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CNN NEWSROOM

Thousands Honor Slain NYPD Officer; North Korea Angry at Obama; Michael Sam's Impact on Pro Sports; Top Tech Picks for 2015

Aired December 27, 2014 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everyone, you're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Poppy Harlow, joining you live this afternoon from New York City.

Our top story is this. Tears and solidarity, as some 25,000 police officers from across this nation and from Canada say good-bye to one of their own.

One week ago today Officer Rafael Ramos and his partner Wenjian Liu were ambushed, assassinated, gunned down while sitting in their patrol car. Today their brothers in blue mourn at a funeral service for Officer Ramos.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT: I'm sure I speak for the whole nation, Maritza, when I say to you that our hearts ache for you. But I do hope you take some solace in the fact that over 25,000 -- 25,000 -- members of the same fraternity and sorority as your husband who stand and will stand with you the rest of your life. Your husband and his partner they were a part of New York's finest. And that's not an idle phrase.

This is probably the finest police department in the world. The finest police department in the world.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: Nothing will ever defeat or divide our New York family. 9/11 couldn't do it. The lives of Officer Ramos and Liu prove the dedication to it. And with the name of Police Officer Ramos uttered, from now forth let us bow our heads, wish him and his family peace, and remember the principles he died for.

For the Ramos family, I say we thank you, and we honor you.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D), NEW YORK: Our hearts are aching today, we feel it physically, we feel it deeply. New York City has lost a hero. I extend my condolences to another family, the family of the NYPD that is hurting so deeply right now.

BILL BRATTON, NEW YORK POLICE COMMISSIONER: We'll heal as a city. We'll heal as a country. And wouldn't that be the ultimate -- the ultimate -- honor for Officers Ramos and Liu.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Pretty unbelievable. Joining me now to talk about it all, Tony Herbert, an NYPD advocate.

Someone who has been an advocate --

A community advocate.

HARLOW: A community advocate and someone who's been speaking on behalf of the family of Officer Ramos. Also Michael Daly, special correspondent for the "Daily Beast" who was there this morning for that entire funeral.

Michael, you wrote a very touching article about this man, about Officer Ramos, who he is. Tell us what stands out to you most about him.

MICHAEL DALY, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, THE DAILY BEAST: What stands out to me is that he grew up on Essex Street in east New York which is a tough street in the toughest neighborhood in the city of New York at a time when it was essentially a war zone. And he was -- his nickname was Potae, which derives from a Puerto Rican expression to mean you are a jar of goodness.

This man was a jar of goodness. He was Potae and he was -- and that goodness shone on the people around him. That goodness led him to become a school safety officer. That goodness led him into the police department and he stayed with it, and he was even going to become a chaplain.

HARLOW: Yes. Well, he was supposed to graduate from that chaplain --

DALY: The day of his murder.

HARLOW: -- program the day that he was murdered.

DALY: I mean, I think he kind of is a chaplain now because I think he's a spiritual guide for everybody.

HARLOW: Yes. And --

DALY: You know, that is -- you look at those neighborhoods and you say look at that. There's potae in those neighborhoods. There's goodness in those neighborhoods. And I think that the Chaplain Potae stays with us.

HARLOW: And named by Bill Bratton, the commissioner of the NYPD, today as not only a detective first class.

DALY: First class, yes.

HARLOW: But also an honorary chaplain of his precinct, 84th Precinct in Brooklyn.

To you, Tony, you have friends who are police officers. Is wearing that badge today different? Is it -- is it to some people making these officers a target?

TONY HERBERT, COMMUNITY ADVOCATE: You know, I -- not only do I have friends, I have family members that are in law enforcement for the most part particularly in the NYPD and it is a target because there are individuals who made it that way. You know, the whole police department are not bad. Just like we don't have a whole bunch of bad teachers and a whole bunch of bad priests.

HARLOW: The majority are great.

HERBERT: They're great. They're good officers. They want to do their job but they want to go home. The unfortunate part about it there are people in our community that commit crime. And they make it worse for everybody else. That other percentage of individuals were all black folks and not criminals, or not thugs or gangbangers or drug dealers. So we have to look at it from that same myriad.

At the same time yes, there are -- officers out who were sworn to protect, and they have to do their job. We have to call people out when they're not doing their jobs.

HARLOW: So, Michael, these protests that we have seen, right, and we even saw really appalling on the streets of New York City some protesters, not the majority, but chanting what do we want, dead cops. What do we want now.

DALY: That was a very small number. Yes.

HARLOW: It was a very small number and it's not emblematic of the majority of the protesters. But let me show you these poll numbers and get your reaction because a recent CNN/ORC poll that we got showed this that -- how many officers are prejudiced against blacks. If you look at the nonwhite respondents, 42 percent said most. So there is a feeling shown through those numbers that some people feel, nonwhites, the number there feel like they're being targeted.

What can we learn from those numbers? What can we do with those numbers?

DALY: I think Commissioner Bratton spoke today about the importance of being able to really see each other as individuals.

HARLOW: Yes, yes.

DALY: And that I think should be what we learn from this harm. That Officer Ramos was someone who could see the people in the community because he was of the community and the people could see him. The other question is, we have to have other officers see the other Ramoses in the community and for the community to see other Ramoses in the police department.

And that I think is -- you know, that requires a lot of work and a lot of attention. But it all comes down I think to whether you're the protesters against the police, whether you're a police officer who has feelings about people of color. It all comes down to you have to judge people by who they are and not what they are on all sides. That's --

HARLOW: Tony, I want you to listen to some sound yesterday morning on our program. I interviewed the sheriff of Milwaukee. He's been in law enforcement for three decades. I want you to listen to something that he told me and then get your reaction on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF DAVID CLARKE, MILWAUKEE COUNTY, WISCONSIN: When I hear these things that black lives matter, the only people that really believe that statement are American police officers who go into American ghettos every day to keep people from killing each other. If they really mattered that's where the outrage would be. That's what we'd see protests about.

But when we see the black-on-black homicide that happens on a very frequent basis, we don't see protests. We don't see marches. We don't see demands for change. So this has been a one-way conversation that I'm just trying to present a counter narrative to balance this thing and so that we can have that discussion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: So then I asked him after, you know, can't we have both discussions? What do you think?

HERBERT: Well, what he said I've been saying all along, you know, as an advocate who's been out here against gang and gun violence in our community almost every single day where black lives are taken by black -- by other blacks all around. At the same time there has to be a collaborative of dialogue because I think that there's a disconnect in communicating what the issues are in our community.

Keep in mind, the police department is a tool of the city of New York. And they're out there sent to do a job per se to protect. But at the same time they're tax collecting. They are actually assigning fines and things of that like, and these cops are put in that position.

HARLOW: That was interesting. You've made some comments about that especially recently.

HERBERT: And it's our reality. The bottom line is cops are put in a position or what have you to do the job that the city tells them to do. They do it. But yet they are the front liners where they are going to get that aggravation.

HARLOW: But --

HERBERT: And that craziness.

HARLOW: And important to remember, though, these two officers, Wenjian Liu and Officer Ramos, gunned down by a deranged person.

HERBERT: Black and -- I'm sorry, Latin and Asian.

HARLOW: A deranged person whose own mother was -- you know, said that he was mentally ill. So --

HERBERT: But a lot of these guys -- I'm sorry, Poppy, they're fueled by the agitation that takes place in our community. A lot of those protesters who've been out there didn't do that.

HARLOW: Understood. But I don't -- right. But we don't want to relate that person to the rest of the -- you know.

HERBERT: True, true.

HARLOW: Guys, I wish we had a lot more time.

Before we go to break, I want to leave you with this image, a very powerful image from the funeral this morning, if we have it, of the -- of the flag being carried there to the wife of Officer Ramos. His two beautiful young sons who have lost their father standing by.

We will never forget you. Thank you for your service.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Overseas today the North Korean government is furious at someone, the someone they say allowed the movie "The Interview" to be widely viewed this week. That's someone they are so mad at is President Obama.

Here's part of a statement released today from Pyongyang. It reads, "U.S. President Obama is the chief culprit who forced the Sony Pictures Entertainment to indiscriminately distribute the movie and took the lead in appeasing and blackmailing cinema houses and theaters in the U.S. mainland to distribute that movie."

CNN's Michelle Kosinski is in Hawaii where the first family is on holiday vacation. She's traveling with the president.

Michelle, North Korea calling the president arrogant, using the words a gangster. Is the White House saying anything?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right. I mean, they compared him to a monkey in a jungle. It's hard to believe that this statement is coming from a state even though that state is North Korea. And what we're seeing, bizarre statements put out by that government before but that one just seems to go beyond the pale.

I mean, it is this rambling, scathing, verbal attack on the U.S. blaming President Obama specifically not only for, in their words, pushing Sony to distribute the movie, the movie that they call agitating terrorism, but also now blaming the U.S. for the outages in its Internet that it's been experiencing. Big ones over the last five days. They feel that the U.S. is responsible for that. The U.S. hasn't confirmed or denied any responsibility there.

So it's hard to believe some of the language that they're using in attacking the U.S., even saying that -- as you mentioned they used the word gangsters, saying that the U.S. government is like children playing in relation to what they call the cyber attack on North Korea. But saying that the U.S.' political affairs will suffer inescapable deadly blows. I mean, what is that supposed to mean? So outright threatening the U.S. Well, before the president's National Security team did put out its

own statement about North Korea saying well, North Korea is offering its help. If North Korea wants to help, it will apologize and so on. North Korea then put out its own statement in response saying, no, it's the U.S. that needs to apologize.

So in the last couple of days there's been sort of this ugly back-and- forth. Well, now the U.S. has said we're not going to respond to everything North Korea says. So we're not expecting any response to this latest statement from North Korea -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes, especially things like this in the words that they used.

So let me ask you this, Michelle, some tech experts say maybe North Korea was not responsible for this hack on Sony Pictures, some experts that know a lot about hacking. Any indication the administration is going to take another look at the evidence, maybe put more out there?

KOSINSKI: Well, it doesn't look like they're going to put the evidence out there. I mean, North Korea is calling for that. So far, though, the U.S., especially the FBI specifically, said that the evidence points to North Korea. So it's hard to imagine if there is something now that's going to take away from that or point in a different direction that they're going to come back and say, no, we were wrong. It's really hard to say.

And it's difficult to pinpoint where these things come from, we know that already. And even some of the analysts looking at the outages that have been going on within North Korea over the last week, it's tough to even know where that's coming from. I mean, a lot of North Korea's Internet is routed through China. There's also speculation that China may be working with the U.S. or China may be on its own retaliating against North Korea's behavior.

These things are difficult to pinpoint. So it's curious. It's one of those things you want to, you know, wait and see what evidence, if any, develops and where that evidence is going to come from -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes, absolutely right. Michelle Kosinski joining us from Honolulu where she is with the president who is on holiday.

Michelle, thank you. Appreciate it.

Coming up next, a quick break and we're going to talk about this. Big story this year. Michael Sam emerging as a pioneer, the first openly gay player drafted into the NFL, but despite support from people all over the world no one else in the league has followed.

Will that change? We'll talk about it next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right. One of the biggest sports stories of the year is the decision by college football star Michael Sam to reveal that he is gay. His announcement sparked huge media coverage. A lot of support from all around the world. And a lot of people talking about tolerance in professional sports. He was drafted by the St. Louis Rams. Didn't end up making the team. He also spent part of the NFL season on the Dallas Cowboys practice squad.

CNN.com sports contributor Terence Moore joins us again. He's also a journalist and professor at Miami University in Ohio.

Terence, Michael Sam spoke with Oprah, a fascinating interview. Let me play part of that for you and get your reaction on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OPRAH WINFREY, HOST, OPRAH WINFREY NETWORK: Have other gay players in the NFL called you or contacted you?

MICHAEL SAM, PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL PLAYER: Very few reached out to me.

WINFREY: Very few meaning one, two, three, four, five?

SAM: Very few.

WINFREY: OK.

SAM: Reached out to me and --

(LAUGHTER)

SAM: And pretty much just showed me the gratitude and how they were thankful that I had the courage to, you know -- they wished that they had the courage to come out.

WINFREY: Gay men in the NFL.

SAM: Gay men in the NFL.

WINFREY: Reached out to you and called you.

SAM: Reached out to me, yes. And just showed their respect and admired my courage. And it was very -- it was very good.

WINFREY: And you are using the plural, men, not man.

SAM: Men.

WINFREY: Men.

SAM: There's a lot of us out there.

WINFREY: Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

SAM: I'm not the only one.

WINFREY: Yes. And --

SAM: I'm just the only one who is open.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: So, I mean, Terence, no question here that he has broken ground, paved a path. And by the way, there are other straight NFL players who have really come out, many of them, in support of other gay athletes in professional sports and, you know, tried to make it easier for them.

What do you think? Do you think that this is going to lead to more of those gay players that Michael Sam talked about in the NFL coming forward?

TERENCE MOORE, CNN.COM SPORTS CONTRIBUTOR: Well, a couple of things going on here. And first of all, although Michael Sam has been treated very fairly by the media and even the public, he has gotten a lot of attention. And let me tell you something, when it comes to the NFL player, professional players, believe it or not, they don't like a lot of attention, gay or otherwise, away from the playing field.

And along those same lines, the second thing is the NFL, professional sports, still very much operates under that old Bill Clinton model for the media. Don't ask, don't tell. And one of the dirty old little secrets from covering professional sports, there always have been a lot of gay players and the players will tell you that, coaches will tell you that. A good friend of mine who played in the National Football League was talking the other day about several gay players on a very prominent NFL team.

And the attitude was, just as long as they help us win, we don't really care. And again, what he was saying is just keep the attention down. It's all about attention and I do believe that's the big thing that's going on here. A lot of the gay players don't want the attention even though it may be positive.

HARLOW: So there's that line, right, that you have to walk that -- Michael Sam had to walk and made a decision one way. Do you -- do you come out and talk about it to try to make life easier for others, young kids growing up, right, who want to play professional sports and are gay and say but there's not many other people like me out there, right? Or do you -- or do you say this is just about the game?

What do you think, Terence Moore, going into the new year? Is it important? Should we expect gay players to come forward or is that their private business and it doesn't need to be talked about if they don't want to?

MOORE: I think that is the wrong question. And I think that the better way to look at this is that whether you are talking about gay players or any kind of player or anything you want to assign to anybody, all these people, everybody is different. People got different mindsets. People got different ways that they can tolerate criticism or success or what have you, so you really can't put -- some kind of label on it and say that this person should do this and that person should do that. Michael Sam was uniquely built for this moment. Just like -- you

know, a lot of people don't like this comparison but -- and I don't really like to compare this to maybe a racial thing, but look at Jackie Robinson. Jackie Robinson was uniquely prepared for that moment. And you can't say that everybody has the tolerance to deal with these things. So I just don't think that that's a relevant thing to look at.

HARLOW: You know what? It's a great point, and everyone has very different circumstances. And that all affects what they choose to come forward or not.

MOORE: And not everybody can be a journalist.

HARLOW: Terence Moore, good to have you on the program. Thank you, sir.

Coming up next, the new year means new gadgets, phones, smart watches, tablets. All of them. We've got our top picks next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right. Time for another chapter in CNNmoney's 2015 playbook and it is the toughest league out there. Gadgets from smartphones to tablets, smart watches, fitness trackers.

Christine Romans has her New Year's draft picks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: 2015 the year of the Apple Watch, the mobile wallet, and the connected home.

Here's what we're expecting in tech. Cheaper PCs. It's a race to the bottom with slumping PC sales and tablets they're out. But that's OK because you have your phone. Giant smartphones are firmly in power. Smart watches, step-on wearables. The Apple Watch makes its debut and puts devices like Fitbit and Jawbone on the back burner. From smart watches to smart homes, expect more universal access to your gadgets.

And here's one that's a little less exciting and more frightening, more cyber attacks. We saw huge breaches this year and 2015 could be even worse. But, hey, maybe the rise of mobile payments will offer more security.

Apple Pay will grow in popularity and rival platform CurrentC will debut. Plus look for more places that accept Bitcoin as 2015 brings your wallet to the future.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: All right. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. CNN NEWSROOM continues right here at the top of the hour. But right now CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta travels to the happiest nation in the world. See what we can all learn from them for the new year. That's next.