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Police Response to Black/White Teen Fight Sparks Outrage; Now: Civil Rights Trial for Ex-Officers in Floyd Death Resumes; Jurors Offered Counseling in Case Against Arbery's Killers; Study Shows Omicron's "Cousin" Could be More Severe; Gov. Newsom to Unveil California's Plan for "Endemic Phase"; Soon, Ruling on Whether Trump Must Testify about Family Business. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired February 17, 2022 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: A viral video showing police breaking up a fight between two teens at a New Jersey mall is sparking a lot of outrage today and raising questions about whether the officers' response was racially motivated.

Here, watch closely. You can see the officer separating the two teens.

But notice how one, who is white, is pushed onto a couch, left alone, and then basically ignored by the officers, while the other teen, who is black, is tackled to the ground and handcuffed.

And you see both officers get involved, even kneeling on his back and shoulder.

The white teen eventually stands up. Officers don't even seem to notice that.

Now the black teen's mom tells CNN she wants to know why her son was the only one treated this way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EBONE HUSAIN, SON PINNED TO GROUND, HANDCUFFED BY POLICE AFTER FIGHT: I keep trying to wrap my mind around it and no possible scenario doesn't make sense to me.

If I -- I hate to say this, but if it wasn't for race, then what is it? What made them tackle my son, not the other kid?

What made them be so aggressive with my son and not the other kid? Why is the other kid sitting down, looking at my son be humiliated and put into cuffs?

It just doesn't make sense. It makes me angry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Bridgewater, New Jersey, police have requested an independent review of the officer's conduct.

Let's discuss now with former acting Baltimore police commissioner, Anthony Barksdale. He also is a CNN law enforcement analyst.

Commissioner, good to see you.

When you watch that video, what do you see?

ANTHONY BARKSDALE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Thanks for having me.

I see a huge problem. We see the black kid is definitely treated differently than the white kid.

Pretend you and I are partners and we roll up and there's a fight. Two people are fighting. We have to control the situation. You take one suspect, I'll take the other suspect, and we're going to sort this out.

But we see the officers direct all of their energy towards the young black suspect, or combatant, whatever you want to say.

While the white suspect gets to sit on the couch, watch the black kid get arrested. There's no control of him. He even stands up while this is going on.

We have a serious problem here.

I know many agencies are working on implicit bias training. This agency needs to do it and do it again because we have a clear issue in this incident.

CABRERA: The mother of the black teen says she thinks those officers should no longer be employed. What do you think?

BARKSDALE: I understand her view. I do not know if that's going to happen.

I could see retraining becoming an issue. Maybe some internal discipline. I'm not sure.

But there's work to be done because this -- what we all saw is completely unacceptable. You treat people equally.

And that kid, that black kid was not treated equally in this incident.

CABRERA: You mentioned training a couple of times. When I watch that video, it seems like the officers' actions are almost instinctual.

How do you deprogram that? Can it be deprogrammed by training? BARKSDALE: Well, it's one of the biggest things about implicit bias

training. You're trying to get officers not to bring their thoughts on various races or cultures into policing, and to be equal in treatment of all.

So this is something that is noticed by police executives across the United States. They are trying to get this training done.

I'm not sure if this agency has it or not. If they do, they're not doing enough. If they don't, they need to get it immediately out to their officers.

CABRERA: Just procedurally, should either of those boys have been arrested?

The mother of the black teen suggested sitting them down, calling the parents, trying to make this a learning moment. They're teenagers. I think the black teen was 14 years old.

BARKSDALE: It's so many other ways that that could have been handled. They're kids. Separate them. What's going on? What are you guys fighting about? Figure it out.

Contact the parents. You know, hey, come get your son.

You don't have to send these kids to jail, but you can't have them fighting. Break it up and talk to them and try to resolve it a different way besides jail.

CABRERA: You know, the other thing that stood out to me in that video was the officers kneeling on the back and the shoulder of that black teen.

BARKSDALE: Yes.

CABRERA: I couldn't help but think of George Floyd.

What did you make of that?

BARKSDALE: I thought about the same thing. Here we go again with the knees.

And maybe that's in their arrest-and-control techniques in their agencies. But that's the same thing that I thought.

[13:34:59]

And we see physically -- this is a kid. You can't bring him under control without the knees? And then the female officer comes and adds another knee. So come on.

We've got to get this training right. This was bad from beginning to end. It's all bad.

CABRERA: Anthony Barksdale, it's good to have you here and get your perspective. Thank you. BARKSDALE: Thank you for having me.

Now to Minnesota where the federal trial for three ex-Minneapolis police officers charged with violating George Floyd's civil rights is back under way.

CNN's Adrienne Broaddus is following this.

Adrienne, there were some pretty tense moments in court yesterday. One of the officers, Alexander Kueng, was back on the stand today. Give us the latest.

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tense moments yesterday. A bit calmer today. J. Alexander Kueng, who you just mentioned, wrapped up his testimony about 15 minutes ago.

On the stand right now, Steven Imes. You might remember he's the same use-of-force expert who testified in the Kim Potter trial. By the way, Potter will be sentenced in Minnesota tomorrow.

But back to the story at hand today. J. Alexander Kueng was one of the first officers who arrived on scene that day.

Telling members of the jury he became a member of the Minneapolis Police Department because he wanted to serve the community where he grew up.

Also mentioning he didn't have a fond impression of MPD officers specifically because of his interactions with them while he was growing up.

He also told the jury he didn't begin to realize the situation was critical or that Floyd had died until later in the day. That's when a homicide officer arrived on the scene.

He described the paramedics who responded as casual and pretty much saying there was no sense of urgency.

Kueng said George Floyd was displaying, quote, "erratic behaviors." And he also talked about his attempts to place Floyd in the squad car, saying, quote, "His legs kind of collapsed without reason."

Kueng's defense attorney asked Kueng if he could tell how much pressure Officer Chauvin was using, and that was in response to the knee on Floyd. And Kueng's response was, "No, sir, I was unable to tell."

Kueng did testify there was an unofficial rule for seniority on scene that day. Chauvin was the most senior officer.

Also blaming actions on Chauvin was Tao Thao. That's the officer who wrapped up his testimony yesterday, saying his role that day was crowd control.

And here's that testy exchange, Ana was referring to. On cross-examination, Leann Bell says, "In the first six minutes of

restraint -- and we're going to put this on the screen for you -- "did you tell Officer Chauvin to get off Mr. Floyd at any point?" Thao responded with, "I did not."

And then Bell follows up and says, "You could have walked over to your partner and tapped him on the shoulder to stop?" And Thao said, "I think I would trust a 19-year veteran to figure it out."

So far, we've heard from two of the officers testifying in their own defense. Testimony continues -- Ana?

CABRERA: Adrienne Broaddus, thank you.

Let's head to Georgia now and the federal hate crimes trial of three white men convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery. Some of the evidence is so disturbing the jury is being offered counseling.

CNN's Nick Valencia is live outside the courthouse.

Nick, you've been in the courtroom. What are jurors hearing today?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: After yesterday's sickening testimony, the judge today began court by saying that the juror, a juror in the gallery in the courtroom asked if there was federal resources for counseling.

Some of those in court were deeply affected by what they heard yesterday. Some people may have never heard this type of blatant racism before.

We want to share with you some of these messages.

Before I do, I want to warn you that they are extremely offensive and they are racist.

But we also believe here that they are important for you to see and hear for yourself.

Travis McMichael, in responding to a Facebook post, which shows a group of black teenagers attacking a white teenager, he writes on Facebook, "I say shoot them all. Full Saiga" -- a type of semi- automatic gun -- "would have done wonders. F those G.D. monkeys."

Much of the focus was on Travis McMichael's private messages and social media profile.

But we also heard similar racist language used by his co-defendant, William "Roddy" Bryan.

I'll read one of his messages shared on WhatsApp, on a day that fell on Martin Luther King Day, January 20th, 2020. He said to a friend, "Happy Bootlip Day. I worked like a N-word today."

Now earlier, we heard the tenth witness brought forward by federal prosecutors that included a Glynn County police officer who had responded to, multiple times, that same property that Ahmaud Arbery was caught on surveillance the day he died.

[13:40:06]

We also heard from GBI forensic analyst as well as a medical examiner who did the autopsy on Ahmaud Arbery.

Afterwards, during that afternoon recess, we heard from Ahmaud Arbery's family.

His father telling us that he couldn't bear to be in court to see the photos of his son there laying dead on the ground.

This is clearly had an emotional impact on everyone in court but especially the family.

Later today, Ana, we're expecting to hear the focus on firearms. We don't know exactly if it's the murder weapon but we understand, according to the family, the shotgun will be brought into court.

We also may hear more of those racist messages from those three men who have already been convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery -- Ana?

CABRERA: Gosh, it is so sickening to hear some of that.

Thank you so much, Nick Valencia.

Worse than Omicron. A new study on the variant's distant cousin is raising serious concerns. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:45:45]

CABRERA: We're back with new and concerning findings about the coronavirus today.

Researchers say a cousin of sorts to the Omicron variant could spread faster, it could be more severe, and might resist the weapons we have now to fight this virus.

CNN's senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, joins us.

Elizabeth, tell us about the findings.

DR. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Ana, I just have to say, even just hearing you say those words, in my heart, I'm praying, please, let this -

CABRERA: No.

COHEN: -- no, let this not be true.

But we have to tell you what we're hearing and what's being reported in studies.

Let's go over this, as you said, cousin to the Omicron variant. It's, for now, being called B.A.-2. It doesn't get a Greek letter yet.

Here are the basics. It's believed to be more communicable and possibly -- important to say possibly -- possibly more severe than Omicron.

It's already been spotted in 74 countries and 47 states. And I think this is a very important part that it's already become dominant in 10 out of those 74 countries.

It's also believed that the vaccine, in the same way that it didn't work as well against the original Omicron, it also doesn't seem to work so, so well against this new variant or version of the variant.

And it certainly helps if you've been boosted recently -- Ana?

CABRERA: We'll keep an eye on that one.

I also want to ask you about something that's happening in California today. We expect the governor to announce his state is transitioning its COVID response to an endemic phase.

What does that look like?

COHEN: What that looks like is, how do we live with COVID-19?

Instead of trying to think, how do we sort of fight it and get it out of our communities, how do we in some ways -- accept maybe too strong a word -- but how do we live with COVID-19 and protect ourselves as much as possible.

Other states are -- they may not be labeling us as such but they're also moving in that direction.

Let's take a look. There are nine states and the District of Columbia that have said they are already lifting or easing mask mandates or that they will be doing so in the coming states.

These nine states, plus D.C., are either lifting or easing up on mask mandates, either already they have or they will be doing so soon.

Now let's look at this from the CDC point of view. The CDC isn't telling anyone to do that.

The CDC is saying, if you have high transmission in your community, you should be having indoor mask mandates. And look at this red. All those places in red are having high levels of community transmission.

So, therefore, the CDC is telling states to do something and nine states and D.C. are saying, no, we don't want to.

Here's why they are doing that. One is pandemic fatigue. And also take a look. Cases are coming way down. And in addition, you can see them taking that nosedive. In addition, hospitalizations are also coming way down.

So the thinking is that the CDC -- well, we know the CDC will be announcing something likely in the coming days. They may be saying, you know, it's OK to ease off of some of these mandates -- Ana?

CABRERA: I think we're all putting out all the vibes, all the energy possible

COHEN: Exactly.

CABRERA: -- to try and keep the trend going in the right direction here.

COHEN: Right.

CABRERA: Elizabeth Cohen, thank you very much.

COHEN: Thank you.

[13:49:58]

CABRERA: Will former President Trump have to testify under oath about his business practices? Today we find out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Any minute now, we expect a New York Supreme Court judge to rule on whether former President Donald Trump and his two oldest children must testify for an investigation into the Trump Organization.

Let's bring in CNN senior legal affairs correspondent, Paula Reid.

Paula, how did the arguments unfold and when can we expect a ruling?

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Ana, this was a virtual hearing that I attended. It went on for about two hours.

And it was pretty contentious as attorneys for the former president, his son, Donald Trump Jr, and daughter, Ivanka, attacked the New York attorney general's investigation as being politically motivated.

But I'll note, the judge did not seem particularly swayed by these arguments about political bias.

Now, the New York attorney general wants to sit these three down, do civil depositions.

To gather information for a civil investigation into whether the Trump Organization misled about the value of its assets to obtain more favorable terms for insurance, for loans, and of course, to pay lower taxes.

Now, the Trump Organization also faces a similar investigation by the Manhattan district attorney's office, and that is a criminal investigation.

And while the New York attorney general's office argues that it's not uncommon to face a civil and a criminal investigation. Lawyers for the former president argue that this attempt to get him to sit down to answer questions for a civil deposition is an attempt to work around laws in New York that grant immunity to people who sit down in front of criminal grand juries.

[13:55:00]

They're worried that anything he says in a civil deposition could potentially be used against him in a criminal case.

But the judge pointed out the fact that, if the former president or his children had concerns about any questions, they could always invoke their Fifth Amendment right.

In fact, Eric Trump did that hundreds of times.

Lawyers for the former president and his family, they argue that this case is unique because he's a former president. If he invokes the Fifth Amendment, that would make headlines around the world.

Again, though, the judge did not seem terribly sympathetic to these arguments.

But Ana, we'll find out exactly what he thinks, because he said he will make a decision by 3:00 p.m. this afternoon.

CABRERA: OK, that's just an hour away.

Thank you so much, Paula Reid.

That does it for us today. Let's meet again tomorrow, same time, same place. Until then, you can always join me on Twitter, @AnaCabrera.

For now, I leave you in the capable hands of Victor and Alisyn, right after this quick break.

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