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AT THIS HOUR

Thousands Honor Fallen NYPD Cop; Aircraft Down in Atlanta; Justice Department Announces Full-Scale Investigation in Baltimore P.D.; New Jobs Report is Good News; Bill Simmons Leaving ESPN. Aired 11:30-12p ET

Aired May 8, 2015 - 11:30>   ET

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


[11:30:00] TOM VERNI, FORMER NYPD DETECTIVE & LAW ENFORCEMENT CONSULTANT: -- of guns in America, of felons walking around with these weapons. In New York City, we've had five police officers shot in the last five months, three of which have been killed. All three of those were killed in an assassination-type style by these creeps walking around with weapons.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Eugene, 40 officers killed in the line of duty this year alone across the country. That's across the country. Tom Verni points out the risks and challenge in facing officers right now, but I think as a country we have to be big enough and mature enough to acknowledge that what we're looking at right now is horribly tragic and awful but we still need to have the discussion about policing practices in general.

EUGENE O'DONNELL, FORMER NYPD OFFICER & PROFESSOR, JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Practices are fine but to be blaming individual cops is not fine. This is a cop who was able to tune out the criticism and go into a neighborhood and look for guns. In the NYPD, people are proud when they get a gun because they know they're saving a life.

I want to mention, that "Be Not Afraid" song is the official anthem of New York City police funerals. Anyone who is a New York City cop has heard that many times. Mayor Koch, who was not Catholic, actually had that on his desk. He had "Do not be afraid," because of all of the police funerals he attended during his tenure.

BERMAN: And, Eugene, I'm sure you have been to too many services like this one.

O'DONNELL: Oh, this is an outstanding police department. I just wish people would know anti-crime cops are the best in that department. These are young people who put themselves in harm's way. They screen out the criticism. Often, they are more worried about being criticized than their own safety. But in the midst of that, they go out and protect the community, like in Queens Village.

The good news is I know and any cop knows the public get this, people understand this on every level. We can discuss reforms. Reforms are necessary. Let's not get cynical. We have an outstanding police service in this country. You see it represented out here. They help our city all the time. We go to these little departments, big departments, missing persons, fugitives. It really is a national police family in our nation.

BERMAN: We see that family come out this morning by the thousands. Some 30,000 people inside that church and beyond, to honor Officer Brian Moore, 25 years old, a hero killed in the line of duty.

Tom Verni, Eugene O'Donnell, thank you for being with us.

O'DONNELL: Thank you.

BERMAN: We'll be right back.

(SINGING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:35:51] BERMAN: We have breaking news now out of Atlanta. A small plane, a Piper PA32, has crashed on I-278. This just north of Atlanta. That plane went down. You can see these pictures right now. Four people were onboard. They have all died. Again, the small Piper plane crashing on I-285 just north of Atlanta. Four people are dead.

I'm joined by Martin Savidge, on his way to the scene -- Martin?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): John, we've arrived at the scene now. I may be about 25 yards away from wreckage that you can see. It's eastbound lane of I-285. This reportedly happened shortly before 10:00 this morning. The plane was taking off from a nearby county airport. As it took off, the pilot radioed in saying that he was having a problem and then a short time later notified the tower that he was going down.

Witnesses describe this plane came in extremely low. It would have been the tail end of rush hour. This being one of the busiest highways in all of the Atlanta metro area. They said the plane came in and then they just saw a massive fireball and a huge plume of black smoke. Now the aircraft has been reduced to wreckage. The impact is huge. The loss of four lives onboard there identities not revealed as yet.

We're told that both the FAA and NTSB investigators are either arriving on scene or will be here shortly. The impact for traffic in the metro area is going to be huge because due to significance of the event they'll have to keep at least the eastbound and westbound lanes closed for some time. I can't stress to you how major a thoroughfare this is.

One last thing I'll point out to you. This is the way I come to work. The exact way I come to work. And ironically, this morning, I thought I would go a different way. I would have been in this area.

BERMAN: Wow.

SAVIDGE: This is a shocking thing in many, many ways to look at now. And we remember the four lives lost.

BERMAN: Exactly, right. Our concern is for the four people on board that plane and their families. The four people on board have all died. Also no word yet if anyone on the ground may have been affected, Martin. But this will have an immense impact on traffic today in Atlanta no doubt.

SAVIDGE: Yeah, it will. It's been pointed out there were two vehicles that suffered some minor damage, one truck and also a vehicle that had a windshield broken. Fire officials say it's absolutely miraculous given the fact how heavily used and heavily traveled this roadway is that nobody on the ground was injured or killed. So that they say is the only bright spot in an otherwise grim tragedy -- John?

BERMAN: You're looking at pictures now. A small aircraft crashing on I-285 just north of Atlanta.

Thank you so much, Martin Savidge, for bringing us the latest information. We'll get more on this as it comes in.

Also breaking now, the Justice Department cracks open the Baltimore Police Department. The new attorney general launching an investigation. What will it find?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:42:31] BERMAN: Just a short time ago, Loretta Lynch announced a full-scale civil rights investigation into the Baltimore Police Department. This follows the death of Freddie Gray.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LORETTA LYNCH, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: This investigation will begin immediately and will focus on allegations that Baltimore Police Department officers used excessive force, including deadly force, conducted unlawful searches, seizures and arrests, and engage in discriminatory policing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: I want to go straight away to our justice reporter, Evan Perez.

Evan, what exactly does this now mean?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: This means this is going to be an invasive look at the police department in Baltimore to see whether or not they are engaging in a pattern or practice of discrimination, if they are using excessive force on that community that really was reacting so powerfully to the Freddie Gray investigation, into the Freddie Gray death. She said one thing they're looking for is whether or not the Baltimore Police Department is violating the constitution. She talked about some harsh words about what she found in going to Baltimore. She talked about a frayed relationship with the community and she even called that an understatement. She says it was more like a severed trust between Baltimore police and the community there especially in west Baltimore. Sandtown is the neighborhood where Freddie Gray lived -- John? BERMAN: Evan, the commissioner there, Anthony Batts, says he

invites this investigation. How does a police department react when this happens?

PEREZ: He doesn't have much of a choice, John.

(LAUGHTER)

In my sit-down with him a couple days ago, he said he knew and recognized part of the way to fix this police department is to acknowledge they are part of the problem. That's true. We were looking at those very poignant scenes and powerful scenes from Long Island just in the last half hour and you can see the tug and pull that we have in this country right now between police and communities. You hear police say we have a really hard job. And in west Baltimore, Sandtown, we're talking about a place where there are shootings are almost every day. There are murders, six of them, a week in Baltimore. So it's a tough job they have. At the same time, the community believes they deserve to be treated better. So the work that these investigators at the Justice Department have to do and what the Baltimore Police Department has to do is a huge task.

BERMAN: Evan, standby.

I'm joined by CNN legal analyst, Sunny Hostin, here with me in New York.

We have seen the FBI and seen the Justice Department get involved with these investigations before. What has the result been? After the Justice Department goes in, what then happens to the department?

[11:45:22] SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Typically, you really see full-scale wholesale reform. The Justice Department goes in and if there's a pattern and practice of discrimination, civil rights violations, these departments have one of two choices. One, they must comply with all of the DOJ recommendations and pay for it. Generally, there is a police monitor put in place and that person makes sure over the course of many years that all of the recommendations that the Department of Justice really put into effect do take place. That's a consent decree. The other option is the police department decides to fight the Justice Department recommendations and then they get sued by the Justice Department. I can tell you, John, nine out of 10 times, police departments work with the Justice Department via consent decree and you see wholesale reform.

BERMAN: This is one of those government actions where things end up happening in the end.

HOSTIN: Yes.

BERMAN: Evan Perez, I was struck just in general today we heard more from this new attorney general in some ways than we heard before. It was a free-flowing question and answer session for a bit there. What did you make of what she said about her reaction to the Baltimore events as they unfolded? PEREZ: You know, I think she's trying to set a different tone.

I think Eric Holder, the former attorney general, got criticized for not backing police officers and when she went to Baltimore just earlier this week, she made a point of visiting the police department. She went there to inquire about how well these officers that were injured in the riots, how they were doing so she's trying to balance two things and make more public show of that because she knows that these people have tough jobs. At the same time, what she found there was very alarming. She said the Justice Department began working with the police department last year and now what they're going to do is going to go even deeper. They're going to make sure -- they are going to look at the data of the arrests and so that's what she was reacting to from her visit there. She said she heard -- it basically indicated it was a lot worse than she anticipated.

BERMAN: She was in case trying to take some of the pressure off in some areas. I thought the most interesting ones, the most interesting responses was when she was asked about the surveillance plans flying over, she was like, yah, we do that, cops do that --

PEREZ: Right.

BERMAN: -- police departments do that when there are things going on on the ground. So that was interesting.

Evan Perez, Sunny Hostin, thank you for being with us.

Next for us, some good news. Unemployment at its lowest mark in nearly seven years. We have new information from the big jobs report. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:51:35] BERMAN: All right. New this morning, a jobs report and a good one. 223,000 jobs were added last month. The unemployment rate now down to 5.4 percent. That's pretty low. At least over the last few years, the lowest mark in seven years. And right now, it seems investors are more or less loving it. If I had a picture of the stock market I would tell you how much the market is up.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It would be a smiley face.

BERMAN: A smiley face. 278. It's up to -- 279, 277. I can keep reading this off. It's up big.

Christine Romans, chief business correspondent and co-anchor of "Early Start," joins me now.

ROMANS: Hi, there.

Yeah, the numbers look good, 5.4 percent, the lowest in seven years. A headline to really think about. We're talking about the best numbers we've seen since the Great Recession, since the crash in 2008, 5.4 percent. I also see some sectors that look great, John. Business and

information services, these are office jobs, accountants, consultants, managers. These are the kinds of jobs that pay better, those had good gains. I saw a lot of jobs in health care, nurses, people who work in ambulatory care services, clinics, also all the health care around a hospital. Construction jobs tend to pay better. 45,000 net new jobs there. Energy not a surprise. You saw coal miners and drillers and extractors, people who work on rigs, those people lost their jobs. No surprise there because we've seen such a decline in energy prices so you've seen job cuts there.

One number I wanted to point out to you too, African-American unemployment, this was kind of a milestone. It fell below 10 percent for the first time in seven years. Look at that number. Even when the job recovery was happening in earnest, John, and the jobless rate was falling quickly. It wasn't happening for African-Americans. Now it's below 10 percent, 9 -- just a year ago, 12 percent. That's the kind of trend you want to see. You want to see a growing job market encompass everybody, not just some kinds of jobs.

I didn't see great job creation in bar tenders and waitresses and people who work in hotels. That had been a big boon in the early part of the recovery. I'm seeing better jobs now. And I think that's got to continue.

BERMAN: Politically speaking, the White House is praising these numbers, but --

ROMANS: But says, look, this is why we have to pass our trade initiatives, why you have to raise the minimum wage. They're using this as another means to try to push for their initiatives so that these jobs stay good. On the right, you will hear critics of the administration say the numbers aren't really -- they're not that robust. You don't have everybody included, which is true. But the longer the job market improves, the more people will be drawn in. That's the hope.

BERMAN: Christine Romans, it's always great to see you after 6:00 a.m.

(LAUGHTER)

ROMANS: You, too.

BERMAN: Thanks so much.

More on our breaking news. Coming up, the Pentagon just raised the security threat level at U.S. military bases. Why? Because of the growing threat from ISIS and other jihadists. This is new information. We'll tell you all about it.

Plus, just in to CNN, one of the biggest lightning rods in sports commentary with a huge announcement. I swear, every one of my friends has e-mailed me about this. We'll tell you about it next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [11:57:29] BERMAN: The cost of homelessness so high, especially when it comes to medical care. This week's "CNN Hero" is changing that by taking medical care to the streets. What started as a one-man mission has grown into a movement showing that the days of house calls are far from over.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. JIM WITHERS, CNN HERO: Street medicine is bringing medical care to the homeless where they are, under the bridges and along the river banks and abandoned buildings.

Safety net. Anybody home?

It's going to the people.

Can you make a fist? Does that hurt?

I've been walking the streets of Pittsburgh for 23 years to treat the homeless.

When I started, I was actually really shocked how ill people were on the street. It was like going to a third-world country.

There were runaway kids, 85-year-olds, pregnant women, and they all have their own story.

What hurts the most?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This knee is so swollen.

WITHERS: Once you get to know the folks out there, I knew that I had to keep going.

Are you doing OK medically?

And now we've managed to treat over 10,000 people.

Did they put staples in or stitches?

Infections, diabetes, cancers, the list goes on and on.

All right. I'm glad we saw you.

For the folks unwilling to come to us, we have a mobile medical van and then we have drop-in centers?

Just open up again.

We connect with a person.

You got friends. We'll be there for you.

Then we advocate with them to get their insurance, get housing and care.

Wherever they are, they're always within our circle of love.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You did so much for me.

WITHERS: It really is a wonderful feeling that people on the street are beginning to get a voice in health care.

Good and steady. You got a good heart.

It's something we should take pride in, when we can actually treat people the way we want to be treated.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[11:59:33] BERMAN: If you know someone who deserves this recognition go to CNNheros.com right now, tell us all about them.

Before I go, I want to give you news I think every one of my friends thinks is epic. Sports writer, Bill Simmons, who founded grantland.com, is leaving ESPN. He is leaving ESPN when his contract expires in September. ESPN sent out a news release. ESPN and Simmons haven't always seen eye to eye. He was suspended not long ago for his take on the NFL and Ray Rice saga. Where Bill Simmons goes next will be a huge, huge deal.

That's all for us. Thanks for watching.

"Legal View" with Ashleigh Banfield starts now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.