[Jim Sciutto, Cnn Anchor:] Very good Monday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.
[Poppy Harlow, Cnn Anchor:] And I'm Poppy Harlow. Just a few hours from now, the ex-Minneapolis police officer charged with second-degree murder in the killing of George Floyd will face a judge for the first time. This comes at the same time that a public memorial for Floyd is set to take place in his hometown of Houston. Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden is set to privately meet with Floyd's family just before that service. In the two weeks since George Floyd's death, thousands across the country a march for justice in his name demanding significant police reform and overnight some results.
[Sciutto:] In an unprecedented move, the Minneapolis City Council has vowed to defund and go beyond that, dismantle the city's police department. They're promising to replace it with a new system of public safety. It's a remarkable move there, unclear how broad the support for that kind of change is. We're going to discuss what that means in moments. In the wake of all of this, a brand new CNN poll shows troubling numbers for President Trump on his handling of Floyd's death as well as the coronavirus pandemic, as well as his head-to-head matchup with Joe Biden. We're covering all the angles this morning. First let's get to Josh Campbell who is in Minneapolis. Josh, so tell us, what are we expecting for the officer who kneeled on George Floyd's neck here in the hearing today? What progress today?
[Josh Campbell, Cnn Correspondent:] Yes, well, this will be his first appearance, Jim. He will be appearing by video link to one of the courtrooms behind me, where a judge will hear from him and his defense counsel as well as prosecutors. Now we know that he's been charged with second-degree murder in the killing of George Floyd. Prosecutors allege that he killed Floyd without intent but while committing a felony, that felony being assault. Of course we remember that dramatic cell phone video footage with Officer Chauvin's knee on George Floyd's neck. And we expect to get a sense of what his defense strategy will be. We know that at the time, the Minneapolis Police Department allowed for the use of neck restraints if a subject is resisting. The question will be, was George Floyd resisting at the moment that happened? That will be the start. Of course we've also heard from the two officers, at least two of them blaming Chauvin and his seniority. We will wait and see what Chauvin's strategy will be. We hope to get more here in just a couple of hours.
[Harlow:] And Josh, could you also speak to what happens next where you have nine of the 13 Minneapolis City councilmembers voting to not only, you know, defund but disband the police force entirely. Legally, can they do it? Are there any legal, you know, arguments against it? Where does it really go from here in actuality?
[Campbell:] Well, a lot of questions are being raised. Now typically the police department is under the purview of the city's mayor but I spoke to the city council president here yesterday who said that because the police department is currently under investigation by the state's human rights commission, that that gives the city council more latitude in overseeing this police department. Of course she told me that she now has a nine-person veto proof majority to work to in her words dismantle this police department. She also spoke today with CNN and she essentially said that the police department here is not effectively serving the public. Let's listen.
[Lisa Bender, Minneapolis City Council Member:] This system isn't working for too many of our neighbors for too long. Our reform efforts have failed and we have done many, many attempts at reform and new leadership in the department and many things, and we still see this tragic death. And so I think the wake up of our community is what's driving the city council's announcement yesterday.
[Campbell:] Now what this is, is an idea. We haven't seen a plan actually set forth, a lot of questions about, you know, who would patrol the community? Who would stop crime? A lot of questions raised by this plan. We're asking for not only additional details from the city council but also from the mayor's office, but again it's an idea we haven't seen before dismantling a police agency without answering the question what comes next Jim and Poppy.
[Harlow:] Josh Campbell, appreciate the reporting. Thanks a lot. Let's talk about all of this with Joey Jackson, criminal defense attorney and CNN legal analyst. Let's start with today in court. We're going to see ex-officer Chauvin, Joey, for the first time. What's interesting is the three other officers here charged have given at least some of their defense through their attorneys. We have not heard any defense argument from Chauvin. Does that change today?
[Joey Jackson, Cnn Legal Analyst:] Good morning, Poppy. It may very well not change today. I wouldn't look for a lot in that courtroom. Remember, it's a first appearance. There's no jury there. A judge will preside. There's no discovery exchange, meaning exchanging of documents as to police reports or anything else. It's an initial appearance to determine his custodial status. Is $1 million appropriate? Is it not? Does he have an attorney? Does he understand his rights moving forward? And so I don't anticipate that there would be a defense laid out. It would certainly be earth-shattering news if there was. I think the defense strategy here, you know, revealing it this early could be problematic as well. I as a defense attorney am very interested in learning what that strategy will be.
[Harlow:] So the attorneys of two of the officers, two of the other defendants, Thomas Lane and Alexander Kueng, who face aiding and abetting charges, blame Chauvin, right, and a lack of training, saying essentially they are rookies and this guy, you know, they knew a veteran, he carried it our anyways. The attorney for them said that they told Chauvin, quote, "You shouldn't do this," and attorney for the other officer, Officer Ted Thao says he cooperated with investigators before the arrest of Chauvin. How uncommon is it to see a breaking of the ranks here among these officers in terms of basically saying look, it's not on us, it's on our fellow officer?
[Jackson:] Yes, you know, Poppy, from an actual in court perspective, once you become a defendant, it is not uncommon at all for there to be finger-pointing. We can have the debate as to whether the blue wall of silence is broken.
[Harlow:] Right.
[Jackson:] As to whether the police
[Harlow:] Joey, today in just a few minutes at 9:30 a.m. Eastern we will see if the Supreme Court takes up several key cases for their next term, among those they could decide to take up are ones on qualified immunity, that provides a lot of protection for police and makes it very hard to charge to convict police officers. Justice Clarence Thomas on the right and Justice Sonia Sotomayor on the left have both said in recent years we the high court need to re- look at this issue. Do you think the court takes up at least one of these cases?
[Jackson:] I certainly would hope so. So just as a matter of clarification, Poppy, when we're talking about qualified immunity, we're talking about protecting officers from civil lawsuits and monetary damages. Qualified immunity does not enter into the courtroom as it relates to pursuing a criminal case. So with regard to an officer's criminal actions, we know it's hard to prosecute, right, you look at Eric Gardner as it relates to Staten Island, I can't breathe, no indictment. You look at Philando Castile there in Minnesota, on a car stopped, he's shot. He is indicted but he's acquitted at trial. Moving away from that, Poppy, though, is the doctrine you're speaking of, of qualified immunity. That relates to when you're suing officers. And what it essentially says is officers have a lot of discretionary functions, and the law will respect those discretionary functions unless you establish that the officer violated some very clear, right, clear statutory or constitutional right. You might think that's very simple to establish but it has been shown not to be. The other thing I'll say, Poppy, this is a doctrine that's established by the court. If we really want to get a grapple on this, Congress can pass a law today, right, where it says that this doctrine is no longer applicable. In fact, I should say that there is a representative in Congress at this point.
[Harlow:] Justin Amash.
[Jackson:] Exactly. Yes.
[Harlow:] Yes. All right, Joey, we appreciate your expertise. We'll see what happens in court today. Thanks a lot. Jim?
[Jackson:] Thank you, Poppy.
[Sciutto:] Well, around the same time that Derek Chauvin appears in court a public memorial for George Floyd will take place in Houston. Joining us now on the phone is the police chief for the Houston Police Department, Art Acevedo. Chief Acevedo, thanks very much for taking the time this morning. First, can you tell us what is planned this morning to honor George Floyd?
[Chief Art Acevedo, Houston Police Department:] Well, good morning, thanks for having me on. We have all of our officers who are out and visible and making sure that we can move his body to and from the church, make sure we provide security for the family and make sure that their movements are safe. So we've got all hands on deck. We look forward to a really good day of honoring the family and supporting the family and but the one thing is it's very hot here today so we hope that people know that they need to have water with them and patience.
[Sciutto:] You've been a very public voice throughout both responding to anger, disappointment in police behavior, talking openly about change. You're aware now of a movement among some to defund police departments, take away, though, not as radical as what Minneapolis City Council is talking about to disband but take money away from police departments. I wonder what your reaction is to that? Is that the right move now?
[Acevedo:] You know, look, I think that's a false equivalence being presented. You know, what we showed during COVID is this country has the ability to spend trillions of dollars when COVID was impacting the entire nation. Well, if it would spend that kind of money on dealing with the socioeconomics that end up with causing problems for a lot of our communities especially these communities of color we wouldn't need to defund. I really believe that you start off by investing in these communities because unfortunately the 1.2 million calls that we had here in Houston last year, dynamic, challenging circumstances, disproportionately in communities of color. And I can tell you, that there will be a very loud backlash from the folks that live in the communities, want good policing in the communities and any effort to remove good police officers would be met with backlash in a lot of our neighborhoods.
[Sciutto:] Beyond funding, there's of course the discussion of legal changes. As you know, the Trump administration ended federal oversight of local police departments by things such as consent decrees, agreements between police and their communities. I wonder if from your perspective that should be reimplemented to have some federal oversight to prevent not all police forces but ones where it's identified that you have issues that there would be federal solutions to those problems.
[Acevedo:] Yes, I think from my lens, having gone through and led our department in Austin back in 2008-2009 with the Obama administration's review of our department, we have to be thoughtful even in that regard because what happens if it's not done right, you create a cottage industry of people making a lot of money as monitors, so I think it has to be done in a way where the government itself is the one are the ones monitoring and implementing the change across the nation, and beyond that, we need to have a conversation as to what are the critical policies, where it's use of force. We have 2020 to think about still departments that allow manipulation of the neck. That really checking a lot of special presence profession. So we have a lot to do, but we want to be thoughtful. We need to take a deep breath and then put together good road map that is a win-win for the people we serve and our police departments.
[Sciutto:] Yes. One of the things contained in legislation today, a proposal from Hakim Jeffries, is a ban on the use of that chokehold. Chief Art Acevedo, thanks so much for taking the time and we wish you good luck today in the city of Houston.
[Acevedo:] Thank you, have a great week.
[Harlow:] New York City, of course it has been the epicenter really of the outbreak of the COVID pandemic in the United States. But today is a major day, we're entering phase one of the state and the city's reopening plan. Let's go to my colleague Alexandra Field. She joins us right here in New York. So how is today different than yesterday?
[Alexandra Field, Cnn Correspondent:] Look, it represents an achievement in what has been the epicenter of this pandemic here in the U.S. We are now seeing the lowest number of new cases and the lowest number of deaths since the beginning of the pandemic and that means that people in this city can start to take some small steps to move forward, Poppy. You're seeing some 400,000 people who can go back to work today. They work in construction jobs, they work in retail jobs. They work in manufacturing jobs. A lot of them will be riding the bus or the subway, where they're handing out some two million masks for people who can't do social distancing on those subway cars. You're going to see some of these stores behind me opening up this morning. It won't be business as usual, not at all, but you can go in and do some in-store pickup and you can do some curbside pickup, so these are the first steps that hopefully we do more steps, Poppy.
[Harlow:] You know, as we look at a reopening and hopefully things getting better here, I think we can't forget the data, Alex, one that shows us about the fact that communities of color, blacks and Latinos, in New York City died at double the rate of whites.
[Field:] Yes. Double the rate right here in New York City and you know, Poppy, for the course of this pandemic, we've been talking about the fact that it has disproportionately affected people of color throughout the country. Now you're seeing exactly how disproportionately it affected people here in New York City. You can't ignore the backdrop that we're learning these numbers again, which is the fact that you've had thousands of people in the streets in the last week protesting racial inequality, protesting racism, protesting racial injustice in this country and in this city, and this all dovetails together because the fact that people are out protesting these inequalities is also causing some concern for officials because they fear that these good numbers that we're seeing in New York now could tick up. That's why they want to do a lot of testing and some close monitoring. They're offering some 35,000 tests a day. They want protesters and demonstrators to be the people who are in there getting the tests now so we can do the contact tracing and keep the numbers on the downward trajectory Poppy.
[Poppy Harlow, Co-anchor, Newsroom:] OK, Alexandra Field, thank you for the reporting. Jim?
[Jim Sciutto, Co-anchor, Newsroom:] Still to come this hour, scenes like this one played out over the weekend as thousands gathered peacefully to protest. Question, could this lead to a spike in coronavirus infections?
[Harlow:] And a new CNN poll this morning shows the president's approval rating has taken a hit amid the coronavirus pandemic and protest surrounding the death of George Floyd, all while Democratic contender Joe Biden adds to his lead.