Missouri Governor Ready to Call National Guard
BURNETT: Tonight the governor of Missouri said he will take action. Speaking to the press today he says he's willing to call the National Guard to Ferguson if needed. The grand jury could decide any day whether to charge Officer Darren Wilson for killing 18-year-old Michael Brown. And local police are outfitted with riot gear. Sara Sidner is OUTFRONT in Ferguson.</s>SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the grand jury announcement on whether to indict Officer Darren Wilson grows every nearer, the Missouri governor sent out a message out to everyone, law enforcement is ready.</s>GOV. JAY NIXON (D), MISSOURI: If folks cross that safety line on property or on person, we will use the full power of the law to keep peace.</s>SIDNER: The governor says he will send in the National Guard if required.</s>NIXON: When we make the determination that the National Guard is necessary to provide support, I'm prepared to issue that order.</s>SIDNER: We've talked to dozens of people from pastors, to residents, to protesters to police and they all say the city is on pins and needles waiting for the grand jury's decision and everyone is planning. Not just here in Ferguson, but in the entire St. Louis metropolitan area. (</s>Voice-over): The</s>DEBRA KENNEDY, RESIDENT AND PROTESTER: It's probably going to be a little anger, a little tension. There are going to be a few bad apples that do some looting, but my position is you can always replace a window, you can replace things, but you can't replace human lives. So as long as no lives get lost and if any lives are lost, it's probably going to be at the hands of the police officers and then that would just cause more problems.</s>SIDNER: But police said they have been diligent over the past 90 days, meeting with the community to make safety for all a priority.</s>CHIEF JON BALMER, ST. LOUIS COUNTY POLICE: We have instances where officers have been injured. We have instances where they've been hit with rocks in the face and different things like that. So we're going to do what we can to protect them but at the same time we try to always portray a posture of appropriateness to the situation that we're faced with.</s>SIDNER: While the community plans, Michael Brown's family was in Geneva speaking to the U.N. on police brutality. They have been calling asking for a peaceful reaction to any decision but if there is no indictment, they told CNN they will join protesters in the streets once again .</s>MICHAEL BROWN SR., MICHAEL BROWN'S FATHER: So the fight would not be over. We understand that our son is gone, but the movement will be that we're trying to make sure that this doesn't happen to anyone else.</s>SIDNER: And we should be clear that, you know, almost every day there has been protests. In fact every single day for 91 days now. And they have been mostly peaceful. But the police say they are preparing for the worst just like everyone else in Ferguson. They had 1,000 officers taking 5,000 hours more of training time -- Erin.</s>BURNETT: That is incredible. Sarah, thank you. And I want to bring in our legal analyst, Mark O'Mara, along with our political commentary, Van Jones. All right, Mark, let me start with you . St. Louis County, the police department, has been stacking up on equipment. We now understand the hundred thousand dollars worth of riot gear, pepper spray, rubber bullets. There was violence this summer. Is this just the smart thing to do, be on the safe side, be sure you're armed and have riot gear?</s>MARK O'MARA, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I think they do need to be on the safe side but they're the professionals and the way they handled it the first time, I think, ended up causing more problems. They have to be -- react with a great deal of restraint. If there's not an indictment there's going to be an intense reaction from the protesters, and quite honestly, I think the police are going to have to let them let off some steam. React maybe more than they would otherwise allow, because what we don't want that to happen is for that to turn into an event where there is more violence and more injury to somebody on the street.</s>BURNETT: Right. Because these things -- obviously when people are -- there's passion, if something starts it's very hard to stop it. Van, Michael Brown's parents were adamant today that they will -- that they believe Darren Wilson will be indicted. I mean, that is what they believe without question. Obviously most of the reporting out there as they indicated that that may not be the case. But here is what they said here on CNN about that earlier today.</s>BROWN: We're trying to figure out why was he playing part of a judge, a prosecutor and an executioner that day, that moment he interacted with our son. He had no right to address the law the way that he did.</s>BURNETT: Then they said they will protest if Wilson is not indicted. Is that something that will calm or incite?</s>VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, they have the right to peacefully -- peacefully assemble and so does everyone. So -- but why would people be upset about the indictment? You have to look at the facts of what is going on here. This is the most -- this is a circus. The district attorney, rather than charging the officer or not charging the officer, instead did something we've never seen before. He gave it to a grand jury but didn't give the grand jury any instructions. So basically you usually say well, listen, we want manslaughter, we want second-degree, we want trespassing or something, but no instructions to the grand jury. Here is the facts, good luck. That has sent a signal to the entire community that this is not a -- this thing is being handled in a very, very strange way. Then they kick the can down the road for weeks and weeks and weeks and so there is no trust. Now the governor should be ashamed of himself because rather than talk about, I'm going to send in the National Guard, the governor should send in a special prosecutor to do a professional job.</s>BURNETT: All right, let me --</s>V. JONES: There is no confidence that anybody has or should have in this kangaroo circus process.</s>BURNETT: All right, Mark, you've been shaking your head as Van was saying that the grand jury was sort of epically a fail.</s>O'MARA: Look, we have some concerns but the criminal justice is still the best in the world. People are going to complain no matter what happens. Had the prosecutor made the decision there would have been complaint that it didn't go to the grand jury. We have 12 people from the community, a cross-section of the community, who has spent months and months. There would been complaints if they didn't spend enough time on the case. Now that they're spending enough time, my understanding, and we don't know yet, is that this grand jury has heard every piece of evidence, not only that the prosecutor could give but even the defense and the Martin family --</s>V. JONES: I've got to bump in.</s>O'MARA: Hold on. Hold on.</s>V. JONES: You are not -- you are not being accurate about what the community -- the community said from the very beginning they wanted a special --</s>O'MARA: Go right ahead.</s>V. JONES: The community says from the very beginning -- let's be accurate here. From the very beginning they wanted a special prosecutor from the governor because there is no trust.</s>O'MARA: Right.</s>V. JONES: And every single decision the prosecutor has made --</s>O'MARA: And the special prosecutor is only appointed --</s>O'MARA: Only appointed if there's good reason. What we can't -- what we can't do is just say because a segment of the population wants one thing that doing the opposite, which is a normal course of conduct is wrong. Why don't we wait?</s>V. JONES: Is this normal, sir?</s>O'MARA: Yes, actually it is.</s>O'MARA: A grand jury is a normal --</s>V. JONES: Not give charges to a grand jury?</s>O'MARA: Sir --</s>BURNETT: So wait. Let's hit this issue. Let's hit this one issue, Mark. To Van's question, to not give directions, charges to the grand jury.</s>V. JONES: That's never happened.</s>BURNETT: Did that happen? Did that ever happen, Mark? Should it have happened?</s>O'MARA: Well -- well, first of all, we don't know yet that it did not happen. What we do know is that they are going to be instructed on all of the law. That is the only way they can make a decision on the law. So the suggestion that they were given facts and no law, I would contend, is completely inaccurate and only portends greater mistrust in a system that we might -- should believe is going to work. So let's wait and see what they did. It's a great decision that they're going to be transparent with all the transcripts so that we can look at it. But to make a decision now that they were just given facts without law is not only an absurd suggestion but it also doesn't follow with what supposedly has happened already.</s>BURNETT: Van, why wouldn't you have a grand jury just to look at it and make a decision to charge since that is what's done in much of the country?</s>V. JONES: Listen. If you're going to have a grand jury, then you've got to give the grand jury instructions. And listen, the whole joke has always been about a grand jury. You can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich because there's nobody putting anything back on the other side, and in this situation, it's the first time we've seen this kind of abuse. Now here's the reality. We have three levels of government. Federal, state and local. The federal government is doing what it can. Nobody had confidence from the beginning in the local. Where is Governor Nixon? Why is he talking about sending in troops when he has not even sent in an investigator, a prosecutor on his own to find out what's going on there. There is a presumption that African-American are going to riot just because they don't get their wear. We usually don't get our way but there is usually a fair process and that is not happening in Ferguson.</s>BURNETT: All right. Thanks very much to both of you. We'll have you back. OUTFRONT next. A woman falls to her death. She was hiking in the Rockies. She fell off -- fell may not be the right word. She fell off a clip because now her husband is charged in her murder. And now investigators are looking at the death of his first wife. Plus new details tonight on the death of Robin Williams. Did a common disease that millions of Americans have drive him to suicide?