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State of Emergency Declared over Baltimore Riots; City Hall Taking Heat Over Baltimore Riots; Report: Iran Seizes Western Cargo Ship; More Than 500 National Guard Troops In Baltimore After Massive Riots Last Night; Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired April 28, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:14] KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: You see right there. Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: and I'm John Berman.

The state of emergency in Baltimore this morning. We're just getting word that some federal employees in the Baltimore area are being sent home early today, this afternoon. That, after the fires, the riots, the rage that rocked that city. Plus, a law enforcement official tells CNN just short time ago that a mall about five miles from where the fires were overnight, that mall has been closed for the day amid concerns that some teenagers were planning to loot it. Now, at this same time, residents -- you can see them there -- are on the streets picking up the pieces literally. You are looking at new pictures hopeful pictures into CNN. The city has launched a cleanup effort and really so many people are there trying to make things better.

BOLDUAN: You can just see the juxtaposition from last night to this morning.

We're also getting new information coming from the mayor's office. More than 200 people now have been arrested in connection with the violence. 144 vehicles, 19 structures set on fire, if you can believe it. Right now, the governor has put in place a state of emergency. 500 National Guard troops have been deployed already. Hundreds more are on the way. Some 5,000 police reinforcements have been requested from neighboring areas. Schools closed for the day. And an overnight curfew will begin this evening.

BERMAN: We want to go to Athena Jones. Athena was in the middle of when riots broke out with those young kids starting to clash with police.

And now, Athena, you are in the middle of the cleanup.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Good morning, John and Kate. I want to mention that police presence, that stepped-up police presence you spoke about. This line of state police troopers have been here all night. They probably have changed out in terms of who has been here but they've been on this scene all night. That's because the intersection where we're now standing was one of the hardest hit. Right over here is the burned-out CVS. That CVS pharmacy was looted and set on fire. You have residents out here since 6:00, 7:00 a.m., out here with their brooms sweeping up the trash and debris that littered this area last night.

We saw a dump truck come three times to get piles and piles of trash bags full of debris. It's been young and old. I saw a grandmother who was out with her 5-year-old grandson. Both had a broom. She said she wanted to lead by example and to show him how to better the community and not cause damage to the community. I also spoke to a young woman who was out here cleaning CVS, saying it's heartbreaking to see what people did to their own community. They fought hard to get this CVS, which serves senior citizens who can't travel far. It has a pharmacy. It has a mini grocery store. So this is something that really hurt her. She wanted to come out and help. We also talked to a 15-year-old high school student, a young man, who was disappointed by what he saw on television last night and wanted to come and be a positive influence on the community.

So, John and Kate, this is the flip side of all of the negative attention and violence we saw last night. It's been calm here and it's been filled with people trying to help.

BOLDUAN: All of the folks that you're talking, Athena, are exactly what's right in Baltimore. All of them, as you said, trying to lead by example trying to help to show that Baltimore is a great place to live. It's a tragedy to see that CVS burned out.

When you are talking to them, you say they are out there and they want to help and lead by example. What do they also want to see today? Are they confident that, today, more importantly, tonight is going to be any different than last night?

JONES: I tried to ask about that. The hope here is that this doesn't get repeated. I had another young man say this is not Baltimore. People need to wake up. They need to wake up and listen and heed the call from Freddie Gray's family and the mayor of Baltimore, from the police commissioner, from elected officials, who have been saying that violence is not the answer, violence won't bring justice. There seems to be a hopeful feel now this morning now that things have calmed down and you have these folks coming out trying to help pick up the pieces. The thinking here and the hope is that this doesn't get repeated.

BERMAN: Athena, there's no school today for the kids and I'm just wondering if you can give me a sense of what's going on with those school kids today who would normally be in school. Are you seeing them out, by in large, mostly cleaning up? Are they at home? Are there places for them to go?

[11:05:04] JONES: You know, we wondered a lot about that, John. As you remember, yesterday afternoon, about an hour after the funeral of Freddie Gray, it was outside a high school less than a mile away where we saw throngs of students in confrontations with police. Our question last night when we learned that public schools would be closed, what would happen and what kind of activity would that engender or not?

We've been on the lookout for younger people out here helping to clean up. We have seen much younger children, 7, 8, 9 and 10, very, very young people coming out. There hasn't been a large number of teenagers or high school-age students or middle school-aged students that we've seen, but there certainly has been young people taking part. That's a good question, John. We don't know what's up with all of the other young kids who aren't around here and what they may be up to. Again, the hope with this increased police presence is that there is not a repetition of what we saw during all of those hours of pandemonium frankly last night.

BOLDUAN: Absoutely.

Athena, we can just watch those pictures behind you of folks walking around with gloves on doing what they can to pick up. That's one image to be sure we get out there today. But what happens when curfew hits? Will it work tonight?

Joe Johns was also in the thick -- Athena, thank you so much.

Joe Johns was in the middle of it last night and is joining us now from a different part of the city live from city hall.

Joe, city hall makes us of city leaders and they've been taking a lot of heat about what happened last night in Baltimore. What are they saying this morning?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, I want you to sort of look at the picture behind me and get the significance of that. This is city hall. It's been guarded by the National Guard. So that tells you a little bit about the state of affairs in this city.

Now, the city leaders have been responding to anger and there's different kinds of anger in this city right now. There's anger over Freddie Gray, his death, circumstances some of which we don't know. But there's also a lot of anger in the community about how all of this was handled and what happened to Baltimore, because if you think about it, and these are some of the complaints, when you have a CVS burned or when you have people roaming the streets setting fires, causing trouble, looting, that can have a long-term effect on the city economy, whether conventions come here, whether visitors want to come here just to be tourists.

These are the kinds of things that the city has to deal with, and just the image of Baltimore. And the question, of course, that's being asked of the city leaders is whether they were too permissive, were they too permissive in allowing these protests to somehow evolve and eventually become riots. Should they have cracked down earlier? Did they give protesters and others too much room to move in the city?

What's clear is the way the city has responded, is they tightened the net. Now they have the National Guard here, 1500 of them. They have state police. They have more firefighters. And they're trying to make sure, as Athena said, this doesn't happen again. The question, of course, while all of this plays in the background and while voters ask whether leaders have done the right thing, the big question is wheather this -- telling people to get off the streets at curfew actually holds this evening. That's a big step to figuring out whether these city leaders have done the right thing.

But there have been plenty of questions, as you know, about the police and the way the police have been working in the city with the community. Now there's a new question about whether these city leaders, African-American leaders, the mayor, as well as the police commissioner, why they weren't able to keep this from happening. And that's going to be a big after action question on everybody's minds -- guys?

BERMAN: And, Joe, they have some questions and answers and decisions they still need to make over the next several hours. Will the Baltimore Orioles play their game at Camden Yards tonight? It's an evening game, 7:00. If they can't play at 7:00, that would mean the game ends after the curfew. What about that game? What about the schools tomorrow for all those kids? Any sense on when these decisions will be made?

JOHNS: No sense as to what they're going to do about that. We do know it's public schools that are closed, but the private schools around town, I think that sort of "come as you will." It's not clear that all of the private schools or any of the private schools have actually shut down. So there is a lot for them to think about. And it all depends on whether the peace holds in this city this evening after curfew and when it gets dark. I do not know about the Baltimore Orioles. We were over there last night when they shut it down. There weren't a lot of people, I can tell you, showing up for a baseball game, given what was going on in the city. Nonetheless, I don't know what they're going to do today.

[11:10:27] BOLDUAN: We saw the mayor pop up outside of the CVS that Athena was near earlier today. She talked about how this is not what we stand for and I'm here to show this is not what we stand for and we're not going to take it and it's not going to be the same tonight. Kind of to John's point, is there any plan or a press conference or is there any expectation of public statement from the governor or from the mayor to kind of give a plan of action of what is going to be done differently or how things are going to change? It's a fluid situation obviously.

JOHNS: Right.

BOLDUAN: What are they going to tell the public today, tell the residents today, and how, to make them feel better about tonight?

JOHNS: Yeah. We have been hearing from them. So far, I mean, frankly, they've been doing a lot of triage. I haven't checked Twitter yet over the last few minutes because I've been on TV. But they've been communicating by Twitter. And it's interesting. As you know, a lot of the people who have been causing trouble have also been communicating by social media, Instagram and the like, and telling people to show up in different places. So we do await the latest information from the police commissioner,

from the mayor. And we're also talking to a lot of the community leaders because what we have learned is that some of creation of peace here on the ground is organic and it's coming from the ministers, the fraternities, the Nation of Islam, just individuals who are going out, block by block, saying "Don't do this. Don't tear up our neighborhood. Don't burn down that CVS because your baby mama won't be able to go and get medicine unless she drives downtown." Don't destroy the assets of the community because that hurts the people who live in the community. I think that's the message.

BERMAN: I think the efforts for a peaceful night have to come from everywhere, Joe. I think, at least so far today, you are seeing that. We saw pictures there of a prayer circle not far from where that CVS was burning last night. So that was a positive image.

Joe Johns, thank you so much.

BOLDUAN: And talking about positive images, with so much of the attention on violence, as it should have been, as that city was lit up last night, it's also worth highlighting Baltimore residents who aren't standing for it. Look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOTA GRAHAM, BALTIMORE MOTHER: Get over here. What the (EXPLETIVE DELETED). Get over here now! Did you hear what I say? Get over here. Get over here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Here's just one example. By all accounts, a mother who tracked her son down as camaeras were rolling, slapping, smacking him and pushing him away from the violent crowd.

The police commissioner even last night thanked her, saying he wished more parents took charge of their kids the way she did.

And then this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED VIETNAM VET: Go! Go your own (EXPLETIVE DELETED) way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: This happened live on CNN last night. Remarkable images. A Vietnam vet, Robert Valentine, who stepped between the police and young rioters. He was shooing away those people who had in their minds to throw things at the cops. He just told them to go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VALENTINE: They need to be in their home with their family and studying and doing something with their life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Also, hundreds of pastors and locals marched down the street asking for peace.

We're showing you this because it's happening in conjunction with everything that went on, that went badly last night. Now, all of the good things we're showing you, doesn't speak to what will happen tonight. That's a separate question.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. And the biggest question today.

Ahead for us AT THIS HOUR, the National Guard is on the scene right now. So what happens today? Will tonight be any different? Tough questions for a city under fire right now. That's ahead.

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[11:15:00]

BOLDUAN: Got some breaking news to bring you. We're going to get back to Baltimore in just a minute. But, to get to the breaking news, we have reports that Iran has seized, intercepted a commercial U.S.-a cargo ship. The United States seemed to be getting involved.

BERMAN: Yes, the Pentagon watching this very closely and more. In fact, want to bring in our chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto. Jim, what do you know?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): John and Kate, really a remarkable confrontation here. The ship, to be clear, was not a U.S. ship, it's a Marshal Islands flag ship. No Americans onboard, but it was a U.S. guided missile destroyer, the U.S. (INAUDIBLE), that answered a distress call. Elements from the Iran revolutionary guards, they have their own Navy. They attempted to force the ship into Iranian waters. The ship's captain refused, issued a distressed call. The Iranian ships then fire across the cargo ship's bow. This a big cargo ship (INAUDIBLE), one of those big cargo lines.

They fired shots across the bow. The captain gives in, but by this point, the U.S. Navy has already answered the distress call. They were some 60 miles away when it happened, so they weren't right on top of the ship. The ship is now in Iranian hands and I'm told by a Senior U.S. Military Official that even as it heads now further into Iranian waters, it is U.S. warplanes that are monitoring its status.

You know this is interesting John and Kate. You remember last week we had an Iranian convoy headed toward Yemen and you had U.S. naval ships, including an aircraft carrier, diverted down there to watch and kind of send a signal don't go there. To have this happen just a few days later with the U.S. Navy involved, it just shows how close Iranian and U.S. naval warships and military assets are over there and just, you know, these things can get very tense very quickly.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Looks like that's what happened in this situation. This news is breaking. Jim jumping on the phone with us. Jim, we'll get back to you as Jim gets more on this breaking news that we're getting right now.

[11:20:52] All right, let's turn back to Baltimore. AT THIS HOUR, more than 500 National Guard members are in Baltimore, with hundreds more on the way to keep the riots in the city from boiling over into a second day.

BERMAN: There are all kinds of questions about what happened yesterday and overnight. Were the Baltimore police, were city officials, not prepared for this? Did they not see what happened in Ferguson, Missouri? And given the death of a man in their custody, did they handle this situation well and are they prepared to handle it going forward?

Joining now to talk us about this, Michael Balboni. He served as the Senior Homeland Security and Law Enforcement Official for the state of New York. And among other things, Michael, you oversaw the national guard here in New York, which gives you key experience as to what's going on. We've been looking at pictures, live pictures, from the sky of the streets of Baltimore today. Just take a look at this. I wonder if you can talk to me about what we are now seeing. Now you are seeing those lines of police right there forming some kind of a barrier. You see people, citizens, milling about looking peaceful. We're not seeing running. We're not seeing burning. We're not seeing the throwing of anything. What do you make of the situation now?

MICHAEL BALBONI, SENIOR HOMELAND AND SECURITY LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL: So, when you take it down and out, you have all the violence from last night, there's making all sorts of assessments. You're bringing in new resources. What's key in types these situations, obviously, is you have no go zones and you have areas that are, kind of, frozen and you can't get into them. You have areas where protesters can conduct their activities, but they're cordoned off. And that's all about resourcing.

As, you say, the National Guard's coming in. Now, that's predominately what they're going to do. The mission is to support law enforcement. Law enforcement is the lead and as you know, there's been this call out for lots of other officers around the mid-region and people coming in and it's to make sure that you know where everybody is, what they're doing. And this allows you to do other things like who is in the crowd? You know, agitators, we've heard a lot about that. They key strategy is identify the agitators and get them out of there. Go in and get them, so that they're not able to continue to put poison over the crowd. I guess what you're seeing now is your stabilizing the situation. Of, course, a lot of concern is to when darkness falls, what happens then?

BOLDUAN: Well, yes, Overnight as daylight came about, there's been a lot of criticism coming at city leaders, coming at state leaders. Were they too permissive, did they not crackdown early enough to stop this all from happening. From your perspective when you see images from last night, the fact that they're bringing in a lot more assets and resources today, is that fair criticism coming at leaders? Were they not prepared?

BALBONI: So, Baltimore is the eighth largest police department in the United States. And obviously, they had a long history of having issues with the department itself. There's always two sides to that issue itself. But, after Ferguson and after what's gone on in Staten island, what I describe it is, this is like a tinder box. Just takes one more spark. And so normally, you sit there and you say you, you know, gee, you don't know where riots going to go, you don't know how big they're going to get. How fast they're going to escalate, but given what's gone on just the last couple months, you might have thought that, perhaps, there would have been more anticipation. Perhaps more planning, training. The big question is, what kind of community outreach has there been prior to this? The time for the community outreach is not during a riot.

BERMAN: So now, you got 500 National Guard, new National Guard on the street. They're going to raise that number. You have Baltimore police. You know, they canceled all kinds of leave and they're approaching tonight. Do they have enough for tonight? That question, also this. You know, we learned there were 202 arrests overnight. Does that strike you as a lot or a little?

BALBONI: You know, I don't really know the -- they weren't able to put a whole number as to how many people participated. Obviously, kind of, the percentage is what's key there. But, it really is also who they're arresting. You know, what are folks doing? There've been, I think, seven injured officers. You know, this is getting pretty intense overnight. And so the question becomes, how do they respond tonight. So they can protect officers and protect the community, which is their main focus. You know, everybody's all concerned about burning cars or buildings. It's about protecting the residents of the city.

BOLDUAN: And that speaks to, a little bit of what we're seeing today. We've just getting news that they shut down a mall that is about, what was it, five miles-

BERMAN: Five miles away from the fire.

BOLDUAN: -- to where the fires really were. So, it seems that there a bit-if there wasn't preplanning and positioning of resources, they sure seem to be getting a lot more intelligence and being a little more pro-active today. What do you make of the fact they are shutting down a mall because of the fears and real concerns, clearly, that the violence, that there is a planned violence at this mall.

BALBONI: Just like with any military or legal or security operation, intelligence is key. And so much of the intelligence we're getting these days comes from social media. It's amazing the amount of stuff people will put out on the net. Like the individual who went up and assassinated two officers in New York City. He tweeted this. He was driving up to New York. That he was going to let pigs fly. You know, we're picking up those kind of intelligence and what we do is, we now use that intelligence to lead our law enforcement, to lead our security forces to try to anticipate, take away opportunities for rioting.

[11:25:03] BERMAN: We just learned as you were speaking, Michael, that they postponed the Baltimore Orioles game. They were scheduled to play at 7:00 tonight. There was no way they were going to play at 7:00 because the game could run past the curfew. You think it's a wise decision to say, they're not going to play today or something like a game, if they'd been able to move to the afternoon. Does something, something that could galvanize the city into something peaceful?

BALBONI: From all the reports I read and from my sources I have spoken to, it's so raw in Baltimore right now. They need to get back to the business of living as a city, of restoring calm, of restoring services. A ball game probably could wait in my judgment. You know, let's go back and make sure that everybody's safety is assured.

BOLDUAN: Real quickly, from sources and folks that you're talking to, you the saw violence last night, you see what happened today. You've seen, unfortunately, probably, this happen before in different city, in different place. What do you, kind of, foresee--foreshadow happening tonight? Do you think it could be just as bad or do you think there's no way they're going to stop it?

BALBONI: I think that what's going to happen is, I mean, when you see the National Guard roll in, it's a very impressive sight.

BOLDUAN: That's the point.

BALBONI: Exactly, It's unmistakable that here's a presence and a force. But, again, what types of things do agitators want to see? You know, what's their agenda? Is it getting in front of the camera and making some big scene, or there other things. Can you prevent looting? Yes. Can you prevent violence? Perhaps not. But, I think that what's happening now is that after the first night, everyone is stepping back. They're assessing, and now they've got tremendously more resources, but also have a lot more focus. So, if there's a message you want to get out, tonight's going to be the time.

BERMAN: Michael Bolboni, great to have you here with us. Let's see how they use the new resources they have on hand there. Thanks Michael.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much.

BERMAN: Next for us, the President spoke with his new Attorney General about the violence in Baltimore. Also he spoke with the city's Mayor. But, you know, we haven't had a direct statement from the White House yet. Why? And what might the President say when he does speak? That's next.

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[11:30:00]