CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Ferguson, Missouri Situation

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BLITZER: Colonel Ronald Replogle of the Highway Patrol in Missouri, Colonel, good luck to you and good luck to all the men and women who are out there. We will watch it very, very closely together with you.

Let's bring in Emanuel Cleaver right now. He's the congressman from Missouri, a Democrat.

What do you think, Congressman? What should we be bracing for tonight?

REP. EMANUEL CLEAVER (D), MISSOURI: For nothing.

I think the colonel said all of the right things. I think the governor did the right thing. I thought the president spoke the right words today. I don't think there's going to be a problem tonight.

As soon as you see the Highway Patrol beginning to interact with the peaceful protesters, you're going to see a de-escalation of the turmoil, the violence. When you disallow peaceful protests, you almost certainly will have provocative and raucous protest because people will need to express themselves.

I don't think that we're going to have any violence tonight. I think you're going to see a crowd gather. I have been in contact with ministers like Reverend Willis Johnson, who is right there with a church not far from where you see the crowd gathering.

And I think these folk are trying to use the situation to make the community better. Now, there are some hoodlums who show up all over the world where there's an opportunity to take advantage of chaos, and they showed up, and I don't think they are going to show up further because I think things are now under control.

When you get the military equipment out of the way, I think it gives the protesters the feeling that we can now protest peacefully and there's no threat hanging over us.

Congressman Lacy Clay and I are going to request a meeting with the secretary of defense. We think that if this military equipment is going to be dispersed around the country, there ought to be, from the Defense Department, some very stringent requirements.

There should not be a one-pager. The communities that receive this equipment must have police officers who must agree to be well-trained ahead of time. I think the head equipment probably should only go to cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, where there is always the threat of some kind of a terrorist attack.

But in Middle America, you don't need left-over equipment from Iraq. ISIS is using that equipment now.

BLITZER: Yes, they certainly are. They have got a lot of that stuff that the U.S. left behind for the Iraqi military, but they have stolen it, as you well know, Congressman.

Let's talk a little bit about the Saint Louis County police. They were in charge. The governor says no more. The Highway Patrol is coming in. What did they do wrong?

CLEAVER: Well, first and foremost, the greatest flaw is not to understand that you have a flaw.

And when you have a community that is becoming increasingly diverse, it would make sense to most police departments that we have got to have a diverse police department. They don't have that. And I think that -- if you talk to the people who are coming in and out of the community every day, they will tell you that there's a lingering problem with the police.

And so I think that they were ill-equipped to handle a crisis like this. They didn't acknowledge it. They didn't say, we need help. I think also some of the officers there I think seem to have the idea that the Constitution is not a document that we have to embrace.

I mean, you don't arrest reporters. You don't take their equipment in the United States. That's what they do, you know, in Syria. And so I think they somehow need to be retrained and desegregated.

BLITZER: What do you think of what the president of the United States had to say today about what's going on in Ferguson?

CLEAVER: Well, I think the president had to speak.

He said all the right things. Keep in mind, however, that the hoodlums are not going to be listening to what the president says. They are going to stand in the shadows, hoping that things can become chaotic enough so that they can come and steal and rip off.

The overwhelming majority of the people, 99 percent of the people, who want to protest simply want to express their displeasure with what has happened to Michael Brown. They are angry and many of them don't believe that they are going to get justice.

They believe that this is going to be whitewashed by the police department there, and so now that the president is saying, we have the Justice Department and the FBI are involved, I think people are feeling a little bit better.

But it has to continue, and I think all of the elected officials, from Congressman Lacy Clay, the president, the governor, Senator McCaskill, they are all saying and doing the right things. And that's why I think tonight you're going to see a lot less volatility.

I will join some of the ministers of the community tomorrow evening when we will begin to try to worship and talk about what is necessary for healing. And then I think over the next few days, you're going to see a quieting of everything.

But I have to say, you know, if the police are not very careful, we could have another tragedy. And if we have another tragedy, then everything I have said should be erased because there's no telling what could happen.

BLITZER: Let's hope that doesn't happen.

Emanuel Cleaver, the congressman from Missouri, Congressman, thanks very much for joining us.

CLEAVER: Good to be with you.

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