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Don Lemon Tonight
Fire and Fury Spread across U.S. in Fifth Night of Protests. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired May 31, 2020 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:00]
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR U.S. CORRESPONDENT: But now I'm just going to actually let you look at these pictures as we are watching them live here on CNN. I can't quite see the -- I believe this is the sheriff's department. This looks like the sheriff's department. Yes, this is definitely the Los Angeles sheriff's department.
They have been coming here to help the police department try to bring some order into the streets. You can see that they have shields. They -- we're going to back up just a little bit.
And then these are the vehicles that the sheriff's department has been using. These are the vehicles that the sheriff's department uses in dealing with unruly crowds and then you can see more coming this way. One, two.
And then what is this vehicle behind the sheriff's department?
We should tell you that the National Guard has been deployed to Los Angeles. This is definitely not the National Guard but these are a number of sheriff's department vehicles that we are just seeing arrive here on Melrose Avenue.
There has been a large number of stores. I've lost count of how many stores have been looted, up and down the street. And you're watching it with me. You're witnessing, certainly, a larger law enforcement presence here.
The curfew is at 8 o'clock. It was at 8 o'clock. That that was two hours ago. That was two hours ago. There have been fires set at these stores in addition to the looting. We can't tell you that they are connected but we can tell you that the police say that the fires appear to be happening, timing wise, after they have been looted.
And so, what they have been doing as protesters have been on the streets is they've been telling them that they are going to be under arrest because they're in violation of the curfew.
Something I do want to point out, Don, as, again, you're watching the firefighters try to put out this fire and law enforcement presence growing here on the streets of Los Angeles, are that some of the protesters we are seeing are so upset by the looting.
I witnessed a young black woman screaming at them, the looters, who were, you know, walking out with clothes and shoes, you know, yelling and screaming, saying, what are you doing? What are you doing?
And I've talked to a number of these business owners who say the same thing, that this is not what anybody wants. And so the difficult thing on policing is that I'm seeing the looters run away with shoes and then the protesters who are upset about the looting.
I've seen a couple of them being arrested because they're in violation of the curfew. So crowd control difficult, trying to keep the streets difficult, you know, trying to protest peacefully difficult as well, Don.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.
LAH: It's a little difficult for me to understand exactly what's happening here with the sheriff's department moving in. But all I can tell you is that it certainly appears that Los Angeles, the growing police presence is going to -- is being deployed to try to calm the streets, try to protect these businesses, Don.
LEMON: Is this the fire department arriving or leave the scene, Kyung?
Is this fire under control now?
LAH: No, no, no, no. This fire truck that you're looking at right now. We're going to stop here. You see the fire, the firefighter up there on the ladder, that is brand-new.
LEMON: The hook and ladder.
LAH: Just started minutes ago. And we heard the first report come, as we were watching the shoe store burn down. So yes, they are trying, now, to put this fire out from above as well as from below.
LEMON: I see it now, Kyung, in the darkness.
And how are these, do we know how these things are starting?
Is it -- I would imagine some of them are intentional and some of them may be collateral from just the skirmishes?
Or, I don't, who knows.
LAH: It's hard to tell. I can only tell you what the one police officer who I spoke with said, is that the timing is all that they're looking at, is that the stores -- and that is a store. I'm going to have you look at it again. That's definitely a store.
[01:05:00]
LAH: There are, you know, hundreds of these independent stores up and down Melrose Avenue. And after those stores are looted, the police officer told me that's when the fire happens.
Now can they absolutely say that they're connected?
No, they can't.
Jordan, I'm going to step up.
LEMON: What are the odds they're not, though?
LAH: It's difficult to say but -- and that's the Los Angeles police department. You know that they're the police, because they have the dark blue uniforms, the sheriff's department with the green.
LEMON: When I say collateral, I wasn't sure if it's because police officers are, well, some of the protesters are throwing things, right, at police officers and police officers are having to fire things back.
LAH: Absolutely.
LEMON: And that could be the cause of a fire, an unintentional cause of a fire. That's why I asked if maybe it was collateral. But if a store is looted and all of a sudden a fire starts after that, that could be maybe to get rid of the evidence, to get rid of the videotape or what have you, fingerprints. Who knows.
But this is unbelievable to see this playing out, especially in a city that's supposed to be on curfew right now. And listen, Los Angeles, no one thought, at least expected, nobody thought this would happen in any city. But Los Angeles last night I thought was fairly in control, Kyung.
Am I wrong about that?
LAH: It seemed more contained or restricted to downtown Los Angeles. And this feels a bit more widespread. I mean, if you live here, this is Melrose Avenue. This is where you come to buy funky shoes and, you know, a fashion-forward outfit. It's not the space where you would think this would happen.
And so the protests that we've seen, the looting that we've seen, has not just been in the Fairfax district or on Melrose Avenue but it has been -- it is felt a bit more widespread.
So that -- that's what's felt different, is it's just certainly felt much more widespread than in the downtown Los Angeles area. And we are still hearing reports that downtown Los Angeles is having some issues tonight.
LEMON: So we saw, just a little bit ago, protesters who were sitting in the street, defying curfew and they were being arrested.
Is that still going on?
Or has that ended?
LAH: We were actually watching those protesters. If you were watching during this point, there was a group of protesters. We were amid them. Some of them were looting the stores. The police basically came from the north and the south, squeezed them in. And then those remaining people who were in between the police, they
were told to sit down. They did. And then they peacefully were arrested. I didn't see any issues. It was very orderly. All the people who were on the street were sitting down, were complying with police orders.
Presumably, they are going to be charged for violating curfew. It's going to be very, very difficult to tell who was looting, who was not looting. I can tell you from just that group I was in, a lot of the looters, they left. The people who were protesting, the ones who were left behind are the ones who got picked up and arrested.
So they were in violation of curfew. Two minutes after the 8 o'clock, when curfew began, that's when police moved in.
I think we have a second fire truck here, trying to take care of this fire now. I mean, what we're seeing are just the deployment of a lot of fire engines in order to prevent the spread of these fires because you can see, the smoke pours out the front of this business. It's adjacent to two other businesses. So once one business catches fire --
LEMON: Yes.
LAH: -- it can easily spread to others. This is Los Angeles. This is summertime. We haven't had rain for a good period of time. It is very dry out here.
So problem upon problem, not only the pandemic but it's also summer. So there are issues that they're going to have, trying to deal with not just what's happening at hand but with a great number of persistent issues, trying to knock down a fire in an urban area.
[01:10:00]
LEMON: All right. Kyung, stand by. Kyung Lah, great reporting in Los Angeles.
I want to get this to you, because this is just in to CNN. Some frightening new video from inside the protests a few hours ago in Brooklyn, OK?
Now it's a marked police vehicle. It appears to drive into a barrier where a large number of protesters were gathered. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON (voice-over): This happened on Saturday. This is a NYPD vehicle hitting that barricade, knocking several people to the ground. The person who shot this video said the protesters were throwing trash and water bottles at the police vehicle at the time. No word yet as to whether anyone was hurt.
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LEMON: The mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, has seen the video, he told reporters that he wishes that it hadn't happened. He calls it troubling and says that the incident is under investigation.
Can we re-rack that and roll that back on the teleprompter because I want to read it from the beginning. OK?
So from the very beginning.
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LEMON (voice-over): So keep going. There we go. All right.
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LEMON: All right, so this was, it's just in to CNN, as I said. Frightening video from inside the protest. This is a few hours ago in Brooklyn. This is a marked police vehicle. Look at it. It drives directly into a barrier, large number of protesters gathered when this happened.
And so this vehicle hit, hitting that barricade, knocking several people to the ground when that happened. You see another police vehicle pulling up there, a lot of chaos. The person who shot this video said that protesters were throwing trash and water bottles at the police vehicle at the time. No word yet on if anybody was hurt here.
And again Bill de Blasio said he saw the video, said he wished it hadn't happened. He says the incident is under investigation and we'll continue to check on this and see what happened.
But, boy, that is some frightening video there.
Shimon Prokupecz is in New York.
Shimon, wow, what are you seeing and hearing from your vantage point?
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE PRODUCER: Yes, after that video, you can be assured that folks inside the NYPD, officials inside the NYPD are very concerned about that. That's just not an appropriate tactic in any kind of situation.
You know, we've been out here all day and we've seen police cars attacked. We've seen police vans on fire and, of course, the mayor said that that is unacceptable. And it is unacceptable.
But what you see in that video from the police department is also unacceptable. That is not an appropriate tactic. You don't drive your car forward into a crowd of people. You call for backup. You do things to try to get yourself some help so that you can get yourself out of this situation.
You know, for New York City, I think it's important to note that they have spent years trying to make the relationships between the community, the black community, black and brown communities, minorities of New York City, to try build on better relationships.
And when you see something like that, it upsets a lot of people. Under this mayor and the different police commissioners we've had, under Mayor de Blasio, that has been the focus of their job, is to try and better the relationship that the NYPD has with the community.
And in some ways, they think it has been working. And what we're seeing across the city today is very shocking for a lot of people, the level of violence, the level of attacks. You know, of course, you talk to police officers here, they're all upset over what happened in Minneapolis.
But they're also very upset by what's being done to them and how, you know, the level of attack in some ways. And they're not satisfied with some of the response they've been seeing from police officers everywhere.
So you know, you walk through these streets. Today, I have to tell you, having been in New York City my whole life and having covered protests, as a reporter, as a journalist, you know.
[01:15:00]
PROKUPECZ: I have not seen this level of violence, the fires, yes, they're trash fires but they were being set all across Manhattan, Union Square, Chelsea, police vans being set on fire, barricades being thrown through police vehicles.
That is what we were seeing from some of the protesters. There were peaceful protests. You know, the police department, the mayor was not happy over some things he had seen. There was video of a woman being pushed by police officers in Brooklyn as she was walking. And an officer pushed and shoved her to the ground. The mayor talked about that. The NYPD commissioner talked about that.
So we've been seeing things like that. And then today, at times, the police department, they did seem outnumbered. They did seem to, you know, allow the crowd to come into the street. Yesterday they were not allowing some of the protesters into the street.
But after yesterday, it seemed that the tactics had changed today. But things progressed through the day, Don, and it just kind of got worse as the night came. We have not seen these fires. We have not seen the police vehicles being vandalized as we saw today.
So all around, I think there's going to be a lot of sadness, right. The community's going to be very sad over what happened, to see the way some of the police officers have reacted, using their vehicles, shoving people, in some cases using excessive force.
And then you're seeing communities, you know, like here around us, that windows have been broken, at banks, at stores, police cars that are just now on the street, all burned out to a shell with nothing, nothing left.
There have been over 100 arrests, probably close to 150 arrests across the city, in Brooklyn, here in Manhattan, several arrests. Protesters were mostly gathering in Union Square for most of the day. It was kind of the place where they would all meet and then they would leave and go to different areas.
And then police would chase them down. And then there would be agitation and then they would fight with the police and the police would chase them and then lots of arrests.
And there are still pockets, pockets of violence around the city. So it's probably going to be a long night here. And tomorrow we'll see what the day brings. Certainly, Don, I think from yesterday to today here in New York City, and as we're seeing across the country, there's been an escalation in these demonstrations and the level of violence.
LEMON: Yes. We'll continue to monitor, Shimon Prokupecz, from New York City. We'll be live for you for as long as it warrants it. There we go, Shimon.
In Los Angeles, this is pictures, these are pictures now that you're looking at from Los Angeles, California. We will take a short break and be right back. Don't go anywhere.
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[01:20:00]
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LEMON: America 2020 looks a lot like America 1968. Protests devouring most major American cities tonight. Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. All consumed with rage and now violence. Officials say protests are no longer protests.
Police have shot rubber bullets, fired tear gas canisters and have arrested journalists. Whatever the original message was, justice for George Floyd or justice for too long, the too-long list of all black men who have died at the hands of police, it is hard to see that message when looking at a sea of glass and graffiti and broken businesses.
John Lewis, civil rights icon, who had his skull fractured marching for the very same cause, says this destruction is not the way. In downtown Indianapolis, at least three people shot, one is dead amid protests, Indianapolis police chief Randall Taylor said in a press conference.
Police are still investigating these incidents and have advised citizens to avoid the area. A police officer also sustained minor injuries tonight. The chief added that to his statement.
I want to go to CNN's Brian Todd, Brian joins us now from Philadelphia.
Brian, the scenes from Philadelphia, look at what's behind you. It is unbelievable.
What happened? BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, you know, look, there was widespread looting in this whole area, businesses all over the place were smashed, broken into.
Let me show you one of them first before I get to this gentleman here, who is guarding his business.
Andrew, if you back up slightly and then pan over here.
Look at this bar, that was completely totaled. Smashed in and completely decimated. Let's come on back over here.
Here's what happened to Joe's Pizza. Joe's Pizza's been here for 30 years. It seemingly didn't get touched because Juliano Giuliano Tommasi (ph) here is the nephew of the owner. The owner himself and another gentleman who works with them were standing guard while the looting was going on.
Giuliano, thanks for talking to us. OK, describe the scene first. People want to know, your place didn't get touched because you guys were standing out here.
JULIANO GIULIANO TOMMASI, JOE'S PIZZA: Yes.
TODD: What happened?
TOMMASI: It was crazy, there was rioting, protesting.
[01:25:00]
TOMMASI: They were breaking windows, they were robbing stores and, thank God, we stood out here and nobody did anything. I guess we kind of guarded the place but...
TODD: I mean, what was the dynamic?
Did they threaten you and did you stare them down?
TOMMASI: No, nobody threatened, thank God, nobody did anything malicious towards us. Everybody just ran by, did what they had to do to other businesses and left us alone.
TODD: We don't know exactly what's going to take place tomorrow. There may be more protests, we're not sure. There may be more in the days ahead. No one really knows.
How concerned are you at this point?
TOMMASI: We're very concerned. We saw what happened everything around us, so tomorrow we'll be open again and we'll be out here again just trying to save our place.
TODD: You're going to stay open, will you take any added precautions?
TOMMASI: It's just us. We're a family, we stick together and the family will be here tomorrow. TODD: Three guys.
TOMMASI: Three guys.
TODD: Let's hope your business stays intact.
TOMMASI: Thank you.
TODD: I'm going to show you, Don, another business. This is the Happy Rooster Restaurant. I talked to the owner. She didn't want to go on camera with us. This restaurant's been here for 51 years.
The owner came and told us they smashed her big window over here. She said they went in that big window now boarded up. They knew what they wanted, she said. They took all the high-end liquor, took a lot of other things. Came in here and got out.
She's very concerned about the days ahead as well.
This is a Philadelphia Runner store over here. And what the owner of the Happy Rooster told us is she witnessed looters coming in here and, interestingly, I'll show you over here, Andrew is showing you some of the burned-out and smashed-in glass here. OK.
What the owner told us was that they have shoes on display, individual shoes. And you know, clearly people are coming in looking for pairs of shoes. According to another business owner that was here who talked to us, these looters figured out that there was an entrance down here, I'm not going to point it out. But there was an entrance down there where it was a storage area and they got in and took some shoes.
And she actually just told us a few minutes ago while we talking to the guys at Joe's Pizza that some people were still going in there and picking out stuff. We don't want to show that entrance.
So clearly still some opportunists here, Don. We just look at the wide swath of the destruction of the Dunkin Donuts down here, kind of gives you a good picture of so many streets, street after street here in Philadelphia.
We were told by the police that they made 38 arrests, 22 of them for looting. I cannot imagine that that's anything but a very low number at this point.
We were told that 13 police officers were injured. Seven of them were injured by -- with chemical burns to the face. So they had things thrown at them. And they were confronting the looters and the rioters all afternoon and evening long. So some real scenes of carnage here in Philadelphia, Don, and they're bracing for more ahead.
LEMON: Wow. I spent many happy nights at the Happy Rooster after hanging out with friends. So I hope everyone is OK there. But it's really sad to see that level of destruction there. That's unbelievable.
What's happening there, are those alarms? What's going on?
TODD: I can show you, this alarm has been going off sporadically since we've been here, not really touched off anything we've been able to see.
(CROSSTALK)
TODD: No, we don't believe it's a car alarm. It's an alarm in that building that goes off sporadically. We've not seen anybody go in and set it off. What's interesting here, we think there may be opportunists still trying to pick apart some business.
LEMON: Brian Todd, in Center City, Philadelphia, holding court there.
We'll get back to Brian Todd, we will be right back with you right after this.
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[01:30:00]
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LEMON: A national crisis unfolding in dozens of cities across this country right now, from Minneapolis to Los Angeles, Atlanta to New York. Washington to Seattle. Chaos is gripping America as protesters go head to head with police over the death of George Floyd, who died Monday after a Minneapolis police officer pinned him to the ground by the neck with his knee.
Joining us now, CNN political commentator, Keith Boykin.
Keith, we should be mindful that there is a long delay here. So let's be mindful of that. But I understand you were arrested in New York today while taking pictures of protests.
What happened?
KEITH BOYKIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, Don, I was on 125th Street in Harlem, watching the protesters and the Black Lives Matter protest going down the street, mostly peaceful. The police were actually very helpful. They weren't causing any problems until it got to the West Side Highway.
The protesters moved onto the West Side Highway. They proceeded down from 123rd Street to almost 96th Street. I was in front of the protesters with my camera so I could video and take photos.
And the police came from the other direction, from 94th Street. They came from that direction and they said they were going to arrest people. I said, I'm with the press. They walked by me and they turned around and they arrested me anyway. I asked, Why am I being arrested?
They said, you're blocking the highway.
[01:35:00]
BOYKIN: Mind you, I wasn't blocking the highway. And it was a six hour deal. The police -- when they could have just said, you need to move off the highway, you're going to be arrested, they didn't bother to do that. They just arrested me.
The police have too much power. And (INAUDIBLE) Bill de Blasio said earlier today, about the police ramming the barricade, I saw a similar incident to that (INAUDIBLE). I posted it, the video is on my Twitter feed, @KeithBoykin.
And you can see there, the police are surrendered in this situation, not (INAUDIBLE) but they're literally surrendered by protesters. The police van, and what did they do, they deescalated the situation. They got out of the vehicles. They, they pulled back the vehicles that are moving forward and they allowed the protesters to move by.
And then the police vehicles could escape. That was all they had to do to deescalate the situation. That's what police are supposed to do.
But so often the police don't deescalate. They make matters worse. And that's what people are protesting about. That's why they're so upset about George Floyd right now. (INAUDIBLE). It has been a horrible week for everybody in America, with 100,000 dead from the coronavirus.
Memorial Day was this week. I was in Houston for my stepdad's celebration of his life, because he passed away during the coronavirus. I was there at the cemetery, at the Veterans National Cemetery in Houston.
Then the same day George Floyd died and was murdered and then after that, the 100,000 dead and then there was protests throughout the country. And then yesterday I found out that one of my mentors, Ron Simmons from Washington, D.C., passed away.
So I was just having a horrible week. I get back to New York. I'm thinking I'll go out and watch what's happening with the protests, watch democracy in action. Instead, I get arrested by the police for simply doing nothing, exercising my First Amendment rights to be a citizen, to be a journalist, to be on the street.
LEMON: Were you away social distancing?
Is that why were you away from New York?
BOYKIN: I was. My stepfather passed away March 10th so I was there.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: I'm sorry to hear that. So when you got back, which was there was no social distancing when you were in the back of the van or the police car or when they put you in the cell, I would imagine. BOYKIN: Well, none whatsoever. I had on my mask but then they'd pull
it down so they could take a photo of me. So for the duration of time I was in police custody in the prison bus and in the van, the mask was below my chin.
So there's no social distancing during that time. When I was in the cell, I was able to pull my mask up. But there were 35 other inmates, 34 other inmates in the cell at that time, only half of them had masks. There was no opportunity for social distancing when you're in a cell with 35 people. It's just impossible to do. And the police didn't have masks, either.
LEMON: Were they -- did -- when -- did you talk to other people who were there?
Did other people say that they were detained or arrested or whatever or given summons for doing the same thing that you did, for blocking traffic or...?
BOYKIN: Exactly. One of the people who was arrested with me was a young man, I posted the story on my Twitter feed as well. I don't know his age but I'm guessing 20s or 30s or something, African American from Harlem. He was protesting.
He told me about his life story. He said he's an essential worker. He said he had to be there but he was there because he was frustrated as a black man , whose life was not valued.
That's why people are out there. The people I saw today were peacefully protesting. They were all different races and colors and genders and sexual orientations. Predominantly black, predominantly young, in Harlem, marching down to the West Side Highway.
These are people who are frustrated, Don. They're frustrated with the way society has treated them, frustrated with the conditions of our country. You think of everything that has gone on, from the coronavirus to the shutdown to the quarantine, to the death of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
It's just a catastrophe and there's no leadership at the federal level, certainly. There's no leadership to bring us together at this moment. Lincoln talked about the better angels of our nature.
Who is the one in our country right now who is pulling the people together, pulling us together and making us a union?
It almost feels like we've been in a cold civil war for quite some time. Well, today and this week it feels like it really just got hot. This cold civil war has become a burning civil war. And I'm sad to say that there -- it feels like this time the president is not on the side of the union.
[01:40:00]
LEMON: All right, Keith Boykin, we're glad you're safe. We appreciate you coming on. Take care of yourself and stay safe out there. Thanks. And so here's our breaking news, our breaking news is that there is
chaos that has happened all over the country tonight. Many cities, the protests have devolved into rioting and into looting.
And there you see a firefighter ascending a ladder, trying to put out a fire in one of the biggest cities in this country and that is Los Angeles. We're going to take a quick break. And we will be right back.
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LEMON: From Minneapolis to Atlanta to Los Angeles and countless cities in between, chaos has gripped America as protesters and police clash, at times violently. That fury driven by inexplicable death, the inexplicable death of George Lloyd, who died while in police custody Monday.
This is Chicago you're looking at. There you see protesters trying to turn over a van. I'm not sure if they were successful. But it was a frightening scene to watch. And we watched it play out live here on CNN. Let's get to Los Angeles and Kyung Lah.
What are you seeing now?
LAH: They are still burning. I'm standing next to what we're learning is a shoe store. You can see the smoke billowing out of the top. The fire is mainly to the back and firefighters are now to the back of this business, trying to knock this fire down.
There have been a number of fires. This one -- and, Jordan, come back this way -- to the left there are actually flames. You can see the flames poking out from the back of this building. This fire broke out as we were watching another fire burn at a different shoe store.
[01:45:00]
LAH: So what the police here and sheriff's department are dealing with is not just civil unrest but they're also dealing with a number of fires along this area.
This is a Melrose shopping district. And they're still trying to clear the streets. From what we are hearing from law enforcement in the Melrose area, you can see a significant police presence.
This is a mixture of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department as well as the Los Angeles Police Department. There are still crowds out and about. And what law enforcement is trying to do now is to try to get these crowds to go home.
It is, the curfew here in Los Angeles started at 8:00 pm. The National Guard has been called in by the mayor of Los Angeles. He made that announcement, saying that there has got to be peace on the streets.
And what is all of this about?
We've been focusing so much on the violence, what law enforcement has been going through. But this is -- what you're seeing here --
LEMON: Uh-oh.
LAH: We've seen firecrackers.
LEMON: Are you guys moving the camera?
LAH: See, so you can, yes, where we are is behind this police line. I can't see what happened. I heard the sound of glass. There are still crowds out and they are throwing things at law enforcement.
So you know, you just witnessed what we've been seeing over and over again here tonight, as there have been crowds colliding with law enforcement.
But I just wanted to point out one thing as you're watching all of this unfold. What this is about and if you talk to these protesters and if you look at some of the graffiti here, this, just here quickly, this says, "I can't breathe," George Floyd.
So this is what it's about but some of this is getting lost in all of the looting that we're seeing and all of the law enforcement action that we're seeing on the streets.
But you know, I spoke to a woman who lives in this neighborhood. And she said that this was just heartbreaking to watch, because a lot of these businesses are independently owned. They've had to deal with the economic downturn in this pandemic.
And now they're watching some of their businesses get smashed and everything inside get hollowed out. So you know, this is, this is certainly not over here in Los Angeles. It's going to be quite a long night here.
LEMON: Yes. And rightfully so. You point out this is happening in the middle of a pandemic, and lots of people have not been working, and they are struggling right now and that certainly does not help, Kyung.
Kyung Lah, joining us from Los Angeles, thank you so much.
Our live coverage of the chaos that is happening all across America continues right after this break.
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[01:50:00]
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LEMON: Presidential nominee Joe Biden has just released a statement, saying, in part, "These last few days have laid bare that we are a nation furious at injustice. Every person of conscience can understand the rawness of the trauma people of color experience in this country, from the daily indignities to the extreme violence like the horrific killing of George Floyd."
He then added, "We are a nation in pain but we now must allow -- not allow this pain to destroy us. We are a nation enraged but we cannot allow our rage to consume us. We are a nation exhausted but we will not allow our exhaustion to defeat us."
It is difficult to capture the solemnity of the crisis in American history right now. Earlier tonight, Senator Kamala Harris tried to put the past five days into perspective for us.
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SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA): We romanticize in so many ways about who Dr. King was and his nonviolent protests. But the reality is that he was fighting for the same things that the protesters today are fighting for, that is equal justice under the law.
That has to be acknowledged. The pain and the injustice has to be acknowledged. And so that is how I think about this moment.
And of course, I will never condone vandalism and violence in these protests. But you need to recognize and appreciate the fact that people have a right to feel pain and to feel anger about the fact that this is still happening this many years later.
LEMON: Here's the question though. The question that everyone wants the answer to. We do not know what it is. Perhaps you as a legislator can -- can tell us.
What happens now?
What is the solution?
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: How do we fix this because this is, as we know, the third rail -- race is the third rail to the American society.
How do we fix this?
HARRIS: First of all, we have to have all people, regardless of race and gender. I was out there at the protests today in D.C., in front of the White House. And there were people of every gender, every race, unified in understanding the significance of this and the importance of fighting for the ideals of our country.
That should include making real equal justice under the law.
So how do we do that on the issue of excessive force?
First of all, I have said this before, bad cops need to go to jail. Bad cops are bad for good cops.
[01:55:00]
HARRIS: So what do we need to do to bring more integrity in the criminal justice system?
We need to have more independent investigation. I strongly believe it should not be DA's offices that work with those police departments that are doing the investigations of police misconduct.
We need to have the United States Department of Justice reinvoke what, under the Obama administration, was happening around investigations of pattern and practice, of discrimination, which had basically been canceled under Donald Trump's administration.
We need to have a system where we are enforcing consent decrees, where there has been a finding of misconduct by a police department and a court oversees what should be the reforms.
These are the specific things that need to happen. But I have to tell you, Don, so today, we all were really excited, many of us watched the SpaceX launch, I don't know if you saw that. And the commentators were talking about the two minutes and 38 seconds that the SpaceX launch needed to detach, to actually pursue its mission, two minutes and 38 seconds. There was a clock that NASA had on the projection of that launch, two minutes and 38 seconds.
George Floyd, two minutes and 53 seconds, had a knee on his neck when he showed no signs of life.
This is why people are marching and protesting because why should there be two systems of justice or two definitions of the significance of the passage of time in America?
LEMON: Senator Kamala Harris.
So a black man dies at the hands of police.
Why does this keep happening?
When will this end?
Join me for an important conversation, "I Can't Breathe: Black Men Living and Dying in America," tomorrow night at 8:00 Eastern.
Thanks for watching our special coverage, everyone. I'm Don Lemon. Our coverage continues with CNN NEWSROOM right after this very short break.
