Return to Transcripts main page
Live From...
Protestors Call for Arrest of Jeremy Morse
Aired July 12, 2002 - 14:02 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we take you first to Inglewood, California, a suburb of Los Angeles in the spotlight after this videotaped arrest of a teenager.
Just about an hour ago, protesters converged on the police department, demanding justice. CNN's Thelma Gutierrez begins our coverage from there -- Thelma.
Can you hear me OK, Thelma? Go ahead. Go ahead, Thelma.
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the rally began about a half hour ago, and there are several dozen people here. They've been holding signs and they've been calling for the immediate dismissal of the four Inglewood police officers who were involved in the incident.
You can see the crowd behind me. They have been very calm, at times calling for justice in front of the Inglewood police headquarters. Now the actor Dick Gregory has spoken out, and we are still waiting for the Reverend Al Sharpton from New York to lead this protest.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEO TERRELL, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: This police chief should resign today! I am sick and tired of every police department claiming racial profiling doesn't exist! Everyone knows that black motorists and black pedestrians are treated differently by the police every time they're stopped by the police department. It is ridiculous!
Now let me tell you, District Attorney Steve Cooley, what should happen. I want you today to arrest Jeremy Morse today!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTIERREZ: Now Leo Terrell, a civil rights attorney, talked to protesters earlier today. He said there is no excuse for what happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TERRELL: This police chief should resign today! I am sick and tired of every police department claiming racial profiling doesn't exist! Everyone knows that black motorists and black pedestrians are treated differently by the police every time they're stopped by the police department. It is ridiculous!
Now let me tell you, District Attorney Steve Cooley, what should happen. I want you today to arrest Jeremy Morse today!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTIERREZ: Now we appear to have some audio problems, Kyra, so I can't hear Atlanta and I can't hear if you're talking to me, but I will say that Inglewood Police Chief Ronald Banks spoke out yesterday.
He said that the principles of due process for anyone investigated, including Officer Jeremy Morse, should be safeguarded, that it is much too early to determine whether or not Officer Morse should be fired.
Kyra, back to you.
PHILLIPS: All right, Thelma, thanks so much. We apologize for those technical difficulties, and it's hard for Thelma to hear, of course, with all the protesters, but nevertheless we got the report across.
OK, part two of the caught-on-tape saga stars Mitchell Crooks, amateur photographer, L.A. tourist and alleged fugitive from justice. Now yesterday Crooks was dragged off to jail, screaming all the way, after L.A. officials learned that he never bothered to serve his sentence for three convictions he racked up elsewhere in California three years ago.
CNN's Charles Feldman brings us up-to-speed on all of that -- Charles.
CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra. Yes, Mitchell Crooks, guy who takes the videotape, the videotape leads to all these investigations.
What happens to him? He ends up in the slammer, arrested yesterday right in front of CNN's building here in Hollywood. His arrest captured by that surveillance camera that we've got outside the building. You can see it there on screen. Arrested on those outstanding warrants you were just talking about for his past up in Placer County in northern California, a past that includes convictions on everything from drunk driving to petty theft.
The D.A.'s office saying the arrest had nothing to do with the fact that he originally refused to go before a grand jury to talk about the videotape he made of that police beating in Inglewood. After he was arrested, a CNN cameraman recorded the sounds that Mitchell Crooks was making inside that car as he was being driven away quite unwillingly.
Well, I guess we don't have that. So let me just assure you that as he was driving away you could hear on that tape -- and we've played it a number of times today -- the sounds of him saying, "help, help," and he wanted to get out, and by the time he got to jail, his attorneys and he were claiming that he had sustained injuries as a result of the arrest.
He ended up in the hospital overnight. He subsequently was released. He's back in jail and sometime over the next few days we'll probably go back to Placer County. That's, again, in northern California, to be arraigned on the outstanding arrest warrants, and I've been saying all morning that I've talked with the undersheriff up there, a guy named Steven D'Arcy, and he assured me and everyone else that when Mr. Crooks gets up there he will be treated humanely. He will be treated fairly, and that he's got nothing to fear from law enforcement officials up in northern California -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Now Charles, give us a little history here. How did police know that Mitchell Crooks was out there by CNN? Had they been following him all day?
FELDMAN: Well, you know, that's actually not clear even today. There were some indications that maybe they were. They told us yesterday that they were getting tips throughout the past couple of days about his whereabouts and that when they found out he was going to be at our building, they were originally going to serve him a subpoena to appear before a grand jury, but instead when they found out in L.A. about the arrest warrants, they arrested him.
And let me just add, Kyra, that he did, we are told, in the end go before that grand jury and authenticated the videotape that he made, which was all they said they ever wanted him for here in L.A.
PHILLIPS: All right. Charles Feldman. Live from Los Angeles, thank you.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
