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Russian Plane Crash Debris Emerges; U.S. Boots in Syria; Son Involved in Connecticut Couple's Death; "Black Lives Matter" Protesters Disrupt Clinton Event; China Allows Families to Have 2 Children. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired October 31, 2015 - 16:00   ET

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

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[16:00:03] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: 4:00 Eastern. I'm Poppy Harlow. Thank you for being with me.

A Russian airliner carrying 224 people suddenly disappearing from radar today right over Egypt. It did hit the ground and recovery crews report that everyone onboard was killed. Here are first known photos of both flight data recorders that were recovered from the crash site.

Twisted metal and debris are all that remain of the airliner. Russia state media reports that most of the people onboard were returning from vacation. They were in the (INAUDIBLE) in the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula. Victims remains are being rushed to the morgue right now where grieving families are waiting, of course, in anguish.

So far officials have recovered the remains of at least 130 people onboard and in Russia people are sending and leaving flowers and momentoes of this make-shift memorial in St. Petersburg. Let's go straight to Cairo, that is where we find Ian Lee. What do we know at this point, Ian, about the plane's last contact with the ground?

IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, we're learning a lot or more about what took place right when it took off, before it took off and during its flight. There was a press conference a while ago where the civil aviation minister spoke. Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOSSAM KARMAL, EGYPT'S CIVIL AVIATION MINISTER (through translator): If the pilot doesn't report any faults on the plane, all that will be carried out is routine maintenance checks on the plane before take off. There were no reports that the airplane had faults. The checks done before takeoff did not reveal anything. Up until the crash happened we were never informed of any faults in the plane. Nor did we receive any SOS calls.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: And right there was crucial that they didn't receive any SOS calls earlier in the day. There were reports that a pilot had made one and now we're learning that the plane just disappeared, dropped from the sky. The search area now we're hearing from the prime minister is about - has a diameter of about five miles.

They're looking to expand it. They're going over all the different pieces and also recovering bodies. They're still over 90 bodies still left to be recovered. The ones that they have recovered are on their way to Cairo and the Red Sea City of Suez where officials are going to be going through the gruesome process of trying to identify them.

Also, those black boxes are on their way to Cairo where they will be analyzed and really get an idea of what happened here, what caused this plane to go down. We know Egyptians will be working with Airbus as well as the Russian authorities on this. Poppy.

HARLOW: Looking at some of the pictures we can pull up of the terrain and where this debris is right now in the Sinai Peninsula. I know this is an area you covered extensively. How difficult is this search going to be? I know it's a mountainous region.

LEE: Yes. It is a mountainous region. This morning we were hearing that this the plane had crashed in the mountains from Egyptian authorities but when a bit more information came out we now have the pictures that show it was one of the planes that is adjacent to the mountains. This is a five-mile search area. So there is a lot to - a lot of ground to cover.

As you can see, it's night here. So that will make it even more difficult. But the northern Sinai has had problems with an insurgency. We haven't heard if that has hampered any of the recovery efforts. But that is something that authorities are going to be watching out for.

HARLOW: Absolutely. Ian Lee, live for us in Cairo tonight. Thank you for that.

More now from Les Abend, the 777 pilot, gosh, you know I thought of you immediately when I heard this news when I woke up this morning. It's so rare for a plane cruising at over 30,000 feet to have an incident. If you're going to have one, they typically happen at takeoff and landing, right?

LES ABEND, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: You're absolutely right. The cruise environment is what we call low stress environment.

HARLOW: Right.

[16:05:00]

ABEND: If you get an abnormality you have time to figure it out. Even and I'm not implying that these engines quit by any means. But even if they quit, you have 90 miles to actually glide to somewhere. So something went terribly wrong and we discussed on the earlier segment that the flight radar 24 data, if it's accurate, we don't know for sure if it's accurate because what's going to be accurate is the digital flight data recorder, it showed that this airplane reached an aerodynamics stall at altitude. The wings no longer have lift to fly. It came down pretty rapidly.

HARLOW: Yes, that sounds to me like - correct me if I'm wrong Air France 447, flying from Brazil to Paris.

ABEND: It does. However they were in a weather environment with confusing instrumentation telling them conflicting information and it wasn't handled properly. HARLOW: That was also an Airbus, right?

ABEND: It was also an Airbus. It was an Airbus 330.

HARLOW: A much newer Airbus than this is.

ABEND: I don't know if it was newer. This apparently is a 1987 A321. Yes it's indeed possible. I don't think the age of the aircraft is going to be a factor in this.

HARLOW: Right.

ABEND: It's speculation, of course.

HARLOW: Because 20 years old isn't old for an aircraft.

ABEND: No.

HARLOW: As you look at the pictures with me, look, you have almost no -- it doesn't appear like we can see the wings. David Souci said last hour this may not be all of the debris. But I mean, barely one intact piece of metal.

ABEND: Yes. I mean this looks like a fuselage section, a big portion of the fuselage, you're right, we cannot see the wings. I would like to see a plan view to see how far the debris spread. There was a rumor that it was eight kilometers. That means it is possible the airplane could have broke up in flight which could lend the credence to the fact that this was in an uncontrolled stall situation that they did not recover from.

I'm kind of curious why there was no mayday call sent out. Because there was a lot of time if it was a situation that was catastrophic to talk to air traffic control.

HARLOW: Obviously this is a region where especially in Sinai there has been conflict and that makes the search and investigation tougher. But also, you have all of these rumors of could it have been shot down. What would it be especially after what we saw with MH-17. None confirm and right now, all the authorities are saying no way related to terrorism whatsoever.

ABEND: At this point, I mean, I just look at the cursory of those pictures but I didn't see any evidence of smoldering, let's say. I mean this is certainly going to be determined as a preliminary part of the investigation once the team get started on it. I mean I can't see with my eyes from those photos exactly if that's possible.

HARLOW: Well, they do have those two critical flight data recorders. So we should get some answers hopefully pretty soon. Les, thank you very much. As always, we'll keep you posted on that as we know more.

Also this, the war against ISIS has scarred the landscape and the people of Iraq and Syria. CNN's Clarissa Ward toured the front lines held by Kurdish soldiers and saw the devastation first hand. Her fascinating report next.

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[16:11:16]

HARLOW: Nearly $100 million in new U.S. assistance is heading to rebel groups fighting the Syrian government right now. That word from the State Department today and for the first time the United States is sending special forces to Syria. U.S. boots on the ground in this fight against ISIS.

As the U.S. expands its role Kurdish fighters on the front lines in Syria are already battling ISIS trying to reclaim lost territory. They pushed the terror group out of one city and now maybe preparing for yet another move forward.

CNN senior international correspondent Clarissa Ward got an up close look from the frontlines in northern Syria. Clarissa.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Poppy, it was just a few weeks ago that the U.S. air dropped 50 tons of ammunition to a newly formed coalition on the ground inside Syria fighting against ISIS. We spent time with the main group in that coalition, the Kurdish YPG fighters. They told us they are going to need much more than that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WARD (voice-over): These men are at the core of America's latest strategy to defeat ISIS. Manning positions along a vast and desolate frontline with ISIS entrenched in villages just through the haze. They're fighters with the YPG, a force of roughly 30,000 Syrian Kurds which backed by coalition air power has dealt decisive blows to Islamic state militants across northern Syria.

Commander Bahos is in charge of this frontline position in the city of Hasaka which the YPG took from ISIS in august after months of fierce clashes.

COMMANDER LAWAND, YPG (through translator): They tried to attack us 10 days ago. We were prepared so they didn't reach their target.

WARD (on camera): But they keep trying. ISIS has control of the next village along, which is just over a mile in that direction. But the men at this base tell us that ISIS fighters often go at night to that building just over there so that they can launch attacks on these positions.

(voice-over): The U.S. hopes the YPG will soon move from defense to offense. Taking the fight to ISIS strong hold in Raka. But at make shift bases across the frontline, the fighters we saw were lightly armed, poorly equipped and exhausted by months of fighting.

And senior commander Lowand knows the battles ahead will be even tougher.

(on camera): Can you take Raka without heavier weapons from the coalition?

COMMANDER LAWAND (through translator): The weapons we have are not high quality for this campaign we'll need new heavy weapons.

WARD (voice-over): The most important weapon they do have but don't want to talk about is this device which helps the YPG get exact coordinates for enemy positions. Those coordinates were sent to a joint U.S. Kurdish operations room and minutes later fighter jets come screaming in.

Rezwan told us he was given a week of training before using the device.

(on camera): Who trained you how to use this?

REZWAN, YPG FIGHTER (through translator): Believe me, I can't say. When you finish the training, it's a secret. But they weren't speaking Kurdish.

WARD (voice-over): A mystery as is so much of the unfolding U.S. strategy in this critical corner of Syria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WARD: The main reason the U.S. has been so circumspect about its support of the YPG is because the group works closely with its Turkish counterpart, the PKK< and of course, the PKK, Poppy, is branded a terrorist organization and Turkey which is a key diplomatic ally for the U.S. seized the PKK as the primary domestic threat to its stability.

[16:15:00]

HARLOW: Clarissa Ward on the frontlines, thank you very much, Clarissa.

Let's talk about this now with CNN intelligence and security analyst, former CIA operative Bob Baer.

Bob, I think it's fascinating especially very telling that last line, that fighter saying you know he can't say who trained them to use these weapons. When we look at this tied to the U.S. move, 50 boots on the ground now in Syria, how much does that move the needle against ISIS?

ROBERT BAER, FORMER CIA OPERATIVE: It does - let's see how the troops are used. If they're put on the front lines and they're given laser designators to hit ISIS targets and we send some helicopters and the black hawks with (INAUDIBLE) guns, we can change battlefield fortunes of the Kurds. But they do have to get engaged. It cannot be like Kundus (ph) where our troops were at the airport, we hit the wrong target, the hospital, the Doctors without Borders. But the problem is of course, Poppy, that the more success you have, or even setbacks the more impetus there will be to send more troops in and then we're into the Syrian quagmire.

HARLOW: Right. You know, it's interesting Christopher Hill who served as President Obama's first ambassador to Iraq talked about this this weekend and the way he sees it is Bob is he says these small but special operators forces from the U.S. will be what he calls the force multipliers, saying yes it's risky but what we cannot see going on on the ground from the air, we will now be able to see on the ground.

Speaking to how much this could help with intelligence in Syria. Do you agree?

BAER: Well, he's exactly right. Having forces on the ground will multiply our intelligence like you can't believe. Having daily contact with these people and actually being able to see the targets on the ground. That's definitely a plus. But the problem is our special forces operating in an environment where they have considerable amount of other forces backing them up, the rangers, what's called the blocking force. They have had complete air power over the - you know, helicopters in particular.

That's why we were so successful in 2006 and 2007 in Iraq is because we had so many troops on the ground. Fifty is simply not enough. You know, if the Islamic State collapses with 50 American advisers and a few more weapons for the Kurds, I'll be surprised. But you know, the Middle East keeps on surprising me.

HARLOW: I think it does all of us. Bob Baer, thank you.

Coming up next, police believed that they have solved a grizzly murder. The prime suspects are the victim's own son and his girlfriend. (INAUDIBLE) how police say text messages tie them to the crime.

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[16:21:37]

HARLOW: Police say they have a lead in the case of a missing Connecticut couple, Jeffrey and Jeannette Navin disappeared in August. A break came in the case this week when human remains were found near a vacant home. Police say that discovery along with other evidence led to the arrest of the couple's 27-year-old son and his girlfriend.

CNN Sara Ganim with me following the story. Incredibly disturbing. No good leads and then text messages became a key part of this.

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right for months they didn't know what happened to this couple. They thought they have been running away from some of their financial problems but they were always suspicious of the son because of several text messages they found on his phone to his girlfriend, Jennifer, who has also now been arrested saying things like "we need to figure out what the best way to take them down, whether it is get some money out of them somehow."

Another text message, same conversation, "it would solve every single problem and give us a wealthy amazing life." This case kind of stalled for several weeks until on Thursday remains were found near this vacant home and they were positively identified as Jeffrey and Jeannette Navin. They were able to make an arrest.

In this case, this was the break.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GANIM (voice-over): On the day Jeffrey Navin and his wife, Jeanette, were last seen in August, Jeffrey and his son, Kyle Navin, exchanged an ominous series of text messages, according to court documents.

Jeffrey writes, "I'm not going home until I know mom is OK, did you hurt mom?" Jeffrey asks. "No, absolutely not. Why would you think?" his son Kyle even replies. "I go home and get framed for murder. I'm going to the police first." And then "you are setting me up." The text messages sent from Jeffrey Navin's phone leading police on a month's long investigation into the disappearance of the couple who owned a refuse collection company.

The case stalled for months but a break came Thursday when human remains were found in the yard of an abandoned house about nine miles from where the couple lived.

TROOPER KELLY GRANT, CONNECTICUT STATE POLICE: Detectives are actively working to process the scene and exploring the possibility that this is connected to the missing persons case.

GANIM: Police identified the remains as those of the Navins and quickly move to charged 27-year-old Kyle Navin with their murder. Authorities say those messages and cellphone tower pings contradict the story Navin told when he was questioned about his parents' disappearance.

Navin's girlfriend, Jennifer Valianta, was also charged with conspiracy to commit murder and hindering prosecution. Police say two hours after the last text message was sent a security camera captured a garbage truck from the couple's business being followed by Valiante's car. Valienta later told authorities she picked up Kyle Navin after he took his father's truck home.

When they searched Kyle Navin's home, authorities found a Home Depot receipt for August 5th, the day after his parents disappeared. Showing he bought bleach, stain remover and contractor cleanup bags. After a month of mystery, neighbors say they want answers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Even if we didn't know them. It's still very taxing on the people in this town.

(END VIDEOTAPE) GANIM: Navin and his girlfriend in jail on for more than $2 million of bail. In addition to the text messages, police found blood in his car that matched his mother's blood and in the house that matched his father and they also suspect that the motive was that he had a drug problem and his parents were worried about it and they were going to cut him out of his will. He was worried about that and that's what police suspect happened.

[16:25:15]

HARLOW: Is the son saying anything?

GANIM: No his attorney is not commenting.

HARLOW: Nothing yet. OK.

Sara, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Coming up next, to politics we go. Hillary Clinton still leading the polls but a tense showdown with activists yesterday could suggest a critical problem for her with a key group of voters. That's next.

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HARLOW: You are looking at live pictures of Bernie Sanders there in Lebanon, New Hampshire campaigning on the trail this afternoon, trying to convince voters to go for him and not his chief rival, Hillary Clinton. We'll monitor that for you as we talk about Hillary Clinton hitting the trail in South Carolina today, home to the first in the south primary.

She's trying to refine her pitch to a very key block of voters, African-Americans. Today, she spoke emotionally and passionately about gun control citing the tragic shooting of nine black parishioners in that church in Charleston in June.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That disturbed young man who went and bought the gun that he used to kill those nine worshippers, (INAUDIBLE) church was not entitled to buy a gun but they found that out right after he committed those murders. We have got to close that. Why are you in such a hurry to buy not a hunting rifle but a killing machine?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Clinton first unveiled her platform for criminal justice reform at the historically black university, Clark University in Atlanta on Friday but the roll out hit a bump when she was met with the most disruptive protests of her campaign thus far.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[16:30:00] CLINTON: Using not violence, using the power of the -

UNIDENTIFED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTESTERS: Black lives matter!

CLINTON: -- the feelings that come forward, and, yes, they do. Yes, they do!

BLACK LIVES MATTER PROSTERS: Black lives matter!

CLINTON: Yes, they do, and I'm going to talk a lot about that, in a minute.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: What you were hearing and seeing there, about a dozen protesters from the Black Lives Matter chanting and cutting Clinton off as she started speaking going on for about 15 minutes before they were escorted out. Let's talk about the broader focus here that her camp is now on securing the black vote.

Former South Carolina State Representative Bakari Sellers is with me.

Thanks for being here.

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Thank you for having me, Poppy.

HARLOW: You were at NAACP event last night with Clinton. Was there any talk there about the protest?

SELLERS: No. It was a very excited atmosphere. Individuals were happy to see Hillary Clinton. Welcome her back to the state. She was full of energy to say that the event didn't really kick off until 9:00, and she delivered a powerful message and hit all the notes we expected her to hit.

We could tell she's cultivating a message resonate with African- American voters. We have to make sure that energy is maintained throughout younger African-American voters, because they are going to be essential to winning (AUDIO GAP) North Carolina, Virginia and Florida (AUDIO GAP) in general.

HARLOW: It's interesting. Johnetta Elzie who's an activist with the Black Lives Matter movement and one of the group's called Campaign Zero tweeted this that Clinton is taking baby steps towards addressing racial justice in a real way that aren't working. She's lagging behind her competition, Sanders and she's not saying anything that her competitors haven't said before her.

Do you get that sense?

SELLERS: Well, not at all. I mean, I have a great deal of respect for her and many of the other organizers. But Hillary Clinton has been talking about these issues since her first campaign policy speech which was at Dinkins Institute in Columbia.

Now, yes, they do have a point and I've been pushing the campaign and the campaign has been pushed in many directions to actually put these ideals on paper and I believe that moving in that direction will. But just this weekend, she wrote out riveting the disparity between crack and cocaine, banning the box and ending racial profiling. She's hitting all those points.

I think people want to see them in their tangible state on paper like Martin O'Malley and Bernie Sanders and I can't blame them for that.

HARLOW: You know, you wrote in a CNN.com op-ed a few weeks ago, Bakari, about sort of what you're waiting for to hear from the candidates on both sides of the aisle and just to paraphrase here, you basically said, I have lived through these difficult times, I have seen what has happened to fellow African-Americans around me in this country and I'm not hearing enough from the Republicans or the Democrats.

What is it that you want to be hearing?

SELLERS: Well, for me, it's a direct focus. It's a blend of empathy with fleshing out true policy platforms that are going to make our lives better on a daily basis. It's not just criminal justice reform, but it's talking about educational opportunity in South Carolina, you have a thing such as the court of shame where kids go to school where their heating and air don't work and their infrastructure is falling apart. Many of those kids are persons of color.

You also have a Stroke Belt where many African-Americans and individuals of color are predisposed to preventable diseases and illness. And then you have poverty, it's not just in the big cities like Baltimore and Chicago but it's in rural America.

So, yes, I got excited when Hillary Clinton was talking about the new New Deal in the debate, but I wholly expect her and many of the other candidates to address it. I have to -- I can tell you this, though, Poppy, I've pretty much given up hope that my colleagues on the Republican side outside of maybe Rand Paul are doing much when it comes to outreach because they haven't shown that effort and not sure they'll show it in the upcoming months.

HARLOW: Bakari, do you think that it is short-sighted, really short- sighted of many of us -- you know, I've said it -- to say how do you secure the black vote, the African-American vote? I mean, isn't that like saying how do you secure the white vote? I mean, obviously, there are core issues for every group. But it is so diverse what different people want, right?

SELLERS: Well, it can't be based on the premise that African- Americans are monolithic because we're not. We all don't think alike. We're not herd animals or herd creatures. But, yes, there are systemic ill that directly affect the African-American community for example when our colleges and universities get a cold, historically black universities catch the flu. Whenever we have go through a economic depression in this county, economic depression, you oftentimes see that those communities that are hurt worse are communities of color.

And then you have the systems put in place such as mass incarceration and everything else which Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders and even Joe Biden if he got in the race would have to deal with, which are directly and disproportionately affected African-Americans.

[16:35:00] The irony, though, is that the country is now catching up because you see when you talk about mass incarceration and crack and things of that, and now you have a conversation in New Hampshire about easing the war on drugs and heroin usage. So, we're beginning to have this dialogue but I truly believe and it's the reason I'm supporting her that she's in the best position now to brace the gap, bring the country together and talk about these issues because she's been talking about them her whole life.

HARLOW: Bakari Sellers, thank you very much.

SELLERS: Happy Halloween, Poppy, and thank you.

HARLOW: You as well.

For all of you watching, you will not want to miss tomorrow morning's "STATE OF THE UNION". Congressman John Boehner, Paul Ryan, the outgoing and incoming speakers of the House talk about what some call the second most powerful job in Washington. That is on "STATE OF THE UNION", tomorrow morning, 9:00 a.m. Eastern, only right here.

Videos like this, a school resource officer taking down a student in a high school in South Carolina this week have led a lot of people to question the need for these school resource officers. Next, we will speak with one of them about what their role is in schools and why they say it is so crucial.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's almost nothing Madeline Stuart won't try.

ROSANNE STUART, MADELINE'S MOTHER: She's been indoor skydiving -- zip lining in Hawaii. She's been scuba diving.

GUPTA: So when her 18-year-old daughter wanted to model, Rosanne Stuart wasn't about to stand in her way.

STUART: I'm a realist. I know my daughter has Down syndrome, but it doesn't mean that you can't do different things.

GUPTA (on-camera): Like Maddy, half of all children born with Down syndrome have some type of heart defect. So, in Maddy's case, the blood that was going into her heart wasn't getting enough oxygen before then going out. So when she'd cry, she'd turn blue, and pass out.

GUPTA (voice-over): Maddy almost didn't survive to see her first birthday. At two months old, she had heart surgery.

STUART: The doctors said she had 13 percent chance survival rate.

GUPTA: You would never know that by looking at this spirited teen today.

STUART: She does sports seven days a week. She's so energetic. It just exhausts me.

GUPTA: And there's no rest in sight. Maddy's modeling career is taking off. She walked the runway during Europe Fashion Week this fall, and won a contract to be the face of lipstick company Glossigirl -- all of which her mom says is giving hope to others with disabilities.

STUART: Madeline isn't going to be the president of the United States, because she's Australian. But if she was American -- you know, I mean, she's not going to be a brain surgeon or an astronaut -- but, OK, she's changing the world.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:41:19] HARLOW: About 100 high school students in South Carolina walked out of class yesterday in protest. They did it to show support for a school resource officer who was fired this week, but not just any officer. The teenagers were sticking up for Deputy Ben Fields. He was fired for this, for tossing this 16-year-old girl out of her desk on Monday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Appreciate you taking the time to do this. But again, as we always focus on teaching. So let's head on back to class. OK?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Well, that incident caught on video this week has now focused attention on all school resource officers and cases of behavior caught on tape.

Here's CNN's Jason Carroll.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Since these disturbing images went viral, the spotlight focused not only on now fired sheriff's deputy and his actions but also on the role of school resource officers in the nation's schools.

LOTT: Should he have ever been called there? Now, that's something that we're going to talk to the school district about. Maybe that should have been handled by the teacher and that school administrator without ever calling the deputy.

OFFICER: Are you going to come with me or am I going to make you?

CARROLL: Former Deputy Ben Fields was called to the classroom after the 16-year-old student refused repeated request to leave by both her teacher and a school administrator.

Resource officers are used as a law enforcement tool in some schools.

Just this week in Sacramento, a resource officer called to help break up a fight involving about a dozen students. The school's principal tossed during the fight, police end up arresting three teenagers.

Breaking up school fights or trying to manage a defiant student are part of the resource officer's duties, but it is not all officer's responsibilities.

MO CANADY, EXEC. DIR. NATL. ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS: We want them involved in informal counseling more than the context of their job, really getting to know students and building relationships with them.

CARROLL: Part counselor, part enforcer, according to the National Association of School Resource Officers, their numbers grew in the late '80s under the DARE program to help children stay away from drugs and violence.

Growing more following the shooting in Columbine, Colorado, in 1999, after schools felt the need to have access to armed officers. Now, some 82,000 SROs are working full or part time at 43 percent of public schools and with more officers, more cameras, comes more scrutiny.

A school resource officer in Kentucky faces federal charges for handcuffing two misbehaving children with disabilities. In this video, a third grade boy struggles with the cuffs.

And now, in South Carolina, an officer fired from his job and under a federal investigation that could result in even more punishment.

Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Jason, thank you very much.

With me now Don Bridges, he's a Baltimore County police officer and first VP of the National Association of School Resource Officers.

Thank you for joining me.

DON BRIDGES, FIRST VP, NATL ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS: Thank you and I want to thank CNN for giving NASRO the opportunity to share what the role of the school resource officer is. So I just want to thank you guys so very much.

[16:45:00] HARLOW: Well, I'm glad you're with us because it's interesting, I was thinking about this. I didn't have a school resource officer in my school when I was growing up and I'm interested in, you know, in the wake of this video and the focus and the scrutiny on your profession, what is the role?

BRIDGES: The role of the SRO or school resource officer within a school setting is to be a law-related educator, getting into the classroom as often as possible to be able to provide law-related education to kids, teaching young folks respect for the law and also what their rights are as citizens.

The second role for the SRO is to be law-related counselors, counseling and mentoring young folks whenever they go through particular issues within life. Being an SRO since the early -- since the late 1990s I can tell you that that mentor role ends up being very, very valuable. And then role number three is to be law enforcement within the school, being that visible presence within the school to be able to provide a certain level of safety and security to the entire school community.

HARLOW: You have said that a memorandum of understanding should be drawn up between each individual school and the school resource officers that they hire. What should they outline? Why is that helpful?

BRIDGES: What the MOUs should do is to provide specifically what the role of the SRO is and what the role of the school is. Often times what happens is when you run into these conflicts within a school, oftentimes you find situations where the SRO and administrators have allowed their specific roles to sort of get intermingled and one of the things that we want to make clear is that the school resource officer is not someone in the school house that is responsible for discipline. They play a role in the many facets of the school house. But discipline is certainly not something that the SRO should be doing.

HARLOW: And it's interesting because you point out that these SROs should be carefully screened. I'm interested in what's the screening process, how were you screened, for example?

BRIDGES: All I would tell you is what the supervision on the police side of the equation should be doing is they should be looking into that individual officer's personnel jacket and then seeing what types of interest have they shown with respects in terms of wanting to be involved a part of the community.

When I was a very young officer, one of the things that I did is when I was a post officer, we had several schools that were very, very problematic. So what I did was to get out of the squad car, walk into the school and develop a relationship with the administrative staff and the students within that given school. That is an indicator that you have someone that is genuinely committed and has a desire to want to make a difference in the lives of a school community.

What we must make clear is that police officers work within a school, that is a very, very -- that is a very challenging task. What I view each individual schoolhouse is a community. And within that community, we as the SRO have to be able to work hand in hand with all segments of the community, the administrator, the parents, the students, faculty, everyone. It's a very, very challenging task.

HARLOW: Don, thank you very much for your time. It's important and interesting to hear from you as well as this profession gets so much scrutiny right now. Thank you, sir.

BRIDGES: Thank you.

HARLOW: Well, a monumental shift in the way that some 100 million of the more than 1 billion people in China live. That change announced this week. The generations of only child families will end. What will that mean to all of the people in that country? More on that next.

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HARLOW: Until this week, couples in China were mandated through fines and sometimes forced sterilizations to only have one child. With more than 1.3 billion people, China instituted the one-child policy in the 1970s to control population growth, but now it is all about the economy. China's demographics have changed, population is aging, and they want a younger, revitalized workforce. This is a major change for the world's most populous country.

Joining me now, Marion Smith, executive director of the victims of Communist Memorial Foundation.

Thank you for being here, Marion.

I've read a lot of what you've written about this and your main point is -- yes, this is a significant change, no, this does not in any way, you say, solve the human rights concerns in China. Tell me more.

MARION SMITH, EXEC. DIR. VICTIMS OF COMMUNISM MEMORIAL FOUNDATION: Well, since 1979, the People's Republic of China has instituted this one-child policy that the Chinese government says is responsible for preventing some 400 million births. Unfortunately and tragically, that's been through forced abortion, forced sterilization, and infantacide, gendericide as some people have called it because most of the children who are killed at birth tend to be girls. And there's also, of course, self gender selective abortion that favors male children, especially in the rural areas.

The shift that's been announced this week by the Chinese communist party doesn't change any of those repressive measures that really are at the core of the forced family planning policies of China.

[16:55:05] And so the fact that now some parents are going to be able to have two children as opposed to one, even though they will still have to get all the necessary permit, which in many cases is more difficult than opening a new business here in the United States, that fundamentally doesn't change anything that's at the core of this policy.

HARLOW: Marion, look, amnesty international pointed out things you just went over. Do you think that China should have no policy whatsoever, because when you look at the most populous country in the world, and more and more people are moving from the provinces into the cities, what's the answer here?

SMITH: Well, if they really are interested in solving their demographic crisis, they should learn that the unintended consequences of these collectivist policies, including family planning, aren't doing them any great service. But unfortunately, the main thing here is the coercive nature of the policy that is now core to the climate of fear and intimidation, that is necessary to keep the Chinese communist party in power.

And you see this, because there is no space in China, from Tiananmen Square to the sheets of your bedroom, where you have a private life. There's no place the Chinese communist party cannot reach, and so this policy is much more than simply family planning. It is essential to the coercive nature of the regime in China, which unfortunately, despite great economic growth in the last 20 or so years, hasn't changed that aspect of the People's Republic of China.

HARLOW: Marion Smith, thank you very much. I wish we had a lot more time, because this is certainly quite a development. People can go online and read more about what you've written about it. Appreciate you joining me.

SMITH: Thank you.

HARLOW: Coming up next, investigators sift through the twisted wreckage of an airliner that crashed in the Sinai desert overnight, trying to learn what could have brought that plane with 224 people onboard, what could have brought it down. The two black boxes, the flight data recorder, voice data recorder, now in the hands of officials. What they could say to tell us what happened next.

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