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No Fans at Orioles Game; Police Report on Friday. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired April 29, 2015 - 14:00   ET

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


[14:00:04] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: And good afternoon. I'm Brooke Baldwin, here live in Baltimore in front of Camden Yards where we're five minutes away here from the first pitch and we're going to talk about everything happening here in Baltimore in just a moment.

But for the second time today, I just wanted to take a moment and discuss something that I said on my show just yesterday. And I just want to apologize. During my show, I gave credence to the idea that veterans returning from war who were police officers were furthering the problems in communities like these here in Baltimore and nationwide. And I just have to take a moment again today to say I was wrong. I was so wrong to speak the way I did involving our men and women in uniform, to perpetuate this false narrative. It's on me. I own it and I apologize. Please, let's move on.

We're in front of Camden Yards, as I mentioned. We're five minutes away from the first pitch. But here's the thing, here's the thing, there's no one inside the stadium behind me. Let me bring in Rachel Nichols here. She's getting miked up.

RACHEL NICHOLS, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Hello.

BALDWIN: I'm beginning to hear some people shouting over our ears. So we're going to try to figure out exactly who that is behind us because we've seen long lines of people -

NICHOLS: Yes.

BALDWIN: The presence of media here is insane.

NICHOLS: Yes, it's greater in the fans. In fact, they have more media covering this game that nobody's actually in watching, than they had at opening day here at Oriole Park.

BALDWIN: That's stunning.

NICHOLS: That's the level of interest because this has never happened before. Major League b Baseball has been going on for nearly a century and a half. Nobody has ever played a game like this before.

BALDWIN: So what went into the decisions? Because I know we talked about this before. This is unprecedented as far as baseball historians have said. I know it's happened in other sports, but not baseball specifically. Who ultimately made the call? NICHOLS: Yes, well, we see this overseas with - in Europe with soccer.

Hooliganism, where they talk about public safety for the fans, they decide that, you know what, we've just got to close the stadium and no crowds involved. But we really don't see it here in the states. And they postponed the two other games in this home stand and they are going to make those up on a double header. They can't make up it in a triple header, though. At some point you've got to start playing these games. The baseball schedule is pretty packed. So they were trying to figure out, do they move it to another park?

BALDWIN: Right.

NICHOLS: Do they play it here, which they ultimately decided would be best to make it as, quote, "normal as possible." And they also didn't want to take something away from the city of Baltimore but they did talk to the city about it and they decided that the extra police presence that would be needed for an enormous crowd here is something they just couldn't tax the city resources.

BALDWIN: That - and that's an excellent point. I think it's worth reiterating, as we bring in Joe Johns as well, it's also the issue of police, right? A lot of police are needed and a lot of extra jurisdictions and officers are being brought in because of what we've seen over the last couple of days.

Joe Johns, I'm hearing a crowd. And when I say a crowd, it's sort of a loose term for maybe two dozen people over our shoulders. You have this bird's eye view inside of Camden Yards. I'm hearing music, but there's no one inside.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, "The Star Spangled Banner." You're hearing "The Star Spangled Banner," which, by the way, is a Baltimore song, just to be clear. And there - right now they're having "The Star Spangled Banner." You can see people out - the players out on the field facing the flag. And then they're going to start the baseball game.

Now, it's probably rude for me to talk over "The Star Spangled Banner," so I don't know whether I should stop or keep going, but this is a very unusual situation. And, Eddie, if you can just pull back, we can show you the people who are standing outside -

BALDWIN: (INAUDIBLE) respect, can we - can we hit pause?

JOHNS: Of this stadium and you can see the people right down by the main gate there. There are some fans. All right, let's listen.

There you go. All right. So, apologize for not stopping earlier, but there you go. This is the most unusual situation. You can see a handful of fans in the Baltimore Orioles colors standing there outside the gate, watching as the first pitch begins.

Now, right here on this terrace that is just below where we're standing, you see another group of people who have a pretty good view of this game that's starting as well. Very sort of historic and unusual situation for Baltimore as it has been all week. [14:05:00] Now, one other thing I wanted to show - Eddie Gross (ph),

if you would just sort of push in right behind the catcher's position there. You see there are a lot of people in what looks like the press box. And - and so media, apparently, allowed to cover this. It's apparently going to go out and be broadcast on television. But the stands are empty, which is something that has never frankly been seen before in the history of Major League Baseball. A kind of crazy and unusual situation in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, right now.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Yes, I was just reading the latest article in "The Baltimore Sun" before I came on. I think the writer said, it was the perfect simple quote, "this is just weird." I've got Rob Weinhold with me. He's a crisis management guy. And we'll go into how all of this works and optics et cetera, but so -

NICHOLS: That was amazing. OK, we have to stop for a minute.

BALDWIN: Let's hit pause.

NICHOLS: There is about 100 people locked outside the gate who were just standing there to hear the national anthem play, which by the way was play on tape. They switched to that when they decided they were going to lock (ph) out the crowd. But people gathered here to hear the national anthem, maybe wanted to sneak a peek at the ballpark and the players playing. And it's a tradition here in Baltimore during the anthem when you say "O' Say Can You See" for the crowd to chant "oh." And we heard a loud "oh" here. So people still trying to have a little bit of normalcy in a very abnormal situation. And as we see in crisis so often, looking to their sports teams as a place to gather -

BALDWIN: Saw it in Boston with the Red Sox two years ago (INAUDIBLE).

NICHOLS: Absolutely. And that was some of the criticism here of the team. Hey, why didn't you open the gates?

BALDWIN: Right.

NICHOLS: This is where the community comes together. And it just became a safety issue that's probably something you would be able to speak to.

BALDWIN: Rob, good call, bad call?

ROB WEINHOLD, CRISIS MANAGEMENT EXPERT: I think it was a good call. If you look what's happened here over the past couple of days, it's been a very, very trying time for the city of Baltimore. You know, just 48 hours ago, this city was in a place that it hasn't seen in many, many years, if ever. Last night a tremendous amount of progress yesterday. Many more resources from the state, but also you had a lot of members of the community, particularly older folks, tugging the younger people on the sleeve and say, hey, this isn't the way to handle problems. And very peaceful yesterday. And the curfew that was enacted last evening, really, I thought, went flawlessly under the circumstances. A lot of praise to the men and women in the Baltimore Police Department and many other jurisdictions.

BALDWIN: Absolutely. And let's hope it continues because we have a city wide curfew, I know, for the rest of the week. But let - inside of your crisis management mind, right, I mean it's your job, when you have people who want to come to Baltimore, set up business in Baltimore, buy property in Baltimore, you know, how do you keep them - how do you continue, you know, that growth because when you see these images on the screen - and let's be real, this is only one blip. This was one evening. And we'll talk about the real issues throughout the rest of the show. But how do you handle that if you're the city?

WEINHOLD: Well, I'll tell you, providing a safe place to live, work, and raise a family is the number one responsibility of leadership. But also you have to look through the lens of commerce and economics. And we say in the crisis management circles, crisis costs you four things, and generally in this order, time, money, customers, and your career. And many times lives, in the worst case of scenarios, and we're dealing with a life-threatening situation, at least over the past 48 hours.

But I have to tell you, this city's calmed down. People have come together. I think you're seeing the true fiber of Baltimore shine through yesterday and today as they're promoting and enacting peace. And what we heard over here, the chant you heard was the "oh" that you referred to, which, you know, Baltimore is known for. A different chant than we've heard and much less important than the things that we're hearing in and around the social issues in this city and many others across the country.

BALDWIN: Uh-huh. Uh-huh. I think what has - you know, and we've covered too many of these stories like these, but to see the men out last night and all day yesterday, the love lines is what they called them, the kids handing out water, it really sort of takes - takes your breath away.

Let me hit pause on this conversation and go back up to Joe Johns, who has this perfect perch of Camden Yards.

Joe.

JOHNS: Yes. Right. Yes. So, well, it looks like the first at-bat just - I see what he - he didn't get to first base. I haven't done sports in a really long time. But, Brooke, I can tell you that talking about getting the city back to normal, this is kind of extraordinary, this stadium without people and a baseball game playing. We did get to see something that was a bit heartwarming for Baltimore.

BALDWIN: What's that?

JOHNS: Just a little while ago we went over to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and they came outside and - right, and they played a concert on the street, probably, you know, a half a mile away from the epicenter of the scene where all the violence occurred earlier this week. Nothing happened. I didn't see hardly any security or police at all. They played "The Star Spangled Banner" twice. As I said, you know, that was written by Francis Scott Key to celebrate the soldiers of Baltimore's Ft. McHenry, for people who don't know. So that song has a real special place in the hearts of people who live here.

[14:10:08] But that was a real attempt to try, by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, to get this city in some small way back to normal with music, a cultural event. And you kind of contrast that with what's going on here. It's a little different situation, but again, I mean you can't underscore the fact that - there we go. The side's been retired. You can't underscore the fact that this is a city where right out here at this stadium, on Saturday, there were big problems. There were something like 34 people arrested. There were six police officers injured. There was a brawl in a bar and some cars were torched. So the officials understand the potential threat, but - you know, and so they're going to be castigated if they hold this thing and let everybody in and castigated if they don't. And it looks like they tried to err on the side of safety, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Yes, they sure did. And I think, you know, as we've seen in instances, music certainly heals, so kudos to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. And sports certainly has that healing aspect as well. Again, it is just crazy to continue hearing the screams from some of these fans over our shoulders.

NICHOLS: Well, I just - I love that there is about 100 people here who have decided they want to watch the ballgame.

BALDWIN: Yes.

NICHOLS: And they don't want to watch it on their TV.

BALDWIN: Peering through the fences.

NICHOLS: And they don't want to listen to it on the radio. So they are looking through the fence.

And one thing that the Orioles told me is that they are going to play this game exactly as they would if there was a crowd.

BALDWIN: Seventh inning stretch. The whole (INAUDIBLE).

NICHOLS: There will be walkup (ph) music.

BALDWIN: Get out.

NICHOLS: There will be seventh inning stretch. You will hear John Denver "Thank God I'm a Country Boy," which is, again, a tradition here with the Orioles. So you are going to hear all of that on TV or on the radio. And these fans here have decided, hey, we still want to be a part of it. So I think seeing them gather here, cheer. We just heard them cheer for an at-bat here.

BALDWIN: We'll have to grab one or two of them.

NICHOLS: It's been pretty cool.

BALDWIN: We'll grab one or two of them and talk to them live here on the show. Rob and Rachel, thank you so much. And also, Joe, thanks to you. Obviously we're not going anywhere over the course of the next two

hours. But just a heads up to all of you, before we take a break, we're watching and waiting to hear from Baltimore Police. There is a news conference that will begin. You see the little box on your screen. We'll take it live as soon as it happens. Stay here. I'm Brooke Baldwin live in Baltimore, live coverage. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:16:46] BALDWIN: And we're back here live in Baltimore. You're watching CNN's special live coverage. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Just a heads up, again, we're watching and waiting for this Baltimore police news conference to happen here, to get an update as far as perhaps any arrest numbers. Hopefully lack thereof, hopefully peace in the streets here just a couple of days after those riots broke out. It's really actually been stunning to see how peaceful and how quiet and how this community has come together today. So we'll watch for that happening. Baltimore Police.

Meantime, the big news that this community is waiting for is this Friday. So in just a couple of days, the Baltimore City Police Department will be handing over their findings, their details, their interviews as it pertains to what they have found in the death of 25- year-old Freddie Gray. That gets handed over to the state's attorney's office.

But what does that really mean and what can this community expect on Friday? Let me bring in my colleague Sunny Hostin, CNN legal analyst, former federal prosecutor, lived in Baltimore, friends with the mayor.

What - just on a very simple level at first, what does that mean, handing that over to the state's attorney's office?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, generally, what it means is that the police investigation is over. Sometimes, Brooke, they even recommend charges based on their review of the evidence. But more often than not, it is the prosecutor that then takes that material, takes that evidence, and it could be interviews with the officers. It could be forensic evidence. It could be a number of things. And then that prosecutor will take it, review any and all evidence, perhaps also take into consideration whatever charges the police department thinks would be appropriate and then take that information and continues the investigation, which is why it's very surprising to many people that we may not be hearing anything on Friday.

BALDWIN: That's the thing because I think - and let's just clear that up for people in this community and beyond.

HOSTIN: Sure.

BALDWIN: I think some people are hoping there will be some finality or a piece of finality, perhaps charges, when you talk to people in this community. And let's just manage those expectations right now. I mean how likely would that be in two - two days from now?

HOSTIN: That is not going to happen.

BALDWIN: Yes.

HOSTIN: We're not going to hear about an indictment. We're not going to hear about potential charges. I suspect, though, we may hear from the Baltimore state attorney's office and perhaps from the Baltimore state attorney herself, a black woman, newly elected. And I think that the smart thing for her to do, and I suspect she will do it, is get in front of this and explain to the viewers, explain to the public that this investigation is now within her office, it's now in her hands and she is going to do everything she can to reach an appropriate charging decision.

BALDWIN: What's so important in cases like these, obviously, is an objective look at the evidence, right?

HOSTIN: That's right.

BALDWIN: So what level of expectation would we have for a state's attorney's office? Obviously, you know, when you think of department, a police department investigating its own, that's not objective, but the idea here to be turned over so that it will be this independent investigation.

HOSTIN: I think that's right. I mean when I was a prosecutor, oftentimes either the FBI would come to me with information and they would also come to me - police officers would come to me with their investigation. But then it was up to me to take the ball and run with it.

[14:20:02] BALDWIN: Yes.

HOSTIN: And sometimes I made investigative decisions that were very different from the police officers and sometimes I sort of went along with their recommendations. So everyone really needs to understand that once it gets turned over to a prosecutor, it is the prosecutor that brings charges. You know, we've talked about this often.

BALDWIN: We have.

HOSTIN: Many people say, well, I want to press charges.

BALDWIN: No, no.

HOSTIN: That's not what happens. The government presses charges.

BALDWIN: Let me jump in. We've heard from Loretta Lynch today, newly confirmed attorney general here in the United States. She just weighed in on all of this. Here she was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LORETTA LYNCH, ATTORNEY GENERAL: It's dealing with balancing the challenges of public safety and community expression. But more importantly, Baltimore is a home to more than 600,000 people, and it was their home that the peaceful protesters were trying to make better, and it was also their home that the injured officers were trying to protect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: You know, I think of Eric Holder as an AG, his involvement.

HOSTIN: Sure.

BALDWIN: You know, he certainly wasn't afraid to make race part of the national discussion. He went to Ferguson. Based upon what you know of Loretta Lynch, do you think she might take a more vocal role when it comes to these kinds of tough topics?

HOSTIN: I think there's no question about it. I mean we even heard from Hillary Clinton -

BALDWIN: We did. We're going to get to that later.

HOSTIN: This morning at Columbia discussing race and justice. That is, I think, at the forefront of many people's minds. I certainly think it is one of the - will be one of the top issues that Loretta Lynch has to face, quite frankly, in her administration. And I think she will carry on the work that Eric Holder started.

BALDWIN: OK. Sunny Hostin, thank you very much.

HOSTIN: You bet.

BALDWIN: Again, we're watching and waiting for this news conference to happen here live in Baltimore. As soon as it happens, we'll bring it to you.

Meantime, quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:25:05] BALDWIN: Here we go. We're going to take you live now to the Baltimore Police news conference. Just started. Let's listen.

CAPT. J. ERIC KOWALCZYK, BALTIMORE POLICE: I wasn't able to get in to meet with them, so that's why we're delayed. I apologize. I will have more for you on that investigation and what Friday will look like later this afternoon.

To give you an update of where we are at right now, last night the curfew went into effect at 10:00 p.m. We have had 35 arrests. Of those 35 arrests, 34 were adults and one was a juvenile.

We have a small protest right now. It is very peaceful in the 100 block of east Baltimore. It is reflective of what we saw yesterday with very peaceful activity and what we are used to seeing in the city of Baltimore.

There's also a small group of people that are gathered at North Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue. Again, that is peaceful as well. And we expect it to continue to be. We are currently monitoring school dismissal. We have resources staged

throughout the city to be able to respond if there should be any incident. And again, we're asking everyone to remain peaceful, as we have seen over the last 24 hours, and we will be watching that.

I want to bring you up to date on what has become a little bit of a story this morning and talk to you about the arrest charging process, how that's working and where we are at in that process.

There were 209 arrests that were made in the initial Monday night - Monday afternoon into Monday night incidents. When we went into our state of emergency situation and we began to affect those arrests, there was obviously a chaotic situation that was taking place. There were officers that were being attacked. We had officers that were being injured. And clearly we had destruction of property and other acts of violence that were taking place throughout the city. So our officers, as you've heard us say, moved quickly to affect arrest, to preserve the public peace, to make sure that everyone could be safe.

It was a chaotic situation, so where we are today is that of those initial arrests, 111 people are still awaiting to be charged through the administrative process. So I want to be clear here. These were lawful arrests that were affected during the course of a protest, during acts of violence, during attacks on our police officers and other people. There are 111 people that are awaiting still to be charged. If we are not able to meet the 48-hour window that we have to charge them in, they will be released. We do not want to violate anyone's constitutional rights.

What we will do after the fact and as we have been promising is stand up an investigative team, go through the vast amount of video evidence that we have, through all of the information that is on social media, and we will file appropriate charging documents at a later date if we have to do that. Our team is working to identify officers that were involved in the arrest and get these charges done before we hit that 48-hour window.

So that you understand the complicated nature of that, in order to criminally charge someone, we have to have the witnessing officer. We have to know the location and the time. They have to fill out a document that details the probable cause for the arrest.

As you saw Monday night, as most of you were here reported, it was a very chaotic situation. There was a lot of moving activity and our officers moved very quickly to preserve the public peace, and the administrative portion is something that we're still working through. I know there's been a lot of questions about that this morning. We wanted to walk you through that process.

Again, throughout the course of the day, we will be doing briefings every hour, every hour and a half, as events unfold. So we can try to keep you updated.

I'll take a couple questions.

QUESTION: What is the specific of the dismissal plan (ph)? KOWALCZYK: For the schools?

QUESTION: The school dismissal plan.

KOWALCZYK: So we have resources staged throughout the city. Obviously we're monitoring social media. We have extensive resources that are on the ground that we have deployed into areas where we know, obviously, that students either congregate or are being dismissed from school. We'll continue to look for any indication. But our hope - our sincere hope is that we see what we saw yesterday, which is people coming together in a peaceful manner. And if they so choose, voicing their concerns and their frustrations in a way that's reflective of the city of Baltimore and what we've seen over the last 24 hours.

QUESTION: How long are (INAUDIBLE) so far, the heavy police presence (ph) that we've seen, for example, at Fredrick (ph) Douglass High School?

KOWALCZYK: So - it's important that we have resources in the right place and so ensuring that at areas where we know there's a potential or where we know people gather, we're going to continue to have those resources available. And that will be evaluated on a case-by-case, day-day-day, hour-by-hour basis in some locations.

QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) people arrested, how many were from the same - from the Baltimore area versus from out of town (INAUDIBLE).

KOWALCZYK: Sure. And we're working on putting together the information of where everyone was from. Our primary concern right now is ensuring that we get the administrative process of the bookings completed first. And once we do that, we'll be able to break down that information.