Transcripts For CNNW The Situation Room 20150311

Thousands of people over the years. Will the dictator kim jongun come clean . Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. Our breaking news more shock waves in ferguson missouri. Police chief Thomas Jackson has resigned. We are awaiting a News Conference in ferguson. We plan to bring it to you live. The move comes just a day after the city manager stepped down and follows the departure of two Police Officers and the citys top court clerk. The mayor is hanging on for now but after last weeks blistering Justice Department report on racial bias and abusive practices, the City Government is going through a major upheaval right now. Ill speak live with benjamin crump, the attorney for the family of the slain teenager Michael Brown. Our correspondents analysts and guests theyre also standing by. We begin with two reports. Cnns sara sidner has been all over this story. Lets go to our national correspondent, Suzanne Malveaux here in washington with the very latest. Fergusons Infamous Police chief tom jackson is stepping down cnn has learned. He is the latest high ranking city official to fall in the wake of the Justice Departments scathing report that found a pattern and practice of discrimination against africanamericans by the Ferguson Police. We saw calls for jacksons ouster erupt again last night after Ferguson City manager john shaw resigned and some ferguson residents saying they just need to clean house. The Justice Department report found the Ferguson Police department showed a culture of discriminatory behavior from Excessive Force targeting africanamericans to racist emails, including one depicting president obama as a chimpanzee. Jackson would be the third city official named in the Justice Departments report to resign. The Justice Department found the Ferguson Police and courts unfairly targeted and overticketed black residents for minor offenses. One africanamerican woman who was initially fined 151 for parking illegally ended up spending six days in jail and facing fines over 1,000 because she could not pay. On monday fergusons Municipal Court judge also steps down stepped down and one person who insists, however, that hes not going anywhere is fergusons mayor, james knowles, who said that somebody has to be here to take care of business. I intend to stay. As for the rest of the Police Department there is an active debate over whether it should be dissolved and have st. Louis county police take it over. There is precedent for that but in talking with those in the ferguson community, there is still a very long way to go when it comes to healing. The healing process will presume presumably hopefully continue. Lets go to cnns sara sidner who has been covering the story from the very beginning. What else are you hearing from your sources there inside ferguson . I know you are very well plugged in. Reporter yeah initially we heard this was effective immediately, that his resignation, that he would leave today. Now we are seeing the actual paperwork. We have been waiting for that so that we can make sure the details are all correct. Now we are hearing march 19th that that is going to be his effective leaving date and that Lieutenant Colonel al eichoff will take over as interim chief. He is already at the department. He will now become the new chief of police as they go for a nationwide search for a brand new chief who will take over fulltime. We know that now the who will be the former police chief on march 19th jackson will receive a severance pay for a year and Health Insurance for a year. Thats the deal that has been worked out. A lot of people might be wondering well why did he get to name some of his terms. The law in missouri has gotten much stricter on how cities can get rid of Police Chiefs and that is because in 2013, a new law was put in place to say that you cant just have your politicians deciding who gets to run your departments, your Police Departments. There has to be very specific things that you can prove in order to remove them. So as i was told by my source this had to be something that came from him, that he could name some of the things that he wanted as he left the city. That is probably why you are seeing this the way you are seeing it as hes allowed to resign because they have to be able to prove some very specific things including whether or not he committed a felony in order to actually fire him. The city council would have to do that. So he has resigned we know that. We also want to talk to you about what he is saying because we havent heard anything from him even after the world wanted to know what he had to say about the doj report. I tried to get information out of him when i was there last week. Heres what he said. Dont you think you should have known some of the things that came out, the racist emails, the numbers . Were you just trying to bilk people out of money instead of protecting them . Telling your department to just go ticket them . Thank you. Reporter we have been talking for days and days and days. All we want is an answer from you. What do you think of this doj report and what are you going to do about it . Just any idea what it is you are going to do yourself about this as chief of the department . Im going to analyze the report and take action where necessary. Reporter are you planning on resigning . I will let you know. Reporter are you thinking about it . Reporter well he has let us know through other channels. The city now saying he is going to resign. I asked the mayor about it the next day. Is your police chief going to resign is your city manager going to reresign. The city manager is the guy with the most power in that department. The police chief is hired by the manager and the mayor is parttime. So the city manager holds the pursestrings and as you have seen, these are the people named in the report. The mayor is not named in the report but the police chief, the mayor and the judge that recently resigned are. There you have it. Those who have been named in the doj report are gone. We got a letter supposedly written from the soontobe expolice chief. This is published in the st. Louis post dispatch. It is with profound sadness im announcing im stepping down from my position as chief of police for the city of ferguson missouri. My resignation will be effective march 19th 2015 to provide for an orderly transition of command, it has been an honor and privilege to serve this great city and to serve with all of you. I will continue to assist the city in any way i can in my capacity as a private citizen. That letter just published on the st. Louis post dispatch website. Its interesting, sara in the official statement from the city of ferguson they said they have agreed to what they call a mutual separation which involves the resignation of the city police chief. This was a mutual decision the statement says by the police chief and city administration. Chief jackson as you point out will receive a severance payment and Health Insurance for one year. They are calling it a mutual decision and they are saying they have agreed to a mutual separation. Are they just playing with words here . Reporter i dont think so. Because what im hearing from my sources is that again, because of the law that is in place, that makes it very clear what the city can and cannot fire a police chief for, there had to be a mutual agreement. He also had to agree to go at the same time. So i dont think they are playing with words. We also know that this community and i have just gotten some information from some of those who have been protesting they are calling for more resignations. That should be no surprise to anyone. They want to see the entire department gone. They have been very vocal about that. The same people you hear yelling there who have been out on the streets for many many days and weeks and months have asked for it to dissolve. The police chief wanted to prevent that from happening and this is a move on his part i think to try and make sure the department stays in place. This is a movement from the city to try to change things and try to look at the doj report and try to start taking some actions. Will this be enough . We will have to wait and see. They are not releasing details of the severance payment that hes getting. It says he will receive a severance payment and Health Insurance for one year. We dont know if that one years salary is that his severance payment . We dont know what the severance payment is, is that right . Reporter thats correct. Thats correct. They dont say anything about a pension, longterm pension or anything like that. These are good questions i presume reporters will be asking at that live News Conference. We will have live coverage of it coming up here in the situation room as well. You want to make one more point . Reporter i think thats fair to say. A lot of people will want to know what are the terms of the deal because we also know that the city manager left as well and Everyone Wants to know all of the sort of details because the money that is paid to the chief and city manager comes from tax money, right, comes from tax dollars. People want to know where thats being spent. Im sure those questions will be asked. Stand by. We are standing by for a live News Conference. We will have coverage of that once it begins. In the meantime lets get reaction from benjamin crump, attorney for the family of the slain ferguson teenager Michael Brown. Sir, thanks very much for joining us. I dont know if you have had a chance to speak with his family Michael Browns family but whats the reaction you are willing to share with our viewers . Yes, wolf well Michael Browns mother and father are relieved that actions are being taken to address the very disturbing findings in the doj report. They have always maintained that the tragic death of their son in broad daylight was approximately caused by the pattern and practice that the department of justice found, discrimination and its force against africanamerican citizens in ferguson. So they believe what the doj found in that report had a lot to do with their son being killed. So there have been several resignations now or decisions to go ahead willingly, maybe not necessarily so willingly. Is it enough or do you want to see more resignations, specifically mayor knowles . Well the family hasnt spoke to that matter but they wanted the shooter to be held accountable more than anything for taking their son. You know this family has said they want this to be prevented in the future and they believe action is what is needed to try to prevent this from happening in the future. Because if you look at that report you saw that it was a culture that discriminated and targeted africanamericans. These emails, these outrageous emails, you know it was very troubling when you have this cesspool of racism and you think it doesnt affect how officers act. So the family is trying like everybody else to say lets try to prevent this from happening again. Lets try to make this better so our children wont be killed by the people who are supposed to protect and serve them. I just want to be precise. The city manager is now resigned the police chief has resigned, two Police Officers, they are out. The court clerk is out. Do you want mayor knowles in or out . Well like i said the family wants actions to be taken to try to prevent this from happening. They saw that the people who sent those emails and people who were doing this excessive citations were being held accountable. They want anybody who calls this situation to happen to be held accountable. Thats all they are willing to say at this time. Theres no formal position on mayor knowles and his future. As you well know you know this better than anyone Darren Wilson the Police Officer who shot Michael Brown, he has clearly been not charged by the grand jury. The Justice Department said they didnt have enough evidence to go against him on civil rights violations. But you are still planning your lawsuit, your civil lawsuit against him, right . Yes. The family is bringing a civil lawsuit against the city and the Police Officer for wrongful death of their teenaged son, Michael Brown jr. And we must remember you know when you think about it it was his immediate supervisor who sent the email about crime, paying a black woman 3,000 to have an abortion to prevent crime. We want to know who got that email. We understand it was forwarded. We want to know did the killer of Michael Brown forward that email. You want to know these answers because we couldnt tell with this High Standard of explicit bias what was the shooter thinking when he shot at Michael Brown jr. So all these things become important and to try to say we want to prevent this from happening because we certainly think implicit bias existed to be able to show what was the culture at the Ferguson Police department. I want you to stand by because we are getting new information. We are also awaiting a News Conference in ferguson missouri expected here from authorities. 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Yet another innovation only at a sleep number store. If Ferguson Police chief, Thomas Jackson, has reached an agreement with the city of ferguson to step down. We are awaiting a News Conference in ferguson. We will have live coverage. There you see the cameras are already in place. We will get the very latest on what they are saying. In the meantime lets go back to benjamin crump, attorney for the family of the slain ferguson teenager Michael Brown. I assume you give the Justice Department report a lot of credit for what is going on in ferguson right now, all these forced resignations. I think most of the citizens have been saying all along that the Police Department are profiling us they dont treat us right. Thats what weve heard from day one. I think the Justice Department pointing out specific instances of the alleged discrimination was certainly helpful into bringing this matter to light. I know you have handled a lot of these kinds of cases, the tamir rice case in cleveland, of course trayvon martin, your firm has dealt with that. Give us a little bit Bigger Picture right now, the fallout from ferguson and whats going on around the country, the impact that it has had. You know thats the thing that we are all focusing in on because it was always about the larger implications. We see that its almost an epidemic going on now in america where people of color, unarmed people of color, are being killed all over the United States and nobodys being held accountable. Its almost as if these Police Officers actions are being sanitized not only by the local authorities but also by the federal government. So it is important to see Something Like this try to lead to an example, a preventive measure to deter such conduct in the future saying all life matters, black life matters, brown life matters, all life matters, and we want our trained Police Officers to be able to respect everybody, whether you live in a White Community or black community because that was another big thing about how Police Officers treated ferguson. So its one of those things hopefully this will prevent tragedies like this from happening in the future. If people learn some lessons. In the release, in the press statement the city of ferguson put out, they said the city of ferguson will begin a nationwide search for a new chief of police. As you know the city of ferguson is about 60 or so africanamerican. The police force itself maybe 50 or 60 Police Officers maybe two or three africanamerican. Heres the question. Is it important that in this nationwide search they try to find an africanamerican who will be the next police chief in ferguson . Well you want to find the best candidate to be police chief. But diversity is very important. Its very important that the Police Officers understand the communities, at least want to engage with members of the community they are going to be protecting and serving. Theres an old saying in the black community that everybody else is protected and served but we are policed. We dont want to be policed. We want to be protected and served as any american citizen. No better no worse. Its always been about equal justice. Benjamin crump, attorney for the Michael Brown family, thanks for joining us. Thank you, wolf. Once again, we are continuing to await the News Conference by officials in ferguson missouri. They will be talking about this afternoons breaking news the resignation of the citys Embattled Police chief. Live coverage of that coming up. 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Tell us what youre learning. Well these rare photographs were quietly released in a high profile new york terrorism trial of a convicted bin laden lieutenant. They were found in his home in london and we spoke exclusively to one of the men who took these pictures of Osama Bin Laden nearly 20 years ago. These remarkable pictures have never been seen until now, obtained by cnn. They showed a relaxed, smiling Osama Bin Laden at his hideout in the mountains of afghanistan, five years before he would launch the biggest terror attack in american history. When i met him, when i interviewed him, he wasnt yes, he hated america, he hated actually the american policies in the middle east but it never occurred to me he would be planning for 11th of september attacks, for example. Reporter the first journalist to ever interview Osama Bin Laden took many of these exclusive pictures. Hes seen here with a high ranking al qaeda jihadist who was there during the interview. After a harrowing sevenhour journey through the tora bora mountains, he arrived at bin ladens secret retreat under heavy security. I remember there was a military maneuver half an hour after i arrived and when i asked them why is that they said because we were scared the americans could follow you and they could actually bomb us. Reporter cnn has obtained these photos at the same time the world is learning more about the al qaeda mastermind from letters and documents found in his compound by s. E. A. L. Team six the night he was killed. Those documents released as evidence in a federal terror trial paint the picture of a man increasingly fearful of drone strikes and concerned about his crumbling organization. But ashwan says he saw a very different young man when he met him in the 90s. He was very very humble and he was like everybody else around him despite being a very wealthy man. His clothes were very modest his food was actually very very primitive food. It was just some cheese. Reporter despite his modesty, bin laden liked to show off his prized possessions like the rifle he was carrying in this picture. He showed me his kalashnikov, his rifle. He was proud of this rifle because he captured it from a soviet general he killed. Reporter this picture captures bin laden giving a tour of his land he was so proud of. That would later become his safe haven right after 9 11. We walked for an hour and a half if the mountains of tora bora. He was very very active. Reporter he says he even spent two sleepless nights in a cave with the terror leader. Very very old and very stiff mattress so i really couldnt sleep. I discovered that i was sleeping with an arsenal of weapons, hand grenades rifles so i couldnt sleep. I thought maybe any mistake i would be blown up completely. Reporter five years later after those pictures were taken, a few weeks after the 9 11 terror attacks, bin laden returned to his mountainous retreat there and then later moved as we know to pakistan where he was eventually killed by s. E. A. L. Team six. Pamela thank you very much. Joining us our Cnn National Security analyst, peter bergen who also interviewed bin laden. Peter of course is a Top Authority on al qaeda, along with our intelligence and security analyst bob baer former cia operative. Looking at those pictures peter, probably brings back some memories to you of a much younger bin laden. You interviewed him, what in 19 97. Give us your thoughts when we look at these new pictures we have never seen before. The thing about these pictures this is bin laden very comfortable. He was quite concerned when we met with him, he was concerned he was meeting an American Team this was an arab journalist who seemed somewhat sympathetic to the cause. Of course at that time bin laden hadnt done anything and certainly the journalist was sympathetic to what has been done since but these pictures show him more relaxed. There are other pictures of his entourage. Also for the first time there are pictures of the actual house that he was living in. They are unusual photos that kind of give you a sense of what he was like in that time frame. A little bit more relaxed, presumably after 9 11 things got a little more tense for him. Bob, what jumps out at you when you take a look at these pictures . Well you know the man, he slowly developed into a fantacist who thought he could take the United States on thought he could change history. Early on he tried to talk the saudis out of allowing american troops in saudi arabia thought he could influence the royal family. He had a clearly inflated view of his spiritual role for al qaeda and what he could do to the United States. Of course what he found out after 9 11 was the law of unintended consequences and he ended up killing a lot of muslims. The man, you know at this point hes starting to become paranoid about the United States being after him but i remember in khartoum in the mid 90s when the saudis offered him up we didnt even want him. We didnt know who he was. A man that was looking for a role in history, he got one, but probably not the one he wanted. Peter, why are we seeing these photos now . A guy who actually was sort of a facilitator of the interview was tried in manhattan and these photos were entered into evidence. Thats why the British Police found them in his house in 1998. They havent been shown to anybody until this recent trial. So they are trying to show the connection between this suspect who is on trial and bin laden. Thats why they are releasing the pictures . Basically, yeah because they were found in his house. They show clear links with bin laden, part of the evidence he was sort of the circle around him. These photos came to light with additional documents gathered as part of the raid on bin ladens compound in pakistan. The major takeaway of those documents was how successful the u. S. Drone operation was in crippling al qaeda. Explain how effective that drone operation was. Well i mean you know frankly, at the beginning i was very skeptical it would ever work. These campaigns arent usually won from the air. Whats clear from this evidence i love seeing this stuff. Peter is absolutely right. They did work. The cia and the pentagon disrupted this organization and effectively destroyed it and it was thanks to telephone intercepts and to running algorithms through the metadata and the pakistanis as well they dont like to admit their involvement. These organizations can be beat. Once you get better and better at targeting you can destroy them from the air. This is what we should hope for the islamic state, we can do the same. You agree . We can hope so. The difference al qaeda was a relatively small organization, a few hundred people at the most. Isis is 30,000 fighters potentially. They are certainly being atritted, 1,000 a month are being killed but they are also recruiting about 1,000 fighters a month so its a little bit different. There are ways to impose costs on isis which are happening. Guys thanks very very much. Once again, we are standing by for the News Conference on the resignation of the Ferguson Missouri Police chief. Well have live coverage as soon as it begins. Also coming up why is the white house accusing republican senators of trying to undermine the president . We are standing by for a live update also on the search for that u. S. Military helicopter that went down off the Florida Panhandle with 11 u. S. Military personnel on board. Why do i cook . Because i make the best chicken noodle soup. 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The white house says the move was meant to undercut president obama. Some republicans are apparently having second thoughts about the letter. Others though they are sticking to their guns. Lets turn to our white house correspondent, Michelle Kosinski for the very latest. Reporter the anger over this over Senate Republicans writing this open letter to iran during Nuclear Negotiations hit a new level today. We have senators confronting the secretary of state directly. The white house firing back even a mini twitter war. This indignation and breast beating over this letter is absolute nonsense. To say that we should not be communicating is nonsense. I saw in the letter to iran but you know what the message i was sending was to you. The message was to president obama that we want you to obey the law. We want you to understand the separation of powers. Reporter secretary of state john kerry facing senators today on that open letter signed by 47 republicans cautioning iran about making a nuclear deal with this administration. He fired his own message right back. My reaction to the letter was utter disbelief. To write them and suggest that they are going to get a constitutional lesson which by the way was absolutely incorrect is quite stunning. Mr. Secretary, i know this is a wellwritten speech not a speech. This is not a speech. This is a statement about the impact of this irresponsible letter. Reporter its impact still going. Hillary clinton tweeting that it undermines americas leadership. No one considering running for commander in chief should be signing on. Bobby jindal shot back no one who allows iran to become a Nuclear Power should consider running. Some republicans, even john mccain, who signed the letter conceded maybe it wasnt the best idea. Some aides told the daily beast it was a quote, cheeky attempt to show that congress should play a bigger role but that the white house has no sense of humor about it. The white house definitely isnt smiling. Our allies understand that when they make commitments with the executive branch of the United States of america, that they are making commitments that the country is going to live up to and to have that undermined as part of a partisan tactic by republicans is damaging. Now you might have an excuse for some of our allies or some of our partners like russia and china to say well the iranians were a little unreasonable but we saw 47 republican senators in the United States of america stand up and throw sand in the gears of the diplomatic process. Maybe the United States isnt after all acting in as good a faith as they should. Reporter one of the fundamental disputes at the heart of this is should this potential deal with iran be considered a treaty. Some in congress say it is important enough it rises to that level, it is a treaty and as such should demand a vote from congress. But the way the white house is treating it as an executive agreement. It doesnt have the binding of law. We asked them about that today and they said you know what it would be an impactful, forceful commitment that is consistent with other similar agreements in the past in their words, it is appropriate. Michelle thanks very much. Good report. Searchers off the Florida Panhandle have spent the day looking for victims of a u. S. Military helicopter crash. 11 men, seven marines, four soldiers they were aboard a black hawk that went down during a training accident. Lets go to cnns Victor Blackwell over at the Louisiana Army National Guard base in hammond, louisiana. Whats the latest over there . Reporter i just learned that the search and rescue operation is being shut down for the night. I just had a conversation with a spokesman at Eglin Air Force base near where this black hawk went down on tuesday night, and they say that the fog is rolling in again, its thickening and its just not safe for the boats and for the helicopters to continue this search through the night. They expect they will be able to resume it tomorrow not at daybreak but once the fog burns off, their forecast expects that will be sometime midmorning. As you know it will take some time to determine exactly what the cause of this accident was, but there are concerns that the fog from last night, the weather, is a major contributor. We have also learned that fort rucker in alabama, the accident investigators there, will take time to review the damage the wreckage and the records of this chopper to determine exactly the cause of the crash. We have also learned from that eglin spokesperson that more human remains have washed ashore throughout the day and into this afternoon. We have learned about the people who are, by some u. S. Defense officials, presumed dead that they were part of a group that actually was working during katrina to pluck people off of roofs and they were deployed to afghanistan and iraq back in 2004 and 2005 and 2008 and 09. Our deepest condolences to the families of those seven marines, four army soldiers. They are grieving right now. Very very sad story. Victor thanks for the update. Up next new pressure on kim jongun to stop a horrifying practice thats led to thousands of kidnappings. Right at the top of the hour well have more on the breaking news we have been following. Ferguson missouris Embattled Police chief finally agreeing to step down. We are awaiting a News Conference. City officials in ferguson are getting ready to talk to the news media. Toenail fungus . Dont hide it. Tackle it with fdaapproved Jublia Jublia is a prescription medicine proven to treat toenail fungus. Use jublia as instructed by your doctor. 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For a standard of care that raises the bar call 8444brightstar in our house, we do just about everything online. And our old internet just wasnt cutting it. So i switched us from uverse to xfinity. They have the fastest, most reliable internet. Which is perfect for me, because i think everything should just work. Works . Works. Works works . Works. Works. Continuing to cover breaking news the resignation of the Ferguson Missouri Police chief. Were awaiting a News Conference. Live coverage once it begins. A story thats sure to anger kim jonguns government. They have been kidnapping people for years. There are many victims. Brian todd is here in the situation room. He has details of the shocking report. What have you learned . Reporter tonight, a top u. N. Investigator is pushing for more pressure to be placed on his regime to come clean about the hundreds of thousands of people they have kidnapped over several decades and to repatriate people they are said to be holding against their will. Kim jongun celebrates International Womens day. He directs Commanding Officers to give the cosmetics and food items he brought to the wives. He it cops as his regime is under pressure to own up to its human rights record. A new u. N. Report says more than 200,000 people have been kidnapped by the north korean government since 1950. A staterun system of abduction. Most were taken Foreign Policy south korea and japan. The report says many were never heard from again but still are still in north korea. This is a man who was south koreas most famous actress. She described how kim jonguns father orchestrated her abduction. Translator they picked me up by force and they took me into a boat. Reporter she was lured to hong kong in 1978 after she was grabbed, thrown into a boat and sent to north korea, human rights observers kim jonguns father was there to personally greet her. A few months later her exhusband who was a filmmaker was lured to hong kong and abducted. They were kept in north korea for eight years. They made seven films. Reporter they made a thriller, a kung fu adventure, even a godzilla ripoff. All under the close supervision of kim jonguns father. There was one specific case in which for the climax of a film scene he needed a model train to blow up. He put in a request for it to kim who sent him a real train packed with explosives. Reporter a south korean fisherman who testified for the u. N. Described his abduction in 1970. Translator ten armed people North Koreans were shooting at us. They were yelling at us, come down or we will kill you. Reporter why were so many abducted . Some were taken and forced to teach Foreign Languages and cultures to north korean overseas intelligence agents north korean spies as part of the training process. Reporter a north korean representative at the u. N. Hung up on us when we called to get their response to the u. N. Report on their abductions. The North Koreans have most often denied kidnapping foreign nationals. In 2002 once they did admit the regime abducted a few japanese citizens. Interesting story. Thanks for that report. Coming up back to the breaking news. The ferguson, Missouri Police chief stepping down. The latest official to pay the price after a blistering u. S. Justice Department Report. Live to ferguson once that News Conference begins. Hey, girl. Is it crazy that your soccer trophy is talking to you right now . It kinda is. Its as crazy as you not rolling over your old 401k. Cue the horns. Just harness the confidence it took you to win me and call td ameritrades rollover consultants. 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Youre sayin youll give me my credit score for free. Right now youre gonna ask for my credit card so you can charge me on the down low two weeks later look, credit karma are you talking to websites again . This website says free credit scores. Oh. Credit karma yeah, its really free. Look, you dont even have to put in your credit card information. What . credit karma. Really free credit scores. Really. Free. I could talk to you all day. Happening now, breaking news. Ferguson fallout. The mayor hanging on as the police chief becomes the latest to step down in the wake of the Michael Brown shooting and a damning Justice Department report. We are awaiting a live News Conference from ferguson. Ferguson without many of its top leaders after a wave of resignations. How does the community move forward . Sooner apology. A student expelled from the university of oklahoma says he is sorry. New information is revealed about that racist chant that was all caught on camera. How long has it been part of the culture . We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. Im wolf blitzer. You are in the situation room. We are following breaking news. The resignation of the Ferguson Missouri Police chief. Stepping down after being singled out in a Justice Department report on the citys police tactics. It was prompted by the death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager shot by the white Police Officer, Darren Wilson. We are standing by for a News Conference. We will have live coverage. We are covering the angles of the breaking news with the correspondents and guests including the head of the naacp. We have two reports. Sarahyre lets get the latest from Suzanne Malveaux. Reporter were learning is jacksons resignation is effective march 19th a week from today. There will be a nationwide search to find his replacement. Many in the Africanamerican Community have been calling for his ousting. They believe that this is the first step in trying to rebuild trust with the Police Department. Fergusons police chief Thomas Jackson is stepping down. This in the wake of the Justice Departments scathing report that found a pattern in practice of discrimination against africanamericans by the Ferguson Police. State senator maria nadel says its the only way the community can begin to heal. He no longer has that ability to guide people in the right direction, because he has never been a true leader. Reporter calls for his ousting erupted after the city manager resigned. This is on your watch. This is on you and jacksons watch. Reporter the Justice Department report found the Ferguson Police department showed a culture of discriminatory behavior from Excessive Force targeting africanamericans to racist emails, including one depicting president obama as a chimpanzee. Jackson would be the third city official nachlwefficial named to resign. We are prepared to use all the power we have all the pow theyre we have to ensure that the situation changes there. Reporter the Justice Department found the Ferguson Police and courts unfairly targeted and over Tickets Black residents for minor offenses. One woman who was fined 151 for are parking illegally ended up spending six days in jail and fines over 1,000 because she could not pay. On monday the Municipal Court judge also stepped down. One person who insists he is not going anywhere is fergusons mayor. Somebody has to be here to take care of business. I intend to stay. Reporter as for the Police Department there is an active debate over whether or not it should be dissolved and have st. Louis county police take it over. Theres actually precedent for that. Theres going to be a lot of scrutiny over who becomes the next police chief, whether he is africanamerican. 70 of the community is africanamerican. Maybe only two or three of the Police Officers africanamerican out of 50 or 60. We will see what they do in the search for a new police chief. Thanks very much. Lets bring in sarah who has been doing reporting on whats been going on in ferguson. I know you are getting more information. What are you hearing from your sources . Reporter i was just speaking to some of those who go out and protest and who have been very involved in the protest movement. They are planning to show up at the press conference thats going to be happening very shortly. But what they really want is they want more resignations. They are happy about this. I can tell you that. From all of the responses i have got from those who have been on the ground there who have been protestifying against the department. But they want to see more resignations. When i asked, you know is this going to help start to heal things start to move things forward . And the answer some of them said yes, we have been waiting for this for a while. But some of them said we have to wait and see who replaces him and how this department acts in the future. And so we will all have to wait and see how this plays out. I do want to mention this wolf. If you look at the doj report, they found no justification to charge officer Darren Wilson with civil rights violations. The grand jury said it was a justified shooting. They did not indict him. This may be this bubbling up of anger may be from what else the doj found, which is that there was a huge amount of frustration between the Africanamerican Community and the police because of the ticketing practices. And we have heard that over and over and over again long before Michael Brown had ever gotten into the situation. So we will have to wait and see if those practices change. By the way, theyre not the only department that has been accused of doing this. But they are the department that has, in essence, been caught by the doj. We will have live coverage. So dont go too far away. Lets get more. Joining us the president and ceo of the naacp. Thanks very much for joining us. Whats your reaction to the breaking news today, the Ferguson Police chiefs resignation resignation . Well i view this as a validation. Certainly not a victory. The fact is that the department of justice uncovered an unholy trinity between the Ferguson Police department and the court and city hall. The fact you have these resignations indicates that these Public Officials are reacting to the department of justice report the way roaches react to light. That is to say, they are running for cover. Thats a good thing. Because that Department Needs to be rebuilt from the bottom up. We need to create a couple tur of accountability those recommendations not recommendations. Those recommendations and proposals put forward in the department of justice report have to be implemented. You need leadership for that. And that we did not have in that department. As you know the police chief is stepping down two Police Officers forced out earlier, the court clerk forced out, the city manager forced out. Is that enough or do you want more . The mayor needs to resign. The fact of the matter is the city manager worked pretty closely with the Municipal Court judge to impose these fines and in collaboration with the Police Department all under his watch. The fact of the matter is we have a municipality that was acting in a rogue fashion. The Justice Department report demonstrates pretty clearly that this unholy trinity violated the constitution federal statutes undoubtedly state laws and preyed upon the citizens through fines that were discriminatory. We have a Police Department that engaged in excessive use of force in a racial way. We have police dogs being used on africanamericans and most notably children. All under his watch. So the fact of the matter is im not sure how you can have all these other officials resigning in the wake of this report and the mayor retain leadership and credibility. Its not plausible. Its interesting that the Police Officer who shot and killed Michael Brown, Darren Wilson he was not charged by that grand jury. The federal government Justice Department said they didnt have evidence to go after him in some sort of civil rights case. Theres going to be a wrongful death civil lawsuit that the family of Michael Brown will file. But i guess sort of interesting that the Police Officer himself for at least now seems to have been vindicated. Well from the point of the family and the community, this is painfully ironic. I do note here that the attorney general noted the difficulty of meeting a civil rights this civil rights standard in terms of demonstrating intent. So i would not say that Darren Wilson comes out of this looking like an angel. Its difficult to prosecute someone under that statute. And here we know this to be true Darren Wilson operated in the midst of a rogue Police Department. That engaged in all matter of unconstitutional discriminatory conduct. The behavior he was accused of, namely using Excessive Force against an unarmed teenager the report makes clear that that was a pattern and practice in the Police Department that he served in. And so i wouldnt say that this report exonerates Darren Wilson. Mr. Brooks, look at this. I dont know if you can see the video. We have live pictures coming in from madison, wisconsin. This is a separate story that we have been following here at cnn. Were seeing protesters taking to the streets after another officer shooting another young biracial man shot and killed over the weekend. The protests growing. Live pictures from our affiliate in madison, wisconsin. I know you have taken a closer look at whats going on there. Give us your analysis. Wolf if this were another if this was simply one instance of a another young africanamerican man if this was all across the country we see this again and again. In ferguson in Staten Island in cleveland. There is what feels like for this generation a pandemic of policeman misconduct. We know that one out of every four africanamerican men reports being mistreated at the happeneds s hands of police. Black men are more likely to lose their lives at the hands of the police. Theres a challenge here. More to the point, we know that this kind of policing is not effective, it alienates communities. Communityoriented policing makes communities safer, prosecutions easier. So the fact that you have all of these people out on the street protesting yet another young man being killed only indicates the degree to which we have to respond to this crisis with a sense of urgency. Congress needs to pass the interracial profiling act. Two, we have got to have a National Standard with respect to the excessive use of force. I remember wolf only a few weeks ago we passed the death in custody act which allows us for the first time to answer the basic question how many people lose their lives at the hands of the police in an unlawful manner . So we are making some progress. But were not making progress nearly fast enough or have we gone far enough for many of the people that we see in the streets all across the country. The fact the of the matter is were going to see more people standing up for Community Policing and government that really reflects our highest constitutional and moral values. So what were seeing in wisconsin is significant. And were going to see more of it unless we respond to the crisis. Yeah. Its interesting that a lot of this is taking place now just after last weekend, the commemoration of what happened 50 years ago in selma, alabama. I know you were there. Were going to take a quick break. More coming on. Were following breaking news out of madison, wisconsin, ferguson missouri. Standing by for the News Conference city officials ready to speak on the resignation of the police chief there in ferguson. Much more right after this. Checking your credit score is for chumps. I have great credit. How do you know . Duh. You know those change, right . Tattoos dont change. Try credit karma. Its free and you can see what your score is right now. Arent you a little bit curious . I just got my free credit score credit karma. Really free credit scores. Really free. I have got to update my ink. We are following breaking news. Were awaiting a live News Conference from ferguson missouri where the police chief, Thomas Jackson, has resigned. He is the latest in a series of ferg sop officials to step down in the wake of the Michael Brown shooting and the Justice Departments report that found a pattern and practice of discrimination against africanamericans in ferguson. Were back with the president and ceo of the naacp. What larger impact mr. Brooks might all of the ferguson fallout have on the future of young black teens across the country . Step back and give us a little Bigger Picture. Well i believe that theres a one positive lesson here. Namely that your actions as a citizen do make a difference because if we think about the fact that we had a young man lose who lost his life in ferguson, missouri. We had a group of young people i would call them practitioners of democracy who took their cell phones their mobile devices and took images of Michael Brown lying on the street and broadcast them around the world. They had an impact on the white, an impact on the department of justice. So i think thats a positive lesson. Beyond that i believe that whats happening in ferguson in madison, in Staten Island in cleveland and communities across the country is that not only africanamerican teenagers and young people but people of all colors ethnicities, hues and heritage are coming together to say that we believe that Police Officers should be protectors should be officers of the peace and we can, in fact have that. So the sense of urgency that we see at the Grassroots Level in communities all across the country is being felt not only among young africanamericans but by people of various backgrounds. So i believe that they are fuelling a fundamental change and shift in policing in this country. And so were moving beyond theory to practice beyond slogans about Community Policing to a serious commitment to Community Policing. That i think we can give credit to a group of young extraordinary young people who only a few months ago i will know were being maligned in terms of being looters and that kind of thing. I think the fact that you have a department of justice and the attorney general who essentially validating what they have been saying for months and what the naacp has been saying for years on end. Cornell William Brooks the president and ceo of the naacp. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. More breaking news coming into the situation room right now. Senior Administration Officials telling cnn the white house is aware of a alleged incident involving secret Service Agents. Another one. The Washington Post first reported two top agent are now under investigation for driving a government car into White House Security barricades last week after drinking at a late night party. Lets bring in the reporter who broke the story. Tell us what happened here carol. Wolf what happens here is that guys all got together and women presumably for a Retirement Party of a beloved see yet Service Official an agent, Downtown Washington bar. Late that night, wednesday, march 4, returned to the white house complex allegedly to get their cars. As you probably know, a lot of secret Service Agents particularly senior ones involved here have a government car that they drive back and forth to work. According to our sources, they were leaving the complex, and the officers for the secret service who monitor the safety of the white house complex and ultimately the president and his family felt that these two individuals may have been intoxicated intoxicated, were driving erratically, actioning er inging inging erratically. The secret service told us today they are confirming that there is an allegation or a series of allegations involving misconduct by these two individuals, very senior people and that they are investigating it and that director clancy has asked the department of Homeland Security to take over the investigation, in part because the guys are so high ranking. The two agents allegedly involved, i read the lead of your story posted at the Washington Post, one of them is a top member of the president s protective detail. Is that right . Thats correct. He is described as the deputy special agent in charge. He ranks basically as the number two. There are two people in that category. The number two for the president s detail. As we know this new director of the secret service, he used to be on the president s froekivefroek ive protective detail. Thats the elite of the elite, right . So this obviously is a huge embarrassment. Well it is the first test for director clancy. As you remember wolf because you reported on this a lot yourself an outside panel when things were going haywire for the secret service late last year all scuffty tysecurity problems, they said you need somebody with fresh eyes somebody not tied to this group and isnt wed to the old guard. Well the president chose to go with somebody he really trusted. He rejected that advice. He chose director clancy as his new leader for this agency. Clancy who has had 27 years in this agency and is friends with a lot of the people were talking about tonight and friends with connelly, has served with them we are seeing now the first test for the new director. And he seems to be taking it very seriously by basically saying my agency cant investigate this independently. I have to have an Inspector General outside of these walls look into what happened here. It follows that hugely embarrassing potentially Dangerous Development when there was a fence jumper. Were showing our viewers, reminding them on the north lawn of the white house, someone jumped over the fence from pennsylvania avenue not only got on the lawn the north lawn but actually ran inside the north end and got to the east room of the white house. It was shocking when you think about it. This latest incident that you are reporting on carol, let me be precise. Im pretty familiar with what the secret service does over there. The secret Service Agents who allegedly drove into this barrier, allegedly being intoxicated intoxicated, the Uniformed Secret Service officers there, lower ranking, they wanted a sobriety test to be done but higher ranking officials in the secret service said no sobriety test just sent them home . Is that what you understand happened . The investigation is by no means anywhere near finished. It is barely started. We dont know exactly what happened. But our sources have said to us that the uniform officers believed these two individuals very likely to be have been drinking. Thats a violation of being in a government car for the secret service. And that they were told to stand down when they were talking about a test and talking about potentially stopping them and writing up a report. And we just dont know until the investigation is complete what really happened who ordered what who told who to stand down. We just know that this is what the secret service is confirming, that they have gotten these allegations and theyre taking it seriously. Carol, thanks very much for joining us. We will stay on top of this story as well. We are standing by for a live News Conference from ferguson missouri. The police chief there resigned. We will go there live as soon as it begins. And an Early Morning mode. And a partly sunny mode. And an outside. To clear inside mode. Transitions ® signature ™ adaptive lenses. Now have chromea7 ™ technology. Making them more responsive than ever to changing light. So life can look more vivid vibrant. Why settle for a lens with just one mode . Experience life well lit ®. Speak with your eyecare professional to. Upgrade your lenses to transitions ® signature ™. We are standing by for a News Conference. There you see live pictures from ferguson missouri. We are following the breaking news the resignation of the police chief there, Thomas Jackson. The latest city official to step down following a blistering Justice Department report on the citys treatment of africanamericans. As we await the start of the News Conference lets bring in our panel. Joining us the president and ceo of the naacp cornell William Brooks along with john gaskin and antonio french don lemon and tom fuentes. Don lemon, i understand you got a statement from the police chief . Reporter i have. Its a remark. Have i been texting with him all day and throughout the week to figure out what hes going to do. He talked to me today about at least texted about what was happening. He was cagey but towards the end he said im resigning. We know he did go on to resign. I said what do you have to say . Do you have a quote . And he said don, im encouraged by the final paragraph conclusion of the doj report. He says we agree that ferguson can do the tough work to see this through and emerge the best small town it can be. He goes how is that . I said thats perfect for a statement. If you would like to say more, will take it. Earlier when i was on cnn, i said Going Forward, this police chief stepping down how he does it can set the precedent for what is to come whether this is a positive move or whether its met by resistance. Im encouraged to say he will help out and he is stepping down in a positive manner. What do you think, antonio french . Whats your reaction to whats going on over there in neighboring ferguson . Well i think the resignation of the chief and the city manager, frankly, were long overdue. In the case of the chief, many of us have been calling for his resignation for many months. In light of what we saw and what we read in the doj report it was a matter of time. In fact the resignation of the chief and the city manager are just the first of many steps that must be taken in order for ferguson to turn itself around and for the community to begin healing. Are you calling for the resignation of the mayor . I think it would be helpful. But in the system of government that ferguson has, the mayor is really just kind of a figurehead position. Its really the city manager that runs City Government. So many of those things that were outlined in the doj report fall under the responsibility of city manager and police chief. That being said there are statements that the chief im sorry, the mayor made over the last few months especially in august that i think kind of made the situation roomthe situation worse. The city manager now stepping down. He said that he respected the work of the department of justice, the work that they did but that his office in his words this is a quote. Never instructed the Police Department to target africanamericans. Any interferences from the report are simply false. You have taken a close look. Whats the reaction to all of this . Wolf as the old saying goes silence gives consent. To continue to allow that to happen for it to happen on his watch, as antonio mentioned, the city manager has a Critical Role when it comes to the management of revenue, personally those that are up under his leadership. So to allow that to go on under his leadership is unacceptable. And he did the right thing to step down. I think they are moving in the right direction doing that. And i think the mayor should step down. You know earlier this year or back in august he said that he didnt think that the city of ferguson had a racial problem. Well we obviously saw that it does. To be the mayor of a city that small and not realize that theres racial tension and so many issues to not be wise enough to admit that and to deal with those issues in the way that he should is unacceptable. I thought that the police chief was going to resign last week along with the mayor with the press conference that we saw right here on your show last week. So this is not really a surprise but its long overdue. The mayor says he is not planning on resigning. The police chief has resigned. The Lieutenant Colonel will assume the duties as acting chief of police while the city of ferguson undertakes what is described as a nationwide search for a new chief of police. Tom fuentes, you are a former fbi assistant director. Is it time to do in ferguson what was done in neighboring jennings missouri dissolve the police force there . I think that people that ask for that should be careful what they ask for. That means there will be no more local control over policing of that town. If it goes to st. Louis county they will have to contact the chief of st. Louis county Sheriffs Office to determine what kind of policing. The efforts are going to be very difficult. What i would hope is that the community and the Police Department Work Together and the unfortunate thing is that this mayor was elected in 2011 with 11. 7 of the eligible voters of ferguson coming out to vote. What i would hope is that the people work to take control of their own city, to get the people in there who will represent them and be what they want in terms of a government in terms of a Police Department. Giving the Police Department away to the Sheriffs Office i dont think is the right answer. Were going to take a quick break. Stand by for the start of the News Conference in ferguson missouri. Much more right after this. Most of the products we all buy are transported on container ships. Before a truck delivers it to your store, a container ship delivered it to that truck. Here in san diego, were building the first one ever to run on natural gas. Ships this big running this clean will be much better for the environment. Were proud to be a part of that. 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We have our analysts news makers standing by. We expect to hear from the mayor of ferguson. It looks like they are getting ready to bring in the mayor. Cornell William Brooks is with us he is the president and ceo of the naacp. What would you like to hear the mayor say . I would like to hear the mayor say that he recognizes and appreciates the degree of harm that has been imposed on the citizens of ferguson. That he takes responsibility for what the Justice Department uncovered in terms of unconstitutional unlawful conduct in terms of federal and undoubtedly state law. And that he is committed to reform. One of the best ways to demonstrate that is to step down because there is new reason to believe, given what we have seen over the course of undoubtedly years that he is in the position to lead reform effort. Our legal analyst, former federal prosecutor she is anxious to hear what the mayor has to say. Sunny, what do you want him to say . I think it would be appropriate for the mayor to resign. I predicted his resignation as well as the resignation of the police chief. You know the town of ferguson really at this point needs leadership. And i think it needs fresh leadership especially because we did hear mayor say there was no racial divide in ferguson that ferguson had transitioned from being a predominantly white middle class neighborhood to being a predominantly africanamerican middle class neighborhood without problems. He actually even said that ferguson was sort of the example of how do that well. So given the fact that he seemed to either have been in total i dont know disbelief that anything was going on or perhaps ignoring it. I think certainly he is not the appropriate person to be a leader. I also want to mention, wolf that we have talked a lot about the department of justice report and the 26 recommendations that the department of justice made. I think we should also make it clear that, you know recommendations is a very nice way of the department of justice saying if you do not agree to make these changes in addition to other changes, we will sue you. And so i think we will see more resignations we will see an a wholesale reform of the Police Department and the city. Quite frankly, i dont know that the Police Department can survive that kind of reform. Because that kind of reform costs money. And we know that the city cannot get that money by you know ticketing and policing for profit the citizens. And so i think what we will really see is perhaps a merging of Police Departments. I dont believe that we will see a ferguson stand alone Police Department. Were standing by for start of the News Conference. The mayor, we expect him to make a statement. The last time he did it he didnt answer reporters questions. We will see if he does this time. The other picture is from madison, wisconsin, where theres a demonstration under way right now protesting the shooting death by a Police Officer of 19yearold tony robinson. Were watching that story as well. Jeffrey toobin our senior legal analyst, is joining us. As far as i can tell correct me if im wrong, theres been a lot of accusations of wrongdoing of racist behavior all emails, bad judgment if you will in ferguson. But no one has been accused of any crime. A lot of resignations so far. The police chief resigning today. No one has been accused of a crime, right . I guess when you ask the question that way, it reminds me of george w. Bushs famous line the soft bigotry of low expectation expectations. The fact that Police Officers and government officials have not yet been accused of a crime, thats a pretty low bar for them to hop over to do their jobs. I think the record of this Police Department is appalling, is a discussgrace. These people should have been gone a long time ago. I disagree with tom in that i think this department should be abolished. I dont think its a problem for the community. You know the whole st. Louis area has way too many Police Departments that exist, mostly to support themselves and not the community. So the idea that this Police Department and these officials deserve any credit at all for leaving before the Justice Department kicks them out is i think, misguided. John you are a Young Community activist. You live in that part of the country. What are your friends, your associates our Young Community activists, what do they want to see happen . Well they want to see some real sincere reforms. They want to see people that police the community sincerely and not for profit. They want to see Police Officers that care about their wellbeing and dont necessarily care about keeping their jobs because of quotas for pulling people over. For far too long as Jeffrey Toobin mentioned, you have 80 something municipalityies here in st. Louis county and they are obviously not in existence to Police Communities and make sure that they are safe. They are there because they are selfserving. To help keep revenue up for those municipalities so they can continue to stay in business. So many young people are calling on these reforms so that there is better policing within our communities. The activists that you see out with the protests and the civil disobedience are not antipolice. They are merely for good policing and policing that is safe and policing that is fair. No one is asking that africanamericans receive special treatment. Were simply asking that these streetside executions that we saw in madison stop here in this country. Don lemon, you spent a lot of time in ferguson covering the stories in the aftermath of the shooting death of Michael Brown by Darren Wilson. These resignations that are taking place right now, is it sort of like at least some sort of justice that the brown family might feel . We wouldnt know about the racist behavior thats documenteddocument ed in that report if it had not been for that incident. Yeah. You know wolf thats a tough one. Having lost a loved one. I dont know what would make up for that. I think not for the brown family because if we look at what the Justice Department found, what the grand jury found, they found they exxon exonerated Darren Wilson. They found the hands up dont shoot, evidence shows that didnt happen. So in that case for brown family i dont think that this offers any sort of consolation. For community, for the Broader Community i think that it does because its what they have been saying all along. Theres a disconnect between with the Police Department and members of the community. Members of the community are only interactions with Police Officers negatively ones when they are coming in as the overseers, more than when the majority of the community is africanamerican and only three officers are africanamerican. I do want im not a legal person. But i want to comment on your question that you asked jeffrey about no one violated the law. According to the Justice Department report the entire Police Department violated at least the constitution by stopping people illegally. I think it says that they violated the the ferguson Police Officers routinely violate the Fourth Amendment in stopping people without reasonable suspicion, arresting them without probable cause and using Unreasonable Force against them. That seems like some breaking of the law to me at least. No one has been charged yet, at least yet with a crime. That was the point i was no one has been charged with a crime. Thats the point i was trying to make. I think jeffrey is right. Thats a pretty low bar for what we know. Were awaiting the mayor, hes supposed to walk in shortly. Hes going to be making a statement. I spoke earlier with benjamin crump. Hes the attorney for Michael Browns family. He said the family was relieved about the Justice Department report. They werent yet ready to talk about any resignation of the mayor there. They are obviously relieved by the resignation of the police chief. They want to wait and see. Thats understandable isnt it . Yeah i think so. At best the doj report provides some hope of transformations to come. The removing of these few individuals, so far i think we have five individual who is have been removed in ferguson is a small step but really we want to see transformations of the systems that have been allowed to exist for too long. Thats what the doj report outlines. The systems in place, not just individual actions. I hope the mayor acknowledges there are systems in place in ferguson and beyond that prey on africanamericans and prey or poor people. This isnt just the lone action offense a few individuals. Youre the president ceo of the naacp. You dont believe its an isolated incident. Theres other examples of this kind of stuff happening all over the country. Is that your sense . Absolutely. The report makes clear that there were 16 points of contact between the Municipal Courts the Police Department and the citizens. At every point you found these racial disparities. Wild racial disparities. When you look at Police Departments all across the country, the challenge the municipal find, the excessive use of force, this is not uncommon. The fact is we have models of policing that protect neither the community nor Police Officers nor assist in the prosecution of crime. This is a fundamental program, a National Program and not isolated to ferguson. If you talk to anyone in City Government i should say in State Government who is honest will say its not isolated to ferguson. Hold on for a moment. I want to explain what were seeing now. This is at the city municipal building. Some protesters have showed up. They are taking pictures of the protesters. Theres the delay in the arrival of the mayor getting ready to make a statement. Well standby. We dont know all the details of the protests that are going on but obviously theres a lot of concern in the aftermath of what is happened in ferguson. Tom, youre former assistant director of the fbi. They have some serious problems. This is a community about 70 africanamerican. Theyre looking for a new police chief. They have a acting police chief. They have to get their act together and got to do it quickly. Otherwise, theyll dissolve that whole police force and bring in outside law enforcement. I agree. Back to jeffreys point about the recommendation to dissolve it, i would like to hear what the people of jennings what they think now. How did it work there . I dont think weve heard enough about that as an example. If that worked well and the people are happy with that i could be inclined to change my mind and support it. Its happened in other cities. How long does it take for a city to get its act together and move on . Many place it was a budget issue. They couldnt afford the policing anymore. Hold on a minute. Here is the mayor. Hes just walked in. Good afternoon. The city of ferguson and police chief Thomas Jackson have agreed to a mutual separation which involves the Police Chiefs resignation from the city of ferguson. The chiefs resignation is effective march 19th 2015. This was a mutual decision both by the chief of police and the citys administration. Chief jackson will receive a severance payment with Health Insurance for one year. Lieutenant cornell al will attend the duties effective thursday march 19th, 2015. Well begin conducting a nationwide search for a new police chief. One week ago today, the stipofcity of ferguson received its final report from the department of justice. The city is committed to addressing each item outlined in the report. Its the City Councils goal to continue to be transparent as we strooi strive to become a vibrant and diverse community. I would like to say this to ferguson residents, Business Owners and to the entire country, the city of ferguson looks to become an example of how a community can move forward in the face of adversity. We are committed to keeping our Police Department and having one that exhibits the highest degree of professionalism and fairness. Ill open it up for questions. How much is that severance package . I believe his annual salary is 96,000 somewhere in that range. Its roughly 100,000. What can you tell us about the acting police chief . Has he had much interaction with the residents of ferguson . Hes new, rather new to the city of ferguson. He did start in august right before the events in august. I know he has, obviously, over the last six months spent a great deal of time working with the people of ferguson and our Police Department. Our officers have a high degree of respect for the professionalism and his abilities. Were blessed at this point to have him able to take the reigns while we search for a new police chief. How long will you be discussing with Police Jackson the terms of his departure and does a year severance for a fiveyear employee seem like a lot to you . Some of those conversations are employee discussions and personnel discussions. I think its fair to say private industries you would get similar treatment. Is he permitted to stay until the Justice Department came in can you tell us about with them arriving to did he voluntarily leave . I think weve all been very candid for the last several months that we have explored every option. How we try to bring the Community Together so that we can move forward. The chief is the kind of honorable man that you dont have to go to. He comes to you when he knows that this is something that we have to seriously discuss. After a lot of soul searching and its very hard for him to leave and us to have him leave, he felt it was the best way forward doing this not only for the city but the men and women who served under him because he is and he has been committed to making sure the city of ferguson keeps the Police Department. The city of ferguson has been committed to that as well. That was a lot of it were kind of his thought process and when he decided to make an exit. [ inaudible question ] those are recommendsations from the Justice Department. The city is looking at those. We are engaging consultants to tell us what that price tag might be and what are those try to tell us what is realistically what we need to be working on. Well keep all that in mind as we go forward. [ inaudible question ] weve already engaged several experts on these issues. Rough estimates and things Going Forward i would say that we believe that its something that we can do. Were going to continue our coverage. Brianna filling in for erin Burnett Burnett picks up our coverage right now. Right now good evening. Im brianna. Lets go back to ferguson missouri where the mayor has announced that police chief Thomas Jackson has resigned. Absolutely. You talk and evaluate the job he did as police chief after you read that doj report that scathing report about how he ran the Police Department . We continue to go through that report and talk about where the break down was. The chief being an honorable man decided we needed to talk about the way moving forward was with someone else. He left. That is not to say