Transcripts For WPVI Inside Story 20160717 : vimarsana.com

Conservative, softspoken, professional. The people that like him really like him. The people who dont like his stances really dont like his stances. What does it do for trump . I think it was a great pick. Hes a lot of things that donald trump is not. Hes young. Hes 57. Hes got a lot of experience in government as both a governor and a 12year member of congress. Hes a social conservative, and hes a catholic. And i think those are all constituencies that donald trump needs to try to reach. So i think from the viewpoint of the campaign, its a terrific pick. Does it do at this point, both parties have to say, ive got the right, ive got the left. What do i do to get the mainstream . What do i do to get the people who say i dont know . does pence help trump do that . Yeah, i think one of the problems with the choice of governor pence is the only thing that hes really been in the National Spotlight was, if you remember, was those businesses in indiana refusing service to lgbt folks. Huge firestorm. He didnt handle it very well. Came out for it and then had to reverse himself. I think thats gonna be a challenge for him socially just in terms of bringing people together. I dont think hes that guy. And i think also when people were asking, you know, could they balance the ticket with someone who seemed to have more Foreign Policy experience, certainly the situations that were dealing with internationally, especially around terrorism, it would have made sense to have someone who had more Foreign Policy experience. I think thats still out. S this is an abc news special report. Now reporting, George Stephanopoulos. And were breaking in now with news of another police shooting, this time in baton rouge, louisiana. Shortly after 9 00 a. M. , about a mile from the police station. Early reports, at least two police may have been killed. What happened this morning . It was a situation where our officers responded to shots being fired. [ inaudible ] we have a report now that there are two dead, others injured to some degree, serious, and maybe some minor injuries. Theyve been taken to the hospital. Its an active and fluid scene, were trying to put the investigative Work Together and try to make sense. So, mr. Mayor, two Police Officers dead, according to your information. How many suspects are there, and have they been contained . I cant tell you exactly how many, there have been several, but i can tell you this, when you have Police Officers responding from two agencies, that becomes the major issue that theyre focusing on right now. So, those are the departments that will send as many officers as they can. Everything else is not as high a priority. So, there are a lot of officers on the scene now, and also at the hospital, to make sure they have the information correct and figure out how to proceed. So, the suspects are still on the loose . No, active means the crime scene is a very active area, because theyre trying to gather their evidence in order to proce proceed, know who the players were, get statements from the officers that are surviving and say, tell me what happened when you got there, what you saw . So, you dont have any good information right now on the suspects and whether or not theyve been neutralized, but you can say, at least two Police Officers have been killed. Very tough situation, were thinking of you now. Were going to let you go back to your work now. And Pierre Thomas is on the phone. We know police have been on guard since the shooting of alton sterling and also the shootings in minneapolis. Reporter yes, officer shooting deaths are up 44 . And theyll have to look at, were the officers targeted specifically . Its clear the suspect started shooting at them, and its a very dangerous situation, were trying to gather more information. But right now, its a dangerous time for Law Enforcement. And john kohn, with us as well. We know this comes at a time when some militant groups are calling for rages. Yes, warning Law Enforcement across the country about posts on social media for purges against police. Baton rouge police uncovered a plot just last week. Its a dangerous time for police. In part because theres a growing false narrative around the country that is being glomed on to people that all police are racists, abuse people of color, and thats simply not true. Thank you. And police prepared in cleveland for possible violence as well. And at least two police have been killed in batton rouge. For now, im George Stephanopoulos in cleveland. Back to our regular programming. The only way this is going to change is if we all unite together. Its not blue lives matter, black lives matters all lives matter. So we all need to unite and come together. We have to, as a country, sit down and just grind it out, solve these problems. I think that was the phrase that stayed with me we have to grind it out. And the question becomes, what does that look like . A lot of people have said to me, what can i do . What can i actively do . So weve asked each of you to give me your two best action ideas of what people can do. Sharmain, well start with you. Yeah, i do want to say that a young man named kevin harden, who is going to be head of the barristers association, a former prosecutor, ran a fabulous article this week in the philadelphia magazine and really laid out some very concrete solutions to this problem. And two that i took away was, number one, we all know that all cops arent bad. And so the idea that, you know, people are sort of saying that all cops are bad, thats not true. But the ones that are, we have to have a process, and a really honest process, for those who know that they are not working in the best interest of the community, to be able for there to be some process to ultimately remove them from the police force. Rich . Yeah, i mean, for me, its pretty straightforward, and these are practical solutions. You know, ive lived this issue as city managing director here in the city of philadelphia, and charles ramsey, you know, chaired the president s task force, and many of the recommendations, i think, make sense. You can go and look at those. The two that i think are the most important what went wrong in ferguson happened way before mike brown was shot, was the fact that that Police Department did not reflect the community they were serving. That government did not reflect the community they were serving. Diversity and inclusion in our police force continues to be a huge challenge for us. One of the heroes that we just heard was captain brown this week in dallas. And one of the great things that i heard him say was, protesting is great, especially when its peaceful, but im hiring, and we need you working on that side. Latinos and africanamericans need to join the police force and be a part of the solution, not a part of the problem. Thats number one. Number two, i think sharmain hit it right on the button. Its about accountability. If you look at the incidents, whether its rodney king or some of the others, its not the initial misconduct that caused riots and a firestorm, its the fact that officers are routinely not held accountable. It was the acquittal in the rodney king case that led to riots. The officers involved in the shootings this week and in cases across the country, including ferguson, they need to be held accountable when they make those mistakes. Commissioner ramsey melts their badges when they do misconduct. Nobody will ever carry that badge again. We need to do that across our country. Jan . Well, i agree with a lot of things that are being said, but ive been saying all along that at the root of a lot of our social dysfunction in america not just whats happened lately, but family dysfunction, addictions, crime is the lack of jobs, that people are struggling economically. And i think that is a problem that can be substantially mitigated by creating more and better jobs in the united states. And the question, of course, is how do we do that . I think in this election cycle, we need to look at the candidates and ask which candidates actually have a plan for substantially increasing the number of jobs and, particularly, betterpaying jobs. I think thatll go a long way. And i think one of the big issues is the impact of immigration on workingclass jobs. I think that needs to be looked at, and i think the connection needs to be recognized, and we need to ask, you know, do we have a greater obligation to our fellow citizens than we do to people all over the world that want to come here and compete for jobs . And, you know, in my view, we do. We have a greater obligation to our own citizens, and we need to recognize that and put that into practice. Ed, wrap it up for us. Change in emphasis. Deemphasize race and look at class. This is very much a class issue, and it takes in races together. This is a problem. And i think by the overwhelming focus on race, we miss a lot of those causalities that jan talked about. So i think thats the first thing. And second, deemphasize what the Political Class says and start looking to the people who have direct interaction. Rich mentioned the chief of police, david brown, whose story is extraordinary. His brother was a drug dealer who was killed. His partner was killed. His son went into another town nine weeks after brown became chief of police in dallas, killed a young father, killed the Police Officer who was responding, was killed himself. And then brown went to that town to apologize and said, my son had a disease. He was. He was bipolar. Thats not how he was raised. That man has a credibility to talk on this issue much more than most of the elected officials weve heard. Bring new voices in, because we need them, especially at the point of interaction. Lets look at one of the reactive things that we saw this week in both new jersey and pennsylvania. In the state houses, bills were put forward to make sort of taking on a Police Officer not just a crime, but a hate crime. And that brings you know, for protected classes, that applies to what you say, what you do. It brings a different level of fines and scrutiny. Is that the right thing to do . Some people against it say interactions with cops, of course, people say all kinds of things. Its not gonna make it better. Its just gonna send a bunch of people to prison and inflame things. Other people say, well, there needs to be a higher standard to what you do and say to a Police Officer. Whos right on this . I think, of all the suggestions that we just made, none of us made that as a suggestion. And i think that speaks volumes to where we want to be. I mean, we have to try to deescalate these situations, whether its people who have a drug problem, who are bipolar. I mean, we dont always know exactly what the behavior is and where that behavior is coming from. Again, i think community policing, trying to get into neighborhoods and communities and create relationships is a lot more important in putting those resources on the table as opposed to going down this road. I think the law already treats an assault against a Police Officer. At a higher level. At a higher level cause its an assault against society. I must admit, i im troubled by the whole notion of hate crime, because if youre murdered and suddenly we call it a hate crime, i think, by definition, that is a hate crime. So i think it confuses the issue, truth be told. And i agree with sharmain that i think there are much more practical approaches. One of the problems of putting hate penalties on assault crimes is defining what is an assault. I mean, a harassment can be an assault. A threat can be an assault. It doesnt have to be physical contact. So i think the concern that sharmain has expressed is reflected in that expanded notion of what is an assault. And so i think people are concerned that people get in an argument, and are they gonna be charged with a hate crime because they got in an argument . In the heat of the moment. Very quickly we have about 60 seconds we do have to touch on the pennsylvania budget going through higher taxes, basically, on all kinds of cigarettes, tobacco other than cigars, digital downloads a lot of people will be unhappy about that. Including my husband. Yes. And all our kids. But no tax on marcellus shale. Was this a win for Governor Wolf . He doesnt seem to be getting anything that he wanted other than a little bit more money for education and opioid intervention. Oh, i think he has to take it as a win. I think, from last year, we saw that it was gonna be really, really difficult to get acrosstheboard taxes. The marcellus shale, because of what was happening in the economy, became less of an attractive place where there wasnt, like, a ton of money to touch. People are very concerned, as jan said, about jobs, so going after wage taxes and sales taxes become really, really hard. So were back to our staple of sin taxes. It seems to be the only thing that we can pretty much get done. Its whats called a compromise. [ laughter ] downloads its gonna be interesting to see what happens. Well take a short break and come back to more inside story. Inside story is presented by Temple University. Remarkable change isnt easy, but for those who take charge, it comes naturally. Explore temples impact. Visit temple. Edu impact. I survived breast cancer. If the doctors hadnt caught it early i might not be sitting here. So im outraged that pat toomey voted to defund planned parenthood. Which thousands of pennsylvania women depend on for cancer screenings. Pat toomey was even willing to shut down the federal government to eliminate funding for planned parenthood. Shut down the government over planned parenthood . I think we ought to shut down pat toomey. Women vote is responsible for the content of this advertising. Welcome back to inside story. And, jan, i think were gonna be starting with you on this next one. Temple university making headlines without a president and a provost it seems. First of all, the president getting rid of the provost, and the board mad over how he did it. They took a nonconfidence vote and said, at our next meeting, we will be ousting you. In response, he released a letter saying the provost had a Sexual Harassment charge against him. Everybodys head is spinning. Where does this leave the school . Is it just drama in the board room and they can move on, or this is really serious . Well, nobodys head is spinning more than temple employees, who often were informed of these developments by email overnight and often without explanation. But the irony is that Temple University is doing really well. Enrollments are up. Academic standards are up. The rankings are up for the university. I mean, the academic achievements are there. Presumably, that falls under the bailiwick of the provost. But its hard to tell, you know, how this is all going to turn out. Joanne epps is the new provost. Shes universally, i think, admired by everyone at Temple University. So shes in place. We have an acting president who has been there before and who everyone at temple is familiar with. So i think stability reigns at the university. But, again, the university as a wholes on the uptick. All you have to do is look at the architecture of Temple University today and you can see how much has changed in recent years. Were they helped by the fact this happened in the summer, that it wasnt at the start of the school year, the middle of the school year . Yeah, no doubt. I mean, were hearing from students from a distance for the most part. But the faculty is pretty rocked by it. There was a lot of involvement as things developed and everyone sort of had been taken aback. But, again, i think we ought to be reassured that we have people in place and that, you know, academic standards are rising. Very quickly do you think youll have a hard time getting a new president , somebody who looks at all this and thinks twice . Well, you know, there arent a whole lot of people who are qualified to be University President s, and theyre much soughtafter. And so i think itll be a long search. Very quickly, looking at political polls again, one came out that had Katie Mcginty up 47 to 44 , the marist poll. Now, this is within margin of error. You could almost say theyre neckandneck. Does this represent a shift . Should toomey be worried, or this was always expected . I think toomey was gonna be worried all along. I mean, i think from the time we started talking about this and knowing what the political season was gonna be with pennsylvania primarily being a blue state, that there clearly was going to be a challenge coming from Katie Mcginty. So, again, i think the polls are there to sort of say everythings even. Its gonna really be september. When we see september and whats going on in the body politic and how its affecting how voters are feeling, i think thats when the polls are gonna mean a little bit more to me. I just think were gonna keep hearing incoming all fall. I think its a remarkable political story. You know, when you have a sitting senator with the support of a pat toomey, who just received 3 million from the Koch Brothers into this campaign, and here we are, three weeks later, and she continues to rise. I think her Campaign Theme around working families in pennsylvania is resonating. I know katie. I think shes an extraordinary candidate. And i think its the year of the woman, which i think is really cool in politics. Is it that or the ads . Shes gotten a lot of money, too. And they really try to paint him to look like a bad guy. Yeah, they do. And its all in the eye of the beholder. I think theyre not accurate and theyre unfair. Quinnipiac has him ahead. So sharmain is right in that, after labor day, we will have a better sense as to what the real trends are. Ed, im gonna end with you in this segment. Weve watched what happened in nice this week. The question becomes, where do we go . What does it all mean . We hadnt seen a vehicle used in this way. Over 80 people dead. Where does this go . We hadnt seen it because we werent paying attention, because it has been happening, and its been a bloody summer. And we keep on hearing that isis is on its heels and that its been the caliphate is being destroyed. Well, the jvs are playing quite effectively outside of syria and iraq. We do things differently at the airport now. Differently at the does this change what we do with vehicles . Oh, its going to keep on changing our lives because this problem isnt going away. This is when george bush said this was a generational struggle that was upon us, people looked at him and said he doesnt know what hes talking about. It turns out that as we keep on peeling the onion, we see that is a problem thats deeply embedded, and in france especially so because they have these large populations that have not assimilated, are very angry. That are marginalized. And i think one of the big things that came out but in many places, selfmarginalized. Well, but in some places, not. And if you want to bring people in, if you isolate people within a society, you create some of these kinds of conditions. If you put people in prison where they have an opportunity to be radicalized, you create another problem. So i do think its the debate will go on during the commercial break. Well come back to inside story. Fios is not cable. Were wired differently. So we wired the wagners house with 100 meg internet. Which means that in the time it takes mr. Wagner to pour a 20 oz. Cup of coffee, tommy can download 30 songs, and jan can upload 120 photos. 12 seconds. Thats the power of fiber optics. And right now you can get 100 meg internet with equal upload and dowloads speeds, tv and phone for just 69. 99 per month online. Cable cant offer internet speeds this fast at a price this good. Only fios can. When youre the parent of a disabled child, you realize that the world can be a harsh place. But you also realize it can be a really loving, wonderful place. When i saw donald trump mock somebody who was disabled, i was appalled. You gotta see this guy. Ahh, i dont know what i said, ahh, i dont remember that reporter suffers from a chronic condition that impairs movement of his arms. It told me everything i need to know about his heart and what he believes deep down. Priorities usa action is responsible for the content of this advertising. Inside story is presented by Temple University. Remarkable change isnt easy, but for those who take charge, it comes naturally. Explore temples impact. Visit temple. Edu impact. Welcome back. Time for inside stories. Sharmain . Well, a lot of people are saying all we need is love to make the world a better place, and i still agree with that. And the love statue, or a replica of it, is gonna be moving around philadelphia, and citizens are gonna be able to just sort of plug in their thoughts on how do we make our city a better place. Its gonna show up at political fests during the dnc. All right. Ed . Tam, Vladimir Putin wants to get tougher against nato. To prove it, he fired 50 senior naval officers in his baltic fleet. Hes gonna find replacements who will carry out his orders. Sounds dangerous. Rich . Tam, im on the board of ceasefirepa here in pennsylvania. Whether its orlando or sandy hook or dallas this past week, its also a story about assault weapons and assault rifles, not just about hate and mental health. This is the kind of round thats fired out of ar15 compared to the small 9millimeter round that our Police Officers have. It is so much more powerful. If were gonna get serious about our mass shootings, we have to do something about assault weapons here in america. Ceasefirepa. Org. Okay. Jan . How did donald trump rise so quickly and surprisingly to the brink of the presidency . The center for immigration studies, cis. Org, has a new report out showing the correlation between Donald Trumps positions on immigration and the popular opinion on immigration, which has been there all along. The surprising question is, why didnt anyone else recognize the issue . All right. Thats our show for today. Hope you have a great weekend. Well see you back here next sunday. Im in an snn along nydia han along with gray hall. Breaking news, multiple Police Officers are shot, two are dead in batten baton rouge, louisiana. Violence on the streets of philadelphia. Three women are involved, were live. Wee from the Republican Convention in cleveland. Those stories and more next on action news. Celebrate something really special this summer at blinds to gos annual storewide sale going on now. Buy one, get one at half price. Hundreds of styles and colors. Every item through the store. Buy one get one at half price. Thats something to celebrate blinds to go. Blinds for life. We are following breaking news this hour out of baton rouge, louisiana, abc confirmed