MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Freddie Gray and the 2015 Baltimore Riots

Interview

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ROBERTS: ....I want to bring in the conversation now, Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger
from Maryland of the 2nd District.

Congressman, I know you had an opportunity to hear what the Mayor was
saying and the city police commissioner. How does that make you feel
knowing that there has been concern about this type of activity moving from
Baltimore City and the Baltimore County? Do you feel they have it under
control?

REP. DUTCH RUPPERSBERGER, (D) MARYLAND: Well, first thing, let`s talk
about the city. I was born in this city. I went to high school in this
city. I raised my family and we are in the area that -- area I represent
is surrounds this city but also I have a part of the city, so (inaudible)
harden.

But when I went to bed last night, it`s all the fires and by the way, a lot
of people thought by putting the fires away, they were -- the whole city
was on fire then really it was. And when I woke up this morning and by the
way, you saw the people of Baltimore who live in the communities, they were
affected last night. You know, it was very hurting to see them cleaning up
saying "this is our city" and that`s what Baltimore is about.

You know, you going to knock this down, we`re going to get right back up
and we`re going to take back our city away from those hoodlums who (just
perished) who we are and what we are in this city.

I think that that now that we have the reinforcements that are needed as
extremely important because, you know, when you do break the law, when you
do attack police officers, you attack citizens, you attack people`s
property, law enforcement must standup, and they must arrest, and stop it.
Because if you don`t, if you on the fire and it grows and grows, and I
think now, that those individuals who did those things understand that
there is consequences and that`s what we need to do, not only in Baltimore
but in the entire country because protecting innocent citizens and their
families is one of the most important because that we do.

ROBERTS: Congressman, I think most people will agree with you about the
police and the honor of the badge to protect and to serve.

The catalyst of all of these, it seems to have been born out of the
injuries that Freddie Gray allegedly sustained while in police custody
after his arrest on April the 12th and then his death a week later.

Are you satisfied with the way that the Mayor and the Baltimore City police
had handled their investigation and the information that they`ve been
putting out to the public?

RUPPERSBERGER: Well, let me say this, you`ve raised -- yes, you have
raised two issues. First, we need to talk about where we got here and
secondly, about how the mayor handled it. But the Mayor is in top position
and she is in a position trying to do what she feel that is right with her
team.

Now, I`m going to let other people make judgments on that. But I want to
talk about is how we move forward and how we fix this. When you talked
about Freddie Gray and how this started. There`s no question, there`s a
lack of trust between a lot of people especially in the Baltimore community
and the city police department.

And what we have to do there is to make sure that we evaluate all the facts
and data not only on this case but, you know, what goes back as far as the
issues and how they`re -- had been other problems in this regard.

The good news is that we have federal state and local government, and the
Justice Department is also coming in to make an evaluation to make
recommendations to make it different.

But what it really coming back to, I was a former county executive at
Baltimore County which is my jurisdiction is around the state, it`s larger
than the city. And the issues is that, there needs to be trust and
developed relationship between our police department and the people who
live in the area and if it`s not that trust that the police department has
some excellent people and this man and woman put their lives in the line...

ROBERTS: Yeah.

RUPPERSBERGER: ... everyday but if they are not putting...

ROBERTS: But if you will recommend building trust -- Sir, if you recommend
building trust what would say to the people in Baltimore City that are
aggravated that they don`t understand why a 25-year-old healthy man was
taken into custody by police for what they thought was a reasonable
suspicion and is then dead a week later after being in their custody for 45
minutes?

RUPPERSBERGER: And that`s our legitimate cause and that`s one of the
reasons that we have the issue we had now. But I would say is that the
Justice Department is involved, you have a new attorney general, Loretta
Lynch, who is coming to Baltimore and by the way our congressional
delegation is having a meeting with her in about 15 minutes to talk about
this issue, and talk about status of the investigation.

And when that investigation is complete, there will be no rocks that are
not -- and we do not look under. We`ve want to make sure that we get the
facts of the data because there`s so much stake here for the credibility of
Baltimore, of our police department, and also the perception of the people
that they can feel safe and look at our police department as police
department is going to protect people, and also in the service business to
be able to work with the communities not just to go after people in the
communities. And that`s perception that has to be overcome.

ROBERTS: Finally, Sir, last but not the least for the counties that your
represent in the 2ns District outside of Baltimore City, do you feel that
you can let those residents know that they can rest easy tonight that the
suspicion or the fact that there was some social media for purge to move
into the county, that people are safe, that they don`t need to worry about
that.

RUPPERSBERGER: Well, you always worry when you see what`s on the media. I
can say this, you know, as a former county executive and I was a former
prosecutor, I know the Baltimore County Police Department, I know
(inaudible) County Police Department (inaudible). I know these police
departments, and they all worked together as a team. And a lot of these
police officers are working to help the city right now.

But the bottom line is that we have backup, that we have our National Guard
who is excellent, over 5,000 National Guard led by Major Singh who have a
lot of confidence in.

You know, we need to restore order, and that what`s happening right now.
And also, my specialty is intelligence. We need to get intelligence to
make sure we can protect in any situations because there`s always going to
be crime unfortunately. But when it comes to rioting and looting, I feel
very, very strong with purge thing that we don`t have any intelligence that
this going to happen in other areas. But if it is, we will standup and we
will stop it immediately. That we need to make sure that people know they
can be safe in their homes. They`re not -- they call law enforcement and
we have the backups now.

ROBERTS: Yeah.

RUPPERSBERGER: We have more backups now in this area when this issue of
what`s happening in the city, and we`ve had, probably -- 1968 when we had
our unfortunate riots then after...

ROBERTS: The riots then. Yes.

RUPPERSBERGER: Yeah.

ROBERTS: Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger, Sir, thanks for making time for
me. I really appreciate it. We`ll going to let you get off. See you here
for the meeting that you said you have...

(CROSSTALK)

RUPPERSBERGER: ... take advantage of what we have to move forward.

ROBERTS: Yes, sir.

RUPPERSBERGER: Bye. Take care.

ROBERTS: Thank you, sir. Take care.

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