preservation of property. I have had conversations this evening with Commissioner Batts. He certainly understands the scope of what has happened and that we're coming in with additional forces to assist the governor's statement of -- the declaration of the emergency order is big and it allows us to branch out even further. We have already put out a request for up to 500 additional law enforcement from the state of Maryland. Regionally to come out and provide assistance. But through an EMAC request, which the EMAC (ph) director will talk about in a little bit, we're putting out a request for up to 5,000 law enforcement from the regional area in the mid-Atlantic to assist us as well. We're asking that they be equipped with the necessary equipment for their own personal safety, as well as to assist us in deploying things. Kind of a plan it in the next few hours is to be work with other local law enforcement leaders, kind of divide up the city into certain sectors in which we will then go sector by sector trying to protect starting ideally with the hottest areas first, which we're waiting for that briefing from BPD right now. And then work in concert with the National Guard as they come on board just to maintain security of those areas. At this time, that's all I have.
COOPER: Thank you, colonel. Now we're going to turn the floor over to Clay Stamp, who is the director of the Maryland Emergency Management Agency.
CLAY STAMP, DIRECTOR MARYLAND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY: Thank you, governor. Ladies and gentlemen, the governor has been clear from day one. We activated this past Saturday at his direction to integrate our actions with the city of Baltimore as they dealt with this situation. We've had over 400 state policing agencies in the city working with them. Today turned another chapter. And as the governor said, he declared a state of emergency. This was done after the mayor of Baltimore declared a state of emergency. That means that they have exceed their capability and they actually need help from the state of Maryland to move in and to support their efforts to curb the situation.
What you see here is a full court press. You see representative from organizations across the state agency, as well as volunteer organizations that are bringing the full weight of the state government to deliver resources to achieve the governor's goals which are clear. We will be working diligently in our different sections that are activated, transportation support, law enforcement, health and medical, human services, and through planning logistics and operations we will achieve the necessary results we need to achieve again the governor's directive. I'll turn it over to Governor Hogan again. Thank you, sir.
HOGAN: Lastly before we take your questions, we're going to turn the podium over here to General Linda Singh, who is the Brig. General of the Maryland Guard.
BRIG. GEN. LINDA SINGH, MARYLAND NATIONAL GUARD: Thank you, governor. As the governor mentioned, the Maryland Guard is actually going to be out in activation this evening. And what you need to understand is that he has access to our full complement that is here within the state, which means up to about 5,000 troops that can be put on to the streets to actually protect property and people. I would highly recommend that we all go in and take cover for the night and actually go to sleep and get some rest and let things settle down so that we can restore order to the city. We are going to be out in massive force and that just basically means that we are going to be patrolling the streets and out to ensure that we're protecting property. We are in a supporting mode. So if there are any questions about martial law, this is not martial law. Martial law means that at that point the military fully takes over. So, we're not at that point. I repeat, not at that point. We are in support of the police department and we will be taking our direction from the police department as in where we're going to go out and support.
[20:55:04]
SINGH: Thank you.
HOGAN: At this time, we'll all be happy to take any questions that anyone might have. Any questions?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
HOGAN: Well, I'll - I've heard about some of the officers been injured. I haven't heard the exact medical status, but if there is anybody else that can address that - I don't think - you probably have more up to date information than we do. I can tell you that the last report I had were seven police officers were injured. It is something as I said earlier that won't be tolerated. It was one of the factors in us deciding we had to get in there and provide some support. I can tell you that. But we'll let you know as soon as -- does anybody here have other updated information? We'll try to get you the answer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The resources being thrown, who is actually in charge and will direct where the resources are going and what to do next?
HOGAN: Well, the city has asked for us to take over. Currently, the state police superintendent Bill Pallozzi is in charge. We'll be in direct communication with the city, with the mayor, with the city police, and General Singh will be providing backup assistance to the state police. We'll be coordinating the police from other counties around the state and from the other police that we get in from around other states in the region.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: when we put out this that you have declared the state of emergency, as the National Guard was coming in, a lot of the response we got was finally what took so long. What was the tipping point for you that made you declare that state of emergency?
HOGAN: We declared the state of emergency and I issued the executive order less than 30 seconds after requested by the city of Baltimore. So it didn't take us very long at all. I signed an executive order almost immediately as soon as we received the call and then called the president. There was no delay whatsoever. We've had this emergency operation center activated since Saturday. We've had hundreds of state police on the ground. We've had every single state agency and local agency coordinated out of this operation already for the entire week. I've been in daily communication with the mayor and others in the city and our entire team has been involved from day one.
But frankly, this is a Baltimore City situation. Baltimore City was in charge. When the mayor called me, which quite frankly we were glad that she finally did, instantly we signed the executive order. We already had our entire team prepared. In fact, I already called General Singh earlier in the day and asked her to get prepared to be called up. We were all in a command center and the second floor of the state house in constant communication and we were trying to get in touch with the mayor for quite some time. She finally made that call and we immediately took action.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think that you should have gotten a call earlier? (INAUDIBLE)
HOGAN: Look, I don't want to - I know that the city has done everything in their power to get this under control. I don't want to question what they have been doing. They're all under tremendous stress. We're all here on one team. And I want to thank the mayor for all of her involvement. We're just happy that we're on the same page and we are all able to help each other at this point.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you tell us -- [inaudible]
HOGAN: Well, I'll let General Sing talk about maybe whatever some of the specifics that she can, but again, the National Guard is going to provide some assets and be working as backup to the state police and the other police agencies. So we're not -- as she said, we haven't taken over, it's not a situation where they're going to be in charge. But we are going to roll in some assets into the city. We're going to have some equipment and some manpower that's going to help us get the situation under control, but I'll let General Sing talk about what assets they have available and what might be happening.
And keep in mind that some assets will be readily available and we'll get down there tonight. Some of them take a while to call up and get in. So, it will be growing as we bring in folks from around various counties around the state as we call up the guard members and as we get support from other states, but we're going to get as much as we can there this evening.
PALLOZZI: If I could talk to that real quick. One of the challenges law enforcement had is the moving, like we have been able to go in with BPD, go in and stop certain areas and moving. As they constantly move around, they outnumber us. So I can tell you my ask of the National Guard is to allow us to come in, when we clear an area, hold that area. But we need it for everybody, for law enforcement and National Guard, for it to be done as safely as possible. They need to have the proper equipment to defend themselves. To secure themselves from rocks and bottles and everything else just being thrown at us. That's one of the biggest requests of the National Guard from law enforcement is, hold certain critical infrastructures, certain areas that we believe we need to hold.
SINGH: That is absolutely correct.
[21:00:00]
SINGH: And just to add if you really want to get into the specifics of vehicles, we're going to be coming in with armored humvees. And mainly because I want to make sure that our folks are being protected as well as some pieces of larger equipment that will allow us to move more forces when we need to.
