Transcripts For CNNW The Lead With Jake Tapper 20141125 : vi

That occurred during last nights riots. This used to be a beauty salon behind me. No longer. A grand jury decided against indicting Police Officer Darren Wilson, rioters and police in the surrounding area spent much of the night clashing. Youre looking right now at live pictures in baltimore where protests are starting to merge and shut down local traffic. More demonstrations are also happening right now in atlanta, georgia, and nearby from where i am in st. Louis. Protests across the country from new york city to chicago, philadelphia, seattle remained mostly peaceful. We are also at this hour awaiting press conferences from both missouri governor jay nixon and the u. S. Attorney general eric holder, both. Whom will be commenting on the violence here in ferguson. Law enforcement sent people scurrying from tear gas canisters as rioters flooded into local stores. The st. Louis county Police Arrested 61 people last night. The st. Louis city police, another 21. Maybe the most intense scene happened when Michael Browns mother and video captured by the New York Times was so racked with grief and overcome with emotion that she was able to do anything but sob and cry into her hands, presumably over the death of her son and the failure of the grand jury to indict his killer. Browns mother and father both have, for months, been urging peace. Both have for months been urging the community to not answer violence with more violence. But this is what browns stepfather, lewis head, had to say last night. Burn this [ bleep ] down [ bleep ]. At a press conference today, an attorney for the brown family denounced the riots and violence and tried to turn the focus back on prosecutor Robert Mccullough and his failure to indict officer Darren Wilson. He indicted him himself. Most did not line up with the physical and forensic evidence. Now today, just within the past couple of hours, officer wilson who has been quiet since the august 9th shooting, at least publicly, hes talking. Abcs George Stephanopoulos said he spoke with wilson for over an hour. And the officer insisted to stephanopoulos that he was just doing his job. He said that he was sorry that brown lost his life. With a federal probe into both the handling of the brown case and the Ferguson Police department itself looming, this matter, this debate is far from over. But for some local business owners, their lives in ferguson as they knew them, well, they may very well be over. In a press conference moments ago here on cnn, fergusons mayor, James Knowles said the National Guard was not deployed on time to save businesses from the fire and now that most of the flames have fizzled out, 12 buildings and many livelihoods are now reduced to ash. The day after. Stores and livelihoods, peoples dreams destroyed, looted, trashed and torched. How did we get here . Stop throwing objects at the Police Reporter last night was one of palpable disappointment and anger. They determined that no probable cause exists to file any charge against officer Darren Wilson. Reporter protesters sad, angered, furious that officer Darren Wilson will not face any charges in the killing of Michael Brown. I didnt see a lot of Peaceful Protesters out there tonight and im disappointed about that. Reporter police disappointed that unrest spilled over into destruction. Hurting others or destroying property is not the answer. Reporter and the president , largely unheard. At least by the violent demonstrators that he appealed to. They were oblivious to his call for calm. Hundreds gathered in front of the Ferguson Police department. The crowd grew more reckless. Stop throwing objects at the police you will be subject to arrest. Reporter destroying police cars, even setting them on fire. It was surreal covering this. In my earpiece i heard president obama plead pleading for peace and encouraging the media to focus on the positive. We have to make sure that we focus at least as much attention on all those positive activities that are taking place as we do on a handful of folks who are using this as an excuse to misbehave. Reporter true, most in ferguson were not on the streets rioting. Most were likely at home. But the disconnect was jarring. It was as if i was listening to a speech from another time or from another planet, far from this one. Fewer than two hours after the grabbed ju grand jurys decision was announced, tear gas was used to clear the streets even though the Police Departments own website said it was only shooting smoke. This was definitely not the case. Theres glass all over. Reporter pushed down the street along with everyone else, my crew and i witnessed the devastation of a city block vandalized, looted. A woman, a local pastor, pleaded with those stealing from beauty world to stop. They did not listen. Cars pulled up with people inside struggling to deal with the tear gas. As the gas affected more demonstrators, some became enraged at the scene unraveling. They put gas on top of her body. Shes pass out. Reporter frustrations in the community were clear. Yall should have seen this coming. Reporter while in downtown ferguson, businesses were being burned. At one point we filmed these men with bricks in their hands. Then we, too, were attacked. It was all the kind of scene ferguson officials had said they had prepared for but had hoped to avoid. We are going to survive and were going to have to come together and what happened tonight cant happen. Cant continue on. So just how do authorities prevent tonight from becoming a repeat of last night . One of the buildings that went down in flames was the heal stl, standing for st. Louis, post after Michael Brown was killed. Alderman french, thanks for joining me. I want to get your reaction to Michael Browns stepfather last night because that was a very intense and heated moment and, look, this is not a problem that was created last night but i dont think that what he said, burn this bitch down, how do you think that contributed, if at all, to what happened last night . So i was there when that happened. And i think he was expressing a sentiment that a lot of folks in that crowd felt and when he said those words, though, the mood did change and things got a little bit out of control. I just think there is such anger and emotion around this topic, around this case. And i think it was an incredibly poor choice to release the announcement late at night and to presumably do that without coordinating with Law Enforcement. It just looked like government was not prepared. Its so strange, because for months, since we started covering this story in august, the community, Community Leaders like yourself, Law Enforcement was talking about preparing for this announcement. I dont think anybody had any real doubts that there was not going to be an indictment handed down. That certainly seemed to be the suggestion we were hearing from Law Enforcement officials, from leaks. What happened . What went wrong . Im not sure what went wrong. Even at the press conference a few hours before, i think the state officials had said that every contingency had been prepared for but when i was out there on west florrisaissant th was chaos. And there were no police there . There were no police out there. I walked out there as a large crowd started to form and i saw some people that started to pull down those boards and ender. Enter. I called police and it took them a while to come but the fact is, no one was there and ready. It seems like we got all of the negative sides of preemptively calling a state of an emergency but none of the benefit. So we didnt see National Guardsmen out last night. One last question this is a tough question, but, look, in the past few months when there have been arrests, often the people arrested were not from st. Louis, not from missouri, even. Last night, most of the people arrested were from st. Louis area. Yeah. Yeah. You got a so back in august during those worst days, when there was a lot of violence, there were a lot of locals who were anger and willing to go to war with the police. I have to interrupt you. Im so sorry, governor jay nixon is speaking. I apologize. Lets listen in. Good afternoon and thanks everybody for joining us. Let me introduce chief dan isom, colonel ron of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, chief john belmer, the st. Louis county police department, assistant chief al atkins of the metropolitan police department, Major General Steven Danner as well as Gregory Mason from the missouri National Guard. Last night, criminals intent on lawlessness and destruction terrorized this community, burning buildings, firing gunshots, vandalizing storefronts and looting family businesses, many for the second time. I am deeply saddened for the people of ferguson to wake up and see parts of their community in ruins. I just came from west florissant. Its a heartbreaking sight. Seniors afraid to leave the house, school canceled, kids afraid to go outside and play. What theyve gone through is unacceptable. No one should have to live like this. No one deserves this. We must do better and we will. This morning and into this afternoon i met with guard and Law Enforcement leaders. All agree that the violence we saw in the area of ferguson last night cannot be repeated. Thats why were bringing more resources to ferguson and other parts of the region to prevent a repetition of the lawlessness experienced overnight. The National Guard presence will be ramped up significantly. In ferguson and ensuring that they are ready to act quickly to prevent violence. First, we are deploying hundreds of additional guardsmen to ferguson who will be stationed throughout the community to protect homes and businesses. With these additional citizen shoulders, Law Enforcement officers will be able to focus on protecting lives and property in the community. The missouri National Guard will continue to provide security at critical locations, including the Ferguson Police department. Last night, more than 700 guardsmen were at nearly 100 vital facilities throughout this region in both the city and the county. And i thank them for their work. Its a testament to the professionalism of local Law Enforcement, Missouri State Highway Patrol and the guard that no one was killed last night. Third, the guard team will be positioned and ready to act at a moments notice if challenges arise. Altogether, there will be more than 2,200 National Guardsmen in the region. Lives and property must be protected. This community deserves to have peace. We will provide safety and security to the region. I know this morning that there is pain in the hearts of this community. I also know that it is vital for us to understand how we got to this place and how to make it better. I continue to be heartened by the steadfast work that so many people in this region are doing on behalf of peace and understanding to avert violence and move forward together. Ill now call on some folks to Say Something and let me first call on the commander here, Brigadier General mason. Thank you, governor. As in august, the missouri National Guard will deploy a trained and ready professional force, our soldiers were equipped to do the job in august. We returned to ferguson and this region and well continue to do a good job and protect the citizens and life and property. Again, were here to as trained and ready soldiers to do what weve always done and thats to serve the citizens of the state of missouri. Thank you, general. The colonel of the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Governor. I just want to say that we have worked with the National Guard many times throughout the past years in disasters around the state. Last night was a disaster. And were prepared to team up again with the National Guard, with the other local Law Enforcement to address this tonight. As the governor said, we cannot have a repeat of what happened last night. It was very disappointing for me to watch the hard work of chief belmer, chief dotson over the past 100 plus days go up in flames so to speak last night. They will work more, they will work harder but we will not have a repeat of last nights activities. Thank you. Thank you, colonel. I call on the chief of the st. Louis county police department, chief john belmer. Thank you, sir. Id like to thank general mason for the assistance hes going to give us. I think it goes to show you the value that the guard can bring to us for protection, Different Things such as that and our community not only needs to feel safe but it needs to be safe. I thank general masons troops in that regard. Thanks, chief. Direct for dan isom of the state of missouri. It was clear that last night was a disappointment. A disappointment in so many ways. So much work has been done by the command in the last 100 days and we deployed many officers out in the area and, unfortunately, there was a group of people who were intent on causing violence and mayhem. We will do better tonight. There will be a significant presence in the community and we hope that we will protect the property and protect the businesses of those people in ferguson and also throughout the city of st. Louis and our community. Thank you, director. Glad to take any questions. Why didnt you deploy the National Guard promptly . We had, as i said before, about 700 guardsmen in 100 locations in the city and county last night. Late last night, early this morning and im not sure exactly the time, we deployed guardsmen to the Ferguson Police department as additional force strength there and as was indicated by the folks here, we have well continue that mission along with the other two missions that we talked about, expand the role of the guard. Were working to make sure theres Public Safety and that the guard is that that force is used in a way to make sure that tonight is a safer night. What do you think about the fergusons mayors comments that hes deeply disappointed that you waited to deploy the National Guard . I didnt. We had 700 that went out early last evening, including late last night, guardsmen deployed directly to the Ferguson Police department. So i say that but you have more than 2,000 now. Thats the force strength well have in the area. Well have a significant number out tonight but obviously its shifts. The bottom line is, as i said before, were going to continue to up their numbers here and work with the unified command to make sure we keep things calm and safe. Governor, was the National Guard on west florissant before the looting and the burning of the buildings happened and, if not, why werent they there . The National Guard was part of the unified command. They were providing Service Throughout the area so officials would be freed up to be part of that command. As i said before, we had 700 guardsmen in the region doing a lot of static work out there such that others couldnt. We certainly had a guard at the command post and as i said, we had guard at the Ferguson Police department. But we will have more out there tonight and we will continue to provide resources. Over here first. Yeah. How many National Guardsmen did you have in ferguson last night . You keep saying in the region. As i said before, we had some. Im not sure of the exact number and somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 at the police department. As far as governor kinder is concerned, he is saying that you may have been pressured by the Obama Administration and the Justice Department to not deploy a number of these guardsmen to ferguson and actually do something as opposed to just guard federal buildings and city buildings. Can you please respond to this charge . Its false and absurd. Were doing our duty. You have behind me a number of sworn officers, hundreds of people putting their lives on the line. Politics has not one bit to do with the tasks at hand and the seriousness of this mission. Yes, sir . Governor, why did you change that plan . Im not once again why did unified command change that plan . Im not going to go through operational things other than weve been working these plans for a period of time. Were going to have more folks out there tonight. Were moving folks into that area but we want to stay agile. As we look towards missions were putting out, we had 700 gur guardsmen in the area and most of them were in a position so they could free up certified officers that could be freed up to be agile in the force. Tonight things will be even safer. Are you just deploying a military policemen out the