Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Did Foreign Jihadis Inspire Terror Attack in Texas; Prince Plans Baltimore Concert Following Riots; Police Officer Making a Difference in Little Rock. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired May 6, 2015 - 14:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:30:46] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: We are learning more today about the terror connections of the two men who opened fire outside of that Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas. Elton Simpson and Nadir Sufi died in a hail of gunfire. Really the question is this, did foreign jihadis have a hand in the attack or did they merely inspire it? An official says the truth is likely somewhere in between. This is clear, though. Simpson did indeed have links to extremists on Twitter, including is militants. One of them a British ISIS recruit believed to be in Syria, was convicted in 2012 for stealing Tony Blair's address book and posting it online. He also is implicated in the cyber caliphate hacking group's brief January takeover of the U.S. Central Command Twitter account.

Joining me now, SITE Intelligence Group director, Rita Katz.

Rita, welcome.

RITA KATZ, DIRECTOR, SITE INTELLIGENCE GROUP: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Reading your article, you point something out that I think is significant, not only with Simpson following these militants on Twitter, but that they were following him in return. You point that out. Why do you think that's significant? How strong do you think their affiliations were?

KATZ: This is very important because the fact that we have very prominent ISIS fighters, such as Hussan, who fight with ISIS in ISIS territory indicate that Simpson was placed in an important location within their network.

Look, for somebody like Hussan, who has thousands of followers, he cannot follow everyone else. Being able to follow somebody on Twitter means that you will be also in communication with him and the fact that Elton Simpson and Hussan followed each other allows them to communicate through direct messages which are private messages that no one else can see.

BALDWIN: So there's that. We talk about Hussein. We've been talking about these affiliations with is. There are also connections cited between Simpson and al Shabaab's Hassan, believed to be fighting in Somalia. Do we know about their communications online? KATZ: Right. We know for sure that Elton Simpson communicated

through direct messages, secret communications, with the user who is a former -- used to live in America, former Minnesota citizen, who moved to fight with Shabaab in Somalia. We all know Elton Simpson himself tried to join the fight with Shabaab. The interesting point here is that both fighters, the guy in Somalia, the guy in Iraq, followed Elton Simpson. Not only these individuals but also other ISIS fighters, which really showed that Elton Simpson was a trustworthy brother within the community of ISIS fighters and supporters online. So when on the 25th, the most important point here -- two points I would like really very much to talk about is that I have no doubt that the Minnesota individual was one of the people that inspired Elton Simpson. On April 23rd, the Somali guy from the U.S. posted a tweet in which he called for "Charlie Hebdo" style attacks in the United States. He specifically said, I'm calling on one of my brothers in the United States to go and execute the attack. Now, not only that Elton Simpson actually saw that tweet, he actually re-tweeted it also, which clearly indicate that he read the message and he was thinking about it. He was thinking about it because a few days later, he asked Miski to go on private communication. He tweeted to him and said, let's move to private communication. For me, is an indication that because we know now that Elton Simpson was the individual that carried -- one of the two that carried the shooting, most likely they decided to go behind the scene to prevent any kind of security --

(CROSSTALK)

[14:35:33] BALDWIN: Understand. It is incredible, just all of these details from you about Twitter and what can be communicated and the terror that can be sought in 140 characters or less, whether it's publicly tweeting, re-tweeting, or direct message.

Rita Katz, with SITE, thank you so much.

KATZ: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Next, as Baltimore recovers from the riots that took the city last week, we're learning that Prince is scheduling a concert for Baltimore. Prince is pretty private. Why is he taking on this issue this week there? We'll discuss that.

Plus, more on our breaking news. The co-pilot who deliberately took down that Germanwings plane did a practice run the very same day. Was his pilot in the cockpit? We have some answers next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:40:49] BALDWIN: Man, I have been in a Prince vortex this morning because of this story I'm about to share with you. Prince is throwing a Rally for Peace concert in downtown Baltimore this Sunday, mother's day. He'll debut a brand new song he wrote about the arrest of 25- year-old Freddie Gray. He's already released artwork for the song entitled "Baltimore."

Joining me now, HLN's entertainment and pop culture contributor, Sian- Pierre Regis, former MTV journalist, among other titles.

Good to see you, my friend.

SIAN-PIERRE REGIS, HLN ENTERTAINMENT & POP CULTURE CONTRIBUTOR: Good to be here.

BALDWIN: So Prince, this is a huge deal for the city of Baltimore, but what do you know about the song that he's written? Tell me everything you know.

REGIS: Yes, so this Sunday he'll be performing Rally for Peace. Tickets go on sale tonight at live nation at 5:00 p.m. We know he's released a song called Baltimore where some lyrics are "Enough is Enough," "Let's Put the Guns Down," enough Freddie Grays, enough Michael Browns. Unclear who will be joining him besides his backing band. We do know there will be multiple artists that will join him on Sunday. That will be announced later.

BALDWIN: He's asking people to come dressed a certain way.

REGIS: He wanted everyone to wear gray in honor of Freddie Gray. That's all we really do know. He recorded the song just last week in Minnesota.

BALDWIN: Has anyone heard it?

REGIS: Nobody has actually heard the song. We've only seen lyrics. Again, Prince has spoken out multiple times on this black lives matter movement. He said, "Like albums and books, black lives still matter." He's one of the few musical artists that's really put himself on the line to deal with controversial issues like this one.

BALDWIN: He seems too private. But you're saying there have been certain songs he's written.

REGIS: Yes, so Prince -- in 2004, he released a video for "Cinnamon Girl" where he showed a young woman under the pressures of Islamophobia. Then he released "Sign of the Times," talking about drugs. He doesn't really skirt around the issues. We haven't seen this before really.

BALDWIN: OK. We did a little bit in Ferguson. But at least this is sort of a first for the city of Baltimore.

REGIS: Yeah.

BALDWIN: Sian-Pierre Regis, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Coming up next, we will speak with rapper, Killer Mike, Michael Render, who often includes civil rights themes and politics in his lyrics. He gets incredibly candid with me about the relationship between the police and the community. His father was a cop. Don't miss that.

Plus, an active police officer will be joining me, talking about the videos he's been sharing of himself working with those in his community. Wait until you hear his story.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:47:45] BALDWIN: You know the story in Baltimore. Criminal charges were brought against those six police officers involved in the arrest and death of Freddie Gray. Those charges were brought Friday. Since then, we've spent a lot of time talking about the role of police officers in their communities not just in Baltimore but nationwide.

I'm from Atlanta, born and raised. I spoke with a rapper and friend of mine who's very active in communities there, minority communities. His name is Killer Mike, because he likes to kill a microphone. He often includes civil rights themes and politics in a lot of his lyrics. He's incredibly outspoken about the relationship between police officers and the people they police. His own father was a cop for a number of years. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL "KILLER MIKE" RENDER, RAPPER: If the only contact you have with black issues comes via CNN or one of the other news channels, your life's too insulated. When I speak at universities like MIT, I encourage those people to leave campus, find a school and mentor a child that does not look like them a child that's not of their color, in the of their class, not of their religion so they can learn first hand these experiences. I don't want black death to just be a television spectacle.

I want the white viewers on the other side of this television right now to get involved like a policeman in North Little Rock. He doesn't know I follow him. He doesn't know I know him. His name is Tommy Norman. This man is out in his patrol car every single day. He's taking pictures with other people's families that are black, with white kids in the community. He's in the community. North Little Rock is no square dance. It's no easy place to police. He puts pictures of him and his own children up. There's nothing more accountable than doing that. I would encourage more people to look at what this officer is doing in particular because he's doing something right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: He's doing something right.

Let's talk about that something. Officer Tommy Norman has been a patrol officer in North Little Rock since 1998. He's locally famous. He posts a number of videos and photos every day while he's out and about on patrol. 4200 posts and counting. Like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OFC. TOMMY NORMAN, LITTLE ROCK POLICE DEPARTMENT: The Hamilton Boys and Girls Club. Here we go.

(CROSSTALK)

NORMAN: Hey, everybody.

(SHOUTING)

NORMAN: All right. We got Officer Deasia. She's the newest member of the Little Rock Police Department.

What's up Deasia?

NORMAN: Come here. I got a surprise for you.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:45:21] BALDWIN: Oh, my heart, my heart.

Officer Tommy Norman joins me now from Little Rock.

It is an honor and pleasure, sir, to have you on.

NORMAN: Thank you so much for having me.

BALDWIN: Did you have any idea that Killer Mike was following you daily Instagram and using you as an example of, you know, what community policing should be?

NORMAN: No, ma'am. And when I heard the news about Killer Mike, I was honored. We were honored here at the police department. It was a big surprise.

BALDWIN: Well, I've looked at your Instagram page a bunch. I was texting with mike about this over the weekend. He's like, you've got to talk to this guy. I said, you're right. I've looked at the photos. I've looked at your videos. Why do you do that? Why do you share these images? Why is this so important to you?

NORMAN: I want to start by saying the North Little Rock Police Department is led by Chief Mike Davis, a man of high integrity. He sets the bar high for his officers. He expects nothing less for us to go out to the community and make a difference. I'm honored to do my part in making a difference in the community of North Little Rock.

BALDWIN: You're making a difference, but you take it a step further. You're recording it and showing people. It's obvious how these young people respond to you.

NORMAN: Well, I want to inspire people, not just other police officers or people in the community. It's a partnership between the police and the community. We have to work together to make our community a safer place, a more peaceful place to live. I took it to the social networking site, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, to inspire other people to go out and make a difference in their corner of the world.

BALDWIN: Officer Norman, I don't have to tell you this. You know being an officer is a tough job. You highlight a lot of the positive. I want you to tell me a story. Take me back to 2001 and the murder suspect who turned himself into you.

NORMAN: It was a murder suspect from Little Rock, which is a city across the river from North Little Rock. He called the police station and asked to speak with me. I went to a service station, got out. He was there waiting on me. Come to find out, Little Rock Police Department had been looking for him actively because he murdered a man with a two-by-four. They came and picked him up. Before they drove off with him, I walked over to back of the patrol car and asked him why did you want to seek me to turn yourself in? He said he had heard on the street that he could turn himself in peacefully and with dignity. So that goes to show how police officers police the community day in and day out could pay off in more ways than one.

BALDWIN: That's incredible. I know you really truly seem to serve as this personification of who officers should aspire to as far as having dignity and respect. I know you're following these cases out of Ferguson and New York and North Charleston and Baltimore. Not all members of the law enforcement are viewed as positively as you are.

NORMAN: We're not. I can only speak for the North Little Rock Police Department, but we go into the neighborhoods. We go in with our arms open. Can a police officer be kind? Can a police officer show compassion? Can a police officer love the community? Yes, they can. And that's what we do on a daily basis.

BALDWIN: Final question to you. I was just talking to a prosecutor earlier in the hour. His fear he's hearing from officers in Baltimore city in the wake of all these stories, there are some officers may beginning to hesitate. Is that something you worry about?

NORMAN: Not in North Little Rock. As I said, our reputation precedes us. We're gravitated to different pockets of the city. Every day we go out and make a difference. We have school resource officers that focus on the young kids. We're more than a police officer. It goes beyond the badge. It goes beyond the uniform. We're friends. You have to be friends with people in the community. You have to know them on a first-name basis and know their life, know what's going on with them and know you can count on them and they can count on you as well.

BALDWIN: Officer Tommy Norman, thank you for your service.

And if you want to follow him, like Killer Mike, he's on Instagram.

Officer, thank you so much.

NORMAN: Thank you so much. It's been an honor.

BALDWIN: You got it.

Next, more on our breaking news. The co-pilot who deliberately took down that Germanwings plane into the French Alps did a practice run that very same day. New details emerging. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: If you're sinking in medical debt, you are not alone. One in three Americans have difficulty paying medical bills. In fact, medical debt is one of the leading causes of bankruptcy filings. Well, there's a new study out that says the medical debt isn't just bad for your wallet, it's also bad for your health. What the study found is that 60 percent of the time when people are in medical debt, they skip getting medical care, which can be very dangerous. 40 percent skip getting prescription drugs.

Now don't despair if your medical bills are piling up. We have some tips to help you. First, ask the doctor or hospital you owe money to to negotiate a payment plan. Many times they're happy to do so.

Also, be careful of paying off bills with credit cards. If you're not going to pay right away, you can face steep fees.

Also, ask the pharmacist for help. They know sometimes doctors, without realizing it, prescribe expensive drugs when there are less expensive drugs that would work. Ask your pharmacist for alternatives for what you're taking. If there aren't and you have to take an expensive drug, look online for a prescription assistance plan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)