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Top Drug Lord Captured in Mexico; Alleged Ring Leader Faces 20 Years in Prison; NYPD Fails to Translate Murdered Mom's Warning; California Drought Cold Impact Grocery Bill; Ted Nugent Makes Apology; Arrest Expected for Students Putting Noose on Civil Rights Icon Statue; United Flight 1676 Plummeted After Hitting Turbulence
Aired February 22, 2014 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Don Lemon. Thank you so much for joining us.
You know, he's been named public enemy number one by a U.S. crime fighting group, but now El Chapo is in police custody. Joaquin Guzman is a legendary boss of Mexican's biggest drug cartel and it's taken police nearly 13 hours to catch him after he escaped the first time. And this video is from his arrest, it's from earlier today. This join operation took weeks of planning involving agencies in both the U.S. and Mexico. Guzman is still wanted in the U.S. on multiple drug charges. A former DEA worker says this arrest is huge. But if El Chapo is not extradited to the U.S. soon, he could escape again. Chapo by the way means shorty, this man is only 5'6" tall.
The next few hours maybe crucial for the future of Ukraine. The nation's president may be on the run and we're tracking huge developments in the bitter power struggle for a nation that was once part of the old Soviet Union. Ukraine's defiant president says he is not resigning, but CNN has confirmed now that he tried to leave the country by plane earlier today but was turned back by security forces. The nation's parliament voted unanimously to boot the president and hold new elections in May.
And meantime, protesters appear to have taken control of the President's home in Kiev. Also today, the nation's revolutionary hero, a former prime minister, was released from prison. She told a crowd in Kiev's independent square, Ukraine has finished with this dictator.
I want to go to straight to CNN senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh in Kiev. Nick, break it down for us. What do you know about the President's whereabouts?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that he's in the East of the country, we know he released a video statement calling what happened a cue and saying that laws are being passed by parliament very much taken out of power on legal. We don't actually have a guarantee of where he physically is. There are suggestions in Ukrainian media that he may have tried to leave the country. That could be possible in the states. I have to say Don, he looks out of the picture now really. There are no signs of security forces here in Central Kiev. But we drove around a lot today and saw one police car. They seem to have moved back. Protesters are now running the streets here. Often with some of the sticks and helmets, running their own kind of local militia here and parliament is moving full steam ahead to introduce their new series of leaders here.
Now they have just called for a new elections in May for a new president and said that Yanukovych isn't doing his job and therefore is out of a job. So, he's no longer president in the mind of the parliament. And we don't know how legal that is but that's what we've done. Plus appointing a whole series of ministers and saying that the speaker will out fill the job of the duties of the president until those elections. So it seems like the opposition have swept in and used their new powers on the deal that was signed yesterday with European diplomats that make Yanukovych has agreed to make a whole host of changes here and effectively render Victor Yanukovych irrelevant. It's going to be pretty tough for him to come back from this. Another question is, where do we go from here?
We found Yulia Tymoshenko as you mentioned, the former prime minister in jail for corruption allegations that America thinks were political motivated, who was abused in jail, went on a hunger strike. She's emerged looking frail in a wheelchair. Gave a very emotional speech here. And I have to say a lot of people in the crowd remember her long history in Ukrainian politics. Remembered the checkered pass, corruption allegations against her. She's not a saint at all to many of these people, but she did cast herself as someone looking for forgiveness, to all of Ukraine's politicians, trying to suggest that a new future could be ahead and perhaps staking a claim for herself in that future as well saying that you people in the crowd will get no Ukraine but the Ukraine that you want. And I'm the guarantor of that new Ukraine.
So, an interesting speech where she was very emotional, talks about the blood of those who have died. Tried to suggest that she herself was repentant for the decade that she's been in politics here and the way that Ukraine in political elite functioned. It's been a fuel of a so much of the protests behind me, the corruption, the sense of business elite looking after themselves rather than the people. And then try to say that she might be the person who could take the country forward.
LEMON: Nick Paton Walsh, Nick, thank you very much for that. A desperate search ends in tragedy in Rome. An American student has been found dead inside a railroad tunnel just days after he disappeared. John Durkin was taking part in a semester-long study abroad program through Trinity College in Connecticut. Two days ago, Durkin went to a bar with a group of friends and never returned. Police say, his body had been run over by a train. But they are investigating how he died. The college junior was a linebacker on the base college football team. His coach called him an inspiration to his teammates.
An online child top pornography website with thousands of registered users has finally been busted. Thirty six people have been arrested and charged around the country including the alleged creator of the website. Rosa Flores joins us now. So, Rosa, tell us about how this operation was run.
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was run out of his Abita Springs home in Louisiana which is about 45 minutes just north of New Orleans. And here's what we know about this guy. His name, Jonathan Johnson, 27 years of age, court documents reveal that he had two websites and had two types of users on these websites. He had members and uploaders. All of them could do about the same thing except for this. Uploaders could also upload videos. And with that came a few other things. Encouraging them to go to social media websites to entice children to participate in these videos and then also, hear this, ways to avoid law enforcement. Ways to avoid getting caught.
Now Rachel Wulf, the reporter at our affiliate WDSU in New Orleans, talked to the mother of Johnson and here is her reaction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHERYL JOHNSON, SUSPECT'S MOTHER: It's hard. Every time I think about it, I just cry. I have a hard time working. I have a hard time dealing with it. You know?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FLORES: Now, let's talk numbers. There's about 27,000 members for this website according to court documents around the world. Two thousand videos identified and 160 children identified and rescued. So Don, all of the details of the story just disturbing and disgusting in so many ways.
LEMON: What did police find at the creator's home?
FLORES: They confiscated his laptops, also hard drives. And, you know, in thinking about the details of this story, it reminds me of what experts always whenever they come on a show like this, they say. Tell your children to be very careful online. Because you never know who is going to be talking to them. In this case, those court documents reveal how they were encouraging these adults to entice and coerce children online by making fake personas of females on social media websites.
LEMON: All right. Thank you, Rosa Flores, I appreciate it. Very disturbing story.
Could a warning to police have saved the mom and her two little girls? They were found dead in their apartment. And the NYPD is accused of dropping the ball. We'll explain, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: A mother and her two young daughters found stabbed to death in their New York apartment. Records show she contacted police several times in the past months, in the months before it happened fearing her husband would murder them. Now her family wants to know if her statement to the NYPD had been translated from Spanish, would she have been alive today. Here's CNN Maria Santana.
MARIA SANTANA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is unbelievable to many people Don that this happens in a city as diverse as New York. And in Queens, a borough where 56 percent of residents speak a primary language other than English. Unfortunately in Deisy Garcia's case, not being able to get her message across may have proven deadly.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): It was a horrific scene, 21-year-old Deisy Garcia and her two young daughters found stabbed to death in their New York City apartment allegedly at the hands of her husband. Now there's information that not speaking English may have been the Guatemalan immigrant's death sentence. Garcia filed a police report in May of 2013 saying her husband had assaulted her and that she feared for her life. That report sat un-translated and without follow-up until her death.
SARA ALVARADO, VICTIM'S SISTER (through a translator): She was crying, so she called the police and told him that her husband had threatened to kill her.
SANTANA: The May incident wasn't the only one Garcia reported. On November 27th, she again called police and filed a Spanish language complaint writing, "My husband assaulted me. He pulls my hair and kicked me twice. He threatened to take my kids away." The NYPD has not said whether that report was translated. Two months later, Garcia and her daughters were found dead.
LUZMINA ALVARADO, VICTIM'S MOTHER (through a translator): If they would have given it more importance, would have translated it to English, then maybe they would have figured out what to do. They would have investigated him. It was like just they left the report there as if it was worthless.
SANTANA: Authorities say, Garcia's husband Mejia Ramos confessed to killing his wife in a fit of jealous rage. He said he then hugged and kissed his daughters, asked for their forgiveness and stabbed each girl multiple times.
ROGER ASMAR, GARCIA FAMILY ATTORNEY: I guess no investigation was done to the point where they could have determined that this person had to be arrested. But what we didn't know is that no one actually translated the text.
SANTANA: The Garcia family believes she and her daughters would still be alive if the police had taken action.
LUZMINA ALVARADO: My daughter may be dead and can't do anything in this case, but I want justice.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANTANA: Now after an internal review of this incident, the New York City Police Department said that a memo will be circulated to all officers reminding them that domestic violence reports must be translated to English, but advocates say, it's not the first time this is happened. Two months before Garcia was killed, the violence intervention program filed a lawsuit against the city on behalf of six other Hispanic domestic violence victims who claimed they too were denied adequate translation services. That case is still pending -- Don.
LEMON: Thank you very much, Maria. What a horrific story. I want to discuss it now with criminal defense Attorney Holly Hughes and Dr. Jeff Gardere, a psychologist and an assistant professor at New York's Touro Medical School. Holly, to you first. Does her family have a case against the NYPD?
HOLLY HUGHES, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: They do, Don. The negligence here is just -- it's glaring. The New York Police Department has more Spanish-speaking officers than any other police department in the United States. So the fact that this didn't just happen once. What make this is so egregious is it happened three different times, Don. Three different times she filed a report and said, he is violent to me. Had any one of those reports been translated, he would have been arrested and possibly been doing time on the original violence and this poor woman and her children would still be alive.
LEMON: Yes. Let's talk about the living in fear. Jeff Gardere now, she lived in fear. She was let down by the system obviously a few times.
DR. JEFF GARDERE, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: That's right.
LEMON: She went to the proper authorities and then she had to live in fear constantly.
GARDERE: Yes, police not sent out. Not able to get an order of protection. So very vulnerable. And we know what these domestic violence cases that the offenses happen over and over again. So, here's a guy who probably has her brainwashed and tells her, you know, I'm going to kill you, you know, if you don't behave in the way that I want you to and then she has no recourse. She goes to the cops and then the cops don't do anything. So she felt absolutely powerless at that point.
LEMON: Oh my gosh! How do these cases -- these domestic cases like this -- how did they fall through the cracks so often?
HUGHES: Well, unfortunately, number one is volume. There's so many of them, Don, and a lot of times it's very difficult for the police and prosecutors because we see that cycle of violence. And Dr. Jeff will tell you this. Somebody else may call the police like the neighbor will hear the violence and call the police, but the woman is living in such fear and she's been beaten down. Psychologically he tells her nobody else wants you. What are you going to do? You can't make a living. So the problem a lot of prosecutors run into is the by the time it gets ready to go to trial, she is too terrified to testify and she recants or she hides from the investigators who are trying to bring her to court to testify. So it's such a sad, sad situation. And it's something we need to address. We need more shelters. And of course, this goes back to funding. But we need places to safeguard these women so that they don't have to live in fear so their children have a bed and a roof over their head because a lot of these cases involve children and the woman feels like if he's only beating me, I can take it so that my babies are clothed and fed.
LEMON: I have to ask this. This is all about negotiating and being able to move through the justice system for people who don't necessarily know how. How do we do that as a society?
GARDERE: Sure. Sure. We have to look at the whole idea of cultural sensitivity and cultural competence. If you have someone you don't understand their language, you get an interpreter in there.
LEMON: Right.
GARDERE: And you make you sure that you understand exactly what they are saying because all of it is evidence. All of it is important. And there was some racism here. These officers heard her speak Spanish. She couldn't speak English. So, they minimized her.
LEMON: It's important to get some solutions in this particular situation, so.
GARDERE: Yes.
LEMON: So, thank you very much.
GARDERE: Sure.
LEMON: I appreciate you Holly, I appreciate you Jeff as well.
You know, it has been three years since the San Francisco Giants fan was nearly beaten to death outside of Dodger Stadium. His attackers finally have to answer in court why the victim's sister says they will never be able to forgive them. We're going to talk again with our folks here about that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Back now making the case. A San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow went to Dodgers Stadium on opening day in 2011 to watch his team take on their arch rival. Well, he left that game in an ambulance unfortunately. Now the two men who attacked him have pleaded guilty to assault. Louis Sanchez was sentenced to eight years in prison. His co-defendant Marvin Norwood was rearrested yesterday on a federal weapons charge immediately after being released by the Los Angeles County sheriffs for time served. And for the first time, Stow's sisters faced the man who nearly killed their brother.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIN COLLINS, BRYAN STOW'S SISTER: I had hoped to see one tiny bit of remorse in order to not think you both are that despicable. But I don't.
BONNIE COLLINS, BRYAN STOW'S SISTER: No sentencing you receive will ever be long enough. Eventually you will be released.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Criminal Defense Attorney Holly Hughes and Dr. Jeff Gardere, a psychologist and assistant professor at New York's Touro Medical School are both back. I see you real quick. Why are you shaking your head?
GARDERE: It's absolutely horrible. This judge says, you know, these are the worst sports fans. I see them as the worst human beings on the face of the planet.
LEMON: But we don't see it to this degree where people get injured and end up, you know, being in the hospital and having to learn to re- walk again and all that. But we see the violence surrounding, you know, sports all the time. What's the psychology there?
GARDERE: Well, this one is really simple. When we're talking about violence and injury in this country, the number one fuel for that happens to be alcohol. And alcohol always plays a role.
LEMON: Yes. Holly, you're agreeing. Why are you saying that? Why are you agreeing?
HUGHES: Well, Don, this was attempted murder, quite frankly. He didn't just go to the hospital. He is brain damaged. His brain injury is so severe that he can't go to the bathroom by himself anymore. He has to be diapered and changed. His wife's statement, which we did not hear, she talked about how they have a son and a daughter and he used to throw the ball every day with his son. He used to ride the bikes every day with his daughter. This man will never have his life back again. And these two when they were being sentenced, one of them was actually smirking at the judge.
LEMON: I want to ask you about that.
HUGHES: This isn't just alcohol. This is rage. This is hate. This is something deeper.
LEMON: Holly, let me jump in here.
HUGHES: Yes.
LEMON: Because the fact that they appeared to show no remorse as you said, they were smirking.
HUGHES: Right.
LEMON: Did that play a part in the sentence they received?
HUGHES: I think they should have received a far greater sentence for no remorse. They almost killed this man. But for the grace of God, he would be dead. And one of them beat him so severely while the other one kept people from intervening, Don. They jumped him from behind. This wasn't even a fair fight. This man was a paramedic. He was used to helping people and saving their lives. That's what he devoted his life to. And these two and Mr. Stow, Bryan Stow's father called them cretins. And I think that's a really kind word for them based on the hatred and the anger that they showed. They almost killed this man. And with a lack of remorse and the lack of respect for the justice system. I mean, you know, even if you're not sorry for your crime, you don't smirk at the judge when he's sentencing you.
LEMON: Right.
HUGHES: They should have gotten a lot more time, in my opinion.
LEMON: Yes. And I see you're agreeing with everything. So, I want to move on to the next topic now. A very disturbing story out of Portland, Oregon. Three teens are accused of luring a classmate into a shed, hitting him in the head with a crowbar shooting him with a BB gun and using a box cutter to carve a swastika into his fore head. The teens were charged as adults for kidnapping, robbery and assault in menacing. Do you agree with the charging of these adults? First to Holly and then Jeff.
HUGHES: Yes, because they committed the crimes of adults, they need to be charged as adults. They also need to look into whether this was a hate crime or not. They have said they did it because they wanted his skate board and money. Well, Don, you can just push him down and take his skateboard and run. And he was lured by one of these teens into a private shed where no one else could see them. They shot him with a BB gun, they beat him and then they carved a swastika. And that's what team of all three of our stories tonight. Hate, intolerance, fear of somebody being --
LEMON: That's what I want to talk to Dr. Jeff about. What's going on with that?
GARDERE: Because what we're seeing is this whole idea that here these are young people so we can't give them a personality disorders yet. They have to be at least 18. But we see that they are beginning. They start as conduct disorders and they become these anti-social personality disorders, these psychopaths. The two individuals we saw in the previous story, yes, alcohol involved, but these are psychopaths. These young people are on their way to being psychopaths because they had absolutely no remorse. And what they did was absolutely so horrific that they can scar their victim not just physically with the swastika on the fore head, but psychologically for the rest of his life.
HUGHES: Exactly.
GARDERE: Sadistic.
LEMON: I don't get it. It is. OK.
HUGHES: Right.
LEMON: Thank you, guys. Awful stories. Appreciate it. Get ready for higher prices at the grocery store. Sorry. Crops are drying up in California's drought. As California's drought gets worst. And it will hit your pocketbooks. Details just ahead. And then there's this man.
Do we have to talk about him? Ted Nugent insults the president and he offers something resembling an apology to Ben Ferguson. Dennis is here to talk about. He and Marc Lamont Hill join me just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: California's record-breaking drought could soon have a big impact on your grocery bill no matter where you live in the U.S. Experts say the dry weather will drive up prices for milk, meat, fruit, vegetables and other products. Some experts say the hike could be as much as $15 for every $100 you spend at the checkout. Governor Jerry Brown is calling on Californians to conserve water as the drought drags on. What California needs is rain and a lot of it.
Meteorologist Jennifer Gray takes a closer look at the situation.
JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Don, this is a dire situation in California. Just last week, 61 percent covered extreme drought. Now 68 percent of the state is under extreme drought. And almost 95 percent of the state in a moderate drought at least. This is something that's going to take a long time to reverse. We need a lot of rain in the west. It's not just California. It stretches across several states in the west, a huge area. We depend on this for a lot of our fruits, vegetables and nuts.
We do have a couple of systems pulling through. The first one is expected to reach on Friday and another stronger system on Saturday. Could bring some much, much need rainfall for the state. Like we mentioned, this is just a drop in the bucket. We need a lot of rain to reverse this -- Don?
LEMON: Jennifer, thank you.
Rock and roller and occasional political commentator and flame thrower, Ted Nugent, apologized for calling President Obama a, quote, "subhuman mongrel," or sounded like an apology.
He made that while talking to CNN political commentator, Ben Ferguson, who joins me from Dallas to talk about the radio interview with the man nicknamed "Motor City Madman." We're also joined by CNN political commentator, Marc Lamont Hill.
First, listen to Nugent's kind of apology and then we're going to talk about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TED NUGENT, SINGER & MUSICIAN: I apologize for using the street fighter terminology of "subhuman mongrel" instead of using more understandable language such as violator of the oath of the Constitution, the liar that he is. The president lied when he said we could keep our doctors and retain our health care, period and that his Department of Defense and Department of Justice called the Allah Akbar-terrorism at Ft. Hood workplace violence. Those are the real offensive occurrences in America. So, yes, Ben, I apologize for using the term "subhuman mongrel" and I will try to elevate my vernacular to the level of those great men that I'm learning from the world of politics.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: I'm so sick of Ted Nugent. I want to tell my producers this is not even -- let's just ignore him.
Since we have you on the show, that is not an apology, Ben. I'm sorry. That's an even further insult.
BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That's your opinion. I think when I asked him the second time to clarify and asked him if he was going to give the president of the United States an American apology and he would say to him if he saw him, he said he was sorry. He is Ted Nugent, and he is a flame-thrower. That's what he does. He also used the words "subhuman mongrel" earlier in the interview, which original had nothing to do with Obama, when he was talking about anti- gun nuts. This is what he does. You may not like the apology. You may think it makes it worse --
(CROSSTALK)
MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No. I don't really care.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Wait, let's get this straight. I don't really care about him, what he says, what have you. I have to talk about it because it's part of my job. It's in the public consciousness. I don't really care what he says and whether he apologizes or not. But if we're being honest, about an apology, that's not an apology. An apology is I'm sorry. You don't say I'm sorry but or I'm sorry for blah, blah, blah. You just say I'm sorry. And you don't go on with a caveat. You don't go on with certain things that you apologized for and go on to insult the person even further.
Marc, do you think he is sorry that he called --
(CROSSTALK)
FERGUSON: Let me say this. I think when you listen to him, as Ted Nugent, has he ever apologized to anyone in public?
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: It doesn't matter.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Ben, you're making excuses for him. It does matter.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Hold on. Let me finish. It does matter. It matters because you are making excuses for someone who is ignorant.
Marc, do you think he's sorry?
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: You are making excuses for him because it's not an apology.
He says he's sorry he called the president a "subhuman mongrel." Do you believe he is sorry? And do you think it's an apology
MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR (voice-over): First of all, it's not an apology. An apology goes like this. I'm sorry. Here's my interpretation of what I did wrong. Here's why it's hurtful. Here's what I'll do to fix it. That's a basic apology. Not I'm sorry I called you a "subhuman mongrel," I should have just called you a liar.
The other thing is Nugent only responded to this because Republican politicians were catching so much hell. People were denouncing him and distancing themselves from him, like Greg Abbott. He had to do something. He was stopping the bleeding. And even in that, he showed nothing but extreme hubris, extreme arrogance, condescension and complete disrespect for the president.
FERGUSON: Let me just say this.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Let me just say I agree. This is the first time I have agreed 100 percent with what Marc Lamont Hill has said because usually --
(LAUGHTER)
LAMONT HILL: It's scary.
LEMON: Go ahead. Go ahead, Ben.
FERGUSON: First of all, Marc, you got some of the facts wrong. Greg Abbott has been taking heat because he hasn't distanced himself from Ted Nugent, as you just claimed. That's a false claim. Not happening.
(CROSSTALK)
FERGUSON: -- and distancing himself.
(CROSSTALK)
FERGUSON: You did say -- you said Greg Abbott and other Republicans --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Don't talk over each other, guys.
(CROSSTALK)
LAMONT HILL: -- for putting him on the campaign trail.
LEMON: Yeah.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Please don't talk over each other. Let's all -- because I think it's disrespectful to the viewer.
Ben, finish your thought and then, Marc, you can jump in.
FERGUSON: What I would say is don't say that Greg Abbott has distanced himself. People have criticized Greg for not distancing himself enough. Some people think he has been too loyal by not coming out and denouncing him saying he would never appear with him on the campaign trail. Let's make sure we get the facts straight about this.
Now back to Ted. I think Ted when he came out on my show to talk about this, he did feel bad. As we chatted about it, for putting people in an awkward situation on something he said earlier that had nothing to do with the campaign stop. As he said it to me, I would not ever use those words again towards the president of the United States of America. I should have used better vernacular, as you heard in part of his apology there. In the whole 20 minutes we spoke, it was a Ted Nugent that I do think actually felt bad for this entire episode in which it probably never would have happened.
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: I do not think -- listen, I don't think about Ted.
FERGUSON: You don't like him. Let's be candid.
LEMON: No. I don't really have any feeling about Ted Nugent. I haven't thought about him since the 1970s.
(LAUGHTER)
And that's where we should leave him because who really cares.
Go ahead, Marc.
LAMONT HILL: Everything Ben described is accurate. It just doesn't describe an apology. I'm sure he feels bad for putting Republicans in a bad situation.
What I was saying about Greg Abbott, to be clear, is Greg Abbott is catching heat because he won't apologize for having Nugent on the campaign trail with him.
But the bigger point here is that he doesn't want to be creating discomfort for his Republican friends and create a smoke screen for other things. That's all true. But that's not an apology, saying I feel bad that I made other people feel comfortable about the bad things I said about Obama. The truth is he doesn't want to apologize to the president. You know what? I'm beginning to say something to the left. Too often we demand apologies from people knowing they don't mean it. I don't know if that's supposed to make us feel better. I'm tired of asking for apologies from people who don't want to give them.
LEMON: Right. Just ignore them.
FERGUSON: When they give them, though, you don't even like them any way.
(CROSSTALK)
LAMONT HILL: Let me know when he gives one.
LEMON: Yeah. OK.
FERGUSON: When I asked him again, the second time, are you apologizing to the president of the United States if he's watching, and he responded yes, that wasn't good enough for you because you love the story more than the apology?
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: He responded yes, but --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: He responded yes, but. And I'm saying, yes, but we have to move on. You guys aren't going anywhere. We'll talk a little bit more.
Three freshmen will probably be arrested and a fraternity has been suspended at Ole Miss after a noose was found around the statue of a civil rights icon. Is this a sign of a bigger social problem? We'll debate that, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: University of Mississippi police say they plan to arrest three freshmen students for desecrating a statue of civil rights icon, James Meredith. The three, all 19 years old and all from Georgia, are suspected of placing a noose around the statue of Meredith and leaving behind a Confederate flag. In 1961, James Meredith was the first black student admitted to Ole Miss. It took a Supreme Court decision and federal police to make it happen. This is a very serious story. And especially such young people, 19 years old, they should know better.
Ben Ferguson, Marc Lamont Hill, they are back now. Ben, you attended Ole Miss. Critic says this incident is a symptom of a larger problem at the university and it's unable to escape its past. What do you say?
FERGUSON: I disagree, mainly because I was there and James Meredith was walking around campus, it was like a rock star and an icon. When he was in class, his students packed the halls to hear what he had to say. And you see how Ole Miss has changed. When I was there for four years, it was a very normal campus when it comes to race relations. There's always going to be idiots. I'm glad they will be arrested because it makes me angry knowing what Ole Miss was like. I've had people asked me questions outside of Ole Miss saying, hold on, you live with an African-American roommate? I laughed because I'm like, why is that weird?
It wasn't weird at Ole Miss for a white guy, when I was there in 2000, to live with an African-American guy, even though people outside were like, this doesn't make sense, how is this happening at Ole Miss? That's how much the campus has changed. And it makes me sick when I see three young idiots do something so disgraceful in this way. They deserve to be kicked out of school and to be arrested. It gives the university a bad name. It's made amazing strides with race relations, especially with the student body.
LEMON: Marc?
LAMONT HILL: I don't disagree that race relations have improved. I hope they have improved over the last 30 to 50 years. But there's still a pocket of people who are racist. We have to name this as racist. Everything that happens that's offensive is not racism. I didn't call Ted Nugent a racist. But this is racism. And there's no doubt in my mind --
FERGUSON: I agree.
LAMONT HILL: Yeah -- and there's no doubt in my mind that there are people of this generation, just like previous generations, who think like this and act like this. I'm not convinced this is just three outliers on the campus. There are people who believe this stuff and organize around this stuff and act around this stuff. That's what's dangerous. And that's what we need to spotlight on every campus in this country.
LEMON: Is Mississippi burdened by its history when incidents like this happen? When you hear of similar incidents?
FERGUSON: Sure.
LEMON: I guess it happens in Iowa, it happens in every place. But is Mississippi burdened by this? And then the students are from Georgia, from the south. I shouldn't say it's Mississippi. Why don't we move this beyond? What about the south? Is it burdened by this, Ben?
FERGUSON: Sure, no doubt. Whether it is Freedom Riders, Philadelphia, Mississippi, James Meredith coming in to Ole Miss and the people that died there, and Kennedy having to get involved and the history of that, whether it be Martin Luther King in my own being assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, there's always going to be a dark cloud in any time anything happens when it deals with race because of the history. I also think there's a lot of people like these three students coming in from Georgia. This really -- probably didn't have as much to do about Ole Miss as it does about three students from Georgia that are incredibly incompetent. We have to put that in the context. They are racist individuals that did something and deserve to never go back to the university. And they deserve to be arrested. And I hope we treat it as that and move on from it.
LEMON: The reason I say it happens in a lot of places, because it happened at the Iowa State Fair, a similar incident. But we seem to focus on it more when it happens at the south.
Marc, I have to run. If you can say it in 10 seconds.
LAMONT HILL: I agree with Ben. We need to punish these people and send a message to the world.
LEMON: Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.
FERGUSON: Thanks.
LAMONT HILL: Thank you.
LEMON: It was a routine flight from Denver to Billings, Montana. Then suddenly, the plane plummeted, sending objects and people flying. We'll take a closer look at what happened to United flight 1676.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: With the time running out at the Winter Olympics, the U.S. has dropped out of the lead of the race. U.S. trailing Russia 29 to 27 and Norway one behind the U.S. And part of the reason for the U.S. drop off is men's hockey. After losing 1-0 to Canada yesterday, the men's team missed out on a medal by losing to Finland today, 5-0.
And then earlier this month, United flight 1676 plummeted after it hit turbulence over the Rocky Mountains. Well, the plane landed safely in Montana. But five people had to be hospitalized after the incident.
Here's CNN's Jennifer Gray with more on what the passengers went through and the science behind it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GRAY (voice-over): Nothing could have prepared the passengers on United flight 1676, a nightmare at 34,000 feet, high above the Rocky Mountains.
KERRI MULLINS, UNITED PASSENGER: There was a lady behind me that was yelling, "My baby, my baby." I can just assume she had an infant in her arms and let go of it.
GRAY: The plane carrying 114 passengers and five crew members encountered turbulence so rough that it plunged. MULLINS: It was instantaneous and everything that people had in their hands was flying through the air. People were screaming.
GRAY: According to the FAA, 329 people have been injured due to turbulence between 2002 and 2011.
What's the science behind turbulence? Is there anything anyone can do to avoid it?
DAN HARGROVE, AVIATION EXPERT: Air flows like water, either smoothly or it can have interruptions in the flow. It can be caused by mountains, caused by thunderstorms, passage of fronts or just be a small localized area of what is typically called clear-air turbulence.
GRAY: The United flight was flying over the Rocky Mountains, a common spot for what is called the mountain wave turbulence.
HARGROVE: The turbulence that can be caused by the height of the mountains themselves, causing the air to tumble and role and create turbulence.
GRAY: Turbulence can be also triggered by thunderstorms even when the skies are clear.
HARGROVE: Convection turbulence is caused by rising hot air, typical everywhere but especially in the summertime when the ground is warm and the air is rising.
UNITED AIRLINES PILOT: We'll take runway 28 if we can United flight 1676.
BOB SHARMAN, NATIONAL CENTER FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH: Turbulence is very erratic, very spotty, so it could be that if they were at this very same location even 10 minutes later, it may not have been a severe event.
GRAY: But that does not change things for the passengers of United flight 1676 who had a flight they will never forget.
Jennifer Gray, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Thank you, Jennifer.
He is known as a legend in the drug trafficking world, but now he is behind bars. We will take you to Mexico City for the latest in the arrest of el Chapo.
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LEMON: Normally, we see this actor fending off marauding soldiers as a rough-and-tumble warrior. But did you know that he has a softer side? He showed it in his work with the "CNN Hero" charity that helps impoverished children in Liberia.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please join me in honoring a fellow hero, and I'm proud he's a fellow Scotsman, Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow.
GERARD BUTLER, ACTOR: I was actually star struck when I met Magnus. Since then we've become good friends. Now here I am in Liberia.
So we've been driving for about an hour now. We're right in the heart of the country and we're passing little kids going to school where the feeding program is going on.
It's me and Magnus against everybody else.
There's such a huge need here. There's so many children out of school, huge problems with malnutrition. We're providing daily meals so that children come to school.
All right. Who's next?
Here you go.
It's a great partnership going on here, the parents, the elders, children, volunteers.
Good, no?
When "CNN Heroes" happened, we were feeding just over 400,000 children. Now we're well over 800,000 children every day. That's in the world.
Three plus four?
(SHOUTING)
GERARD: We've seen school enrollment increase.
What is this?
(SHOUTING)
GERARD: Nine.
(NOISES)
GERARD: A lot of them didn't eat at all in a day before they came to school. Now they are motivated to come to school. They can focus.
Education is something that becomes like a possibility.
Who would have thought when I gave the language to the "CNN Heroes" award, I've been surrounded by the most amazing kids and it shows what one person can do when they show a bit of love.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Every week, we will be honoring a "CNN Hero," an everyday person doing some extraordinary things to help others. And if you know someone, go to CNN.com and tell us about them.
