found that some of the top stock picks include general electric, wells fargo and microsoft just to name a few. as a general principle they like investing in real estate, in big oil, in securities, in big banks. in fact, investing in many of the businesses that they're so often called on to investigate and regulate for the rest of us. wolf. >> tom foreman, thanks. that's it for me. thanks for watching. "earn burnett "out front" starts right now. next, breaking news. poison water. >> do not drink it. do not cook with it. do not wash clothes in it. do not take a bath in it. >> hundreds of thousands of americans warned not to drink their water. the situation getting more dire by the hour. plus, new developments in the chris christie bridge scandal. a huge paper trail. more than 2,000 pages of documents released today, but is there a smoking gun? and the so-called thug baby.

the child's mother speaks out for the first time. >> they were worried about the video because he had a clean diaper, the house was clean. and kids cuss. every kid does it. >> let's go "out front." good evening, everyone. i'm don lemon in for erin burnett. a state of emergency in west virginia and people there getting more desperate by the minute. imagine at this dinner hour not being able to drink your water, to take a bath or even wash a dish. that is the situation right now for 300,000 people. their water supply has been potentially poisoned by a dangerous chemical and there is no water to drink. it is all sold out. grocery store shelves, empty. people are forced to melt ice for water. restauran restaurants, schools, closed. sounds like the end of days.

tonight the company that may be responsible, freedom industries, has been issued a cease order. the president didn't offer many answers even walking away from reporters abruptly at one point. >> it's been an extremely long day. i'm having a hard trouble talking at the moment. i would appreciate it if we could wrap this thing up. i will -- >> we actually have a lot of questions. are there no systems in place to alert you of a leak at your facility other that be a smell? >> at this moment in time i think that's all we have time for. thanks for coming. >> we have more zbles hey, hey, hey. no, no, we're not done. our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen is in charleston. a dramatic press conference. the company clearly under some stress right now. what a mess. >> reporter: oh, indeed, don, it is a mess. i was just talking with the governor of west virginia. he said, look, this company is not being cooperative. first of all, when you have a

spill the company is supposed to call a telephone number, a spill line. they never called that spill line. then the state went to them and said, come on, guys, let's cooperate here. the governor said they were not cooperative. they had to be convinced to work with the state and try to make this situation better. so you have an uncooperative company and hundreds of thousands of west virginians without with ter. >> you can't take a bath, wash a dish, and the health problems on top of that. what sort of health problems, elizabe elizabeth, could this chemical cause? >> right. we've been told that about five people have been admitted to the hospital with relatively minor problems, nausea, vomiting, so so far we haven't seen a lot of people getting sick thank goodness. now this chemical, don, if you -- if you swallow it, it's hazardous. if you touch it, it can be an irritant to the skin or eyes. people are not being exposed to

it at full force. it's being very diluted because it's going through the water system. no real major health problems, but of course it's worrisome that people might have been exposed to this. >> elizabeth cohen, our senior medical correspondent, thank you. >> this is a major crisis in west virginia. it all began when a giant tank at freedom industries leaked a chemical used in coal processing. it spilled into the elk river contaminating a water treatment plant in charleston. gary southern says his company is working with authorities to handle the situation. >> we are very, very sorry for the disruptions in everybody's daily life this has caused. we worked through the night last night to remove all the material from our site. the material is no longer here. >> drilled down on this story, the potential health risks. with me is the mayor of charleston, danny jones, whose

town is at the center of the scare. environmental activist erin brockovich who is headed there. 300,000 people without water, your town must be desperate. they can't cook, clean, shower. this is an horrific situation. >> it's a -- excuse me, it's a disaster and it's caused us more problems than you can imagine. we can't wash our hands after we go to the bathroom. you can't wash your clothes and you can't drink the tap water. you can't cook with the tap water. so it's caused us all kind of grief and it's a prison from which we'd like to be released. we hope that the company behind us, west virginia american water, can come up with a solution to this and come up with a solution soon because at

the press conference they had today, that was the question that i asked, do you have a time line? they had no time line. >> they're investigating this situation. could there be criminal charges in this storage facility where the chemicals supposedly came from? >> well, i met with the president of the company this afternoon. i had not met him before. he told me he had just been with the company nine days. i don't know if that's true or not but he was the individual that you featured at the beginning of the -- at the top of the hour. so i'm not sure how good a handle he has on the company. i asked him how did the chemical go over the wall or how did the chemical get in the river because they have a wall. he said he didn't know. i had a friend who had a picture of holes in the wall. the chemical went through the wall. >> goodness. >> and then he admitted that he

knew that. so it's going to be a problem. the u.s. attorney, we have a very good united states attorney so i wouldn't want to get caught in those cross hairs. >> we're going to speak to the u.s. attorney in a minute. mayor, thank you. i know you have a lot of residents to get to. erin brockovich, your team right now. i think i heard you when i sads will there be criminal charges, did you whisper saying, there should be? >> oh, i did. i didn't know anyone saw that but, you know, i think it's something that it's high time we address. i mean, i work up this morning and heard the situation and it was almost i'm not surprised and i can't believe here we go again. i don't know when we're going to figure this out. we've seen it happen with bp, we've seen it with texas brine and the sinkhole, the coal ash breach, we've seen it here today where safety is constantly being compromised for the sake of more money. we have to save time and it's

too expensive to do it now. we need to start looking at when this happens, when would we file criminal charges. >> speaking of looking at it though, i want to know what your team will be looking for. you can finish your thought. >> thank you. >> should we file criminal charges. what will you be looking at to file criminal charges? >> well, that's not the first thing that we're going to look at. you know, i am aware that lawsuits have already been filed, but a lot of stuff is going to unfold in front of us. this is an immediate disaster. i think the first thing we have to look at, answer, address, try to assist in doing is getting potentially 300,000 people clean, potable water immediately. they can't go too long without water. when there's a disaster like this i'm usually flooded with e-mails from the community so our job is to go to assist, advise, help them in any way that we can. we'll take a look at the site, see possibly ourselves how that breach did occur and then go from there.

and so as the disaster's unfolded i'm getting more and more e-mail so we will get on the ground, work with the communities, hear from the communities and begin an investigation. >> earn brockovich, appreciate your time. >> thank you. we want to get with booth goodman. he is at the scene now. mr. goodman, good evening. not so good evening for the people there. >> good evening. >> there will be criminal charges filed here? >> it's really too early to tell. that's -- that's the purpose of an investigation. i mean, we have already been on the ground. we're looking at what actually occurred here and, you know, really too early to tell whether criminal charges should be brought. >> the question is it took a smell of liquorice to alert the people. what took so long to figure out there was a problem?

>> no one knows at this point, i don't think. i believe that it was a fairly considerable smell that was concentrated early in the morning. but i don't think it exhibited itself until that point. obviously we're going to want to get into these matters. we're going to want to figure out just exactly what occurred and when it occurred, but right now obviously what we're trying to do is get people's water back on. >> we talk about potential charges here because, you know, the mayor said we can go to the bathroom but we can't wash our hands. there are people in hospital and as i understand there are certain orders in hospitals but if this goes on for much longer, the potentiality for criminality and for bigger charges to be brought, i think they probably loom even larger.

>> well, you know, certainly it is a more significant matter, no question, but, you know, what's occurred here is what we're trying to figure out. what happened. how did this occur? even a negligent release of this kind could be a criminal violation. we just don't know yet. that's the purpose of these investigations. >> booth goodman, thank you very much. appreciate your time on this friday evening. and still to come, a 2,000 page paper trail in new jersey in that bridge scandal. we have the documents. we're going to tell you what chris christie did and didn't know. plus, last month a plane slammed into the water off the coast of hawaii. for the first time we get to see the video shot by one of the passengers who survived. and the 2-year-old told to thug in his diaper. his mother speaks out for the first time. >> [ bleep ]. [ bleep ].

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the chris christie paper trail. more than 2,000 pages worth, e-mails, text messages and other documents released today by the new jersey state assembly committee investigating why access lanes to the country's busiest bridge were closed. is there a smoking gun showing the new jersey governor new his aides were orchestrating this or is he vindicated. joe johns joins me from washington. mr. johns, what's in the documents? >> well, you know, don, we've heard a lot about chris christie's inner circle this week and the paper trail shows so far that at least one other member of governor christie's staff forwarded an e-mail detailing the problems on the bridge. however, we don't know whether that staffer actually read the document and there was no indication that she was involved in any retribution.

it originated from the account of the port authority executive director who was appointed by new york governor andrew cuomo, the kwou mow appointee was expressing outraej at the way the lanes were closed calling it ill advised and abusive. also, there's another document that says the mayor of fort lee was telling people that he was being blamed for the problem with the bridge. he wrote that port authority police were blaming him. he wrote a letter complaining about it to a top official of the port authority, bill barone who has since resigned. he was drawing the conclusion that this was done to make him look bad. there were, he said, punitive overtones associated with it. that was on september 12th, don. >> but barone has been saying it's a traffic study. so my question is, is there anything that you've come across that would help vindicate christie and his team. there are a lot of pages and we may not have been able to go

through all of them. >> we haven't found anything that suggested that he played a role nor have we said anything that expressly clears his name. it would be pretty extraordinary to find something like that either way. now he said he didn't know anything about the alleged motivation behind the bridge closures and so far there's simply nothing to contradict that that we've been able to find, don. >> thank you, sir. happy weekend to you. appreciate it. >> thank you. joining me now, shawn spicer. communications director for the republican national committee. good to see you, sir. >> good to see you. >> 2,000 pages and nothing we have seen yet that really v vindicates the governor and his staff. does that concern you, the longer it goes on the more it may damage christie's brand? >> i'm not here as a christie spokesman. mistakes do get made. we all acknowledge that and how you handle that mistake is what matters. what the governor did yesterday

is what i think a lot of americans are tired of politicians who don't follow that example, which is he got out there, he accepted responsibility, he took accountability. he made clear actions that righted the wrong and he made it clear that he's going to continue to get to the bottom of it. it was the kind of leadership we want and expect from our politicians and should be seeing more of it. frankly, as a spokesman for the republican party, i would say scandal after scandal whether it's benghazi, the gsa, the irs, etc., etc. we're not seeing that same kind of behavior from democrats. gunner christie stood out taking every single question from every single person. the time he spent at the podium was longer than the democrats spent on the afore mentioned scandals.

>> i bet it was to exhaust the media. you said you're not a spokesman for him, i understand that, but he is very important to the republican party. he is head of the republican governor's committee. very important to the party. of course, 2016 potential. let's just say that he is vindicated and he knew nothing about it. what does this say though about his management style and what does that boyde, if anything, fr 2016. >> i think it says that he is fallible. mistakes will happen on his watch. he will be a man of action and a leader that will take things seriously, take immediate action and correct them and be forthcoming with what happened and get all the facts out there. i think that we continue to see that among our republican governors going in who face problems or look at solutions and take them head on and have an honest and fair dialogue with their constituents and voters. explain problems and deal with it like adults which frankly is something that we've been

lacking from the other side of the aisle in terms of how they address their problems. >> shawn spicer, appreciate your time. have a great weekend. >> thank you. still to come on cnn, the money and power award season. we give you a sneak peek at one of hollywood's biggest nights and disturbing information about the target hacking scandal. millions more customers' personal information was exposed than we originally thought. [ male announcer ] here's a question for you: where does the united states get most of its energy? is it africa? the middle east? canada? or the u.s.? the answer is... the u.s. ♪ most of america's energy comes from right here at home. take the energy quiz. energy lives here.

tonight's money and power, it's a fun one. we're talking about celebrities from the big and small screens will come together sunday for the 2014 golden globe awards.

amy poehler, tina fey will take up duties for this year's show which is a place for a listers to cut loose and check their inhibitions at the door. rob is a host of the gossip table on vh 1. i dvr it. >> you are so kind. >> i love the golden globes. they're fun. you know why? everybody is hammered. celebrities get drunk. am i wrong? >> one year i was working with j. lo. people are drinking at the golden globes. the bar is open. it doesn't close for the whole show. people are having a really fun time. >> it's more about the party than the awards, isn't it? >> that's what's so interesting. with no disrespect to the award, it is not the oscars. >> this is an early indicator of the oscars? >> it isn't. the voting closed on thursday. it will have no implication on that. it's the awards show where you go. it's almost like the people's choice awards.

yes, it's lovely to win one. however, let's remember the tourist did win so it's not exactly the most credible show. it's a party. people love to go. what's fascinating about it to me is some of the biggest stars in the world are catching up with their friends. they're taking out phones and taking selfies. >> we go to the beverly hilton because it's close to the cnn bureau. i go the week before, a week after and i end up with the souvenir keys. i never get to the party. >> can you give me some predictions here? best dramatic film? "12 years a slave." >> i think so. there's a lot of form actors. outside of america and russia, space is not the priority. >> it is the final frontier though. >> only in america. >> let's go to best comedy

musical, "american hustle" versus "wolf of wall street." >> there are no musicals this year. the one at the moment looks like it's going to be "hustle" however "the wolf" is biting at its tale. they love some leo. >> and then "breaking bad" will take it. >> probably. >> pleasure. >> i love watching yours. >> thank you. >> the gossip table. >> cnn has a special presentation on the golden globe hosts tina fey and amy poehler. it airs at 10:00 p.m. eastern time tonight right here on cnn of course. still to come, a story we have been following all week. a teenage dwr shot and killed b police. a disturbing story. a story we have been following very closely here, a 2-year-old's obscene rant caught on tape. the mother of the child speaks out for the very first time.

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. welcome back to the second half of "out front." the hack as target is worst than they said. hackers got their hands on names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mails of 70 million past shoppers. the retailer said 40 million had their debit and credit card stolen. trusted s.e.c. tells us these hackers could make several billions of dollars and with that kind of pay day we could see retailers hit by hackers.

after a plane hit the ocean, ferdinand fuentes grabbed his go pro camera. a coast guard helicopter rescued three including fuentes. he said that he was able to stay afloat by wearing a life vest and hanging on to a asset cusea cushion. 18-year-old keith vadol ended up dead after his family called 911 seeking help. he was hit with stun guns and was apparently being restrained by two officers when a third officer shot the teen in the chest. our david mattingly has been breaking new details on this story all week long. on wednesday he spoke with his stepbrother, mark willsy, who said the officer had no reason

to use the gun. >> they had the situation completely under control. >> but the third officer? >> the third officer is 100% in the wrong. why would somebody shoot a 90 pound kid with two full grown officers on top of him with two tasers deployed inside him? there's no reason. >> then last night david spoke exclusively with the attorney for the officer who fired the fatal shot. >> having to step into the shoes of the officer to make that judgment call, he had to make it in that split instant and that's what he made. >> was it the right decision? >> yes, sir. >> david is with us now with new information. david, what did the family say today? >> well, don, throughout this entire week the family has not waivered one bit in their belief that if there was any justification for deadly force to be used in this case.

early in the week the day after this happened they were outside the d.a.'s office holding signs using very blunt language sayings that they believe their son had been murdered by the detective who fired the fatal shot. today a brief release was brought out. no language at all like that in that. instead they appeared to be more patient asking that there be time for the investigation to take place. here's an excerpt from that saying at this time the family has all the faith in the judicial system and the d.a. to investigate and evaluate this case and reveal the true facts surrounding the tragic death of their son. they only acknowledged that they had heard that there had been people speaking out in support of the actions of the officers involved. they did not argue with that at all. they said they're not going to engage in this argument in public anymore asking though for time to make sure there is a very, very thorough investigation here.

don. >> david, i want you to stay with us. stay right there. i want to bring in dennis root. he is a florida private investigator who testified as an expert witness in the george zimmerman last year. he was seen reacting to attorneys from both sides as they demonstrated on a dummy arguing whether deadly force was needed. thank you for joining us. from what we know about this, does it sound like the officer was justified in firing his weapon? >> that's a much more complex question than most people might actually understand. the reality is an officer that's faced with a deadly force threat is considered abjecttivelily reasonable in the use of deadly force. through everything that i've been able to read, they lead me with more questions than they do answers. because of that they should be thoroughly investigated and should be ensured that all the variables involved in this case are looked at closely to make a

determination as to whether or not this use of force was really objectively reasonable or not. >> as we learned from the george zimmerman trial last year, the devil is in the detail with a case like this. what specific aspects of this incident will the investigation be looking into? >> well, i think one of the most important things is developing the credibility of the threat that was being posed against the officer. comparing information that's related to law enforcement, both by the witnesses, the families present and the officers and the officer involved in the shooting as well. people have to take into consideration the weapons system that was being used. it was mentioned it was a screwdriver, size, close proximi proximity, all of those things have to be considered when trying to form a real opinion about whether or not the officer's actions were objectively reasonable. >> mr. root, stand by. david mattingly, what's the next step for the family of this deceased teenager? >> well, sadly, the next step

will be the funeral services for keith which will be held here tomorrow and talking to the family and talking to young people who knew him as well and were growing up with him. i get the same response from everyone. someone who was a talented musician, someone who loved to play his drums. he dreamed of perhaps going into the music business. all of those dreams ending with the gunshot in the home. now as he's being put to rest, the young people and the family as well will be thinking about that one question that so far has no answer. why did he have to die? >> david, does it appear to you after all of this that police are doing anything to change their strategies, tactics, training, anything like that? >> here on the ground every police department that was involved is going about business as usual right now. they're all waiting to see how

the investigation turns out. it's been taken out of the hands of the local investigators. everyone waiting to see what the state and the district attorney decide to do. >> david mattingly, dennis root, appreciate your time. the fbi is looking into death threats against a dallas safari club for auctioning off a rare permit to kill an endangered black rhino. it will be held tomorrow night and the chance to hunt one of the rare rhinos could fetch up to a million dollars. ed lavendera has the story for you. >> reporter: coming this close to a black ryan no, sir ser ross is rare. there are only about 5,000 left in the world. in the country of namibia in southern africa, there are only 1700 still alive. thousands of miles away in this convention hall in texas the dallas safari club says it has a way of helping save this ancient beast. the group will auction off a permit from the namibian government to hunt and kill one black rhino.

the club's executive director says ak kri fiesing one will be better good. >> it will raise more money. >> the auction has sparked death threats which the fbi is investigating along with a vicious debate over how to save this endangered species. critics call the auction a sad joke. >> why don't you tell us where you're joining us from. >> i'm sitting in namibia in africa. >> marcia fargnoli is ceo of save the rhino trust. >> do you agree with this tactic, the way they're doing tnchts i personally don't agree. this is actually saying that one rhino is worth dead much more than it is alive. >> the black rhino permit will be auctioned off saturday night. a closed event. no cameras will be allowed inside. it's to protect the identity of

the by theers. the permit could sell for $250,000, up to $1 million. >> reporter: the dallas club says it will be donated to namibia. they have picked the ryan no, sirs? >> they've already picked up two that are not really contributing to the population. they're very territorial and aggressive. they are like a cranky old man. >> animal conservation efforts say it would be better to keep it alive and selling the opportunity to see the animals up close in the wild. >> i can't state how strongly enough how perverse this is to say that killing these animals is the best thing. it is a critically endangered species. >> the black rhino is in the controversy and i don't know

even if this will be 11:00. still to come, a two-year-old coaxed to say obscene things on video. his mother said he was well cared for but the video seems to contradict that. ♪ like, really big... then expanded? ♪ or their new product tanked? ♪ or not? what if they embrace new technology instead? ♪ imagine a company's future with the future of trading. company profile. a research tool on thinkorswim. from td ameritrade. i have the flu, i took medicine but i still have symptoms. [ sneeze ] [ male announcer ] truth is not all flu products treat all your symptoms. what? [ male announcer ] nope, they don't have an antihistamine.

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we are back with tonight's outer circle. tonight we go to the olympics. we hit the streets of new delhi to find out what locals thought of their olympic competitor. >> reporter: from the himalayan

foothills to sochi, we have the first indian ever who hopes to win a medal at the winter olympics. luge is an unknown sports. when we hit the streets to see if anyone heard of him or the sport people were completely perplexed. >> no. >> have you seen this sport? >> no. >> it's no michael schumacher. >> do you find it strange that he's participating in the winter olympics and no one has heard of him here? >> maybe when time comes people will get to know about him. >> still, he will be competing for india and if he wins he will be making people here very proud. back to you, don. tonight the mother of the so-called toddler breaking her silence claiming she didn't film her toddler spouting off words a 2-year-old shouldn't say.

>> they were worried about the video because he had a clean diaper, the house was clean. like they said, kids cussed. every kid does it. he's a smart little boy and the only cussing he did -- he doesn't do that. the person that saw him do that, my son doesn't cuss like that. >> the video appears to contradict the mom's story. >> say [ bleep ] three times. >> [ bleep ] a ho. >> you a ho [ bleep ]. >> you a ho. >> what's up then? >> the department of health and human services first got involved with this family back in june worried that the children were unsupervised. the family was then moved to a new home in august. then in october there was a shooting at the same house. the 2-year-old child was hit by bullet shrapnel. four others were injured including the mom who was then 16 years old. the family was moved again to a

new home in november. then in december police raided a party at that home searching for a shooting suspect. i hope you got all of that. i'm joined by sergeant john wells. he's the president of the omaha police union, the union which posted the video, and attorney natalie jackson is here with me. thank you. i'm going to start with you, sergeant wells. you heard the toddler's mother defending herself saying all kids cuss and saying her baby is not a thug. how do you respond? >> you know, unfortunately it seems that she might be a little tone deaf on this issue. granted given her age it's understandable. i hope she gets the help and counseling so she can see this isn't the way to raise a child. the number of known gang members, the illegal weapons, it wasn't a healthy environment. it's not about a diaper and some language, although the language is part of it, it's really about

the environment that child was in. >> natalie, good parenting, not a thug? >> i think we have to learn more of the facts. from what i understand, the people who filmed this incident were not the parents so, i mean, who did it? i think it's -- we've all jumped to assumptions that this was the parent that filmed it. if it was the parent, yes, bad parenting. if it's a kid in another room, these are all teenagers that we're looking at. this isn't just about this video. you have to know, it's all there in the court documents. you heard what i just said. did you not hear what i said? >> i read the court documents. >> about the shooting. the kid is 2 years old. he's already been shot with shrapnel. did you not hear that? >> i read the court documents and i read that the sister of the mother requested to move. she asked the state to help them move from this dangerous environment so i don't know if we really know the true story

yet. >> okay. >> don, can i jump in? >> go ahead. >> in the health and human services department -- >> it should not have been made available. >> and that's, again -- how the media got that, i don't know. i don't have access to that. it wasn't from me. that's a different agency. however, all these gang members coming to and from the house, they constantly hurt them. it doesn't make sense. this is what we talk about. we talk about we have to address the cycle of violence. >> you said the cycle of thuggery. >> it's public record. that's how the media got it. this is available to anyone. anyone can go online to the nebraska government website or they can go down to the clerk of court's office and get this information. don't say it should not have been released. >> it should not, it's minors. let's not get off track here.

this happens though according to the sergeant, not only in nebraska but around the country. every case is unique. this is not out of the ordinary for many families. >> it's not out of ordinary to live in poverty. have family members who are criminals and have family members over, no. i agree with you totally. it is not out of the ordinary. >> let's talk a little bit more about the mom. sergeant, the mom confirmed what police told us last night, that it wasn't the video of the toddler that got them into protective custody, it was other incidents like the ones we told you about and this. >> everybody, i teach him a lot. he's very smart. it didn't come because of the video. it came because of the gang violence saying everything that happened with us.

>> natalie, not to belabor the point. you have guns, gangs intermingling with babies and probably happens to a lot of other parents. she doesn't even realize that her home is not a safe environment. you don't think >> no, i don't. i don't think it validates the police union reposting a video of a minor child instead of asking for protective services and asking for help and asking for the facebook page to be taken down. >> can i jump in there? >> go ahead, sergeant. >> first of all, we are as police association, we posted the video only after we notified the child victim unit to follow up on this. the cps had ample time to act to remove these children. it's only after this video was posted that this -- that this investigation was fast tracked because it's been three days of us posting this video these child len were removed.

they would not have been removed from this house if it wasn't for us posting this individual joe. >> so you're saying child protective services are not doing their job. they were already in contact with child protective services, sir. >> so why are you outraged at the police department? >> i'm outraged with the police union and this man's actions by posting a video of a minor child you think is being abused. this is the same as posting a video of a child being sexually abused. it's the same act. if you thought the child was sexually abused -- >> that is a different ballpark. a child being sexually abused. that's kiddy pornography. >> that's what you're saying this is. people are outraged about this video. >> we have to educate the public in order to address these problems. it is crazy. it is flawed logic to think that this is even in the same ballpark as posting a sexual assault video. >> sergeant wells, you are not

backing down from this issue. just today a blog post on the union's web site reads this. "don't allow race, politics or emotion to distract us from the central issue. this is 100% about a criminal culture, a cycle of poverty, a cycle of lack of education, a cycle of lack of parenting, and dare we say a thug cycle. that is literally killing families and crushing the futures of innocent children. you're not backing down. so what do you say to critics who claim this is about race and that too often the word "thug" is used to describe blackmail males, back children? >> the local media use it, the local paper. when we refer to violent criminal culture, i myself in various forms have been called a thug. clearly i'm a white guy. i don't know how that word "thug" applies. i've heard other police officers refer to that. other people that deal with police associations that. word "thug" is a general term for violent criminals. we are absolutely not backing down about this. this child was removed from this

dangerous situation because we posted this video. and quite frankly, we have to address these issues in new ways. if this saves at least one child it was absolutely worth it. >> your own police chief said the posting of this video was disruptive to the community. because it caused a racial divide. and when you do things like that, we have an symbiotic relationship with the police and public there. has to be trust. when there is anything tainted with violence or discrimination there's a problem. i don't see why you don't see there's a problem this. child could have been helped by you going to child protective services without posting a video. >> go ahead, sergeant. >> natalie, i would say that trust comes through communication and finding that we have common ground to common problems and coming up with joint solutions. >> it's not coming with name calling. >> we're not going to be able to solve these problems unless we know exactly what we're dealing with here. i would bet that most people in the community not only in this community but across the country have no idea that this goes on.

>> sergeant wells and natalie jackson, thank you. still to come, is" thug" a racist word? we're going to take a close look. before you settle for another ordinary mattress, isn't it time you discovered the sleep number bed? because only the sleep number bed offers dual air technology that lets two people find the perfect balance of comfort and support for their bodies. their sleep number setting. ok, right there.

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welcome back, everyone. i want to take a moment to talk to you about this baby, this so-called thug baby this week. the story that we found out about. i found out about this story as i was on the air one evening. someone sent me a posting and saying, don, have you seen this story? i left work thinking about that child, went to bed thinking about that child. i woke up the next day thinking about that child and others like him. i came into work and told my team we have to do it, figure out how to help this child and other children. then i would go back home and start the process all over again.

okay? so this has become a little bit personal to me. just because it's about saving children. and when police have told me that this happens all around the country, every case is unique, but this one is not unusual. so let's examine here this word that we have been throwing around so much. the world "thug." it's been thrown around a lot this week. people were outraged that the word was used in a story about an innocent 2-year-old child saying it's racist to do it. but is the word "thug" racist? let's examine it for a minute. lately" thug" seems could have been co-opted by the black hiphop community but the term did not start there. people from every possible race and background have been called thugs or refer to themselves as thugs for hundreds of years. there have been indian thugs, irish thugs, italian thugs, french, british, and asian thugs. and the word "thug" has been used to describe all sorts of people in pop culture, in music,

in art and even politics. roll the clip. >> thug. >> the thugs. >> thug. >> i'm a thug. >> those thugs. >> you feckless thug. >> i'm still a thug. >> thug. >> greedy thugs. >> so you get the point here. i don't have to belabor it, right? so let's bring it back to this 2-year-old child and his family. when the video was encouraged -- encouraged him to quote "thug in your diaper" right? the outrage toward the police might have been more justified had the family not repeatedly egged the baby on to act like a thug. thug in your diaper. they're calling police racist for posting the video of a black baby. whether it's racist or not, listen. i'm not going to decide that. but imagine if police had not released this video.

then we would never have known what that little boy and many more children across the country go through every single day. so let's just say police motives were racist. i'm not saying they are. let's hypothetically say that. why not take the outrage you have behind that and use the energy for good to actually stop a detrimental cycle of any name? why take ownership of thuggery? there is nothing flattering or enticing about being a thug. and why get mad that someone calls you the very same name that you call yourself? if you don't want to be treated like a thug or considered one, then don't act like one. that's a message parents should be passing to their children. anderson starts right now. don, thanks very much. good evening, everyone. tonight breaking news. what a document pileup reveals about the new jersey traffic tieup that has governor chris christie on the defensive. early indications the e-mails between officials show they were actively trying to hide a political motive. also tonight, what happens when a researcher studying the brains of psychopathic