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CNN NEWSROOM

Michael Brown Funeral Today; Support Grows for Officer Wilson; Flight Diverted; Report of Active shooter at Fort Lee in Virginia; Will Michael Brown's Funeral Be Turning Point?

Aired August 25, 2014 - 09:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

In just about an hour, the funeral of Michael Brown is expected to begin. You're now looking live inside the friendly Temple Baptist Church in St. Louis where at 10:30 Eastern Time mourners will begin entering. The service is scheduled to start just before 11:00 Eastern Time. Brown's father, Michael Sr., asked protesters for a day of silence so that they can lay their son to rest in peace. Of course, as you know, Michael Brown was shot and killed August 9th by Ferguson Police Officer Darin Wilson, sparking days of violent protests. Thousands of people, more than 4,000 people, are expected to turn out for this service, including representatives from the White House. Don Lemon is live outside the Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis to kick off our coverage.

Good morning, Don.

DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

We're expecting to see a lot of people start to fill these seats. I mean -- and chief among them with be members of the Brown family, their loved ones. But there are also thousands of guests who are from all over the country, including three representatives from the White House. And then nearly 500 members really of the Brown family.

Also, we're expected to be joined by -- we're told these are people who are scheduled to speak here is Tom Joyner, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. III, Reverend Carlton Lee (ph), and on and on and on. P. Diddy is supposed to be here. Bishop T.D. Jakes, Spike Lee, and, of course, the governor of Missouri, Jay Nixon.

And so when that shot of the coffin showed up here on CNN, members of the clergy and some people I'm speaking to outside, we just sort of gasped looking at it. And activist Kevin Powell is with me and also Reverend Starsky Wilson from the St. John's United Church of Christ back with me now.

There was a gasp when we saw that. It's real.

REV. STARSKY WILSON, PASTOR, ST. JOHN'S UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST: Yes, it is real. It speaks to the fact that we are now what's called the trauma informed community. So not only the trauma of seeing that coffin, but the fact that so many saw the vision of Michael Brown laying in the midst of the streets. Those including children in our community. People saw it on social media. This is not something that the average person has experienced. And in this case, we've seen it, that trauma, we're reminded of it every time we see these kinds of images and that coffin stirred that for us, as well.

LEMON: Kevin.

KEVIN POWELL, ACTIVIST, WRITER, PUBLIC SPEAKER: You know, a year ago, Don, we were dealing with the Trayvon Martin situation. And I thought that had touched a nerve in this country. But this is on a deeper level. And it's because of what the reverend just said, we actually saw the visual of the young man laying in his blood for four hours. This has also touched people internationally. I can't tell you how many people have reached out to me from around the world saying, you know, what has happened with this situation? So, you know, I'm glad that so many people are coming out today to show their love and support, but I also think, again, we've got to talk about, how do we heal and bring people together and how can we turn this tragedy into a positive, just how Emmett Till was turned into the civil rights movement. It's very clear to me that we need a movement today to talk about love and peace and non-violence and moving away from fear and hate and ignorance that's been perpetuating so many communities in our country.

LEMON: And I think it's important that -- what you're saying now, that this turns into something other than just a media spectacle, right?

WILSON: Yes, sir.

LEMON: I was speaking to Sybrina Fulton yesterday, Trayvon Martin's mother, and she said, if I had it my way, I would tell all the dignitaries, all the people who didn't know him would be cordoned off somewhere out of the camera's views.

WILSON: That's right.

LEMON: This should be for family members and people who knew him because those people didn't know him.

WILSON: No.

LEMON: They come here for a day and for a week and then they get the camera spotlight or what have you. They take part in the moment. And then when the cameras go away, they're gone as well.

WILSON: Yes. And part of the tension we must keep, for those who desire to be on this -- be in this work (ph) for the long term, is that some of the people who come for the photo op today need to be penned for policy tomorrow. And we don't want to move too quickly there, but we have to recognize that in these relationships where dignitaries get to come in and they get to speak and get to say that they were here on both sides, right, so the Republicans who will be here and there are Democrats who will be here, we have to remember that they still have responsibility for some of the policies, the community policing and the like, that can help to heel this situation if they would be present in more moments than this.

LEMON: Let's talk about this, Kevin, having lived here. It's been a while since I've lived here but I'm not unfamiliar with the racial divide in St. Louis.

POWELL: That's right.

LEMON: And if you go downtown now, it's virtually empty for - you know, until Monday comes and everybody comes to work, right?

POWELL: That's right.

LEMON: What happened to the city and what's going -- it's still suffering from white flight and it's still suffering the vestiges of racism or Jim Crowe from the 1960s, isn't it?

POWELL: It is. And, you know, part of the illusion is that we've made this great progress in our country. We've made significant progress. You know, I'm sure all of us can talk about the fact that we are probably the first in our generation, our families, to do thing. It's because of the civil rights movement.

But the sad reality is, almost as soon as the civil rights movement ended, there's been a constant pushback, you know, by certain segments of our society saying, you know, we're going to have voter I.D. laws. You know what, we want to -- we're going to have white flight. We're going to take our economic power out of this city. And that was -- the response to Michael Brown wasn't just, you know, him dying, but it's decades of neglect of that community, it's decades of an abuse of power by the people in leadership there. And so that's what's happened. And we just simply have pulled the cover off and said, hey, wait a minute, it's 2014, why is it that you live in a city where you have 70 percent black population, barely anyone is voting there, there's barely any representation on the police force or at city council or the mayor for that matter.

LEMON: Kevin, Reverend, thank you. We're going to have to continue this conversation. We appreciate it.

Carol, we're going to be live here covering the funeral service throughout the day here on CNN. I M going to toss it back to you in New York.

COSTELLO: All right, Don Lemon, thanks so much.

As thousands gather to bid farewell to Michael Brown, support is also growing for the police officer who killed him. At this rally yesterday, supporters say they've raised $400,000. Wilson, who is under a grand jury investigation, has not been seen publicly since the shooting. CNN's Stephanie Elam is in Ferguson with a closer look.

Good morning, Stephanie.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. It was here on this street where Mike Brown lost his life in that

altercation with the police officer. While we still don't know the exact details of what happened, we do know that we haven't seen Officer Wilson since all of this happened. And what has happened in the last few days, while there has been a lot of attention put on Ferguson, there have also been people out there who have been rallying behind Officer Wilson in his stead since we haven't seen him, coming out with rallies and marches and also raising money by selling t- shirts, by online donations and they're saying their FaceBook page also getting thousands of likes, as well. And so through different channels, they have raised this $400,000. A number that keeps going up. To put that in perspective, about $500,000 was raised for George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin case.

So a lot of focus here being put here on what happened here with Mike Brown. But at the same time, there are a lot of supporters for this police officer and they say that they're doing their part to help him battle legal fees, to help with perhaps if he has to move and his livelihood because many of them think he's not going to be able to return to his job as a police officer.

Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Stephanie Elam reporting live for us this morning. Thanks so much.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A group of hackers is claiming responsibility for a cyber- attack that took down the Sony PlayStation online gaming network. In a strange twist, the group also tweeted that an American Airlines flight carrying Sony Executive John Smedley had explosives on board. Rene Marsh is following this very strange and kind of scary story, frankly, because, you know, those threats have consequences for the people on board that plane.

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they definitely had consequences, Carol. We're talking about American Airlines Flight 362 was flying from Dallas. It was supposed to land in San Diego. Instead, it was diverted to Phoenix. Add on to that two F-16 fighter jets were scrambled to monitor the plane as it made that landing, when it was diverted to Phoenix. And it all appears to be because of a group of hacker who call themselves Lizard Squad.

Now, as you mentioned, the president of Sony Online Entertainment was on board this plane and it seems that the hackers knew it because they tweeted @johnsmedley. And this is what the tweet read. It says, "we have been receiving reports that @jsmedley's plane, number 362 from DFW to San Diego has explosives on board. Please look into this. And they paired that tweet with images from September 11th. That was enough to get that plane diverted, again, to Phoenix.

The plane landed safely. There were no explosives on board. But now the FBI is involved. They are investigating. And we were told, Carol, this is the same group of hackers that, as you mentioned, took down several popular online video game networks. On Twitter they claimed responsibility for attacking the PlayStation network, as well as many others. That, of course, disrupted the ability of millions of gamers to play online. So they have been hard at work, but as we mentioned, FBI now stepping in.

COSTELLO: All right. Rene Marsh, thanks so much, reporting live from Washington.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

COSTELLO: If I seem a little distracted, we have breaking news happening right now. This is from Fort Lee's FaceBook page, because I want to be totally transparent about this. On Fort Lee's FaceBook page, it says there is an active shooter incident at Fort Lee at the Cascom (ph) headquarters building 5020. It also advises that all personnel should enact active shooter protocols immediately. As you can see, it's also on Fort Lee's Twitter feed. Fort Lee, by the way, is in central Virginia near Petersburg, and it's a huge military installation. It is also home to hundreds of military families. Hundreds of civilians also work at Fort Lee, as well as, of course, military personnel.

We don't know what sparked the shooting, of course, or if there's one shooter or two. But, of course, we're on this story. And when we have more information, of course we'll pass it along to you.

We're going to take a break. We'll be back with much more in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

COSTELLO: All right, once again, there's been a report of an active shooter incident at Fort Lee in Virginia at Cascom Headquarters Building 5020. The entire base is -- most of the base is on lockdown. We don't have much more information on this right now, frankly. But we do know, of course, Fort Lee is in Central Virginia near Petersburg and it's home to hundreds of military family, and also it's the workplace of hundreds of civilians as well as military personnel.

But this is about all we know. What's being reported on Fort Lee's Twitter account and on its Facebook site. Of course, when we get more information, and we have our Pentagon correspondent busily working the phones.

General Spider Marks is actually on the phone now. General, have you heard anything more about this shooting? Can you tell us anything?

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST (via telephone): I haven't heard anything about the shooting, Carol. But I can give you some sense of what Fort Lee is like and what is there. Based on the composition, it's a logistics base. It's also a training base. So soldiers that are being trained in various logistical functions go to Fort Lee for some of their initial and sustainment training.

It also has units that routinely deploy, but it's not a location that's not heavily armed. It's not like there are tanks and large pieces of equipment. It's essentially an individual training base, and it's been in existence for quite some time.

COSTELLO: Like I said, we don't have much more information. But it's a huge place, is it not?

MARKS: Oh, it really is. Yes, Carol, it is. And it's a very active post. Soldiers are routinely coming and going to get various types of training.

And the real issue is, in an active shooter situation, the key thing is that everybody is to just kind of lock down in place. Don't make yourself a target. Don't kick up dust. Don't try to solve the problem. Let the authorities, let the military police and the response teams take care of the situation.

It's a very, very large place. And also it's in the tide water, Virginia tide water region, which is a very, very large military location with Navy, Air Force, and other army influence. So it's a very large place and certainly one that would have a lot of soldiers, a lot of military personnel as a matter of routine.

COSTELLO: All right, General Spider Marks, I'm going to let you go and see if you can find out more information for us. Of course, our Pentagon correspondent is also on the case. But, again, there's been a report of an active shooter at Fort Lee at the Cascom Headquarters Building 5020. And Fort Lee is advising all personnel to enact active shooter protocols immediately. The installation is being locked down until further notice, it says.

As I said, we're trying to gather more information for you. I'm going to take a break. We'll be back with much more in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Nearly two weeks after they were scheduled to open, public schools in Ferguson are set to hold their first day today. The school year was delayed three times due to the unrest following the shooting death of Michael Brown. Some 11,000 students are expected today and a district spokesperson says there will be 66 counselors, double the normal number, on hand to help kids cope.

And as Michael Brown is laid to rest today, could his funeral mark a turning point for Ferguson? Tensions seem to be easing. Will this be the moment that forces a divided community to look hard at its problems and move toward finding solutions?

Joining me now to talk about this, CNN commentator L.Z. Granderson. He's also with ESPN. He's in Ferguson. Here in New York, CNN political commentators Marc Lamont Hill of "The Huffington Post" and Charles Blow of "The New York Times."

Welcome to all of you. Thank you. So L.Z, first question to you. First of all, just describe the mood where you are, because you're right outside of the church.

L.Z. GRANDERSON, CNN COMMENTATOR: Yes, I've been here about an hour, Carol, but even starting with the drive down and just talking to people in and around Ferguson, there's a real sense of wanting peace and wanting to know what's next. This is a community right now that wants to start the healing process and needs to find ways to define what that healing process looks like.

Once all the cameras are gone, once we lay Michael Brown to rest, what happens next? What are those solutions? Because this isn't a problem just about this one particular incident. This is about decades and decades that's been building up. And now people have been asking what do we next?

I spent some time talking to a young man who's a recent college graduate. He's originally from Ferguson. He's moved back in with his parents, and he talked again about voting and the need to vote and how his peers don't vote, and how he doesn't see a long-term change happening in Ferguson, and for the St. Louis area, until his peers, young people, young African-Americas, start to apply themselves in the polls and getting politically active.

And so this is an area that definitely wants to pay its respects to Michael Brown, but it's also asking each other, what do we do now?

COSTELLO: There will be a lot of speeches inside that church, right? Lots of speeches. I mean, the VIP guests are amazing, Martin Luther King, Jr., Reverend Bernice King, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, the families of Trayvon Martin and Sean Bell.

But the eulogy will be delivered by the Reverend Charles Ewing, who is Brown's uncle. He said he spent the past week writing the eulogy, and he said he's writing what God is giving to me.

So, Marc, what does he have to say to heal the community?

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it will be interesting to see what he does. I can't predict, but what I can say is that this idea of healing is something we've repeatedly talked about for the last week or so. And I'm always skeptical of that word, because the town wasn't just broken from Michael Brown's death, which was tragic; it was broken from years of systemic problems. And so the town can't heal until there's justice.

We haven't even gotten an arrest yet. We haven't even seen the grand jury yet. We haven't addressed some of the structural issues in a town that's -- that are bigger than Michael Brown, so healing won't fully happen until all those things are addressed.

COSTELLO: And, Charles, I read your column in "The New York Times" today and it was really touching. And just thinking about Michael Brown's parents, I mean, they have a heavy, heavy burden. Not just dealing with his death, but other things too.

CHARLES BLOW, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think that you have to put yourself in their shoes. I mean, it would be difficult for any of us to lose a child and to go through those stages of grief outside the public eye without your child becoming a symbol and an image, without the world looking on. And they will have to go through today with cameras trained on them, every tear that falls, every time that they lose composure, thinking about not just, "This is my boy." You know, not just, "This is the moment where I should have been watching him go to his first day of school at college," but "This is, you know, I had made it. You know, I had passed one of those stages of parenthood where -- he had graduated, and I had graduated out of something. And now I have to change that completely around, reorder nature in a way, because I was supposed to go first. And I have to do that all in front of everyone."

And that is -- you know, I don't think any of us can fully grasp what that would mean for a family. And I keep trying to look into the faces of these parents, every time something like this happens, and think, you know, could I even do what they are doing? It seems to me to summon tremendous amount of strength that most of us I don't think would have.

COSTELLO: You know, and the strange thing that happens -- and I lost my brother at 25, so my parents dealt with that. And when you listen to people talk about your loved one who has died, they paint a picture of someone they don't really know. And to me, that was the most painful part. My brother wasn't perfect either, he wasn't. But I loved him all the same. And I didn't like when people painted this picture of this perfect guy, because that wasn't who he is, but I loved him all the same.

BLOW: I mean, all the subtly gets washed out -- and particularly in a politically charged case, where there are people trying to line up on different sides of an issue and trying to make a case about whether or not something is justified or not, or is there an arrest needed or not?