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Thousands Call For Justice in Baltimore; Thousands March After "Victory Rally"; Freddie Gray Timeline: From Arrest to Death; Baltimore Residents Rally Following Officers Charged; The Young in Baltimore Speak Out at Rally; People March from City Hall to Burnt CVS. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired May 02, 2015 - 17:00   ET

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

[16:59:30] MARILYN MOSBY, BALTIMORE STATE'S ATTORNEY: He works on the legislative side. I'm a prosecutor. I'm also a public servant. I uphold the law, he makes the laws. And I will prosecute any case within my jurisdiction.

MAJOR GENERAL LINDA SINGH, U.S. ARMY: I did not have any racial issues kind of coming through all of my career. I would have to say that it's been more about me being a female versus, you know, being a male.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As the adjutant general from Maryland Linda Singh is in charge of the state's military department including its National Guard. Having just taken the helm in February, Singh is the first black person and the first woman to hold the post. She is also a member of the governor's cabinet.

SINGH: I just hope that we remember that trying to change culture, trying to change habits does not happen overnight.

ELAM: A high school dropout and a runaway, Singh went onto graduate from college, earn to master's degrees and receive a bronze star. The 50-year-old Maryland native is married with two daughters.

SINGH: I've kind of grown up in the Maryland National Guard. And it's allowing me to be able to put my fingerprint on something and to hopefully to leave a legacy and to give people some type of hope.

ELAM: Watching closely, the first black female attorney general of the United States who took office just as the protests intensified. All powerful black women whose legacy may forever be tied to this moment in Baltimore's history.

Stephanie Elam, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Five o'clock Eastern. I'm Poppy Harlow. Joining you live this afternoon from downtown Baltimore right outside of City Hall where a gathering of thousands of people here for a rally has just wrapped up. They're taking to the streets of Baltimore. Some planning to march. We have full coverage from our teams on the ground here for you. So glad you're with us. I want to begin with CNN's Ryan Young who is on the streets here in

Baltimore about to walk alongside some of these people. Ryan, what are you seeing?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, everyone is getting ready to leave. But we saw a sign as a man was walking out. I want you to explain your sign for me.

GERROD MADDOX, BALTIMORE RESIDENT: Well, when I wanted to attain the rally this morning. I wanted to get a message that was a little unique. And my real interest here is putting a stop to police brutality. While I'm not against the police, I think the bad apples need to be weeded out. And I think the cell phone video is the turning point in history for this. Because now it's not a he said, she said situation. There's documented evidence. And I think Freddie Gray is going to go down in history as the turning point for a change in culture in the police forces throughout the United States.

YOUNG: When you talk about cellphone video, we've seen it everywhere. Do you care at this time? Do you hope many people are getting involved with shooting video of arrests?

MADDOX: Absolutely. That's the only defense that the average citizen has against this. Prior to everyone being equipped with video phones, the police used the blue code of honor and protected themselves. So the bad apples got away with it for 40 years. And now that's changing. And I think this is a good thing for the good police officers as well. Because they are getting a bad reputation for the few bad apples. Now, the message has been sent clearly by Maryland mostly that the police are not above the law and serious charges will be placed against those police officers that violate their oath to protect and serve.

YOUNG: And you're here as well. Both you guys are international. Give me an idea, how has this -- (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Right. I'm actually from Brazil. And Brazil has exactly the same problem. And the black population are the ones that suffers the most. So, I'm here today as a -- reporter, I'm a Twitter activist and I believe that this is a historic day. And cell phones, hey, now we have the power to show things that would never be shown before. And as he said, it's a change in what's going to happen from now on when it comes to police brutality, I believe.

YOUNG: I appreciate you guys. Thank you so much. Of course, you can see this crowd that is finally starting to dissipate as they start walking. Poppy, you can hear a lot of the positive messages that we've heard throughout the day.

HARLOW: Yes. All right. Ryan Young, thanks too much. Let's go straight to our Nick Valencia, he is with him. And the people who are with this rally. He just started walking in the streets. Nick, you know, I think it's very encouraging to people that this has been peaceful throughout the day. What are you seeing now and where are they going? NICK VALENCIA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Sparse crowd so far. Not

very organized just yet. You're seeing a lot of people trickle from that rally that you just saw. One of those is this young man named Gerrod Maddox. Gerrod, tell me about why you showed up, tell me a little bit about your story.

MADDOX: Well, I'm originally from Baltimore, Maryland (INAUDIBLE). And I just wanted to make a difference for myself and my community.

VALENCIA: We were talking a little bit before this interview started. You were saying the suns out and that could be an indicator for a larger thing. What do you mean?

MADDOX: I feel like it's going to become a beautiful outcome from this. I feel that the police is going to get what they deserve.

VALENCIA: What is that mean? I mean, there's good cops, there's bad cops, right? I mean, what do they deserve?

MADDOX: I believe what they did was wrong and that they need jail time.

VALENCIA: You're joined by your friend Jamal. Jamal, why did you come out here?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I came out basically to support my fellow community, my brothers, you know. They're all here for the same cause. You know, this needs to be changed. We're doing the best that we can to change things. You know, we heard a lot about violent statistic in the city, you know, for a place that's called charm city, there's a lot of crime that goes on here as well.

[17:05:15] VALENCIA: What is it like -- explain to our viewers exactly what it's like to be a young black man growing up in Baltimore.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: You got to struggle. You got to grind. You know, everything that you get, you got to earned it.

VALENCIA: What does that mean? What does that mean? Explain. Don't speak in abstract.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: You got to earn it. Like if there's food over there and they say you can't have it, sometimes you got to take it. If it's yours, you need to take it.

VALENCIA: It seems, though, Jamal that the narrative has changed. A lot of things has, you know, progressed. And there's a message of positivity here. If anything, a lot of people really want to focus on that. Not necessarily what happened on Monday night, Poppy. But what's happening here right in front of everyone's eyes. Let's send it back to you.

HARLOW: All right, Nick. Thanks so much. I appreciate it. Let me bring in Marc Steiner. He's a radio host in the city. He lived in the city. He's a proud resident of the city of Baltimore. Thanks so much for having me. Thanks so much for having us in your city. I appreciate it very much. Let me begin with this. You tweeted, quote, "Those protestors are the children of the oppressed. We need to bring them in not make them criminals." What do you mean by that?

MARC STEINER, RADIO HOST, "THE MARC STEINER SHOW": Watching my tweets?

HARLOW: I'm watching your tweets.

STEINER: What I meant by that is that the young people saw in Baltimore Monday night, these are children of people whose parents and grandparents, the end segregation -- were left out of everything. Then came the war on drugs, they started putting people in jail in masses of people and -- in human history. Before that, from segregation here in the south, enslavement, and before that, the middle passage. That's the people that were angry Monday night that we're saying, enough is enough. We're tired of being targeted. And they just went off.

HARLOW: Do you think the violence is acceptable?

STEINER: It's not a question of being acceptable.

HARLOW: It is a question -- when you're talking about businesses, not just CVS, small businesses getting destroyed --

STEINER: Is it acceptable that these kids have to live in the conditions they live in? Acceptable that they have to live in neighborhoods where the houses are boarded up, where the police harass them everyday of their lives --

HARLOW: So you're saying unacceptable on both sides?

STEINER: No. What I'm saying is that, what this young people have done. But I don't want to see the CVS burned down. That was insane because all of these other people in that community rely on that store.

HARLOW: Yes.

STEINER: For their drugs and medications and more but that's not the real issue.

HARLOW: You make an interesting point. I was talking to a group of youth yesterday. Students here. And one of them said to me, you know, we -- I don't condone any violence, but we've gotten to the point where we don't feel heard and we don't know how you will hear us.

STEINER: And a lot of people who have said in the last few days that if that hadn't happened then the rest of this might not be happening right now. And violence comes with these kind of changes, it just does. And I think now is a question of what we do to address that. How do we change it? How does the City Hall change this?

HARLOW: You also tweeted, Baltimore wants a civilian review board of the police. Tell me about that. What would that look like and what change do you hope would come from it?

STEINER: It means that you have people who actually have the power -- a group -- power to investigate, to either indict, recommend somebody being indicted and charged or recommend they not be charged when these kinds of issues happen between the police and community. They can't leave it to just the police to do it. They can't police themselves. There has to be civilian control of the police, that's what that means, in short.

HARLOW: When you look at your city and what you hope can come from this, people call into your radio show, you hear from the community, what are they telling you they hope for a long term?

STEINER: People want to have -- A, they want work. Unemployment rates in the inner city are just off the charts. Not for just kids but for adults, for families --

HARLOW: Forty seven percent unemployment for black young men.

STEINER: Right.

HARLOW: Ten percent for white young men.

STEINER: It's interesting statistic. When you think -- when you analyze the stat in Baltimore, there are 86,000 families that are home and secure. You multiply that times four, let's say, that means over half of the people in the city live in poverty. Not the one quarter that we use from the old 1960s kind of numbers. So, we have to address that. People need to find ways to investing in those communities to people to go to work and have people feel like they're part of society. Right now they're not.

HARLOW: I saw so much hope. We're going to bring that to our viewers a little bit later this house. But I was so hopeful. And one of them said to me, Marc, they said we haven't been listened to for so long and now we are and we have a lot to say.

STEINER: They have a lot to say.

HARLOW: Thank you so much for being with me.

STEINER: My pleasure. Thank you.

HARLOW: Thank you so much.

From Baltimore, as thousands marched on the streets, we're going to continue our coverage here. Also, we're going to play some of our interview with Representative Elijah Cummings coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:13:20] HARLOW: Well, we saw just a huge rally today in Baltimore right at City Hall. And this rally has now spread out onto the streets. We have people marching. Our Nick Valencia is with them. Nick, what are you seeing? VALENCIA: Well, we're seeing this crowd sort of gather more and more.

They're gaining a little bit of momentum. There's a lot of space in between the protestors in the front and the protestors in the back. But it's also a very diverse crowd here, Poppy. Their plan, that rally just wrapped up at City Hall. And the plan we've been told by some of these organizers here is to take this march to North Avenue and Pennsylvania. That's the scene of where the CVS was burned down and saw some looting on Monday night. Their energy is being focused they say on trying to reform the police system.

This is not just about black lives I've been told. This is about brown lives, all lives, really about humanity. You see signs here about wanting to transform the people back there, if you can make that out, a person has a sign showing a number of people who they say have been murdered by police. So, by and large, still very peaceful. We do see if you want to pan over here a state police presence. But as you can see, Poppy, they're allowing these demonstrators to go through their process and leaving them at peace. We haven't seen anything so far. We'll continue to monitor this as we walk with the demonstrators towards north in Pennsylvania. Back to you.

HARLOW: I'm sorry, what? Nick, thanks so much. We'll check in with you in just a moment. I do want to show all our viewers this. Take a look at this image. This is a front page of the Baltimore Sun website. And it's an image of a 9-year-old African-American boy giving a high five to a sergeant from Maryland to National Guards during today's rally. It's an important image. It's a moving image. And perhaps it's a sign of hope after so much unrest and tension in this city. We're going to take a quick break. We'll be back with our live coverage from Baltimore in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:19:12] HARLOW: You're taking a look at City Hall where crowds that had gathered all afternoon for this rally have now dispersed. Some of them are marching on the streets, many in attendance emphasizing that this is really only the beginning of the judicial process they believe.

Our Miguel Marquez now walks us through the timeline from when Freddie Gray was arrested until he died.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is where it all started say prosecutors on Sunday, April 12. Freddie Gray walked out of this shop with a cup of coffee and looked police officers directly in the eye. Gray ran. The store is just down there, he went through these narrow alleyways that they have here zigzagging trying to get away from police.

That's where the original arrest was made. And then police moved him to this location right here putting him in a painful leg lace hold. The police reported that he had a switchblade on him. In reality, it was something more like this. Something perfectly legal here. The state's attorney saying there was no reason for the arrest. MOSBY: Lieutenant Rice, Officer Miller, and Officer Nero illegally

arrested Mr. Gray.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): It was here the state even attorney says Gray said he was having trouble breathing and asked for an inhaler. His request denied. He was placed in the transport van and not buckled in.

(on camera): This is Baker Street. The first place to transport vehicle carrying Mr. Gray stopped. In the little video we have, we can see him hanging half in, half out of the van. This is where the state's attorney says that he was shackled by the legs, his arms behind his back and he was placed in the van head first on his stomach and he said it was that treatment that lead to his death.

MOSBY: Following transport from Baker Street, Mr. Gray suffered a severe and critical neck injury.

MARQUEZ: This was the second stop for Mr. Gray captured on the surveillance cameras of that store there. Despite it being a condition check for Mr. Gray as they say, the driver of the truck checked him out, did nothing for him and then drove on for a third time without buckling him in.

(voice-over): This was the third stop for Mr. Gray in the transport vehicle. Two times says the state's attorney he asked for medical assistance here, two times he was denied. The only thing she says officers did for him at this location was pick him up off the floor, of the transport vehicle put him on the seat, still not buckled in.

This was the fourth stop for Mr. Gray. The exact same corner where all of this started.

(on camera): The state's attorney saying that the only female officer Alicia White checked on him then speaking to the back of his head, he was unresponsive, and for a fifth time, they failed to buckle him in.

This was the final stop for Mr. Gray, the Western District Police Station now under heavy guard despite the fact it was only a few blocks from where he was arrested, it took nearly an hour to get him here. Once here, they first turned their attention to the other prisoner in the transport vehicle. Then Mr. Gray. By then, he had stopped breathing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Six officers have been arrested and have posted bond after being charged by the state's attorney in this case. The most severe charge, second-degree depraved heart murder. That is one of the charges against officer Caesar Goodson. He's the one who drove the van carrying Freddie Gray.

Let me bring back in my panel, criminal defense attorney and CNN legal analyst Danny Cevallos. Also with me, former FBI assistant director, former police officer and CNN law enforcement analyst Tom Fuentes here with me in Baltimore. Guys, thanks very much for being here. To you first Danny, a lot of

questions that we've been getting are why this state's attorney decided not to bring this to a grand jury.

DANNY CEVALLOS, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: If I was a betting man, I would have said that the grand jury was the avenue that the prosecutor would have chosen. Consider the strategy in this decision. A grand jury is theoretically more democratic because you submit it to citizens, but it's secret. And in cases like this, people demand transparency. One thing the grand jury does not offer is transparency. By choosing instead to file charges, she will, the prosecution will have to convince a judge that there's probable cause. And that is a much more open proceeding. It is a much more challenging thing for the prosecutor.

HARLOW: I think people might think back to Ferguson and they would say, but in Ferguson, we got to know all of the grand jury evidence. Because they have a law there in Missouri I believe it's called a -- that mandates that is the case. And that's not the case in all states that that grand jury evidence becomes public.

CEVALLOS: Not only is it not the case, but even that Ferguson decision was criticized. Many said it violated the spirit of the grand jury. That you are asking citizens to sit in judgement and indict somebody, in exchange --

HARLOW: Or not indict them.

CEVALLOS: Or not indict them and in exchange, all this statically, mostly it's indictment. But you're asking them to do that and then you have to safeguard their confidentiality. Safeguard their identity. And that's the spirit. Now, we don't do the same thing with a petit jury, a small jury, a trial jury. But that's always been the spirit of the grand jury.

[17:24:20] HARLOW: So, Tom Fuentes, I want to bring you in here and talk a little bit about the conversation we had last hour where you voiced a lot of concern over what you were hearing here at this rally. Concern that you said that it seemed like most of the people here were bashing the police officers and we've got a lot of reaction to that on Twitter. You're a former police officer. Someone tweeted to me, Tom Fuentes narrative on your show misses the point about Baltimore. He doesn't believe there is a system that needs to change.

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, I didn't say it didn't need to change. I just said that you have black administrations, mayor, police commissioners, 50 percent of the Police Department, so you have all the diversity that people said Ferguson lacked for example and that yes, it needs to change and they need to do something about it. But what I was criticizing was the two-hour rant that this one gentleman was doing advocating anarchy saying all police are bad and everybody in jail should be let out and let back on the streets of this town. And that's not the answer. What I advocated then and now and always is the community and the police do need to work together, they do need to have a solution of how to do something about where the police aren't brutal and oppressive and yet bring down the sixth highest murder rate in the nation.

HARLOW: So, I'll ask you this again, if you were the police commissioner here, how would you lead the change?

FUENTES: Well, I would be meeting with the community groups. And I think he's trying to or has tried to. I'd continue that effort. You have church groups, school groups, recreational groups. Try to advocate to the city council, he needs more resources so they can take police officers instead of just being on the street chasing people, they can be in the schools and doing more community policing.

HARLOW: Getting to know the community.

FUENTES: And a lot of the poorer neighborhoods also have poor police departments and don't get the kind of community policing they should have.

HARLOW: Danny, let's talk about the charges against these six officers. I think we have the images of the officers. We can show you on the screens as we discussed here. You've got this range of charges and a lot of people want to know what happens now. The police union says these charges are unfounded. They say that they're in part politically motivated. They say that look, this state's attorney, her husband has a political career, he's in city council, we need an independent special prosecutor.

CEVALLOS: Well, the special prosecutor thing is something that is often asked for and not always granted. I think it's very discretionary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. And of course if a prosecutor like this one chooses to charge defendants, then that prosecutor is in all likelihood going to want to keep the case. They made a decision that they can be impartial and that they can charge this case. And of course, the police unit and the defendants may take a different approach. I think what we're going to also hear, is that you talked about these charges. I think that we can reasonably say that a lot of these charges may be very defensible. Because the standard, the burden in proving a depraved heart murder is a very high degree of recklessness, recklessness and indifference to human life.

HARLOW: Yes.

CEVALLOS: Shooting a gun into a crowd is that kind of danger. It's something to think about.

HARLOW: Yes. Danny Cevallos, thank you very much. We'll be tracking this. Tom Fuentes, good to have you both on. I appreciate it very much.

Well, he was the 72-year-old Vietnam veteran who stood up behind the rioters and police earlier this week. He's going to join me next for his take on what has happened today and what has happened in this city in the last week. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [17:31:38] HARLOW: Well, the people of Baltimore came today and they spoke and made a statement with their numbers. A large peaceful rally surrounding Baltimore city hall this afternoon. People demanding change and also expressing their anger and sadness following the police custody death of an unarmed man, Freddie Gray. Their message and their hopes, justice for Freddie Gray. Six police officers are now charged. The charges range from assault up to second-degree murder.

I want to talk now with Robert Valentine. He's a Vietnam veteran. He has been a visible part of the protest since this movement began.

Thanks for being with me.

ROBERT VALENTINE, BALTIMORE RALLY PARTICIPANT & VIETNAM VET: My pleasure.

HARLOW: I appreciate it.

You got a lot of us talking earlier this week. You were out in the crowd and you were trying to quell the violence. What do you make of what you've seen in the past week?

VALENTINE: I've seen transition from birth of a realization of what is about to come and at the same time, I've seen that the youth is reaching out. They need help and direction. They need to have a purpose. They don't have that. And I want to call on all the parents out herein instead of looking at them on TV, come out get the children, take them home. It was sad --

HARLOW: You're talking about the mother who came out, pulled her son out of the protest. Some people have called her a hero. Other people have said, you know, hitting him like that is not the way to move forward, so solve violence.

VALENTINE: My mama did it with us. OK. But the thing I'm saying is, she set the example and the pace. She loves her son. She wants him to have a future. She wants him to go somewhere.

HARLOW: What we saw here today right in front of city hall, a big gathering. All peaceful. Many of them spoke at the podium. Do you think that these are the kind of gatherings we're going to see for this city moving forward now that these officers have been charged? There has not been a trial yet, right? And the lawyers and the police union say they're not guilty of this. Do you think this city will gather in the peaceful way it did today moving forward?

VALENTINE: If they want to come out of the ashes of this destruction, they will want to bond together and see it through and accept the moves from the court.

HARLOW: You think any of the violence among some is over?

VALENTINE: No, it ain't over. It ain't over.

HARLOW: By the violence, you mean in the protests and rioting? VALENTINE: It's going to be in the youth. The youth are misguided

right now. The elders, we, my generals, we got to come out and tell them to stop. I'm going to bring a bunch of V.A. buddies from the Baltimore V.A. and come back in the streets and we're going to go and chase them down. We're going to let them know, don't nod your head down and think you going to be all right at night. You have to have a purpose, meaning and direction. If you put your head down, you praying. When you put your head up, you have the direction of where you want to go. You got to pass it to the youngest behind under the circumstances. Don't just stop there. Be better than me and you make them better than you.

HARLOW: A lot of the kids I sat with this week told me that education is their way out for some of them. It has been their way out. I talked to a number of African-American kids in their community. They said, thank god for this education. What needs to change on that front in this city? Frankly not all kids have the chance they need and deserve.

[17:35:16] VALENTINE: We have some in the school system that date back to 1973. You can learn from 1973, but it's up to you as a child to go past what's in the black and white, go in the library and go on the community and research it out, learn more. Be more.

HARLOW: Is this a point for the city -- is this a point of real change? Some have said to me we're worried when the camera, the media is not here, what's actually going to change.

VALENTINE: What's going to actually change is I'll be in these streets, I'll be walking. I'm going to catch these young'ens, you got something to document what are you going to do tomorrow. I don't mean tomorrow, tomorrow. Tomorrow is the rest of your life. I want to know your direction and your purpose. I want to see you make something of yourself better than me. That's where I go with that.

HARLOW: A young man told me yesterday, we are the future, we are the future leaders, we have to be part of that change.

Robert Valentine, thank you so much for talking to me.

VALENTINE: Thank you.

HARLOW: Thanks for your service to this country.

VALENTINE: Any time.

HARLOW: We appreciate it very much.

Coming up next, I'm going to bring you that interview with these extraordinary young children of Baltimore.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:40:16] HARLOW: You're taking a look at marchers marching the streets of Baltimore after a big rally held here where I'm coming to you live from city hall in downtown Baltimore. For the young people of this city, the death of Freddie Gray and the

ensuing arrest of six police officers and the riots may be one of the most defining moments of their young lives. Several young men and women spoke at today's rally.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to let everyone know that we are not thugs. We just want to be heard. We have school that don't have enough funding. We have -- there's hardly any rec centers open. Where is the money going? All these -- we have to know where to go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're making history right now. This has to be done the right way. The arguing, the fighting.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Remember my face because I will do something in our community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Well, yesterday I had a chance to sit down and talk with a group of students, 17 and 18-year-olds, all high school students here in Baltimore, all members of the College Bound Foundation and the future of this city. I talked to them about what's been happening in their city.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATHAN THOMAS, STUDENT: I've seen stores get looted, cars get put on fire, and I've seen people get hit in the face with shovels, blood in their face. I've also seen people cleaning up the streets and that not being shown. I've also seen kids asking police officers did they want anything to drink.

ZION SCHRER (ph), STUDENT: We're being portrayed as something we're not. They see the negativity in our city and they fail to see that this is not just now happening. This has been happening. This is the downfall. You see -- this is the effect, us right here as African- Americans, we're the future leaders. We're -- we are the future. If we want to see a change, we must be that change in the community. You see the effects of what's going on, but to every effect, there's a cause.

HARLOW: What has caused this to happen?

SCHRER (ph): The lack of attention that students are getting. You rather -- in Baltimore city, you rather build up casinos, spend all this money on casinos and things, but you can't help keep schools open. When did lives stop having value? When can they just die and it's just, oh, that's another news story. That's not just another news story. That's a life.

KIMBERLY BON (ph), STUDENT: I feel as though the things that are happening are necessary to happen for us to get the attention we need and for people to understand the frustrations we have about the things that are going on. I just wish that we weren't getting the attention just because of the riots. I wish we had already been getting attention on the issues of Baltimore and that it takes something like Freddie Gray's death to extremely blow up for us to get the attention and recognition we need.

SCHRER (ph): We're here to show there's more to Baltimore than saying there's a whole bunch of thugs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Education will take you out the neighborhood.

HARLOW: What's it done for you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's done for me is helped me go the university, school of engineering.

HARLOW: You're going to college next year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To fix a broken system, you have to be part of that broken system. We encourage more people to become police officers. I want to go into politics. We need people to become politicians or teachers because that's the way you fix it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our voices haven't been heard in a while. Now that they've been heard, we have a lot to say.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Now that we've been heard, we have a lot to say. Good to hear from the kids, the children and the future of this city of Baltimore. My thanks to them.

Thousands of marchers are heading to the CVS right now in Baltimore that was burned down in that looting earlier this week. We're going to bring you there for a live report next.

But first, on an all new "Parts Unknown" it is a city with flavor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[17:45:01] ANTHONY BOURDAIN, CNN HOST, PARTS UNKNOWN: So here we are again, Miami. I keep doing the same things again and again every time I come here. I go to the Club Duce. It's always a good time to come here.

Stay at the usual hotel. I, you know, try to lay out. Maybe splash around in the water. I'm not that creative actually.

But let's face it. What's interesting about Miami? Is Miami America?

(CROSSTALK)

BOURDAIN: Is it a state? Is it the south? Actually, all the things I love about Miami kind of come down on the no side.

I love Miami for the same reason I love the places I love most around the world. It's the mix here. It's this big messy, dysfunctional block of people from all over the world that make it so awesome and a place that I want to keep coming back to.

Also the food's good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Welcome back to our continuing coverage from Baltimore. I'm Poppy Harlow, joining you from right in front of city hall.

A lot of people gathered in a peaceful rally. But there's still reminders of the violence and looting that took place here Monday night.

Our Sara Sidner joins us live. She's right in front of the CVS store that was looted, that was set on fire.

Sara, I know you have a lot of people at this rally gathering there now. What are they saying? Why are they there? What is today about for them?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Today is about more conversation. But it is a very different scene than what you mentioned happened here at the CVS where people were angry and violent. Today, you're hearing a lot of people talking to one another in the crowd that's gathered has been there for the last couple hours.

Let me give you a look around. This is west North Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue where a lot of the action and the marching has been going on. Just down the street -- I'm going to pull you out a little bit further. We can just now see the thousands of people marching. It's quite a picture that are marching towards this city hall. Really, really amazing to see that number of people that are coming down the street.

So what you're seeing here is you'll see them all come and gather here. But there have been people here all day. At first it was almost like a block party atmosphere where you had a reggae band singing and talking to people and everybody was having a good time. Then it became more serious talking about the issues in this city. There's a lot of blame to go around. A lot of folks are angry with the politicians. Some people saying, hey, they did the right thing now, but this has been a longstanding problem here in Baltimore -- Poppy?

[17:50:48] HARLOW: Sara, I wonder if you get a sense -- you were in Ferguson for so long through the protests, the peaceful protests and violent protests in that city. What's the since that you get on the ground here in Baltimore as to whether the corner has been turned where gatherings, protests, rallies will be peaceful now? Or do you fear more violence may come? SIDNER: Well, I think you've seen mostly people protesting after that

very initial couple of nights. However, what you're seeing here is a very different feel than in Ferguson. Very different. Very, very different. And, look, there are people all over. This gentleman here, a lot of times the media becomes a target as well. But really what you're seeing is a much different feel. I have to tell you people are speaking to police officers who are just walking their normal beat. People are speaking to the national -- who have come here.

You may not be able to hear me because this gentleman is talking so loud. (INAUDIBLE).

HARLOW: I am having a hard time hearing you, Sara. But I got most of that report as did our viewers.

Thank you so much. We appreciate it.

Quick break. We're back here live from Baltimore in just a moment.

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[17:56:16] HARLOW: You're looking at people gathering on the streets of Baltimore, marching. I'm joining us from city hall where a big rally took place right now, marching down the street and congregating right outside the CVS that was burned and looted earlier in the week. I want to emphasize that today's gathering has been completely, completely peaceful. That's what we've seen in the past few days on the streets of Baltimore for the most part.

I want to go to Nick Valencia, who is with some of those people marching right now -- Nick?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Poppy. We have continued our march along Pennsylvania Avenue, making our way toward the North Avenue/Pennsylvania Avenue intersection.

We're joined by some of those who have been marching since the beginning.

This is something new for you, Alicia, right, you've been out at it since the start, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

VALENCIA: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because we want justice for Freddie. I knew Freddie personally. Even if it wasn't somebody I knew, I felt like I needed to be out here it's for our whole city. It's for our youth. It's somebody like me who got beat by the police, and they can't even explain why they even pulled him over or came over to approach him.

VALENCIA: When you heard about what happened to your friend, what did you think?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was upset.

VALENCIA: I mean, rightfully so, right? Do you think, Alicia, we've seen the worst pass? Have we seen the worst of the tension pass?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, it's always going to be tension. Anywhere in the United States there's going to be tension. But as long as they understand that they have to give us respect if they want to earn it, you know what I mean.

VALENCIA: That's what we're seeing now?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's what we've been seeing. We've been protesting for days and days peacefully, you know.

VALENCIA: We're going to continue to follow this. There's still a lot left to be achieved according to Alicia in this community. She plans to see it all the way through -- Poppy?

HARLOW: Nick, thanks so much.

I do want to get to Sara Sidner now.

Hey, Sara, I'm glad you're back with me.

I was talking to you before. It got a little loud. We were talking about whether you think the corner really has been turned in terms of these gatherings being peaceful, completely peaceful, going forward and not the violence that we saw break out on Monday night. What's your impression?

SIDNER: Yeah, I mean, so far, so good. We're at west North Avenue and Pennsylvania, and the protesters that were coming from city hall have made their way to this intersection, stopping. You remember what happened Monday. Very, very different scene today. I'm going to move a little bit out of the way so you can see. What you're seeing is a lot of people gathering, not a lot of screaming, not a lot of hollering. But you're hearing singing at times. You're hearing people that will come out on the mega phone and make some speeches at times.

But it really does feel like more of almost, if you will, a feeling that justice is beginning to be served and I think that the protesters wanted to happen has happened. They all know that there is a system in place, and there has to be a jury to take a look at all the details of this. But people here feel pretty good about what has happened when it comes to what the government has done and what the government officials have done in this particular case, namely, the state's attorney. But we should mention that when the sun goes down, you don't know and there are plenty of police out here trying to control any situation that gets out of control the situation so it doesn't get out of control -- Poppy?

[17:59:42] HARLOW: Sara Sidner, appreciate the reporting. Thank you for that.

Thank you all for being with me for our special coverage here live from Baltimore. I'll be back with you here tomorrow night.

Coming up at 7:00 eastern, my colleague, Don Lemon, continues our special coverage from Baltimore.

Before that, "SMERCONISH" begins right now.