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Another Winter Blast; Super Bowl Security; Football Team Wants to Join Union

Aired January 28, 2014 - 15:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour, and it's breaking news here on CNN, reports of a shooting at a high school in Hawaii, sources telling us that the suspect is now in custody, and that two people, two people have been shot.

We're told that they have non-life-threatening injuries. This happened at Roosevelt High School. It's located in Honolulu. But we're not sure at this stage whether the shooting happened inside or outside of this school. It happened about 8:30 this morning.

And just to repeat what we know, a shooting at a high school in Hawaii, two people believed to be shot, one person in custody, those injuries, we are told, as of now, non-life-threatening. We will continue to follow that story.

Also, a big developing story, of course, is the weather. Gulf Coast states rarely get snowing, but that's all changing this winter season. A huge storm moving through the Deep South, bringing with it freezing rain, arctic temperatures, and snow.

These are live pictures that you're looking at from our affiliate WBMA. This is Birmingham, Alabama. This is the interstate there. Every city that I have ever lived in, we're showing footage of today, Birmingham, Atlanta, New Orleans. And this is the interstate.

Look, traffic is backed up. It's really at a standstill. They're not used to dealing with snow down South. There's no snow chains on the tires or any of those things, very few salt trucks and spreaders. So it's going to be a problem, big problem preparing for the ice that's going to follow all of this.

Let's go to our meteorologists now, Chad Myers, Jennifer Gray out in New Orleans and Atlanta.

Going to start with Jennifer down in Atlanta.

Georgia is not under a state of emergency, but there are multiple winter storm warnings across the state and it has been snowing in Atlanta for much of the afternoon. How's it going, Jennifer?

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right, Don. It's been snowing since 11:30 this morning. It has not let up. We're getting a little bit of accumulation on the ground, maybe an inch, inch-and-a-half in some spots, this powdery snow. Just as you mentioned a few moments ago, though, the South is not used to this. I have been out here for a couple of hours. I haven't seen one salt truck in downtown Atlanta.

The streets have been completely gridlocked. And that's what the entire city looks like. They're urging people to stay home. No one is staying home. And we have actually heard that a lot of people are now running out of gas on the interstate.

And the Department of Transportation says those people aren't our priorities. We're trying to get to the people that have had accidents. And so we have seen a couple of people completely ditch their cars and just start walking. So it is a huge mess here in Atlanta, very slushy roadways. And, overnight, that is definitely going to freeze. It's going to be a mess as we go into the wee hours of the morning.

I want to get to the forecast, because we do have a lot to talk about. There's a lot going on, and, man, it is all in the South, anywhere from Houston, including South Louisiana, New Orleans, all the way up the southeast coast, we are seeing anything from snow in Birmingham, Atlanta, Montgomery, a little bit of an icy mix, freezing rain reported in New Orleans all the way to Mobile, timing this out during the rush hour.

Still seeing snow in Atlanta, but then pushing out by 9:00. And then, as we get into the rush hour tomorrow morning, most of this should be pushed out of the way, except for maybe a little bit of a mess left on the east coast of North Carolina. But it is going to continue for the next couple of hours. It's been about three years since Atlanta has seen a significant snowfall. So it is definitely causing some problems down here, Don.

LEMON: Forget it. Nothing's going to get done today or tomorrow. Just go home and stay hunkered down. Thank you, Jennifer. We will check back with you.

(WEATHER UPDATE)

LEMON: What about the weather for the Super Bowl, Super Bowl Sunday, huh? 30 degrees, sunny skies. Currently, there is a chance of rain and snow on Saturday, but all of that is supposed to move out just in time for the big bowl on Sunday.

The current forecast is for temperatures in the mid-30s with partly cloudy skies. We shall see. Law enforcement and security are huge priorities, of course, at the Super Bowl. We have just learned that New York authorities have made 200 arrests for sex trafficking and related crimes in recent days.

The NYPD and the FBI say they have ramped up efforts to combat sex crimes ahead of the big game. And starting tomorrow, random baggage checks will begin for some public transit, some hubs, MetLife Stadium, at the Meadowlands and New Jersey, and there is so much more. At the stadium complex alone, there will be more than 700 state troopers, 3,000 private security guards, and hundreds and hundreds of federal workers assisting them.

Joining me now, security expert Lou Palumbo.

So, unlike a lot of big bowl games, people won't be driving. They're going to be using mass transit. How does that impact security? Does that help or hurt security? It's a different type of security.

(CROSSTALK)

LOU PALUMBO, FORMER NEW YORK POLICE OFFICER: Yes.

Well, no, you have to secure any of the arteries that lead into the actual venue. But the reduction in vehicular traffic is always an asset, on many levels, especially when it comes to moving emergency services. God forbid there is an incident, the less vehicles on the road, the more accessible the venue will be.

LEMON: It's always disturbing because we talked about the sex crimes. They have made 200 arrests. And as they get closer to the Super Bowl, I would imagine they will make more. This draws out that sort of crime, doesn't it?

PALUMBO: Yes, absolutely. We want to entertain our visitors.

LEMON: Yes. You're usually not a man of a few words, but on that one, you are.

What about the fears of terrorism and how does that affect security measures? It's always a place, I would imagine, an event this big, a target for terrorists, a potential target for terrorists.

PALUMBO: It's a very good target. It has a good target value, is how it's referred to.

But there are more than sufficient security plans in place to offset any threat, starting, of course, with our intelligence community.

LEMON: Yes. So you feel comfortable? Everything's fine when it comes to the Super Bowl?

PALUMBO: I don't think there's anybody or anyone better on the planet at protecting our people than the United States, between the intelligence community and the technology, both what we have seen demonstrated through the NSA and our ability to surveil people, whether we should be or not, as well as local technology, such as the camera systems and the city's ability to detect chemical or biological emissions, radioactive emissions. We're really high-tech.

LEMON: Especially here in New York City.

(CROSSTALK)

PALUMBO: Absolutely. Absolutely. We have a very proactive police commissioner, Bill Bratton. He's the most talented law enforcement administrator in the business, and I'm sure that he's on top of this. He has spent his whole lifetime doing this, protecting people.

LEMON: Always a pleasure. Haven't seen you since the new year. Happy new year.

PALUMBO: You, too.

LEMON: Thank you very much. Appreciate it.

PALUMBO: My pleasure.

LEMON: Up next, we're going to talk about a smash-and-grab robbery, but this smash was done a with a car, the $40,000 heist caught on camera. Now police are hoping something the suspects left behind could lead to their arrests.

Plus, we have to tell you about it, of course, Justin Bieber deported from the U.S.? The Canadian arrested in Miami and also facing an investigation in Los Angeles. So what crimes led to deportation -- or lead to deportation? Will the pop star's status have influence on this case? That's next, the Biebs.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWS BREAK)

LEMON: Oh, the Biebs, that's when he was a little innocent kid. Well, he may be making his hits in the U.S., but could the Canadian citizen's trouble with the law see him forced to make hits from Canada instead?

The embattled teen pop star last seen strolling the beaches in Panama with his entourage, a stark contrast from last week, when the 19-year- old was arrested on charges of driving under the influence with an expired license and resisting arrest in Miami Beach. You know the story. We have told you.

But that may not be the worst of his troubles. Possible felony charges could be filed against Bieber over an egging. That's right, detectives trying to get enough evidence together to determine whether Bieber is responsible for an egg-throwing attack that caused $20,000 in damage to his neighbor's house.

Joining me now, Jane Velez-Mitchell, host of HLN's "JANE VELEZ- MITCHELL."

Who would have thunk that an egging would lead to so much? You know you egged as a kid. Right?

JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL, HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: I actually did not. I was living in the city.

LEMON: Oh, please.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And we didn't participate.

(CROSSTALK) LEMON: I did it. But I was 12, 13 years old. I wasn't 19 years old when I was doing it. Can he be deported because of this?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, the general consensus is he is not going to get deported. Even if he were convicted of everything everybody is accusing him of, these are not the classic crimes that result in deportation. These are not the rape and murder of the aggravated felonies.

LEMON: It's still a felony.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes, if he were convicted of a felony. But I will say this. The American Civil Liberties Union has been posting some interesting twists on this, suggesting on their Web site that if he were a poor immigrant, he might be in a holding cell somewhere right now and facing possible deportation.

And they say essentially the laws can be twisted, that this idea of an aggravated felony has become very flexible in its definition and that it is sometimes twisted to deport people for far lesser crimes, which to me says that, yes, there is a two-tiered system of justice in this country, one for Justin Bieber and the other for everybody else.

LEMON: So Justin Bieber had better hope that law enforcement officials aren't listening to Twitter because #DeportBieber trended on Twitter just last week.

Could he actually go back to Canada and escape these charges?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, he's in Panama, supposedly, frolicking on the beach with the girl that was supposedly riding shotgun with him when he was drag-racing in his yellow Lamborghini.

LEMON: Allegedly.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Of course, he says he wasn't drag-racing, that he was -- I don't think he's going to go into retreat any time soon, but I think this is a wonderful opportunity to look at our highly dysfunctional criminal justice system.

I mean, this guy can't really get in trouble, right? And he's done things that -- what, a neighbor said he spat in his face, that he allegedly, purportedly, they're investigating, egged a neighbor's house to the tune of $20,000. Somebody says he's drag-racing. He's pulled over for DUI. He curses at the cops. He's resisting arrest.

And yet what happens? No, police raid his house, right? They find what they believe are drugs. Who gets arrested? A young African- American man who happens to be staying at his house.

LEMON: Yes, even though it's Bieber's house.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Exactly.

LEMON: So, why is it so -- Jane and I are on CNN together and we also do "The Wendy Williams Show" together. Every time I'm on with, I want to talk like this and I start -- it's so much energy. Where does that come from, Jane?

(CROSSTALK)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Because I'm a vegan, because I'm a vegan.

LEMON: You even make fun of yourself.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: I do.

LEMON: Once you said, why am I screaming?

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Yes. Well, I have high energy. That's what happens when you eat fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: I love you, Jane. Thanks.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Thanks.

LEMON: Appreciate it. Thanks for the Bieber update.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Sure.

LEMON: Make sure you catch Jane Velez-Mitchell on our sister station HLN each weeknight at 7:00 Eastern.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Good seeing you, Don.

LEMON: Jane, thank you. Appreciate it.

Prince, music icon, songwriter, actor, and now plaintiff, Prince filed a lawsuit against almost two dozen people. Two of them operate a fan site on Facebook. Hear why he is taking legal action.

Plus, this is Jesse Loskarn, OK? He is a -- he was a rising political star in the GOP, but he killed himself after he was accused of having child pornography. Now we're getting a look at an emotional and revealing blog post written just before his death. He talks about his inner demons and his past. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: I think this is a very important segment that all parents should look at. I'm not sure that children should, so you may want to clear your children from the room. OK?

So, I'm going to give you a moment to do that. We're going to talk about child pornography and the rare message from someone suspected of using it. His name is Jesse Ryan Loskarn, a rising star in the GOP. He was an aide to Senator Lamar Alexander from Tennessee. Loskarn killed himself. He was found dead on Thursday after investigators charged him with possessing child pornography.

And according to Politico, his mother posted a final message from Loskarn on his blog. All right? And I'm going to read from it right now,, in part.

He said: "I found myself drawn to videos that matched my own childhood abuse. It's painful and humiliating to admit to myself, let alone the whole world, but I pictured myself as a child in the image or video. The more an image mirrored some element of my memories and took me back, the more I felt a connection. I have asked God. I have asked myself. I have talked with clergy and counselors and psychiatrists. I spent five days on suicide watch in the psychiatric ward at the D.C. jail, fixated on the why and how questions. Why did I do this? And how can I kill myself?

"I have shared the most private details of my life with others in the effort to find an answer. There seem to be many answers and none at all. To those who choose to sever all ties with me, I don't blame you. No one wants to think or talk about this subject matter. All I can say is, I understand and I'm sorry. And, last, to the children in the images, I should have known better. I perpetuated your abuse, and that will be a burden on my soul for the rest of my life."

Right? Tough words. And, you know, even though he did something very wrong, you can still have empathy for him. That must have been very hard to deal with, especially being abused and then making someone else a victim.

Jeff Gardere is here. He's a psychologist.

His torment was quite clear in that. He had been living in constant terror that people would find out, right?

JEFFREY GARDERE, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: That's right. That's right, find out that he was abused as a boy at around 5 years old.

And he states, as you read, that he became attracted to pornography because there was something about him that in some ways brought up the trauma of being abused, of being sexually abused. And so being attracted to that perhaps may have been a way for him to deal in some ways with that abuse.

But the mistake that he made, obviously, he didn't get the help of a psychologist or a social worker, was not able to process through it, and so took that, no pun intended, unadulterated memories of being abused and connected it to the pornography that he was watching, and therefore that attraction perhaps came to be. That's what he claims happened.

LEMON: This is really difficult for me to read, not -- the child pornography part, I'm not talking about that, but the abuse part, having been abused as a child and being -- having worried about people finding out, right, because that's the worst violation that you can do to a child.

GARDERE: That's right.

LEMON: I always says that someone stole your innocence, and you don't know what's going to come from that. I isolate myself. I don't go out. I'm not a big partier, whatever. You know, I just sort of -- it's tough for me in a relationship.

You never know how these things are going to play out when you're abused as a child, what's going to happen as an adult. It can come out in pornography. It can come out in, you have relationship issues.

GARDERE: That's right.

LEMON: It can come out in many, many -- in a myriad of ways that we don't really know about. And I think by him talking about it may bring light to a very difficult subject, even in death.

GARDERE: I wish we could go back before he started watching pornography, and was able to talk about it and was able to have a forum about it, as you eventually did, that ended up helping so many other people.

And he talks about, Don, that his whole life, not only did he not want people to know. Not only was he ashamed, but he controlled himself and his emotions so that people couldn't tell something had happened, and that's why he was so great on Capitol Hill, because it was all about compartmentalizing.

LEMON: But you know what the worst part about that, is because people think that when people -- when you do that people think that you are -- in many ways, you are not caring, you don't have feelings, or nothing can penetrate that.

(CROSSTALK)

GARDERE: Which is what they thought about him.

LEMON: But then when you open up to people about those issues, instead of wanting to help you...

GARDERE: They pull back because...

LEMON: They pull back. They don't want to deal with you. I need you to leave me alone. I don't understand what's wrong with you.

So that's another stigma. We were just talking about mental illness.

GARDERE: That's right.

LEMON: It's another stigma that goes along with abuse. Right?

GARDERE: Well, absolutely, because people really don't understand it.

LEMON: Right.

GARDERE: People may be repelled by it because something like that may have happened to someone they know, or they hope it doesn't happen to someone that they know.

But I think the bottom line here and what we need to learn is that if a person is abused, they do need to get help. They do need to talk about it eventually. I'm not saying that's why he got into child pornography. That's what he says got him there.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Right.

GARDERE: But the fact is that, if you don't have that catharsis, it's a trauma to the body, but especially to the mind.

LEMON: Yes.

GARDERE: And it can lead to some bad things.

LEMON: And that is, being abused is no excuse for child pornography, definitely.

GARDERE: None whatsoever.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: But you don't know how it's going to manifest as an adult.

GARDERE: Right. That's right.

LEMON: Is this going to help or hurt his family, you think, by releasing this?

(CROSSTALK)

GARDERE: I think it's going to help the family, because at least they're able to put a human face as to what happened to him.

He was inundated by the media, but at least now, in their minds, they feel that his story has gotten out, even though they're not excusing what he did. And what he did should not be excused.

LEMON: Absolutely not.

GARDERE: But this was a person who was a tortured soul, too. But he apologizes. Let's just hope we can stop this cycle where people are being abused...

LEMON: Cycle, right.

GARDERE: ... and where people -- and, again, I'm not connecting it.

LEMON: Right.

GARDERE: But that people are getting into this child pornography, because it helps -- it hurts the children who are in these pornographic movies. It is an abuse to them even further.

LEMON: Right. Absolutely. Agreed.

Thank you, Jeff Gardere.

GARDERE: Sure. Thank you, Don. LEMON: Really appreciate that.

Some Prince fans are interacting with the music star, but probably not the way they wanted. Prince has filed a lawsuit against almost two dozen people, including a couple of people who run a fan Web site -- next, why he's suing.

Plus, a Division I college football team announces plans to join a labor union. This would be a first for college athletics. So what does it mean for the players and other teams? We will tell you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)