back. good evening, i'm antonio mora, this is breaking news on al jazeera america. we have been following the tense situation in baltimore, where police are trying to enforce a curfew that has been in effect for over an hour. this is a live picture from baltimore, some are on the streets despite the curfew put in place by the city's mayor, this is the scene a short time ago, when police fired some sort

of smoke cannes ter at people receiving to go home. this happened 45 minutes ago. thousands of police officers and national guards men are on the streets hoping to prevent rioting, protesters were out for most of the day. despite a few arrests there was no major violence. paul beban was there in baltimore, near with the pictures that you are seeing happened. paul what is happening now? >> right now i'm actually almost on the stoop of the cvs. this was torched the other night what is happening in the past few minutes from when i spoke to you last the police are slowly but surely expanding their footprint. every few minutes they move out five to six feet and mark off the square in the intersection. i don't know if you have an aerial up. they are doing it forming up along behind the tactical vehicles that arrived here.

there are more than we saw earlier in the day. half-a-dozen large tactical vehicles and some bearcat style, a troop carrier that rolled up, and they are pointing in all directions of the compass out of the intersection of north and pennsylvania. but it is slow and steady there's no sense of a surge. the police although they are in a tactical postures it seems relax. the message from the chopter stopped a while ago, a good 15-20 minutes ago. the best way to characterise it now is milling around. all the smoke dissipated. no sense of an aggressive posture. it's more of a defensive slow but steady - we'll hold this and

wait for you to leave. >> are police saying anything toed meia. -- to the media. >> right now they are formed in an area pointing out along the streets north of pennsylvania and no announcement at this time. it's sort of a waiting game. >> we are looking at the live pictures of where you are there. it seems like most of the people are police. and the people behind the police lines. there are a few ahead of the v. formed by 100 or more. again, i'll ask you what i asked some other reporters. how many people who are not reporters are left in the area? >> i wouldn't say more than a handful. i'm looking down north avenue downtown.

the street is largely clear. there are a few vehicles people way off in the distance. but the streets are cleared, at this point it seems like a waiting game. the force has been here all day in the last 48 hours. it's a waiting game at this point. >> as you talk to people throughout the day, what were you hearing from them and what were you hearing about the police response? well overwhelmingly the response we heard was a hope that they'd be allowed to say what they needed to say here this is the focal point the intersection saying what they needed to say, and it would be done in a peaceful manner and there would be no repeat the chaos that tore the city apart, and some of the more dramatic pictures was of the cvs that was looted and

burnt. i know that is there. right where you are. how much talk - the focus of this was on police brutality in the wake of what happened to freddie gray who suffered severe injuries while in police custody. how much of a conversation - again as you spoke to people on the streets has gone beyond that and the proceeder issue of opportunity, what has gone on signs the riots. we heard a lot of that and an outright announcement earlier this evening from over the loud speakers saying we have come here to make our peace, we'll live to fight another day, and we'll reach out for the

opportunities that people in the area have not seen for decades, going back to the late '60s. it's explicit that is where the conversation is turning, the question remains how they'll get through the crisis that gripped the city for the past two days. >> reporter: from the air and on the ground. maryland's national guard converged an baltimore. >> criminal activity will not be tolerated. we'll bring whatever resources are necessary, whatever assets are necessarily, as much manpower as is necessary to let the citizens of baltimore know their neighbourhoods will be safe and they'll not be in danger. >> with burned out buildings

smouldering residents took to the streets undeterred by violence. >> we win it. for others, picking up the pieces means starting over. employees at the torched c.b.s. are out of a job. getting out in time before looters emptied the shelves the pharmacy and setting it on fire. >> this is our home. they are destroying the neighbourhood. stop the violence please. >> reporter: baltimore's beloved baseball team the orioles another casualty. fans will not be in the seats. the ballpark will be closed wednesday afternoon when they take on the chicago white sox. [ chants ] >> reporter: tensions high on tuesday.

protesters out in force to met police in riot gear helicopter above. most demonstrations were calm. there were a few exceptions. city officials called it a good day. we had people coming together to reclaim the city. re peel the city. i think this can be our defining moment and not the darkest day that we saw yesterday. >> reporter: baltimore is being put to the test again. a city wide curfew effect with 5,000 national guard and police patrolling the city. >> we'll use the appropriate precautions and steps to keep you and our citizens safe paul it was heart-breaking to watch mary clayton in the story you brought us, a cvs employee crying about what happened to her store, her jobs

her neighbourhood. >> yes. you can't overstate the sense of disappointment here that things have come to this, so to speak, whether it was with the tragic death of freddie gray and there are so many unanswered questions, and the violence. as i walk around the intersection, i want to play out, there's a sign taped to the metro station, handwritten saying "if not for last night today wouldn't be remembered." unfortunately that may be the case that things had to come to this point before the city or community may see progress. >> given how peaceful things seem, are you seeing an increase in activity with more trucks coming in. do you have a vantage point on

this? >> it seems that this is the staging area that law enforcement and surrounding counties determined. now, to be clear, this was the flashpoint last night. this is where there was the most property damage the most violence and outright rioting. we are on the streets. fire trucks were responding to a house fire. we saw a hook and ladder truck hit by a fuselage of bottles, and a firefighter hit in the face through the open window. it's what is happening here last night. you don't see that wide open hostility tonight. it is calmer as you point out. this seems to be that they are determined to stick out and be here until this is done. >> thank you. we'll get back to you. let's witch to maya angelou.

>> you saw a confrontation, adam may? >> yes, one of the questions people are wondering is how will the curfew be enforced and what will the law enforcement be doing on the ground. i left the area the flash point where the majority of the plers are, and i drove a little further into the neighbourhood to see what was going on there. few are out on the streets. just a couple of individuals walking around. i turned the corner and i saw a group of three or four young me picking up signs saying "road closed", the road leading to where all the police officers were and a young man throwing the cones around the signs around and suddenly out of nowhere, from behind up pulled one of those national guard hume veries the maryland national guard activated here in

baltimore, and four or five individuals jumped out really fast, armed with their machine-guns and they scared the dickens out of those guys that threw the copes, and those individuals ran away into the streets. the national guard members jumped in and went to another location. there are little pockets of flashy lights over the city. any direction you look down definitely compared to last time it seems there's a heavier police presence, and officers are on the move. >> we are seeing other trucks. there's a lot of trucks that have been merging or arriving at the intersection. have you seen any arrests of people who have violated the curfew is that not happening unless there's a direct confrontation? >> the only person i have seen

custody is the individual that jumped towards the police line, probably half an hour ago or so. really interesting. i'm at a different intersection. this is an hear about five or six blocks away from the main police activity there's a police car, and behind it is a line of - as far as the eye can see, probably 20 or so national guard humvees, driving into another neighbourhood, bordering the winchester neighbourhood that we have been talking about. there's a large police preps heading to that neighbourhood. you can imagine from what i saw before. they could reinforce the curfew. >> we are seeing a group of and - i'm not an expert on

military vehicles but they are in a row with police vehicles. your sense is that we have got people deployed or national guard and police deployed throughout the area. >> yes, i have been in one of these humvees of the maryland national guard a few years ago. they are all purpose vehicles. i road with them in a snow storm. inside of them are half-a-dozen guards men or women and they are heading into that neighbourhood right now. the police presence here is quite incredible compared to what we saw the night before. >> thank you. let's go back to del walters to see what is going on where he is. tell me where you are, and what you are seeing? >> i'm at pennsylvania north, and we have a high-stake game of

chess. it would be safe to say with the violence and the mare calling out the national guard and the governor saying the same. now we are seeing an overwhelming force. there were a couple of squirmishes from people that want to agitate something about an hour ago. for the most part most of the people cleared out and you see a huge police presence making sure that what they are taking over is secure for the rest of the evening or until the curfew expires. >> i would say they have not made a move within the last 15-20 minutes. we are seeing larger vehicles come in. and a block away from where we are, there's a huge contingent of guards men just in case anything goes wrong, that anyone

caught between the two, they would be caught. appears that things are at a stalemate. there's no provocation, and keep in mind it's a department on edge. it's a community that said they have not responded in the past. the whole world is watching. there's cameras on every corner and cell phones on every hip and packet. they realise the mo is not by in broadcaster, but those around the world. >> it's interesting to see a larger show of police force is happening now that things seemed to have called down rather than earlier when things were more tense. it seems what we were showing here is pictures of police establishing another loip. i know you are not seeing our pictures there, but there seems to be people that are not police that are on the streets. you are not seeing much of that.

do you see many protesters left outside? >> no, in fact here is the dilemma. what happens when police go away. that is the question. when they go away there are different pockets of baltimore that erupted last night. they are making sure that the small squirmishes don't erupt again. they have to have a show of force. there was an armoured patrol carrier, reminding everyone that it was past 11 and we are still on the streets. now you hear the sirens and police coming in. there's an escalation, but more to get people to leave. so far we have seen no evidence of that. the helicopters are moving in slowly. but you start to see now, some of the ranks almost as if there's a shift change taking

place. >> thank you. i know that most of the people out there today, the enormous majority have been peaceful and many were calling and insisting that peace should remain through the day and night, and we see more military-type vehicles. probably an all-purpose humvee. a long line of them. in the live pictures. >> we'd like to turn to an assistant attorney and law professor at st. louis university working in michael brown as a legal advocate. he's been in baltimore for the last few days and joins us on skype. i know you have been out there, and as we were discussing, the police response is very, very different to what we saw in ferguson. >> yes, the police response has been different, and to be

honest, it's a different terrain. we counted over 220 arrests thus far in the gaol support. we have the situation where the children were arrested. in mass. yesterday, around 3 o'clock, at the mondawmin mall. these are events that are changing and it's a challenge to keep up with. we have an infrastructure of people engaging in legal observing, engaging in gaol support for anyone involved. >> when you mentioned children being arrested you are not arguing that they shouldn't have been arrested yesterday. >> yes, you have to take it case by case. definitely i think that there are a lot of concerns about how

that operation took place. many parents were waiting for kid to get home. many working parents that didn't have control. the situation is so different to ferguson. in ferguson you have 2-3 streets, west florissant and the area where michael brown was killed and the ferguson police department and the protests were largely predictableful only later did they move to other parts of the city. here the entire city is a possible site for some sort of civil disobedience or action. police are spread out over the place. urban environment, and here, again, you have the kids who were you know some as young as 10, 11. i talked to some of them. i saw them out there. it was very hard to term who was trying to get home when the city

had cancelled the bus service and the kids had nowhere to get going. >> you know, you have seen the pictures - stills and videos showing young kids. it was one of the most disturbing things we saw some of the younger children involved in what was going on. let's talk about the police response a little more. you are - you know, you are making a valid point that ferguson and baltimore are different. is there - did police respond in general, other that were you question the rests, but in general do you think the way the baltimore police department responded has been better than what happened in ferguson or did they underreact in some ways yesterday because we saw by not getting involved we saw major looting and violence that hurt a

neighbourhood that needs businesses like c.b.s. to be there, to go there to buy inexpensive things for people to love. >> if you compare ferguson's response to baltimore's response i think that baltimore has done more to prioritise protecting people over property than ferguson did. i think that's a good thing. i agree with your point that many people - all of us need functioning businesses so we can go about our day to day but the alternative harsh police tactics. i think we can't bring freddie gray back to life. it could be a deadly incident.

you can't do that. i take your point that there's a big difference we have not seen the same level of racial entagonism. it seems to be more a question of police in general keeping the demeanour calm. yesterday, besides that i have seen many situations with the police where they have stayed calm. out on the front line as opposed to ferguson where they were wearing wristbands. they are two different environment, from the mid west to the east coast.

it's a different environment to deal with. >> justin good of you to join us and bring us your perspective. thank you we'll have more ahead from baltimore. some have been defying the curfew ordered by the mayor, we'll bring you the latest on the situation. there's other new, including same-sex marriage at the supreme court. we'll hear what the lawyers and the justices had to say about making gay marriage the law of the land.

land.

- - welcome back to breaking news coverage of events in baltimore. as we have been reporting police and national guard have made their presence known throughout baltimore as the curfew went in effect at 10 o'clock. there was a brief scirmish after 10 o'clock when police tried to disperse the crowd. it has been a peaceful night in

general. we'll continue to bring you the latest throughout the next 35 minutes or so meanwhile the supreme court was divide the today as it heard arguments offer whether same-sex couples are entitled to marry nationwide. lawsuits filed by 12 couples brought the issue to the court. lisa stark has more on the historic case. >> i'm humbled and honoured to be here for part of this fight. >> reporter: for this person this is an emotional day. he is the lead petitioner before the supreme court. his fight is to be, are recognised on the surviving spouse on the death certificate of his late husband. the two married in maryland where same-sex marriage is legal, but lived in ohio where it is not. >> i love you john. i miss you. reporter: demonstrators on both sides packed the side walk outside the court. opponents had religious objections and argued the court should not decide this issue.

>> we believe it's the state's right to issue, and the states have broken yet we are here at the court rather than the state. >> reporter: inside the courtroom some judges expressed the same result. >> the issue of course is not whether there should be same-sex marriage but who should decide. >> reporter: all eyes on the justice. he seemed torn whether to upend the traditional sense of marriage as between one man and one woman. >>. : >> reporter: later kennedy expressed concern about excluding same-sex couples from marrying. >>:

>> reporter: chaz john -- chief justice john roberts said if it prevails the institution of marriage will change: attorney speaking for the couples said to deny them the right of marriage creates the stain of unworthiness. on the other side attorney argued that states had the right to define marriage, and the court should not enact social change of this magnitude: . >>: >> reporter: supporters of same-sex marriage after making their case to the justices said it's a question of fundamental equal rights guaranteed by the

constitution. >> you don't decide fundamental right by a head count, but by principles that we had in the country for over 100 years. >> all we ask is the same rights everywhere else has, nothing special. we want to be treated equally and enjoy the same rights responsibilities and protections. we are americans, and the front of the building says equal justice under law. and that's what i'm looking for >> reporter: the petitioners will know soon enough how the court decides. we expect a decision in the next few months. 70% of americans now live in states that permit same-sex marriage but it is banned in 13 states. >> thank you. we are drawing again by al jazeera legal contributor jamie floyd. the