Michael Brown, Eric Garner's Families Condemn Cop Killings
CUOMO: The person who gunned down two New York city police officers was a deranged gunman. He says he was avenging the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner. Now the families of both of those men were quick to denounce that motivation. Here is Eric Garner's mother condemning all violence in her son's name.</s>GWEN CARR, ERIC GARNER'S MOTHER: Standing with us, we want you to not use Eric Garner's name for violence because we are not about that. These two police officers lost their life senselessly.</s>CUOMO: Joining us now is Benjamin Crump; he's the attorney for Michael Brown's family. Counselor, thank you for joining us. The family put out a statement that we will put up on the screen for people to read obviously saying that the violence is rejected. We reject any kind of violence directed toward law enforcement. Can't be tolerated. We must work together to bring peace to our communities. And other than the incident with the stepfather of Michael Brown, there's been a consistent message that what we want is protests, what we want is change, as the Brown family. We do violence -- want violence or rioting. What does the family make of this situation?</s>BENJAMIN CRUMP, BROWN FAMILY ATTORNEY: It's tragic, Chris, and they reject it as they have rejected it yesterday. They reject it today. They will reject all forms of violence in the future. They really want to express their heartfelt sympathy because it's Christmas time and it's just tragic. All our hearts break for the families of these police officers. Protesters, all the protesters that were heartbroken for the deaths of Ferguson and Staten Island, are heartbroken over the deaths of these police officers. This is just a terrible, terrible thing.</s>CUOMO: Look, it's easy to dismiss the man who did this. He had problems. He had a police record. His mother said she was afraid of him. He will probably wind up having some history of mental illness that was ignored by people in his inner circle. And yet the tone that we have seen that's become somewhat pervasive in the last couple of months, do you think it is time to check that tone, for someone like Reverend Sharpton and other leaders of the protest to come forward and clarify what they mean by what they want to see change and not direct hostility towards police but focus on policy?</s>CRUMP: I don't know civil rights leaders that have talked about doing anything irresponsible like this here. Everybody has tried to promote positive change. Trying attribute the senseless acts of violence of this one individuals onto thousands of people who protest peacefully all across America is analogous to trying to contribute the attacks of Lee Harvey Oswald, when he assassinated President Kennedy, to Martin Luther King in the civil rights non-violent protests. That's just ridiculous. We need to use this as an opportunity to elevate the conversation as a society to pay the proper legacy to all of those individuals we lost to this senseless violence, and especially with these two innocent police officers, to say their legacy is we're going to do better as a society to prevent anybody from having something like this happen again.</s>CUOMO: Right. That is the right message, Counselor, obviously. But there's a different perception out there as well. Listen to the head of the union for the New York police department and his feelings about what's been going on.</s>PATRICK LYNCH, PATROLMAN'S BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT: There is blood on many hands tonight. Those that incited violence on this street under the guise of the protests that tried to tear down what New York City police officers did every day. That blood on the hands starts on the steps of City Hall in the office of the mayor.</s>CUOMO: Do you think that some of the rhetoric went too far?</s>CRUMP: I do. And I think it was Mayor Guiliani who said that's not the right tone as well. So we have to use these watershed moments in our modern day history to elevate the conversation, the leaders have to lead to bring people together, not to divide people. And we have to say that we respect all life. The tragedy in Ferguson, the tragedy Staten Island, we don't want to see those repeated out we want to see the policies and procedures. But the tragedy that happened in Brooklyn over the weekend, we want to say to the citizens everywhere that we respect our police officers. We understand they have a very difficult job. And we want citizens to understand that it's tough and we want to make sure that no acts of violence are brought against the police. And in the same tone we want them to use their training and their supervision to make sure no sense of violence is brought against citizens. It's a two-way street. We all have to work together to make it a better America, and we use these tragedies, Chris, to hopefully pay legacy to the individuals, to say we are going to do better.</s>CUOMO: Do you think that the protesters should calm down for the period of the funerals and allowing there to be some healing in the city right now?</s>CRUMP: Certainly, I think the protesters have been very respectful. I got a pit in the bottom of my stomach when I heard about the slaying of these two officers, just like I got a pit in the bottom of my stomach when I heard about Michael Brown laying on the ground at Canfield community and I watched the video of Eric Garner. This is hurtful to anybody that says they love America, any of these tragedies. And the protesters, I am sure, will be as respectful and mourning the loss of these officers as they were respectful and mourning the loss of these citizens. You know, it's just sickening when you have these violent acts happening over and over again. And Dr. King says that hate can't drive out hate; only love can conquer this hate and this senseless killing. We have to, as a society, say we're going to respect each other --the community respect the police officers and the police officers respect the community. I know there are so many people who marched in protest also laying flowers at the memorial in New York. So we're not isolated from one another. They're not incompatible saying that we want to respect all life.</s>CUOMO: It is sad that a community that had become part of the division in the city about the protests and the needs for what has to change and who's at fault was very much together last night. But it is sad it took a tragedy like this to bring them together, but at least they were together. Benjamin Crump, thank you very much for offering your perspective on the show as always.</s>CRUMP: Thank you for having me.</s>CUOMO: Alisyn?</s>CAMEROTA: OK Chris, we have a fascinating segment coming up. 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