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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Baltimore Police: Curfew is Working; Searching for Survivors in Nepal; Nigerian Army Rescues Boko Haram Captives. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired April 29, 2015 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:14] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now -- calm in the streets of Baltimore. A curfew in effect for one more hour, following a mostly peaceful night of protests. Police using smoke canisters and pepper bullets to keep crowds in line. A striking difference from Monday's violence.

Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm John Berman, live in Baltimore. It's Wednesday, April 29th. It is 4:00 a.m. in East.

And breaking overnight: curfew is still in place here in Baltimore, as Christine said, for about another hour from now. Curfew that's being imposed by police and National Guard troops, including those standing right behind me at Baltimore City hall.

This curfew began around 10:00 p.m. last night. And it did begin with a tense standoff between police and protesters -- or more than protesters, people who intended to do a little bit of violence. They were throwing things at police. You can see right there.

The confrontation was brief and it ended after police fired smoke bombs and pepper bullets from the special guns they had. This did cause the demonstrations to clear out, the police had control of that scene, an eerie quiet settled over this city and lasted all night until right now. It is calm here on the streets of Baltimore.

And I want to bring in Athena Jones for the latest overnight.

And, Athena, we saw a handful of arrests. We saw that brief moment of confrontation there, but nothing like you were in here Monday night.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We did not see burning vehicles, we did not see burning buildings. And we did not see pandemonium that we saw Monday afternoon leading into Monday night. The police commissioner feels that the curfew was a success.

Let's play what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY BATTS, BALTIMORE POLICE COMMISSIONER: After the curfew went up, we had about 10 total arrests. Given reports from the organization that we did not have activity or movement out there the city as a whole. So, the curfew is in fact working as the mayor had called.

One of the interesting things that I just did have happen as we were answering questions, as I exited the building to go to a meeting, we have pretty close 12 to 15 young adults waiting in line to become police officers at the Baltimore Police Department. In light of the activities and issues, I asked them, are you still willing, and able and wanting? They were very much enthusiastic about becoming members of the Baltimore Police Department, which says a lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: That's interesting what the commissioner had to say about young people wanting to join the Baltimore police. But bottom line here, John, there were only a handful of arrests, about most of those were for curfew violations, about seven, a couple for looting, one for disorderly conduct, and one for brandishing a weapon. Of course, police have a wide range of discretion when it comes to enforcing the curfew. But they feel like it was a success.

BERMAN: If you watch that video, as you watch that video, and it does look intense, the difference between what you see there and what you saw the other night was here, the police are in control of the situation. They're acting deliberately and calmly with purpose. Clearly, they thought through very carefully what they were going to do last night. That was last night.

Let's talk about today, because there is something much different today than what we saw yesterday. Kids are going back to school?

JONES: That's right. Baltimore City public schools will reopen. They said if anything would happen, they would re-evaluate and then send out a notice by 5:30 this morning. But since we know it's been calm by the rest of the night, after that standoff, we expect the Baltimore City public schools to reopen.

The CEO sent is a letter to the schools, to the parents, the community, by saying that the violent scene is not going to, quote, "overwhelm us". He talked about being angered by the bad conduct a few students. He didn't want that to color the rest of them.

So, they're going to be open today. There are going to be afterschool activities and clubs, as usual. He said that principal and teachers are going to be planning activities to help the students learn from the events from the past couple days, especially Monday, and there are also going to be counselors and psychologists on hand to deal with students' emotional needs. So, it's going to be a big day seeing the students go back to school, since as you know on Monday, a lot of the unrest began with high school age students.

BERMAN: They're going to have to address this someway. I know you we've been talking to kids. We heard from kids last night. This is all they're thinking about. So, this will be a big part of their education in the days and weeks ahead.

Athena Jones, great reporting here from Baltimore. Thanks so much.

JONES: Thanks.

BALTIMORE: So, among the officers patrolling the streets of Baltimore overnight, there are about 2,000 Maryland's National Guard and state troopers, they were called up under the state of emergency. Now, the delay in declaring that state of emergency, after the rioting broke out on Monday has put the governor and mayor on the defensive. The Republican Governor Larry Hogan seemed willing to shift some of that blame to the Democratic mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake.

[04:05:05] But the mayor said she faced a tough balancing act.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

GOV. LARRY HOGAN (R), MARYLAND: We were working all week and we had already prepared the National Guard, we had already called out all the assets, we had already activated the emergency command center. And when the mayor requested, we brought them in.

We did quite a bit, but we waited until the mayor asked for us to come in. We didn't think it was appropriate to come in and take over the city without the request.

MAYOR STEPHANIE RAWLINGS-BLAKE (D), BALTIMORE, MARYLAND: I want to say, just to be very clear, a lot of this started with high school kids. And we tried to have a response that was appropriate and not excessive. And that's what our parents are asking us for.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

BERMAN: President Obama is calling those who rioted here in Baltimore criminals and thugs. That's the same language we heard earlier from the mayor there. The president coming out a little bit different than the previous day when Loretta Lynch, the brand-new attorney general, was really front and center in this discussion.

Now, the president very much front and center. He delivered very emotional statements during a news conference at the White House.

CNN's Michelle Kosinski has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John and Christine.

And keep in mind, when these rioting broke out and started escalating on Monday, what we heard from the White House was a very low-key response. Not similar to what we've seen in prior police incidents after Ferguson. But 24 hours later, I mean, the president knew he was going to get a question from somebody on the subject at this press conference, and he was ready. Just let loose on how he feels about things for 14 minutes, using pretty blunt language and saying there is no excuse for violence. BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Senseless violence and

destruction. That is not a protest. That is not a statement. It's people -- a handful of people taking advantage of a situation for their own purposes, and they need to be treated as criminals -- criminals and thugs who tore up the place.

This has been a slow-rolling crisis. This has been going on for a long time. This is not new. And we shouldn't pretend that it's new.

If our society really wanted to solve the problem, we could, it's just it would require everybody saying this is important, this is significant. And that we don't just pay attention to these communities when a CVS burns. We're paying attention all the time because we consider those kids our kids and we think they're important, and they shouldn't be living in poverty and violence. That's how I feel.

KOSINSKI: And the president in some ways didn't really hold back. I mean, saying that in large part, what he was seeing there in Baltimore was not a protest. And not everybody was happy that he used the word "thug" either.

But when you look at the entirety of what he said, you can see clearly, he's really trying to be so diplomatic about this, cover all the basis, first wanting to clearly in strong terms call out those who are committing acts of violence, applaud the people within the community trying to stop that violence. He even said that often, they get far, far less attention than the violent people do.

He also wanted to support police officers who are doing their job properly, but also called out those who aren't. And he put this extremely diplomatically, saying that there had been too many instances of police interacting with people, primarily African- Americans, often poor, in ways that raise troubling questions. He said it seems like these things are happening now every week or every couple of weeks -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Our thanks to Michelle Kosinski at the White House right now. You see the response there at the highest level.

It's also the response on the street that makes the most difference. She might be America's most talked about and admired mother right now. Her name is Toya Graham. You have no doubt seen this video of her slapping her son on national television after catching him participating in or trying to in some of the riots and the unrest the other day.

Toya says she was not meant to humiliate the young man, and she says what she was trying do -- protect him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOYA GRAHAM, BALTIMORE MOM: I could see the objects being thrown at the police. I was like in awe, like, oh, my God. You know, this is really happening right here with me. And lo and behold, I turn around and I look in this crowd and my son has actually come on across the street with his hoodie on and a mask.

At that point, I just lost it. He gave me eye contact. At that point, not even thinking about cameras or anything like that -- that's my only son. And at the end of the day, I don't want him to be a Freddie Gray.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, when Police Commissioner Anthony Batts saw the video of Toya slapping her son, he said, quote, "I wish I had more parents who took charge of their kids tonight."

[04:10:02] So, after the Baltimore Orioles were forced to postpone their games on Monday and Tuesday night because of all the violence here, Major League Baseball making a really amazing, unprecedented decision. The Orioles/White Sox game this afternoon, in fact, two of them, a doubleheader, they will be closed to the public at Camden Yard. No fans, an empty stadium.

There will be a public address that will announce the batters at the plate. But there will be no one to hear it.

The Royals also moved their weekend series against Tampa Bay from Baltimore. They'll be playing those games down in Florida. But they're still going to call the Orioles the home team. The Orioles get the money from the ticket sales for those games.

But this is an unprecedented step, baseball has never done before. It will be absolutely surreal to see those games this afternoon.

Former Baltimore Ravens star Ray Lewis who is sports legend in the city. He's expressing his anger with the rioting. Lewis made a passionate plea on Facebook to stop all the violence.

(BEGIN VIDE OCLIP)

RAY LEWIS, FORMER BALTIMORE RAVENS STAR: You don't have -- you don't have no right to do what you're doing to this city. Too many hard working people built this city. We put the city together -- we put the city on our back. Too many people put in real sweat, real tears to make our city a better place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Lewis has decided not to go to Chicago. He was set to work on the NFL draft for ESPN. Instead, he's going to stay in Baltimore to help the city which he really loves.

And, you know, Christine, we're seeing a lot of that here. We're seeing people talking about their city and trying to show a different side of the city, a peaceful side of the city to move forward the next few days.

ROMANS: You know, I think it's interesting, John. Even when you look at sort of the social media push, how it's changing. Instead of #Baltimoreriots, it's #OneBaltimore, showing you how the conversation is more inclusive now, isn't it?

BERMAN: That's a very deliberate move. I was at this meeting last night at the Empowerment Temple here, and they were several hundred members of the clergy, and the people asked the clergy there to start using the #OneBaltimore hashtag because they want to change the image of what's going on here. So, that's deliberate.

We'll see how that goes. I mean, that only works when the picture on the street changes. And it changed some last night. We saw violent confrontation but it was brief, and then the police. Hopefully, that will continue throughout the next few days -- Christine.

ROMANS: John, let's talk just quickly again about the Orioles -- I mean, I cannot believe they're going to play the White Sox in an empty stadium, in an empty stadium. Is that too -- have they gone too far on that?

BERMAN: Look, it's sad. And it's surreal. But what they say is they don't want have to deploy police to Camden Yards to make sure that it's safe around there. And it's not in a vacuum here. Camden Yards was the site of some confrontations Saturday night when really the tension flared up here.

So, they want to be very, very careful when they say having the ability to deploy the police and National Guard other places other than Camden Yard. But I've got to say, you know, it's tragic, it has to happen. Major League Baseball said they need to get the games in and this was the best way around it. We'll see how it feels. It won't feel right, I'll tell you that.

ROMANS: It won't feel right. Sad and surreal, John. I think those are the best words, yes. Thank you. We'll talk to you again very quickly.

You know, businesses in Baltimore are closed with heavy damage. The day after a CVS was looted and set on fire, community members gathered to clean up the mess. Five CVS stores in the area were damaged and they say closed Tuesday. Baltimore's mayor said the community fought hard to get a CVS at the location. They fought hard to bring CVS there at that location that burned.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAWLINGS-BLAKE: Everybody knows we have a city with great needs. And there are many that are struggling. What happened last night made sure that more people are struggling, and that more people have needs. And those needs are going to go unmet because of what was destroyed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Violence erupting overnight in Ferguson, Missouri. At least two people were shot during demonstrations stemming from the Baltimore chaos. It's believed both Ferguson victims were shot by someone in the crowd, not just shot by police who are the target of rock throwing.

Trash cans and a portable toilet were also set on fire. The Ferguson community remains in turmoil following last summer's shooting death of Michael Brown.

We are following the very latest on the Baltimore protests all morning long. But first, the death toll rising in the Nepal earthquake. Rescuers facing new challenges this morning. We're live with the very latest, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:17:53] ROMANS: Hope this morning for finding more survivors in earthquake-ravaged Nepal, that hope fading fast this morning. Search and rescue teams struggling to reach devastated villages. Now, the official death toll topping 5,000.

How many people affected by this disaster? Some 8 million, 1 million children in desperate need of immediate help.

Let's bring in CNN's Oren Liebermann. He is live from Kathmandu.

Good morning, Oren.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine, or rather afternoon here, just past 2:00 here in Kathmandu.

This tent city behind me gives you an idea where Kathmandu currently stands. The green tents are military tents. The other tents are private or donated tents.

Many people in situations just like this, looking for a place to go, looking for some sort of home. They either don't have a home because their home was destroyed in the quake, or they simply don't have nowhere to go because they trust the foundation of their own homes.

Search and rescue teams are now working inside Kathmandu, trying to clear the rubble and see if there are miracle survivors, at this point pushing 80 hours after the earthquake, and trying to get to more remote villages in Nepal. That could be where the tragedy truly is as this death toll keeps rising.

It's very difficult to get to those villages, not only because of the terrain and the infrastructure, but also because of the weather. It's rained the last few days. It's expected to rain again. That could lead to landslides and that makes searching very difficult. It makes movement very difficult, especially here in places like the city, if it rains, it could become a virtual swamp.

It's difficult to get aid in, it has been coming in from all over the world. Countries sending supplies, experts, medical personnel, search and rescue teams.

But the airport has been bottlenecked for days now. It's a very small international airport for only a few spots for major and commercial flights to bring in aid. There has been that bottleneck as it comes in and logistically trying to figure out where search and rescue teams are headed, where is the best place, the most likely place, or most important to keep searching for people. That is one of the many challenges on the ground here in and around Kathmandu.

[04:20:00] But we're seeing some signs of life, some seeing signs of returning to normalcy, 24, 48 hours ago. The streets here in Kathmandu were completely empty, all the shops were closed. Now, we're seeing people back on the streets. The shops are opening up. People are out there, especially on the streets, trying to find some sort of normalcy in the middle of this chaos, in the middle of this destruction. There is progress, but it slow-going here in Kathmandu -- Christine.

ROMANS: Slow-going indeed.

All right. Oren Liebermann, thank you for that.

Twenty minutes past the hour.

Hundreds, hundreds of kidnapped girls rescued from Boko Haram. We're live with details of that rescue after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: To Nigeria now where army officials claim they've rescued hundreds of kidnapped women and girls. They were reportedly recovered from the remote forest where the terror group Boko Haram has set up operations. Now, the hundreds of school girls kidnapped over a year ago were not among those rescued. And now, there are reports about mass killings by extremists in the northern part of the country.

I want to bring in CNN's Diana Magnay. She's in Johannesburg for us this morning. She's tracking the very latest developments.

Some several hundred girls rescued, the army claims. What are the circumstances?

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Christine.

They were raiding the Sambisa forest which is the last stronghold really of Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria. The military says that they actually stumbled upon these women and girls, 200 girls and 93 women, they say they rescued as they raided three terror camps belonging to Boko Haram in that region.

[04:25:09] As you say, they when the Chibok girls that we have heard so much about, who were kidnapped just a year ago now. But Boko Haram kidnaps girls, women, boys as part of its daily strategy to gain money, to recruit new child fighters. So, these are just presumably some of those. But they're currently being screened and profiled, just trying to find out who they are, when they were abducted, where they came from, and presumably also to try and gain intelligence from them as to where Boko Haram are operating in this very large area that is the Sambisa forest.

And you mentioned this massacre, well, that was in the town called Damasak, which was freed from Boko Haram in a joint military operation between the Nigerian military and the Chadian military last Saturday. And there they found what they said were hundreds of decomposed bodies in shallow graves killed last November or thereabout when Boko Haram seized the town of Damasak. So, really testament to how hideous this very violent insurgency is, and how violent Boko Haram are, Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Diana Magnay for us in Johannesburg -- thank you, Diana.

The curfew is working. That's according to Baltimore police. Streets are calm this morning but can the city prevent another uprising as troubling questions over Freddie Gray's death remain? We're live after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:30:04] ROMANS: Happening now: quiet in the streets of Baltimore, following a night of mostly peaceful protests.