Michael Brown's Parents Addresses U.N. Panel
KAYE: The parents of slain Ferguson, Missouri, teenager Michael Brown are taking their case to the world.</s>LESLEY MCSPADDEN, MICHAEL BROWN'S MOTHER: We need the world to know what's going on in Ferguson and we need justice. We need answers and we need action. And we have to bring it to the union so that they can expose it to the rest of the world what's going on in small town Ferguson.</s>KAYE: This was Brown's mom, Lesley McSpadden, speaking with CNN jut a short time in Geneva, Switzerland. She and Michael Brown Sr. spoke this morning before the U.N.'s Committee on Torture. They said the shooting death of their unarmed son by a white Ferguson police officer and the way police treated protesters in the days after his killing violated the U.N.'s Anti-Torture Convention. In a 13-page statement, they said, quote, "The United States must take steps to address the torture and/or cruel inhumane and degrading treatment of Michael Brown and other unarmed black and brown persons killed by law enforcement." While Brown's parents are all the way in Geneva, back home in Ferguson, people are preparing for the worst as a grand jury gets closer to reaching its decision. It could decide any day now whether to indict Darren Wilson, a white police officer in the shooting death of an unarmed black teen. The big concern is that if Wilson is not indicted the town will explode once again like it did are Brown was gunned down in early August.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's really a volatile situation based upon, you know, if he's indicted or not. People are pretty upset and feel like justice -- if he's not, that justice may have been derailed.</s>KAYE: Attorney Benjamin Crump is representing Brown's family and he is live in Tallahassee, Florida, with us this morning. Good morning, Ben. You just heard from this Ferguson resident. How concerned are you about more violence if Officer Wilson is not indicted?</s>BENJAMIN CRUMP, MICHAEL BROWN'S FAMILY ATTORNEY: Well, the parents and our legal representatives put on record, Randi, we want people to be able to exercise their American Constitution First Amendment rights, but we want them to do so in a non-violent, constructive way. But we do expect people to react as Americans, not just African- Americans, but all Americans, because this process certainly needs to be fixed.</s>KAYE: The prosecutor meanwhile is saying that he is unlikely to file charges on his own or convene another grand jury if this one does decide not to indict. How do you feel about that?</s>CRUMP: Well, Randi, that's what I was saying, I say this process needs to be fixed. There is a problem with this process that is toward police officers with alleged to commit brutality on people of color. That's why Michael Brown's parents were over in Geneva before the U.N. testifying about how their child was executed in broad daylight and had his hands up in the universal sign of surrender and he was laid out in the baking hot son for over four hours with blood pooling from his head. And as tragic as this sounds, this incidence of police brutality on people of color happen over and over again in America and the system continues to sweep their deaths under the rug and exonerate these police officers for killing our children. So, there has to be an American response that we have to do better.</s>KAYE: Getting pack to the grand jury, Attorney General Eric Holder sent a message to the Ferguson grand jury leakers to be quiet. Do you think that's going to have any effect on the leaks coming out of there?</s>CRUMP: Well, I don't know, because I think people who leak information do it for ulterior motives and obviously the people who leaked this information in this process that we object to. We don't believe there ever should have been this secret proceeding of this grand jury. It should have been transparent as the American Constitution says and people would accept it more, Randi, if it was transparent, where we could trust the system that it works equally for everybody. There's a great air of mistrust in Ferguson as many cities of America, when people of color are killed by the police, you have the secret proceedings by these prosecutors who work with the police day in and day out. You can predict the outcome and that's what people are so concerned about in Ferguson and that's why people are reacting so hard.</s>KAYE: Meanwhile you're in Tallahassee. Michael Brown's parents are far away in Geneva. Do you think either of you are going to get a heads up before the grand jury's decision is announced and are they bracing for the response from the grand jury?</s>CRUMP: We certainly expect to. That would be the decent thing to do, is to let the parents know that a decision is out before the rest of the world hears of it, but more so the parents have continuously said that they want people to respond peacefully and constructively. And they do want people to respond. Make no mistake about it. They greatly, greatly want justice for their child, any parent would want justice for their child who was killed in such a tragic manner.</s>KAYE: And do you plan to travel to Ferguson by the time this grand jury announcement is announced?</s>CRUMP: Yes.</s>KAYE: You do.</s>CRUMP: I'll be in Ferguson this evening, yes.</s>KAYE: Benjamin Crump, thank you for your time this morning.</s>CRUMP: Thank you.</s>KAYE: And coming up later this hour, we will talk with former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik about the best way for police to handle the situation if Officer Wilson is not indicted.