Holder Meets Community Leaders in Ferguson
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to NEW DAY. We are live in Ferguson, Missouri, this morning, where the focus is now on the investigation into the shooting death of unarmed teenager Michael Brown. Attorney General Eric Holder is promising a thorough investigation on the federal level, somewhat unusual. He came here, very unusual, to meet with community leaders on Wednesday, including the man in charge of security, Missouri Highway Police Captain Ron Johnson. CNN's Don Lemon spoke with Johnson about the meeting, and here's what he had to say.</s>CAPT. RON JOHNSON, MISSOURI HIGHWAY PATROL: He said this is what policing is about. This is what policing has to be, and</s>LEMON: Did you talk about anything? Did he tell you about what he wants to have happen in this community?</s>JOHNSON: He said what we're seeing now, community policing, getting out and being a part of the community, to me that's what he said is needed.</s>LEMON: Do you think it will make a difference that he came here?</s>JOHNSON: I think so. I think so. I think it shows that the White House, you know, our government at the highest level has heard the voice of the people that are here.</s>CUOMO: It's hard to argue that it's not good that he came, but the question is what will he do? Let's bring in NAACP board member, also met with Attorney General Holder, John Gaskin. John, good to have you have here. A.G. is here, an unqualified positive, shows a respect for the community. But in talking to him, what do you think happens?</s>JOHN GASKIN, NATL. BOARD MEMBER, NAACP ST. LOUIS: Well, I think that, number one, I think people should be aware that the Justice Department is on the job and so is the FBI. For the attorney general to make the decision to come here, it wasn't necessarily the decision of the president. He said it was his decision to be here on the ground, to be updated, to be briefed on what's going on and to get an understanding of where we are in this investigation, with this that he has on the ground. And so, I think that speaks volumes in terms of the priority of the investigation. What his priority is and it's obviously a top priority to him. It obviously speaks to what his agenda is, not only for the administration but, you know, for his tenure at the justice department.</s>CUOMO: Talk versus action. How important is it for people to see that things get done because that is setting up false expectations, right, because the civil rights case is very difficult to make on a federal level.</s>GASKIN: Absolutely, and I think we're starting to really realize that, and so updating the people on the ground on what's going on. I think last night we had some peace because they saw a federal official came to town. It's getting some attention. The grand jury met yesterday, and people in the community are beginning to maybe realize -- start to realize the process and seeing what those steps are.</s>CUOMO: So, do you have more confidence now knowing that there's at least federal pressure, right, so that the local prosecutors know that they are being watched, have to do their best, not to insinuate that they wouldn't do that, but do you feel better about the prosecutor keeping the case and going through the grand jury, instead of recusing himself and bringing in someone else?</s>GASKIN: Well, you know, the governor, we would think would reappoint someone.</s>CUOMO: He has said he's not going to ask him to step down.</s>GASKIN: Right, and that's a whole other story in itself. We're not going to go there. But I would say this much, but would I hope that since he's not going to do that. He's the governor -- first of all, his leadership probably needs to be re-evaluated and furthermore --</s>CUOMO: You think that this situation has proven that the governor is not tuned into the community involved.</s>GASKIN: I think it's definitely a sign for the voters to re-establish their leadership probably across the board to be quite frank with you. But, you know, I hope that he will continue to stay engaged. I hope that our federal elected officials will continue to stay engaged with the justice department.</s>CUOMO: Time is the enemy.</s>GASKIN: Absolutely.</s>CUOMO: Because people are angry now. They want things to happen now. Nothing is going to happen now.</s>GASKIN: Well, I have a question for you. You've probably done this a lot more than I have. Why can't the grand jury meet more than once a week? It would probably help move things along.</s>CUOMO: It's expensive. People have lives. They have jobs. Grand jury is not like the trial. Grand jury is -- you get the subpoena the same way. You get the notice.</s>GASKIN: Right.</s>CUOMO: And then you are pushed to serve for a certain period. You meet one day a week, give you different cases and they may even hear other things than that one unless it's especially empanelled. So, then, the prosecutor gets to present evidence when or how she wants, depending on who's bringing it. It is a man in this case who works the grand jury. They are supposed to give evidence for and against handing up an indictment which means evidence of Officer Wilson's alleged injuries to his face, whatever evidence there is of that, that gets to them as well, and then they decide whether or not to bring it. But it's only a day a week. So, when the prosecutor says it's not until October, that's realistic.</s>GASKIN: So in terms of -- is there any kind of priority in terms of what type of evidence is presented first to the grand jury?</s>CUOMO: No, it's done strategically by what the office wants to do, so, you know, they have to show them everything they want to show. The question comes down to how are you using the grand jury? What's your motivation as a prosecutor? Do you think this prosecutor wants to bring a case against this cop or wants to find a way not to bring a case, what do you think?</s>GASKIN: I would hope that Bob McCulloch would do the right thing and do his job which he's done for many, many years now. I would hope that he would use his experience to leverage the situation and do what's right. Will he do that, you know, with that being a question and with that a major question from not just black community leadership but across the board, I think, you know, the safest thing would have been to get a special prosecutor here on this. But with that all that -- at this point all we can do is hope and pray and hold people accountable.</s>CUOMO: So, your constituents will say you came up for a while in Ferguson. Your mom was here. You remember being here. You're supposed to represent us. You've got to leverage this situation as well. You've got to do something for us. You've got to make it better for us here in terms of what we see as a culture of abuse of policing. We don't trust them. What can you do for people here?</s>GASKIN: Well, the first thing we can do is begin to call investigations on these municipal police departments because Ferguson, you know, I've been telling people, is not the only one. Right here within this ten-mile radius you've got -- I'm not going to go into names, but have you a number of them that have a history of police brutality and have an issue with how they treat BMWs, black men walking, as we say at the NAACP. You know, yesterday at the meeting, you know, we really heard from people's hearts on how they feel about many of these smaller municipal police departments. We hear it all the time at the NAACP. We've been telling people, warning people that this is a problem. It's an epidemic in America. Something has got to be done about it, or we're going to find ourselves in a very, very, very different situation.</s>CUOMO: So, you're going to have to be ever present, even more present here.</s>GASKIN: Even more.</s>CUOMO: Monitoring the situation, keeping things calm and work on progress.</s>GASKIN: Even more.</s>CUOMO: All right.</s>GASKIN: I think that this is just the tip of the iceberg. I think that there's a lot more to go.</s>CUOMO: John Gaskin, thank you for being here.</s>GASKIN: Thank you for having me.</s>CUOMO: We'll be staying with you throughout the situation.</s>GASKIN: Absolutely.</s>CUOMO: All right. Let's take a little break on NEW DAY. When we come back, we're going to have much more out of Ferguson. There's a lot to tell you. Plus, we have new details about a failed attempt to rescue Americans held captive by ISIS. What happened? Why didn't it work? We're going to take a look at what the president may likely do next.