Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom With Fredricka Whitfield 2

CNNW CNN Newsroom With Fredricka Whitfield June 20, 2015

Roof, the 21yearold who admits to shooting dead nine people at historically black Charleston Church emanuel ame. One of the photos shows dylann roof burning an American Flag. Then he is pictured standing on the American Flag and in several other images roof appears to be holding a Confederate Flag right there. Cnn has not been able to authenticate the website or its contents including the author of the manifesto, but the writings provide an inside glimpse perhaps into the mind of the author. For more im joined by cnns Martin Savidge and alina machado. Let me begin with you and this manifesto, how it came to anyones attention and how its being authenticated or even verified to see if it indeed is connected to the confessed gunman. We know that according to a Law Enforcement official source this manifesto is something that the fbi is taking a look at and it surfaced online today, at least thats when we saw it on social media and talk about it. It gips with it begins with talk about the awe or thes upbringing. It says, i was not raised in a racist home or environment. Living in the south, almost every white person has a small amount of racial awareness, simply because of the number of negros in this country. Me and white friends would sometimes watch things that would make us think that blacks were the real racists and other elementary thoughts like this, but there was no real understanding behind it. The site also refers to the Trayvon Martin shooting and it says in part the event that truly awakened me was the Trayvon Martin case. I read the wikipedia article right away. I was unable to understand what the big deal was. It was obvious that zimmerman was in the right, but more importantly, this prompted me to type in the words black on white crime into google and i have never been the same since that day. This apparent manifesto ends by saying i am not in the position to alone go into the ghetto and fight. I chose charleston because it is the most historic city in my state and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to whites in the country. We have no skin heads, no kkk, no one doing anything but talking on the internet. Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and i guess that has to be me. Now, its worth noting that most of this apparent manifesto is full of hate. And it makes very inflammatory and disturbing comments, not vus about blacks but about other minorities. We are not going to be reporting on that. But if in fact dylann roof was the author of this manifesto the parts that we are addressing do shed some insight into what may have been the turning point for him and also fredricka, why he may have chosen this city as the target of his attack. And again, it has not been verified. It has not been authenticated as having a direct link. Even though it alleges to be authored by dylann roof. And these photographs that we showed earlier, they are on the same website as though to infer that there is a connection between the written word and the pictures . They are on the same website. There are a number of photographs that show dylann roof doing a number of things on top of spitting on the American Flag. Also burning the American Flag. Waving a Confederate Flag. Those are photographs that are on this website showing dylann roof roof. But again, we have not been able to authenticate the website and we know that the fbi is still working to see if in fact, dylann roof authored this manifesto. You two are right outside the Emanuel Ame Church where people are paying their respects. To the nine people killed. Last we spoke, people there had not communicated to you their reaction to this socalled manifesto. Since that time have people learned about this report and do they have any reaction . It certainly would seem like its salt in the wound. Yeah, we really have not heard any reaction. In fact, it doesnt appear that too many people at least that are here have either read it or are aware of it. Thats no doubt going to change. Most of the people have been focused oncoming to express their feelings to share in common grief with the community, to see for themselves this place that now has become a touch stone not only for a community, but really a nation to a symbol of racial hatred. And the terror attack that was carried out here. If that manifesto is truly directed and was written by roof that tells a number of things Trayvon Martin he would have been 17 or 18 im talking about roof when this trial went on. So a very young age. Apparently he did his research in his very own way and was made selfaware. He answers these questions. He says it wasnt his upbringing or his parents or family life that made him the way he is. It could begin to answer some of the things that have been nagging and lurking in the back of peoples minds. But it is no way taking the forefront. The Charleston Police have Just Announced that Emanuel Ame Church is no longer a crime scene. The police tape has been removed. It has been returned back to the parish and a short while ago we did see people begin to go inside. That does lay perhaps the hope that tomorrow this will become known again as church house of worship, as it has always been and a place where people could return and pray and grieve. Great news to a number of people many of whom weve spoken to and you have spoken to who are yearning to go back into that sanctuary as early as tomorrow. We will see if that happens. Thank you so much. Lets talk more about this socalled manifesto, especially as it continues to be verified and checked out by authorities. Joining me right now, retired chief deputy u. S. Marshal matthew fogg. Special agent michael german. Psychologist jeff gardere. To all of you, even as its being verified it is troubling nonetheless. So michael, if you could, while investigators are trying to figure out whether indeed this was authored by dylann roof even if it wasnt how troubling was it in your view that the opportunity would be taken, that these words would be shared chb if it was authored back in february. If not roof then it certainly helps exemplify a sentiment, a feeling out there. This has been a persistent problem in our society, White Supremacy and antigovernment sentiment. So its nothing new. And its broadly available, even before the internet when i was working undercover in neonazi and antigovernment groups. The amendment of written material books, pamphlets was shocking to me as an agent to learn how easy it was to obtain this stuff. So this material has long been out there, and, you know, i think regardless of whether roof wrote this document there are enough indicators in this case to suggest that he was clearly attacking this church to intimidate the black community in charleston. And across the country. Right. And so matthew, just as michael was saying regardless of whether roof wrote this, it does exemplify, you know that he has company. He didnt confess to the feeling, but he has company. In your view to what degree how pervasive, how troublesome is it in terms of the growth . I know the Southern Poverty Law Center has said within the past ten years, there has been increase in activity and sympathizers to that degree. What does this exemplify in your view . It exemplifies to me that this is a nation that we have to really now begin to talk about this subject and put it out there. I mean the fact that this guy went and bought a. 45 glock, thats a type of weapon that when you use a weapon like that youre going to do some serious damage. And for him to go and buy a. 45, a glock like that and these people received multiple wounds. He knew exactly what he wanted to do. He knew the terror that he wanted to inflict upon the community, the chilling effect. And he did exactly that. And when you read the manifesto and you read how he looks at the black folks being inferior to white people he talks about all of that in that manifesto. So you have a person here who is simply mimicking a lot of the data and rhetoric that is already out there. These groups many of them out there now. And weve got to be concerned about this. And then jeffrey, lets look at some of the language from this manifesto, whether it was written by roof or somebody else using language like this that he was not raised in a racist environment, and, you know, to matthews point. Blacks are the real racists. The event truly awakened me. The event that truly awakened me was the Trayvon Martin case. So as you look at this language look at these words, what do you interpret here . Well what i see, whoever wrote this manifesto is someone who was not psychotic, for sure because this is not a psychotic manifesto. This is a manifesto filled with hate. Weve read this before. Weve seen these types of beliefs systems before. White supremacists actually preach all of these things. They talk about blacks, they talk about jews they talk about asians they talk about hispanics. You talked earlier about standing on the American Flag and burning it if this in fact was roof who wrote this. And why are we protecting america if were embracing blacks and we need to embrace whites. So this is something that speaks of pure hate and racism and why we really just cant let these things happen and let them be written, as one of your guests said. We have to begin taking these things seriously, because they create hate, and when you have unbalanced individuals, they take it beyond just the rhetoric right to murder. Take the next step there. Jeff is saying youve got to take this stuff seriously. At the same time it is not a crime to think and believe any of these things. But it is a crime to carry out. But then isnt that the problem . The huge gap between thinking believing, writing a manifesto, and then actually carrying out a crime. At what point i mean thats the problem that you know america is facing. How to prevent a thought from becoming a heinous, horrible act. Well hes speaking terrorism. This is what were talking about. Were talking about stuff that happens when these folks do this stuff, we talk about jihad, we talking about terrorism and what seems to be the attributes that leads us to that. We look at certain things. When hes making the statements that hes making in this particular manifesto, if it is his, and the fact that he went and actually his parents, he went and got a gun when he had a felony hanging over his head. Somebody at that point should have said something then. They should have called authorities and said no, you will not have a gun. The fact that they allowed him to get this gun, and then he carried out this act hes writing in the manifesto, talking about the Confederate Flag which has always been an issue, a flag that represents terrorism for black folks, that represents every reprehensible thing you can think of for somebody black, and then to be running around with the flag and doing the other things he did, to me, he carried it out. Somebody should have spotted him. So michael to underscore you have spent time undercover with racist groups. And so based on what you learned and observed what is needed to intervene once you see the activity, the hate the meetings the planning of eradicating or erasing people that these groups dont like . What is needed to make sure that the thinking is not carried over into an act of erasing killing, murdering people . So first, what needs to happen is the federal government and state and local Law Enforcement need to really understand this problem. Unfortunately, even though we poured hundreds of millions of dollars into Terrorism Research it is only focused on muslim terrorism and doesnt really acknowledge the fact that there are other groups out there that are harming members of our community. So i think we need to get the politics out of terrorism studies and actually look at this as a crime problem that needs to be solved so that we can understand how the criminal element within these groups actually operates. You know, unfortunately, in the empirical studies of this type of activity, clear indicators of future violence are not very easy to find but any time somebody makes a threat or obtains weapons once theyve made a threat thats clearly something that needs to be reported to authorities. And fredricka, if i may add we have to be concerned about these groups even from a perspective of we have some Law Enforcement people that are associated with these groups. I mean i remember back in the 80s, we had them going to the good old boy roundup. So we have to look at this and take it serious and realize race is a real problem in this country and we have to address it. All right. Matthew, michael jeff, thanks to all of you gentlemen. Appreciate it. Well be right back. Meet the worlds newest Energy Superpower. Surprised . In fact, america is now the worlds number one natural gas producer. And we could soon become number one in oil. Because Hydraulic Fracturing Technology is safely recovering lots more oil and natural gas. Supporting millions of new jobs. Billions in tax revenue. And a new century of American Energy security. The new Energy Superpower . Its red, white and blue. Log on to learn more. Usaa makes me feel like im a car buying expert in no time at all. There was no stress. It was in and out. If i buy a car through usaa, i know im getting a fair price. We realized, okay, this not only could be convenient we could save a lot of money. 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It has been a crime scene ever since that confessed gunman walked in to bible study, and then opening up gunfire after attending attending that bible study, killing nine people, and now our Martin Savidge is telling us Charleston Police removing the crime scene tape. The designation of it being a crime scene, and now the church will be opening up tomorrow, sunday, for services. Also another breaking news item. Now in the search for a couple of escaped killers out of upstate new york after breaking out of a maximum security facility the Clinton Correctional Facility has now placed a corrections officer on leave as part of the ongoing investigation. But it wont identify the officer. This is in addition to prison worker Joyce Mitchell who is in jail charged in connection with the two inmates escaped. And then this. New York State Police are investigating two new possible sightings of the convicts. Richard matt and david sweat near the new yorkpennsylvania border. Tell us more about how the investigation is going and the ongoing search. Reporter good afternoon, fred. Yeah these two developments coming as authorities start their third week of searching for these two escaped inmates here. They remain searching. They are searching more than 600 miles of trails. More than 200 unoccupied homes and cab bins. We are just now learning about two sightings that happened last weekend. On saturday and sunday, about 350 miles away from here two separate people in two separate towns, one in irvin, new york and one in lindley, new york reported seeing two men who fit the description of these two inmates walking. Police didnt actually hear about this tip until tuesday. They interviewed people. They actually were able to obtain Surveillance Video of two men walking in one of those towns on friday that was yesterday. But the video was too poor in quality for them to determine if its, in fact richard matt or david sweat who are walking in that video. They now have sent that video to the state crime lab for further analysis and enhancement. Hope to have an answer on whether or not this was a confirmed sighting or not very shortly. Fred . Reporter all right, sarah. And then the concentrated efforts now reportedly investigators will be looking a little closer at Railroad Tracks at you know roads that arent usually tread as heavily. But will that mean a change in resources as they do it . Reporter so theyve scaled back those grid type of searches here in this area near the prison, where they were having people walk through forest areas, searching grid areas. Right now what theyre doing is going through trails walking trails essentially, and along Railroad Tracks that lead outside of town. Theyve also upped patrols, car patrols for the sate police in those two towns near the border where they have at least credible information that there could be a potential sighting. I also want to give you a little bit more about that corrections officer who has now been placed on administrative leave. We dont know many details. We know that it is a man. And we know from talking to the District Attorney over the last week or so that there was always a possibility that there were other people involved. This is a very obviously elaborate plan to escape and theyve always left open the possibility th

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