Mother, Kids Pulled Over At Gunpoint
BLACKWELL: Welcome back. After more than two weeks of violent protests, sometimes violent protests, mostly peaceful though, some looting, shooting military style policing in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, the community is now preparing to say good-bye to Michael Brown. He's the unarmed teenager shot and killed by a police officer back on August 9th. His funeral will be held tomorrow at the Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis. Thousands of people from the local community, across the country, are expected to attend. It will be a closed casket service. Among the attendees, three White House officials, including one who attended high school with Brown's mother. The Reverend Al Sharpton will deliver the eulogy. Now, as Brown is being laid to rest, supporters of Darren Wilson, the officer who killed him are coming forward to defend him. They say they've even received death threats, and now on both sides of issue, there has been an outpouring of support from complete strangers, donation page set up to support the Brown family has raised more than $200,000. The supporters of Officer Wilson have raised more than $340,000. Here in Ferguson, I was out with the protesters last night to get a feel for what was happening. It was a relatively quiet night. Some tense moments you see Captain Ron Johnson, he ordered police to arrest a rowdy protester who says he was from Indiana. He feared that person's behavior would start from chaos and insight violence that we've seen over the past few weeks. Six people in all were arrested overnight. Now, the officer who killed Michael Brown, he has become a household name now. But it's complicated matters for another man named Darren Wilson, who also happens to be a police officer. He joins me now. Officer Wilson, is as you can see African-American here. He has been in law enforcement for 18 year, works for the police force in St. Louis, he is also president of the Ethical Society of police. It's good to have you with us this morning.</s>DARREN WILSON, ST. LOUIS POLICE: Good morning.</s>BLACKWELL: First, when that name was announced, what had did that mean for you? What did it mean for your family?</s>WILSON: It was a concern. Definitely a lot of calls came in. The family was concerned about the entire family's safety, only because we know that there's a lot of tension.</s>BLACKWELL: You had to leave your house for a period.</s>WILSON: I did. We elected to leave for a while.</s>BLACKWELL: Things have calmed down now?</s>WILSON: Yes.</s>BLACKWELL: So, from what you know now, the big question, what you know now and there are lots of facts that have to be gathered, can you make a decision or a judgment that the other Officer Wilson, did he make -- was it a legitimate use of deadly force?</s>WILSON: I mean, that's a question that right now no one know. The police department and now the FBI, whoever it is investigating it, has to let that process carry out. What we're more so interested in, though, is the after action to the incident. And that is that any police department or any elected official, city official, government official, has a responsibility to the community, so in law enforcement we understand that things are going to happen. That could be anything from issuing a ticket, making an arrest or even using a degree of force.</s>BLACKWELL: Yes.</s>WILSON: However, oftentimes when something in law enforcement has happened, members of the community have questions. What you cannot do is disregard that community. So, it appears as if a lot of the tension has been a result of the disregard, the lack of information that the community got following that and they wanted to ensure, they wanted to be reassured that a proper and thorough investigation would ensue or follow, and they just were not getting that. So, from there is where you see a lot of the protesting and then, of course, the unfortunate incidents of the rioting and other acts of violence.</s>BLACKWELL: The question now is can this be reconciled? Do you think there can be reconciliation between the Ferguson community and the Ferguson Police Department?</s>WILSON: It can be. It will be a process. We're not sure exactly how long that process will be. The Ethical Society of Police has been in touch with some of the government agencies and other organizations to see what we can do to alleviate some of those tensions and ensure that there will be a balance within that -- not only Ferguson Police Department but police departments across the country. That being said, that's not going to be an overnight process, but a couple things we're hopeful for, if the community knows that they have some ambassadors, they have some supporters on their side from the official side that they will begin to see that things are developing in a positive aspect, progressively, that will balance the police department in this local community and also throughout the region.</s>BLACKWELL: You know, you talk about balance. I mean, how does it happen? I mean, you've got 67 percent black community. You've got three of 53 officers are members of this force who are black. How does that happen and how does it change? How do you change it?</s>WILSON: That's a good question. The short answer is when you look at it is discrimination. It's what we alluded to has to be discrimination, because there's been many instances when the Ethical Society of Police alone, in what I'm learning now is that police departments across the country, I recently attended the National Black Police Association conference, have been conducting lots of workshops, we have a lot of interested members of the community, of society, which are black (ph), with college degrees, a strong interest in law enforcement, but for whatever reason they are not getting hired at the rate that white interested citizens are getting hired at. We understand that there is certain criteria that must be met or qualifications that you have to have in order to be a police officer. But with that being said, there's also -- so that's an objective component. You also have many subjective components. It appears as if a lot of the subjective components is disqualifying a lot of the qualified black applicants.</s>BLACKWELL: All right. Well, Sergeant Darren Wilson, you know, having covered this story for two weeks now, I can only imagine the response when this was announced and you're having that name and having to move your family. We're glad everything worked out with you. I thank you for your perspective this morning.</s>WILSON: Thanks for having me. And thanks for your support.</s>BLACKWELL: Certainly. Christi, back to you.</s>PAUL: All righty. Thank you so much, Victor. Folks in California are waking up to a 6.0 magnitude earthquake this morning. Actually, I think the earthquake woke them up. We're getting pictures in. I'm hearing from all kinds of people on Twitter and Facebook, even Instagram. One person saying it wasn't one sharp jolt but several. Georgie (ph) wrote, "Rolling long movements, versus short ones." She is in the Bay Area in Marin County. We'll let you know what we're hearing in just a moment. Stay close.