york city, atlanta, georgia, denver. as you're looking at some of the fixtures coming in from oakland there, you can see there's some altercations with police officers as there have been with ferguson as well. more now from the cnn scepter in atlanta. >> from l.a. to no and dozens of cities in between, thousands are rallying, demanding justice after the ferguson grand jury decision. >> and we're also finally hearing from the officer at the center of all of this, the man at the middle of the controversy. darren wilson said he had no choice but to shoot teenager michael brown. a witness, though, says otherwise. >> i deaf flit saw my friend

stop and put his hands up, then compliant after being fired upon. >> hello. you're watching cnn. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and all around the world. i'm rosemary church. >> we're watching right now as there are more pro-fests and more arrest. we're not just speaking about in ferguson, missouri, but in cities across the united states. angry crowds attempted to tip over a police vehicle, fallout from the announcement that darren wilson will not be charged in the shooting death of michael brown, an unarmed black teen sparked all of this anger. wilson as well is now speaking publicly for the very first time. what he had to see in just a moment. >> right now, the national guard is out in force. they tripled their ranks to

avoid a repeat of monday's violence what barack obama has devounsed as nothing short of krle. listen. >> burning buildings, torching car, destroying property, putting people at risk, that's destructive and there's no excuse for it. sara, it's now midnight, a full 24 hours from when people got the news that darren wilson would not be indicted. how different is the situation now? >> it's different, but some of the things are the same.

you're not seeing crowds here for the first time in more than 100 days. what you're seeing is the national guard and the police force in front of them. the police force is out in front, st. louis county and the highway patrol out here. they had mentioned to everyone who usually stands right here in this lot, and you can see the light from the helicopter, usually there are hundreds of people over these past couple of days standing in this lot. and protesting. and they've been doing so for a long time. but police basically said look, we need you disperse. i see an arrest happen right now. can you come with me, please? looks like the national guard, if you see there, is taking somebody in. there are pulling someone back to the perg son police department, back behind the police line and back behind the national guard line.

we are also being told to move back to the sidewalk, which is what we're doing. but basically what's changed tonight is that nsz officers have said because of items thrown at police that they have told everyone to disperse and go home, this is an unlawful assembly. very different than what we were going to hear earlier today, which was get out of the road. you can assemble but you have to be on the sidewalk. now they're saying this is an unlawful say semiably because of the items thrown at police officers earlier. >> as we're speaking to you and watching a live aerial fixtures of ferguson. boarded up business. of course, the concern being the local business owners will suffer once again. but there has been an additional force with the national guard sent by the governor of the state, now trebling what was

said there yesterday. one of the difference, too, as we draw these contrasts in 24 hours is that we have heard publicly for the first time from the officer at the center of this, darren wilson, where he said he believed he acted properly. he was protecting himself and wouldn't do things differently. i've wondering if the people you spoke with on the ground have reacted to that sentiment yet. if you' seen any response to what he had to say. >> yes, we have. there are still plenty of folks that say they don't believe it, and they don't believe his story and they don't feel the grand jury should have believed his story. but i've got to tell you, there was one gentleman out here, african-american gentleman who's been out here protesting many of the days i've been out here over the past two months. he said i listened to what he had to say and now i'm not so sure. i'm not so sure that what everyone was saying, that justice means that he should be taken in. it was a very interesting conversation. when i asked if he would go on

camera? he said no way. i want to mention the looting that we've been seeing yesterday night. we saw people here trying to keep people from taking things out of scores. some of them locked arms just down the street there at kathy's kitchen to keep people from looting. so there's an interesting d dichotomy going on. you have residents trying to protect what they know has been a community that's had its issues, but that can be a good place to live trying to protect the businesses here. very worried about what this is going to do to the economy of this place. and, too, just the general sense of what it's like to live here if these businesses decide they don't want to be here. hold on. we've got a little change here. the police have now come out even in a larger force here. that's the state patrol that you're seeing there. they are now basically taking over the streets here.

and if you notice, those little white vans they're carry, those are, you know, plastic handcu handcuffs. if there's a very large crowd and they're going to make many arrests if they need to, they use those plastic cuffs. okay, we're going to get moved back, as you can see. we're going to move back here for you guys. they're pushing us back because there's a crowd that's gone up into the neighborhood back there. and it looks like they are going to. you shall that crowd, trying to get voeks to go home. if we can get a shot here. let me just give you an idea. this is usually when things get very tense. because once there is movement on either the protesters or the police side, this is the further i have seen them go here. they're usually never go past the police department's line unless they feel that it's nose nest. but they've been saying over and

over again that this is an unlawful assembly, trying to get people to go home. errol? >> as we watch this, i believe we have another aerial shot showing where those police officers are moving toward. if we can line that up. as we try and do that, though, just give us a sense of the geography. we saw what looked like hundreds there of state patrol officers, or at least dozens of them prepared to walk through the street. where are they going? how many people are out there? >> let me just give you an idea. we're going to move out a little bit. the police department is just to our right. what's interesting is it looks like the national guard is taking off riot gear. they have been saying over and over that this is an unlawful assembly and trying to get whoever is out here to move back. and people are upset about it.

you can hear people yelling and cursing about it, because they're upset. they feel like they should be able to be out here. all right, we've got movement here with the state troopers. so you just saw where the police department is. now we're going up into a neighborhood. going up into a neighborhood. and some of the protesters are going on to people's property. this is where things can get very, very tense. and you can see people moving along as the police officers move towards them. what's going to happen next, no one can tell. but often times it would end in arrests. errol? >> sara seidner, just past midnight where you are, sarah, as the police do what they can to prevent a repeat of what we saw 24 hours ago, with multiple buildings were set on fire. and some were looted. and we should also note that at the same time we're watching you, sarah, we're watching some live feed from around the u.s. where these demonstrations in major u.s. cities in solidarity

with those in ferguson, missouri. so we'll stay connected with you. stand by for us. these actual pictures now come into us are from oakland in northern, california. a number of demonstrators. it's just past 10:00 p.m. on the west coast. taking to major streets to stop traffic and make the point that they are supporting those who are in ferguson, missouri, in their efforts to bring attention to the case of michael brown. and we've seen similar scenes at this hour in los angeles where protesters have taken to a major freeway to stop traffic. we've also had miguel marquez following groups in manhattan around new york city as they go from bridge to bridge and walking down major avenues as well to make the point, although the grand jury made its decision yesterday, they disagree as the people in ferguson disagree with the decision. so we're keeping our guys on all these location, using our global resources here on cnn to bring

you the latest information. we will continue to do so. rosemary? >> now we want to look at this part of the story. we are hearing for the first time directly from the police officer who shot and killed michael brown, darren wilson tells abc news he feared for his life as brown punched him in the face and tried to grab his gun. wilson says the whole thing started when he tried to get brown to move out of the middle of the road and brown became confrontational. take a listen. >> i had gone to open the door and get out of the car. when i did so, as i was opening the door i said hey, come here for a minute. that's when he turned and said what the [ bleep ] are you going to do about it and slammed the door shut on me. >> slammed the door? >> yes, i tried to use the door to get out and he pushes it back and just stares at me. >> he threw the first punch? >> yes. >> some of the witnesses said

they saw you try to pull him into the car? >> that would be against every training ever taught to any law enforcement officer. i don't know what or how many hit me after that. i just know there was a barrage of swinging and grabbing and pulling for about ten seconds. and then what? >> i reached out the window of my right hand to grab on to his forearm because i was going to try to move him back to get out of the car. and i just felt the immense power he had. the way i described it. it was like a 5-year-old holding on to hulk hogan. that's how big this man was. >> darren wilson's side of the story there. we have to make the point, we weren't there. darren wilson was there. that's his sigh of the story. the man who was with michael brown was shot is standing by his version of the events that brown was surrendering. take a listen. >> i know exactly what i saw.

i was there the whole time. i definitely saw my friend stop and put his hands up, then compliant after being fired upon, after already being struck with a bullet wound from officer darren wilson's gun. he had already shot my friend. so there was no way. i thought that he would even believe in hisself that he could take on an armed police officer while he himself was unarmed. darren wilson never separated the two of us. he never said i'm not shooting at you, i'm not chaing you. so at the time, i thought that he was after both of us. i feared for my life. >> there were a lot of inconsistencies with darren wilson's testimony. we hear about this threat, this demon. but his face doesn't look like someone fearing their next punch may be their laes. this is the situation where the prosecutor was apathetic, where officer wilson encountered to gentlemen who he didn't think were human beings. he valued their livesless than human beings. he acted upon it and the prosecutor allowed him to get away with it. it's very tragic. and nothing that comes out

discredits what dorian johnson as a disinterested fact witness compared to officer wilson's testimony that he had 30 days to compare. and then he was given that testimony to try to avoid indictment. the fact that we could avoid this testimony, disinterested eyewitness testimony and not have an indictment is just sad. alright, so this tylenol arthritis lasts 8 hours but aleve can last 12 hours. and aleve is proven to work better on pain than tylenol arthritis. so why am i still thinking about this? how are ya? good. aleve. proven better on pain.

>> you are watching cnn's special continuing coverage of developing situations all over the u.s. it's just past 10:00 p.m. on the u.s. west coast. what you're seeing in the state of california are two separate and quite large demonstrations of those showing their solidarity with the people of ferguson, missouri. on the left, you're looking at los angeles. demonstrators at one point were able to block off a major freeway there on the right, oakland in northern, california, where demonstrators are doing the same, blocking off some of the major intersections. we're watching demonstrations here in and many other up withes across the u.s. and we'll bring you the latest information on all of them throughout our coverage tonight. >> yeah, we will certainly continue to watch that. but we do want to go back to ferguson now and ask stewhere se elam is standing by. how differently is it to 24 houhou hours ago.

>> we're across the street from where you were talking to sarah. we saw them put on their gas masks and then they dropped their body shields again and took them off. the reason being, if you come back out here, you jaus just saw what sarah was showing you, with the season greetings sign behind us. but take a look at it now. it's cleared out. you have police cars now making their way down. there's one other vehicle down there that looks more like a humvee that has -- there reese some police officers, law enforcement lined up alongside of it. >> a lot of protesters ran that way down the street. we' seen people who are in the parking lot across the street from the police station get in their ars and leave.

and there was a group that did run up into this residential area past sara. but it's much clearer, much call mer. they're not making those announcements anymore, calling iffer people to disperse because people pretty much did listen to it and have cleared out of here. it happened pretty calmly. we did witness a few arrests but all in all, it was a calm transition into that time as the police called it, time for people to disperse because people were throwing things according to the police. once that started happening, they said this is a time now that this is no longer, it becomes unlawful assembly and it's called for people to leave the area at this point. what sort of numbers were you talk about? what percentage were agitators and what were peaceful protesters? >> yeah, it's a different situation here. i actually just came up to this

part of ferguson. i was on the same part where i talked to you and errol last night where we saw so much of that devastation last night, where we saw buildings burning down and looting happening. there was no law enforcement out with us. then it changed. we saw the national guard off early. no one was on that strip, ferguson. there was no one there. the sort of the spont response that teem were expecting last night. some other things that happened, too, this happened this morning. these appeared this morning, these blockades in front of the police station.

all the things you might have expected yesterday and not today. >> we're going to take a short break. we'll be back with more.

>> welcome back, everyone.

there were at least 100 protests tuesday in the u.s. alone following the ferguson grand jury decision. and you can see from this map those protests stretched from coast to coast, and there are more going on at this hour. >> yeah, that map really shows you the scale of this issue and what it's triggered in the states. here's a look at some of the protests earlier from tuesday. we're tacking about new jersey and texas as well. austin there. demonstrators marched through streits in solidarity with those angry at the decision not to indict officer darren wilson. and just a few hours ago, a larj group of protesters marched outside the los angeles police department headquarters in this footage you're seeing now. in ohio protesters on a highway kneel on the ground with their hand up. a similar situation here in atlanta, georgia. protesters blocked traffic on an internet highway marching

towards the capitol building. >> now, at least a dozen police vehicles have been damaged in ferguson, missouri. take a look at this. this patrol car was set on fire and this was just a few hours ago. as we look at the similarities and differences in 24 hour, we did see two police officer cars. the seasons greetings sign. to give us a sense of where you are and what you've seen tonight. as the protesters gathered away there earlier this evening,

there was a group that broke away from the scene and started coming towards the downtown district. the area boarded up the windows and they were making their ways here in city hall. that is city hall, they came dwards this way just a few hours ago. they found a molotov cocktail hitten in the bushes. right now they're engaged in the clean-up process throughout that area. the altercation here didn't l t laststlast terribly long. national guard teams zended on the area to disperse the crowd. it took some time, but that managed to happen. but this is an area that has

been of great concern. as you go around the corner, this is the main street that uh yo' talked about. and this is where a lot of business owners have been very concerned. spoke to a lot of them today bhorp simply overwhelmed and emotional about the scenes that had taken place 24 hours ago. and many of them had wondered what exactly they were going to be coming back to on wednesday. that is definitely a concern. many of these business owners had. we recognized this yesterday this even after today, this is a

community that will feel this way and will need to be healed for quite some time. we're going to continue our special coverage here on cnn. a number of u.s. cities see demonstrators out in support of those out in support of michael brown in ferguson, missouri. these live immechanicals coming to us from los angeles. stay with us here on cnn. we've got more for you after this very short break. ♪ the mercedes-benz winter event is back, with the perfect vehicle that's just right for you, no matter which list you're on. [ho, ho, ho, ho] lease the 2015 e350 for $599 a month at your local mercedes-benz dealer.

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from new york city to ferguson, missouri, here on the west coast to los angeles where it's just past 10:30 in the evening. earlier, a number of demonstrators were able to block the 101 freeway for those of you in l.a. or familiar with the city will know it's a nape thoroughfare or artery. they stopped traffic in both directions after protesters took debris and placed them on the freeway. this is another area that demonstrators are walking down a main street. just one of many places we're keeping our eyes focused on right now as we watch wraeking developments as it relates to news out of ferguson, missouri, that the officer at the scepter of the transfers, darren wilson, would not be indicted. >> and we are hearing for the first time directly from the police officer who shot and killed michael brown. darren wilson tells abc news he feeled for his life as brown

punched him in the face and tried to grab his gun. listen. the question i asked myself was i have to. if i don't, he will if he gets to me. >> even though he's 35, 40 feet away with? >> if he doesn't stop yet, when is he going to stop. i fired a series of shots. >> could you have done anything differently to prevent that killing from taking place? >> no. >> nothing? >> no. >> and you're absolute convinced when you look through your heart and your mind that if michael brown were white, this could have gone down in exactly the same way? >> yes. >> some oour commentators noted that for ez residents to hear darren wilson despite what would happen would not have done

anything in a different way probably made matters worse tonight. earlier, thourg, when i spoke to our cnn commentator and legal analyst about what the next legal steps could be for michael brown's family. take a listen. michael brown absolutely, positively has a civil claim. in the united states, that means you bring a case in court asking for monetary compensation based on wrongs that have been committed against you. they can say the death was harmful, there was emotional distress that was caused and there should be monetary damages. i do believe that lawsuit will be successful. >> and you're specifically pointing to the body being in the street for more than four hours, which is clear -- >> it's horrific.

absolutely horrific that his body laid in that street uncovered, unprotected, exposed for 4 1/2 hours. they also released a lot of disparaging information about the victim in this case that i think will go towards the family's claims in a civil action. you also, by the way, even though the state of missouri has said they're not going to prosecute, the police officer, errol, you have the federal government, the united states of america and the department looking into two potential actions against the police officer in relation to this claim. the u.s. attorney general eric holder has said that in an attempt to reassure the very angry residents there that there are other legal avenues being pursued in no way impacts the

other cases. there are other reports out saying today even those investigations don't have enough information or evidence yet to have what would be described as a slam dunk case. even though the federal avenues are still open, you know, those could also reach dead ends for those who think that michael brown didn't receive justice. >> rudy giuliani says the grand jury's decision not to indict was the only decision they could reach. >> giuliani said law enforcement should have spobed more quickly when monday's protests turned violent. >> i think they made a terrible mistake in backing off the. the first person who throws a stone, the first person who breaks a window, the first person who lights a fire should get arrested. there should be a clear

delineation. they can be as angry as they want. yell, scream, call names. they have every right to even taunt the plips they don't have the right to throw stones or a right to break windows. they don't have a right to steal bikes or steal liquor. they certainly don't have a right to burn down the stores of their very own people which is a true and absolute tranl di. >> rudy giuliani there. and st. louis county prosecutor has become a lightning rod of sorts ever since his announcement of the grand jury decision. >> this report looks at the man and the controversy he now finds himself in. >> a first year law student would have done a better job of cross examining the killer of an unarmed person than the prosecutor did. >> reporter: this is the criticism aimed at robert

mcculloch. >> all decisions must be determined by the fifz physical and scientific evidence and the credential canab credible testimony. >> mcculloch lashed out at news organizations and social media. >> the most significant challenge encountered in this investigation has been the 24-hour news cycle, and its insatiable appetite for something, for anything to talk about. following closely behind with a nonstop rumors on social media. >> the grand jury's decision follows persistent calls over the last three months for mccull och to step down from the case. the prosecutor's motives have been questioned because of something he happened as a

child. his father was a police officer and shot down by an armed man. 14 years ago, two unarmed black men in st. louis were killed in a hail of gun fire, more of 20 shots fired by two white police officers in a botched drug bust. at the time, mcculloch called the victims bums. a grand jury didn't indict the evers and mcculloch refused to file charges. despite the tide of recent negativity, he's been re-elected every term since he first took office in 1991 as a democrat. but that's the history that fuels the prosecutor's most vocal critics. >> bob mcculloch has shown in the past he's not sensitive to the african-american community. >> [ bleep ]. >> but even with the grand jury decision now hin him, robert mcculloch still has many naysay naysayer, questioning how the evidence was laid out and exactly why he decided to make the announcement late in the evening, when protests were more

likely to get out of hand. and we are still connecting with our many teams on the ground there in ferguson, missouri. after this short break, we're going to reconnect with everyone. this is a place where racial tensions have turned to violence for a second night in a row. we're going to see how things are progressing at this late hour after this break. stay with cnn. two weeks later. look, credit karma-- are you talking to websites again? this website says "free credit scores." oh, credit karma! yeah it's actually free. look, you don't have to put in your credit card information. whew! credit karma. really. free.

many of the protesters feel completely different about that. they say kmiel brown was singled out by police because of his race. and when you look at statistics, they do show that police arrest

african-americans at a much higher rate than other racial groups. >> but the disparity reflects a national trend. 12% to 13% of the u.s. population is black, but they account for about 38% of those in prison. according to the u.s. justice department, black men are seven times more likely to be arrested than hispanic men. and once con eight haved, black offenders receive longer prison sentences compare whites. >> and in 2010, 1 in 10 black men was arrested compared to about 1? every 20 white men. these numbers are quite staggering. almost 1 in every 3 black men will be arrested at some point in their life tomb here time in. >> one academic says protests in missouri and across the u.s. is

a chance to move the country in the right direction on race relations. and i spoke with her just a short time ago. this has shone a very bright light on race relation shs america. where do you think the country needs to go from here? >> i think the kouchb tri has an awesome opportunity towards reconciliation and really have been the conversations we avoided by race. african-americans were seen as things. so it's very difficult when we look at the history of african-americans and the nation to move from a thing-oriented society, as dr. king said, to a people-oriented society. i think we have to have the conversation about the truth around race, what can do to improve and really bringing people together outside of the sensationalization and the notion of fear.

we've had an us versus them mentality going on. >> and what we're seeing now is protesters across the country taking to the streets. trying to get that message back. it was muddied by the agitators who wanted to get on the streets in ferguson. but the peaceful protesters for the most part are trying to get that message out. the reality of being blahhing in this country. what is that reality? >> there's this unknown pressure that most people face. so if i am not black or african-american, i sometimes may speak from a place of bridged positioning without understanding the day to day struggle of what it's like to be profiled. even as an african-american woman with a ph.d. there are certain places i go where people will profile me or won't acknowledge my presence. so again what it's like to be black in america is in some respects caught up, and it was caught up in the hope of change, yes, we can, a message that came

out in 2008. i think some of what we see is the frustration of people who thought with the election of the the nation's first black president that things would get progressively better. and what we have found over the last several years is that things have become progressively worse because now we don't have the conversations about race. we cover everything in the guise of a post racial society. when, in fact, things have become so racialized to the point we all feel this tension. >> and how do you go about changing that reality for back men, black boys, particularly, when it's so sbiened in the history of this nation. >> let's just look at the media. when we look at the immechanicals of black men sometimes, often times we hear more of the negative reporting of black men than we do the poz tuf. so when those things are highlighted and ren forced, again, if i'm not african-american watching the nudes, isle be afraid.

at the same time, we have to hold the african-american community accountable, in particular the hip-hop community. if i'm rapping about sex, guns and violence, but i'm an artist so i have the legalese to perhaps not serve jail time, but i'm a listener or follower of those things, we have to put the onus on the hip-hop community so say we have to be responsible with our voice. there's a crisis of leadership within the african-american community. we know that. i think this is an awesome time for leaders to rise up. i think it's a wonderful opportunity for the churnl ch t rise up. we're not going to fix this with our intellectual power alone. there has to be a heart to heart conversation and dialogue where we can come together, similar to what happened in south africa with the truth in reconciliation committee to talk about these things so we can really move towards reconciliation and understanding, because our nation needs to be healed. >> great conversation there earlier with rosemary church.

certainly dialogue is something desperately needed all over the u.s. the people of ferguson, missouri, trying to pick up all the pieces of their lives from recent violence. we've seen several businesses vandalized, looted and brned down. if you were watching cnn at this time last night, you watched it happen live. some of those businesses and stores, what you would call mom and pop shop, they have been in this community for years. run by locals. but amid the violence in ferguson, some people tried to protect businesses like this restaurant from getting damaged. a group of protesters linked arms to help ores from get into cathy's kitchen. they basically said leave this alope. the diner ev's owners, african-american couple, said they were surprised by this. >> it was overwhelming. i had hoped to see something like that. you know, you do good.

the protesters come to the restaurant. and we have the freedom of speech so, you know, you can say how you feel and talk. i don't know. i'm just thankful. >> you must have been worried about what might happen. did you have any idea that people would take it upon themselves to protect the business? >> would never have thought that. i mean, we expected the worse in our case because we were right next door to the police department. so the crowd was large, and we figured hey, there's no way we can escape. that was a pleasant surprise. we had no idea that they may even recognize the place, let alone protect it. >> and rosemary, that restaurant escaped with a single broken window. so you know,fires, that car dealership that was burning and the other businesses, you know, really in flames. what we didn't see were the people out there trying to stop

certain businesses from being vandalized. and those trying to help a very difficult situation. >> yeah, very frustrated for those peaceful protesters that their message had been hijacked by these -- >> yeah, to highlight that and show that some are doing what they can to keep people safe. >> let's take a shoort break. on the other side of the break, we will continue to tell you more about the aftermath in ferguson. and of course, all the protests across the united states. people out in the streets in solidarity with those in ferguson.

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fifteen percent or more on car insurance. >> we saw the same anger here in atlanta as a lot of folks were trying to get here to work. they were blocked at certain entrances. a number of demonstrators were outside here. there are a numb befr of demonstrations, though. one of the organizers of what we saw if atlanta joined us here at the cnn center to talk about what protesters hoped to achooe with all of these rallies and marches. we're going to talk now with one of the organizers of the it's bigger than you campaign which took place here in atlanta. thanks so much for come into our studios to talk about this.

there are a number of demonstrations and support of michael brown and his family happening around the nation. what do you want the outcome to be, though? because after the dust settles and the sun comes up, what's different? >> you know, the outcome should be that we want it to be known that the process -- we feel like the possess used to decide whether or not to indict darren wilson was a false process with pe felt the prosecutor really went out of his way to make it so the indictment could go in his favor and what he wanted. he's playing with with power and playing with people's emotions in that way. we would like the department of justice who finished their federal investigation, and hopefully then an indo i want will come forward. >> so you really want to keep the national attention, the national effort on this case and this larger issue of the justice system and how it treats black americans?

>> exactly. o. >> you're kind of an example of what seems to be happening with regular folks being pulled, compelled to demonstrate and participate because of michael brown. just tell me how you got involved in all of this. >> for #it's bigger than you, i know a number of us in atlanta after mike brown got shot were looking for something to do and one of our founding members stepped forward and put her own phone number out on twitter and said smib who wants to do something can meet me at the king center. >> it's not that far from here. >> exactly. and she was expecting 10 or 12 people to show up, and 200 people showed up. it showed that a movement was possible. >> had you ever participated in activism before? >> i had not, no. as a spoken word artist, i'm very much involved in issues. but i had always approached it more from an educational aspect. now i'm seeing it more from a proactive activist aspect. >> we eat not too far from the

martin king, the center is, where he was born, where he preached and many other things. he was a proponent of nonviolent resistance. but he did say the riot was the voice of the unheard. >> right. >> are you concerned about the level of violence that we've seen in ferguson and how others are fear frl these peaceful protests could spin out of zplol. >> i'm not really concerned because of the fact that, you know, the police have used their extremely heavy hand in this seen nerio. i think they're going to make it so it doesn't, quote, unquote, spin out of control. i would like to say that, you know, sfwl there's been no violent protests in ferguson. there have been peaceful protests and the police have aggressed against peaceful protesters and made it violent. there's wrareally only so far y can press somebody's buttons before they try to defend themselves. >> you are calling for black americans to boycott black friday, the largest shopping day in the u.s.

>> absolutely. >> whoo sni. >> absolutely. well, ef -- black americans troll $1.1 trillion in spending power an we use it every year, part of it in black friday. we're not supporting our communities. we are supporting a system that shows they don't think blake lidb black lives matter. >> conversation earlier there. bold move. >> yeah, and very powerful way to sort of bring it back. >> try to solidify and say if you really want to do this, don't just be a hashtag act skr ivist and make your voice heard. >> money talks. amid tuesday night's violence in ferguson, there were some people who tried to protect businesses from looters. >> yeah. we're introduced now to some of those heroes.

6. >> reporter: on a night of chaos, andre thomas and a friend stand in front of a wig shop with its windows smashed out. tell me what you're doing out here. >> caught some people looting. that's not whey'm about so i want to protect it. >> thomas lives a few miles away. he doesn't know the owners but he says it is his duty to protect it. he wasn't the only one to find the destructive behavior unleashed mostly on two streets in ferguson. less than a block, a show of force outside another business with its windows smashed out. >> not cathy's, yo. not cathy's. >> cathy's kitchen is owned by an african-american businessman who has also coached many of the young men in this town. he did not board up. but the looters did not pass the human chain. some of his neighbors did board up. we were there with constance garnet. she secured her salon. now she's glad she did.

>> i just prayed that somehow the business, you know, find it in their heart to come back. because the neighborhood need the business. ferguson is a good place to be. >> and you have been watching cnn. i'm rosenary >> i'm errol barnett we'll continue to connect with teams on the ground. stay with us for cnn special coverage after this short break. ugh... ...heartburn. did someone say burn? try alka seltzer reliefchews. they work just as fast and are proven to taste better than tums smoothies assorted fruit. mmm... amazing. yeah, i get that a lot. alka seltzer heartburn reliefchews. enjoy the relief.

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hello. i'm rosemary church. >> and i'm errol barnett. a big welcome to those of you watching in the u.s.