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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Trump Appears for Jury Duty; Gay Marriage Licenses Still Withheld in Some Localities; Working for Amazon Discussed; Straight Outta Compton a Big Hit. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired August 17, 2015 - 12:30   ET

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


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[12:33:35] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: A scene in downtown Manhattan we don't normally see. It looks like a campaign stop and it is not, it is anything but, this is Donald Trump leaving Manhattan Supreme Court downtown in New York City having shown up for jury duty.

Here is what I cannot tell you. Was he cleared, is he back on the campaign trail? No, I can't say that because often times a lot of prospective jurors in the poll are given an opportunity to get them lunch.

And it is 12:33:53 eastern standard time in New York City which is prime time for lunch, especially on a beautiful day in New York.

So this may be a moment where he has not had a voir dire, hasn't had any moment to be sort of scanned in and watch that really fun video that explain your specific duty. We don't know that, but what we do know is what we're seeing.

Virtually dozens upon dozens of people showing up, some tourists, some just, you know, taking a picture as they go by and others clearly the professional media who knew that this was afoot. He got the summons for jury duty and this would be the one that he has decided to actually show up for, because there were five previous that he did not.

His representative telling CNN this morning those summonses were sent to a building that he owns but doesn't live in and that he did not know anything about them. $250 fine followed, but I'm not sure if he's actually had a clearance from that fine because he showed up today.

It's been an amazing scene. I got to be honest. He show up in a big old stretch limo with a bunch of security to throngs of reporters at the steps of the Supreme Court.

[12:35:05] By the way, Supreme Court of Manhattan is kind of your state-level court. But it's exciting nonetheless. I don't know if the hot dog carts were there just for the occasion, of course they're always there. And I don't know if that's the lunch he's chosen to get but we're going to keep you posted on what's going on there with the Donald and his jury service.

It's been more than seven weeks since the Supreme Court gave its blessings to same-sex marriage and this Supreme Court I'm talking about the supreme court of the United States. But the law of the land is being flat out ignored in some places of these great states like Kentucky where a clerk has refused to issue licenses to anybody -- gay or straight -- and it is infuriating couples, gay and straight and it's also led to some local protests, too.

Kim Davis is that clerk and she says issuing licenses to same-sex couples violates her religious beliefs in her job. A court said, "Too bad, it's your job and you need to do it, and it's the law."

CNN's Ryan Nobles joins me here live to try to get through this. And I'm sort of stumbling through it too because it is the law and how has she been challenged and how is she challenging back?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, on the first end of it what she is saying is that it's her religious beliefs that are being denied and she's saying because she is the head of this office that any license that's issued under her name as the clerk of this office would violate her religious believes, essentially that her religious believes shower the entire office.

Now a judge initially said that's not the case. He ordered her through a preliminary injunction to issue those licenses immediately. She responded with a stay on that ruling as these court cases moves forward but there's been two different instances. The Governor of Kentucky told her that she needed to file or hand over these marriage licenses immediately and the judge offering up this preliminary injunction, she still refuses to do so and she's taken the dramatic step of saying no marriage licenses at all for gay or straight couples.

BANFIELD: And is she also suing the governor for making her do this?

NOBLES: Right. Yeah, yeah, so she's pushing back on the governor saying because of this directive that the governor sent out that he's violating her religious believes so she's suing him. And now the ACLU has turned around and is suing on behalf of two couples, two gay couples and two straight couples because she's not issuing licenses to anyone at this point.

BANFIELD: Straight couples are in the ACLU's suit against her as well as the gay couples.

OK. Well, this isn't the only place, Kentucky, where what the Supreme Court has ruled on has caused some consternation. There are bit some pieces and pockets of problems elsewhere. What's essentially the picture?

NOBLES: Well the other big issue is in Alabama. And that's where 11 different counties have said just like they're doing around county Kentucky that were not going to issue licenses to anyone, gay couples or straight couples because we just don't want to have to deal with it and a state senator in Alabama has even proposed a law that would essentially take the state out of the marriage license business, instead a couple would then just create a contract between the two of them and put them that on record with the court, taking a public official out of the responsibility of issuing a license.

Now the ACLU told me this morning that they don't necessarily have a problem with that law because it would apply equally to all couples but they do believe it's kind of rooted in the discriminatory practice and that is what concerns them.

The bigger thing the ACLU's concerned about though is, how even one little case and they stressed it -- the overwhelming majority of the United States has abided by the Supreme Court's decision without much problem. But if there's one case that gets along a judicial path, runs in line with the conservative judge who agrees with this clerk that, yes, her religious beliefs do shower the entire office well that could have implications across the entire country. So that's why they're continuing to fight this very vigorously.

BANFIELD: That's why called the sticky wickets. Hard to sort this one out, but well, you'll have to come back and let us know. I'm sure there'll be sorted out very quickly.

Ryan, well thank you for that. Appreciate it.

NOBLES: Thank you Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Coming up next, you probably don't worry too much about what goes on behind the scenes when you buy stuff online, you just want to get it, and get it on time, right?

But after this next story you might be thinking twice about all those people behind your purchase.

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[12:42:44] BANFIELD: Amazon might be a really great place to shop online but it sounds like a pretty tough place to work. That's if you believe an article in the New York Times which describes Amazon as a place where workers are encouraged to tear apart one another's ideas at meetings, toil long and late and held standards that the company boasts are "unreasonably high."

Ouch, that's an ugly portrait of Amazon and one the company CEO says is just a lie.

CNN, Christina Alesci is here. Now, ouch is right. This is very serious stuff.

CHRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, the most serious accusation from a legal standpoint is the fact that the New York Times says the company pushed out people who had to take medical leave for things like miscarriages so that's really scathing stuff. But the other stuff if you're kind of read between the lines it sounds like a pretty intense culture but that's what Silicon Valley is.

And we today we had, you know, a current employee come out and say line by line, yes, you know, some of this stuff is true but given it the context it doesn't really make it sound much different than any other hard driven culture out there. BANFIELD: The interesting thing, is there were 100 people that the New York Times says it interviewed to get these claims. And that's a lot of people and there is one guy who's putting out pretty strong pushback on this.

ALECSI: Yes he said in a statement "the claims that are intentional approach is to create a soulless dystopian workplace where no fun is had and no laughter heard. Again I don't recognize this Amazon, I very much hope you don't, either." And he's encouraging people to come forward and encouraging current employees to come forward, tell H.R. about any kind of incidents that are somewhat, you know, look like the ones that the New York Times described.

He even put his own e-mail out there saying, you know, if you have any grievances come to me, come talk about it.

But here's the thing. He also has another defense which is we are a really successful company and if we always mistreat our employees badly then how could we be a successful company?

And here's where he has a point. Google and Facebook and other tech companies are giving employees like insane perks like yoga in the middle of the day or gourmet lunches, right.

BANFIELD: Then why wouldn't people from Amazon just bolt if it was so bad? If there's so much competition and everybody needs these employees. Why wouldn't they just bolt?

[12:45:02] ALECSI: That's exactly right. And when I talked to even the smallest tech company to the largest tech company, these executives tell me there is a fierce talent war going on.

So, the proof of whether these practices are going on is whether or not Amazon can really retain its employees. And if you look at it - if you look at the data a third party company called PayScale actually did an analysis about retention rate at tech companies, that all companies really, the tech companies did have the worst retention rates out there. So it is a tough, hard environment.

BANFIELD: All right, I have to move on. But just one word answer, is it affecting bottom line anywhere on the stock market at Amazon.

ALECSI: No, in fact the stock is a little up today.

BANFIELD: Christina Alesci, thank you for that, appreciate it

The movie "Straight Outta Compton" broke serious records this weekend.

It's already made twice the amount of money it took to make this thing. Can you believe it?

This is a movie set in a time and place where police were clashing hard with African-Americans in L.A. back in the 80s.

The subject matter led to increased security at movie theaters. That's coming up next, we're going to ask a member of law enforcement, in this day in age, in this climate in America was that security justified?

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BANFIELD: Some movie theaters were worried about possible violence this weekend when the hip hop biopic "Straight Outta Compton" hit the screen. But instead, all the hype and heighten security only led to longer lines, ticket lines and also some big money too.

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[12:50:00] UNIDENTIFIED PERSONS: Put it down the street in my 6-4.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey that was dope.

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: Compton's very own Ice Cube, Eazy-E and Dr. Dre, I got to tell you, you are witnessing history.

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BANFIELD: Straight Outta Compton is the real life story of the hip-hop group N.W.A. with the backdrop of the late '80s L.A. gang culture and street life.

And it made an estimated $56.1 million, a box office record for an R- rated movie debuting in August.

It more than doubled its projections and more than tripled the weekend's number two movie Mission Impossible.

Joining me now live from Atlanta, CNN Law Enforcement Analyst Cedric Alexander, who's a member of the president's task force of 21st century policing.

So Cedric, thanks so much for coming back on about this topic. I wanted to ask you, as we went into the weekend, there was a lot of question as to whether certain theaters really needed security, additional security for this film.

And as it turned out, film went off without a hitch. There were no problems anywhere. Critics are saying, "See, we told you so". Others are saying, "Because security was there." How do you weigh in?

CEDRIC ALEXANDER, CNN LAW ENFORCMENT: Well, you know, in light of everything that's going on in the country.

I think that theaters took the right choice by making sure that not knowing because so much is unpredictable today in our society and, of course, this is a movie that for some create some concern.

But however, there was no report that I'm aware of, no reported of incidence. So I think that speaks hugely to the crowds that went to watch this movie. BANFIELD: There are some police organizations that are calling on people, their members and maybe even beyond their members, not to see this movie because of the message they think it sends.

Some say, "No, this is a reflection of the time". Others say, "This could actually gin up a lot of anti-police sentiment." What are your thoughts?

ALEXANDER: Well, let me start by saying this. Is first of all, I think any time that you use that kind of language, "F the police", it's derogatory, it's very disrespectful and it certainly does not has -- it really has no place for as far as I'm concerned.

There are a lot of men and women out there everyday who are carrying out this job putting their lives on the line.

So I'm offended by it and I'll speak for thousands of other police officers that are out there as well, too. That is very offensive.

However, to your question, I was a police officer back in the mid-'80s when this song first came out.

We didn't understand, maybe because of our own youth at that time, the volatility of what that may have projected, particularly during time in Dade County, Florida we were coming up off a great deal of civil unrest around a number of events that occurred as well, too.

But I think a lot of -- a lot, Ashleigh, has been done to build those relationships across this country between policing, community and still a lot has to be done as well, too.

But we really have to uphold the police officers and get away from this whole "F the police" to "support the police." And the police, as well, continue to support their communities. That's where we have to go. We know how we got where we are. But it's about trying to get to the place we still need to get to.

BANFIELD: And I love that you're looking forward, but I also want to look back, because that's what the movie is doing. It's looking back at harsh realities for black people, especially if they were involved in hip-hop culture at the time.

And then you tell me, you know, you were a black beat cop back in the '80s, you know, probably pretty young on the job, et cetera. Did you have a feeling for the dynamic at the time between officers in the black community? Did you feel a strangeness about it or were you just learning the ropes from the ghetto?

ALEXANDER: Well, all of us would rather bark a concern about the lyrics itself, "F the police". It was hurtful to us because we knew what we were out there trying to do. Not just black officer, white officers, Hispanic, Asian, men, women. We all we're out there trying to do the very best that we could to keep a positive life in our community and move through the struggles at that time, and that's what the men and women are doing today. All across all domains, white, black, LGBT communities, everyone is working closely together to help bridge those gaps.

So here again, as a young police officer and those of us that were there during that time, we did not let it bother us. We stayed focus on what our mission was and that was to serve and protect and we're going to continue to do that today.

But it's important that the American people understand that that type of language towards police is very derogatory, it's very hurtful, very painful and there's no place for it because we've got to bridge this gap and that is what's critically important as we move forward into the 21st century.

And that's what the whole 21st century task force was about, moving and then progressing policing, progressing our communities as well.

BANFIELD: I think back to Gloria Steinem and the bra-burning movements and the voice that was heard by doing something really incendiary -- pardon the pun.

[12:55:02] But burning bras got women's issues heard for the first time. And when you look back at issues that black men were facing, mostly black men were facing on the street, was there any other way to get heard than to do something that was as, you know, as unpleasant as something like "F the police"?

ALEXANDER: Well, you know, I had an opportunity to watch the movie over the weekend. It's really more about history of N.W.A. than it is anything else, how they started and to be where they are today.

So when those young men who lived that experience out in L.A. County at that time, that was probably their only way of projecting what their anger is.

However, the flip side of that, we cannot paint with the broad brush that all police are bad because they are not. Many, 99.9% and some people who will object to it are out there doing the right thing everyday.

And those are the police officers we have to hold up.

So, yes, I understand what they experienced and we understand what this country is going through today but the way that we're going to move forward is what's important to move away from this "F the police" to support the police and the police support community as well too. That's where we got to be, Ashleigh, today.

BANFIELD: I love having you on. Invitation everyday.

ALEXANDER: Thank you for having me.

BANFIELD: Cedric Alexander, have a great day.

ALEXANDER: Thank you.

BANFIELD: And thanks for watching, everyone. Wolf starts right after this quick break. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)