protests which he thought were positive which were useful in the aftermath of the police custody death of freddie gray. >> he sort of blamed the press if some ways for having some of the more violent activities on constant loop an overshadowing a lot of work that had been going on there among peaceful folks who want to make a difference there. i do -- i agree with you. a sense of exes asoperation, tiredness, that you see coming from this president and there i think, too in the wake of ferguson. he sort of reached the limits of his presidency in terms of what he can do about it. he reached the limits even of his rhetoric. this is a president that came in everyone talked about post-race, everybody talked about the wonderful race speech he gave in 2008. but now what is the question. you look at the two parties and if some ways over the last 20 30 40s years, democrats haven't wanted to talk much about poverty. they've been very tough on crime wanting to appear like republicans. it feels like we're a at a new

moment with both parties wanting to talk about poverty, wanting to talk about criminal justice reform from the left and right. perhaps there is the president didn't seem too hopeful in terms of this congress but perhaps something that can be done. >> standby because we have a lot to assess. to our viewers, i'm wolf blitzer wherever you're wchg from around the world thanks for joining us. we're following the breaking news an american city under a state of emergency right now. baltimore, maryland trying to recover after a night of rioting, looting and chaosnd a and the situation remains tense. u.s. national guard troops on patrol. 500 guard troops have arrived and hundreds more we are now told are on the way. the national guard says more than 5,000 military person really needed if they're available if they are needed and presumably they will be. looters picked thigh what's left of a -- through what's left of a

burned out shoe store. some businesses remain shut down. shopping mall closed because of security concerns. schools throughout the city of baltimore, one of the largest cities in the united states are off today. they're out. some federal government workers were sent home early as a result and once again tonight's major league baseball game the baltimore orioles game has been postponed in part because of a 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. curfew on the streets of baltimore. the rioting broke out on the same day the family of freddie gray held his funeral. gray's death, while in police custody, set off the initial wave of mostly peaceful protests but his family strongly condemned the vie rence that erupted yesterday and moments ago you heard it here live president obama was asked about the situation and he said his thoughts are with the injured police officers. he condemned the looting and the lawlessness. >> there's no excuse for the kind of violence we saw

yesterday. it is counteder productive. when individuals get crowbars and start prying open doors to loot they're not protesting. they're not making a statement. they're stealing. when they burn down a building they're committing arson. and they're destroying and undermining businesses and opportunities in their own communities. >> the city of baltimore has imposed a week-long curfew as i noted starting at 10:00 p.m. local time until 5:00 a.m. starts today. some residents are trying to pick up the pieces and move forward. they were out earlier today cleaning up trash and debris. it's an enormous job that's underway. ryan young and brian todd are both in baltimore for us. ryan give us a sense of what you're seeing what you're hearing on the streets of baltimore right now?

>> wolf, what a big difference a day makes. we saw many people come out here with -- to sweep up an also to come help clean up the community. you can see the police officers right here but there's been a lot of counseling going down the line here. there's a group of older gentleman standing here talking with the youth to make sure this remains peaceful. this is a cultural extension because on the other side of this you can hear the drums and people playing instruments. there's a group that's come out to sort of entertain the crowds and make sure things stay peaceful. we'll seen poem from all over baltimore coming out to clean upp. coming with garbage bags and brooms to make sure they show they are a one baltimore. a lot of the conversation here wolf has been about the idea that the burning down the cvs across the street has taken away from the idea of trying to find out what happened to mr. gray. you can see some people are interlocking their arms, standing in front of the police. so far the police and the

protesters have remained separated. the line that's here. look across the way there, that's the cvs. about a half hour ago jesse jackson arrived and talked to some of the members of the crowd. it's remained peaceful people having conversations breaking down in the crowd crying saying they need economic help but also want change and reform within this police department. >> todd you're there as well. where are you? what are you seeing? >> at the corner of north avenue and pennsylvania avenue here. and impromptu street protest has developed here. there are people here as ryan pointed out, not far from where ryan was, people arguing among themselves some factions arguing with others an older crowd trying to push the younger protesters back telling them they have to be peaceful some younger saying they have a right to vent their anger. it did get tense a short time ago. i'll take you back here where we're going to move among the

protesters still talking, little tight squeeze here but this developed a short time ago when some of the riot police moved in to apprehend someone being vocal in the crowd. when that happened the crowd got agitated and moved up against the police started really becoming tense but it then called down. what's interesting is that a lot of the crowd as we noticed last week in baltimore, some members of the crowd as you saw here are self-policing. they're moving among themselves telling their fellow protesters to calm down. one lady actually grabbed one of these things and used it as a bull horn talking to people yelling at people to back off. so i mean they're doing self-policing today in the impromptu street protest. festive on occasion music and some drums playing here. so it has been a healthy atmosphere of protests at this intersection so far, wolf. again, you've always got this little -- this energy right below the surface that is right

there and kind of ready to explode. i think it could happen at any moment here on the streets even in daylight all eyes, of course will be on this area when darkness descends and the curfew is imposed this area has seen some of the worst looting and violence we witnessed. stores being ransacked and burned cars burned officers injured. keep a close eye on this section of baltimore today, wolf no let's hope the people there heed the advice of the president of the united states. go ahead and have peaceful protests but don't do the looting, don't do the arson, don't do the violence because you're going to wind up in jail. we'll get back to you, brian, as a lot of people around the country woke up this morning they heard about the looting and heard about the damaged buildings, the businesses that have been destroyed, the arrest the injurd in baltimore. this was a day that the gray family wanted to mourn. the attorney mary coke is joining us represents freddie gray's family. thanks very much for joining us.

how is the family reacted to the violence that erupted yesterday? >> the family is -- i want to use the word disappointed. i've used that word before. the family really hoped that freddie's legacy would be that positive change would be made that they could get answers to the question of what happened to their son, to their brother, but that it also would be a moment of positive change and moving forward and unfortunately, with the violence that occurred yesterday, it detracted from freddie's story and the question surrounding his death and did not honor his legacy in their opinion. >> what do they want the community to do now? >> they want the community to do what the community did when saturday began, which is the peaceful protests. the peaceful protests that showed this -- to the city to the city police department to the city as a whole, to the state, to the country, that these are things that happened that you may not be familiar with them they may not be things that happened in your

life but there are things that happen in this country that we need to look carefully at them we need to answer the questions, that police and government needs to be accountable to the people and answer the questions when the questions are asked, and that in some way, shape, or form the peaceful protests continue to keeps the pressure on to keep the -- hopefully get the answers started rolling so we can finally have some understanding of what occurred on that day. >> have you received any answers from the mayor, from the police commissioner from others about what happened to freddie gray? he was taken into police custody, arrested then he wound up with a broken neck a broken spinal cord. he went into a coma and died in the hospital a few days later. have they given you any answers yet? >> absolutely not. we get the same answers that you get, you and the press get. we have asked certain questions. there are certain pieces of information that are going to remain the same regardless of what happens that are not going

to affect the criminal investigation like the transmissions between the police officers that we give some indication of what was going on with freddie gray as he was being transported throughout the city and finally arrived at the western district. the information from the paramedics report about what they saw and did to render aid to freddie gray. of information about what other video survey lentillance have you gathered that the public should see or give insight into what was going on. the statement of the police officers are not going to change. those things that are not going to change are no danger of being -- of affecting negatively the criminal investigation because they are -- will always be what they are. they are memorialized in time. they are, for example the transmissions of police officer and 911 tapes are released pursuant to pia requests police departments to release that information. that is public information. the public has a right to know. the public has a right to

transparency. and the family has a right to some answers. and to the extent they can be given it needs to start now. >> did you have a chance, mary, to haveear the six pointses the president of the united states laid out or asked about what's going on in baltimore? >> i did. i absolutely did. i listened very carefully to what the president had to say. >> what did you think. >> if you want -- >> you know what i think always which may sound like something that's such a simplistic answer but what i really think is what we really -- the basis of everything that he's saying is we need to treat each other with basic human respect. we need to interact with people whether those people come from -- if i'm going to use baltimore references those people come from roland park a place where it's more expensive to live or pennsylvania north avenue where it is not as expensive to live people in those communities should be treated and interacted with exactly the same.

and then until we start to recognize that and until we start to take -- make our police officers accountable is for their interactions with the community things are not going to change. number two what i think is what we said there needs to be a partnership between the community and the police department and i think that the way in which policing occurs now, there's not that same sort of thing that we had a decade or so ago where we were focused in baltimore and community policing setting up centers, setting up kiosks in neighborhoods, forging relationships between the officer who worked in that district and in that beat and the people that he was protecting and serving. i think that we need that again because you establish those on a personal level. >> mary i just want to interrupt for a moment. they've just detained looks like they've arrested someone there you see it right now. these are live pictures coming in. i don't know what this individual is being detained

for. this is individual tapevideotape coming in. one individual has been detained. police there with their shields, with their helmets, batons they're going through this crowd. we're beginning to see smoke there. let's hope that it doesn't escalate but clearly a tense moment. we're going to stay on top of this. i want to thank you, mary coke the attorney for freddie gray's family for joining us. we'll continue our conversations down the road. these are live pictures once again. you see a row of police now standing protesters on the other side a sensitive time indeed. national guard troops are also on the streets of baltimore. they're pairing with local police in a show of force after a night of violent rage and rioting. joining us from atlanta the chief operating officer for public safety in dekalb county georgia and the president of the national organization of black law enforcement executives and key members of the white house task force on community policing. joining us from los angeles the

city councilman the former chief of police bernard parks. and also deputy chief during the rodney king riots which incidentally began 23 years ago tomorrow. to both of you guys thanks very much for joining us. chief parks, first of all, your reaction to what's going on in baltimore specifically how the police handled themselves yesterday? >> i think wolf you have to look at the circumstances that we have seen over time little is gained by allowing a crowd to not only animated but involved if criminal behavior and not get involved in that. it destroys the ability to have a peaceful march and demonstration and allows the criminals in the crowd to take over the circumstances and to then get where we are today. where buildings are burned down and the communities in upheaval.

i think that as we saw it again in ferguson the first couple days where decisions were made not to take aggressive action you have to stop criminal behavior before it takes over the city. >> a good point. i want to move on and look ahead. let's look back briefly right now. where was there a blunder yesterday? this is not what the mayor wanted not what the police commissioner wanted but we saw not for ten minutes or 20 minutes, maybe two hours, looting going on especially at that cvs pharmacy. i didn't see police vehicles rush to the scene. i didn't see police officers go there. >> i assume a lot of young guys looting that pharmacy would have run away if the police would have shown up? >> yeah. well i'm going to be careful wolf here because what may have occurred and, of course i'm not there in baltimore, i don't think they expected once school let out they would have such situation on their hand.

it appears that they may have been just unprepared for what emerged very quickly and rapidly up on them and when they tried to bring in the resources they needed it may have taken a little bit longer than they anticipated. the thing about this wolf i've said this before there's no specific playbook to this. if we go back and look at ferguson we saw a lot of clear mistakes that were made that we all frowned upon. i think the city of baltimore took a much less harsher approach but what happened things sped up very quickly for them as well too. it's trying to make that balance in the decisions as to how much force do you apply, how much do you not and in this particular case it didn't work out very well for them. but it appears they're much more prepared today, at least let's hope so. it's going to be a long day. >> let's hope they are better prepared today. chief parks your thoughts because it was so frustrating we

were all watching it live on television here on cnn all the local stations in baltimore were showing live helicopter pictures of what was going on the looting there, after five or ten minutes, i assumed the police would show up they didn't show up for two hours only after the fire started and the fire engines couldn't get there, firefighters couldn't get there, and eventually they got there. what -- can you -- is there any rationale explanation why the police didn't show up at that pharmacy or that liquor store or that cell phone store or the check cashing store and stop what was going on? >> well there's only two things that could have occurred. one, if they were overwhelmed and did not have the necessary resources and they couldn't deploy them safely that would be one reason. if there was a conscious decision not to respond and allow it to play itself out, that's another decision. that's the only two things i can think of that could have occurred because if you are

addressing this and overwhelmed you're not going to send a small contingent of officers in to become overwhelmed and not handle the situation. two hours in many instances with mutual aid and a variety of things that are in place throughout the nation it would appear that you could assemble resources to at least have a visible presence. >> yeah. you would have thought. i'm sure they are going to be reviewing that and get lessons learned down the road to the only in baltimore but other communities as well. both of you stand by bernard parks and cedric alexander. back to ryan young our reporter on the streets. i just want to be precise, ryan it's pretty peaceful right now. there have been one or two violent incidents, right? >> let's be honest i've been here the afternoon talking to people in the community and we haven't experienced anybody who seemed like they were going to be violent. right now, the crowd is dancing around us. they're doing a circle around

the entire area where people are protesting and you can hear the music in the direction. we're going to walk closer. this right here is called capleta a brazilian martial art, showing this while everyone is kind of calmed down. they don't have the same sort of issues we've seen before. theres has been some back and forth in terms of people yelling at the police and being upset but it has stayed at a distance not the same anger that we saw or experienced from yesterday. i talked to the people here in the crowd and they say they are trying to make a bigger difference in terms of making sure their voices are heard doesn't get out of hand. you can see a lot of children here as well. this is a crowd black and white came here earlier to clean up. handing out water to each other. you do not feel that tension. they're making sure they keep the media accountable. one of the things they want to talk about yes, that cvs is burned down they wanted to rebuild and talk about that today in terms of having this

community not have what happened just a few hours ago. >> ryan, i'm going to have you stand by as well. i want to bring in a community activist who we first met in ferguson, missouri now in baltimore, as part of a peaceful protest. thanks very much for joining us. what's your plan today? what's your mission in baltimore? >> we're here supporting the protesters on the ground and continuing the movement. there's been a lot of positive demonstrations over the past couple months here in baltimore and across the country because of police -- the police have continued to kill people. tonight will be another night where people come out in the streets to confront a system that is corrupt. >> you want peaceful protests right? >> yes. for sure. and remember the people that have been violent since august has been the police. 300 people that have been killed alone, that is violence. property damage here that's been really unfortunate over the past couple for a day or so here.

there have been many days of peaceful protests in baltimore city and places all around the country. >> at least 15 police officers have been hurt 200 arrests, 144 vehicle fires, these are statistics local police have put out 15 structure fires. no excuse for that kind of violence right? >> again, there's no excuse for the seven people that the baltimore police department has killed in the last year either right? >> we're not making comparison obviously. we don't want anybody hurt. i just want to hear you say there should be peaceful protests not violent protests in the tradition of dr. martin luther king? >> there should be peaceful protests. i don't have to condone it to understand it right, that the pain that people feel is real and you are making a comparison. you are suggesting this idea that broken windows are worse than broken spines right if what we know to be true is the police are killing people everywhere killing people here

six police officers were involved in the killing of freddie gray and we're looking for justice there. and that's real right. like the violence that the police have been inflicting on communities of color has been sustained and deep. >> but you agree i assume with president obama who said a few moments ago, no excuse for the violence that erupted yesterday, no excuse for the stealing for the arson, you agree with the president? >> what i agree with is that i advocate people to peacefully protest and know that pain manifests in different ways and i don't have to condone it to understand it. people are grieving and people are mourning. and i would advocate personally for people to do it in ways that you are calling peacefully. i know that freddie gray will never be back and those windows will be. >> the -- and the president also said president obama, he said the violence he said distracted from the peaceful protests and distracted from the morning that the family of freddie gray was seeking

yesterday. your reaction to that? >> distracted from progress is when city officials get on tv and call black people in pain thug s thugs. that's a distraction. i think that the unrest the uprising whatever you call it is again a cry for justice here and a cry for justice across the country because police continue to terrorize people. the terrorizing is deadly. broken windows are not broken spines. people are in pain. so i think that the president, i hope that he understands the conditions be that created the unrest and continue the unrest not only here in baltimore but across the country. freddie gray will never see another day or tamir or mike brown. >> a community organizer in baltimore right now, was in ferguson thanks very much for joinings us. i want to go back to ryan young on the streets of baltimore right now. ryan update our viewers who may

be tuning in what's the latest? >> wolf we're walking through the crowd and talking to people. let me tell you something, mostly everybody is coming together. if you look around us people showing up with hats and coming from baseball uniforms on because they're coming out to clean, being a part of the community, black and white. the music has taken over, the center of the street an the crowd is clapping in unison altogether working throughout and talking about police issues. at the same time there have been arguments about how it should be cleaned up or done but everything has remained remarkably peaceful so far. not the sort of tense moments we thought we would see from a little earlier when there was some people yelling at the police officers. the only thing that's happened so far over here there was a shift change. look now the crowd has put a bayer between the protest -- bayer between the protesters and the police officers. took off my badge and dropped the mike and walked through the crowd about ap hour talking to

people who live in this neighborhood and they wanted to make sure this neighborhood was highlighted for the right reasons, not just what happened yesterday. obviously people who were crying over what happened in this community because they realize it's going to be a long time before they get it back. one of the things they want to talk about the idea they're strong as a community and they plan to rebuild and come back. look at this crowd and see what's going on you can see the fact that everyone is coming together and not even from the same neighborhood. people just want to be a part of it wolf. >> let's hope it stays peaceful over there, ryan thanks very much on the streets of baltimore. a quick break. when we come back we'll bring in to our coverage a member of the city council, much more of our special coverage from baltimore right after this.

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(laugh) nice. doing the big things that move an economy. see you tomorrow, mac. see you tomorrow, sam. just another day at norfolk southern. a news conference under way, baltimore county police are briefing reporters. let's listen in. >> the thing to do with the safety issue whatsoever our messaging for the parents are please let your kids stay in school please let your kids keep doing the things that they do day to day. there's no reason for anyone to deviate from a normal routine here in baltimore county. okay. >> thanks. >> thank you very much. >> all right. well, we obviously got in at the end of that statement. we'll turn the video around and see what they said. clearly this is still a major, major crisis.

state of emergency under way in baltimore. mostly peaceful largely peaceful protests under way right now, although there have been a few incidents, some looting going on some arrests, but basically peaceful for now. the numbers from the night of chaos in baltimore, though, they are staggering. 202 people arrested. 144 vehicle fires. 19 structure fires. 15 police officers injured. joining us now from baltimore, district seven councilman nick mosby. your city under a state of emergency, curfew from 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. how did it get to this point? >> it's really rough to say. we saw, you know, two weeks of quality protesting very productive and then unfortunately saturday we had a small pockets of folks that were unproductive an then yesterday it just quickly turned south. some children baltimore city

public high schoolers decided to do a purge movement via social media and got the word out and they were going to meet in a mall in west baltimore and the police met them and confronted them and it turned out of hand. unfortunately, i think that we just weren't prepared the way that we should have been prepared for what took place on the streets. about 4:40 yesterday i got stuck on the intersection of north and fulton and, you know, i saw police cars completely pummeled with rocks. i seen a car set on fire. i was trying to get back to city hall. the one thing i will say is that the things that have been working to deescalate and defuse the situation, i got together with about two 200 to 300 pastors yesterday and walked the streets, basically walked in front of the police towards the demonstrators and protesters and folks causing the violence to say enough is enough. many of them called, it calmed for about two or three hours before it started back up again last night. >> started up violently. why was the community, the

police the local lumts authorities, state, county federal, why weren't they prepared for this? there was at lot of indications throughout the day, especially since saturday night, that this could turn ugly? >> >> i know about 10:00 we tried to send e-mails off and know what the appropriate tactical steps and what we should communicate to the community. unfortunately we really haven't seen urban rioting like this since the '60s. i mean folks have constantly compared this to ferguson but it's a total different monster. west baltimore is blocks upon blocks of streets an houses with abandoned buildings and abandoned residencies and good incubator for rioting like this. one thing i want to stress is that unfortunately through this violence which is going to overshadow probably 90% of the peaceful protesting these folks, i don't condone any of it unacceptable and we must development enforcement to go

after them but these folks are expressing anger and us from sfrags decades ol of systemic and structural issues in the poor urban communities. this is not a west baltimore thing. this is an urban american thing. after we get calm after, you know we're able to calm the situation down it's critically important that we develop priorities of going out there and providing real opportunities for the young men and women crying out for help. >> we are just getting word nick that as you can see on the screen there have been according to police 235 arrests, 34 of them juveniles, juveniles you were talking about social media, talking about that film "purge" that seemed to instigate some of this tell us what was going on? >> yesterday i have a young guy in my office from the community who works in my office who reached out to me and told me that his social media feed was filled with meet at mondawmin and we'll purge the city from mondawmin to downtown and kept

getting it on facebook on twitter, kept getting it on instagram and so we immediately reached out and we found out that it was true and accurate. the police probably met the demonstrators with 50 to 70s officers and armored tanks and basically pushed the activity south on to the street which is a main east/west thoroughfare called west avenue. the protesters took it completely out of hand when like i said i was stuck, i saw police cars windows bashed out and it really continued for hours. and again, unfortunately, you know that time period of about ten minutes of all the events that have taken place over the past two weeks is going to really overshadow all the productivity that's come out of folks trying to really exercise their right and movement. >> if you can stay with us i want bring back cedric alexander, also from los angeles, the former chief of police bernard parks. what's your reaction when you

hear the city councilman make those points bernard? >> something evidence in many of our cities poverty, lack of education, under education, unemployment large return of people out of the state prison system these are the same issues that were relevant in '65 riot in los angeles, same issues that were relevant if the '92 riot and if you go through our communities and you add homelessness, mental illness, and the issue of veterans not being able to come back into their community, these are the same elements here today. so you can use the police or the city government as a posterchild for these failures but if you don't get into the issue of the poverty, mental illness, mental health what do you do rehabilitating people out of prison, how do you educate our children why are we still in today's age under educating a

large population of children particularly in minority communities. this will continue to fester. >> cedric you're on the president's commission to come up with better policing techniques better ways to deal with the kinds of problems. you heard the president of the united states make his points just a little while ago in the rose garden at the white house. what long term we know there are enormous problems out there, but what needs to be done immediatelily right now to make sure we don't have another night like last night? >> that document that we were directed by the president to put together it is very clear in there. there's six pillars in there, wolf and one of them the beginning the first pillar is building trust and legitimacy between police and community. if you were to go through that document and i encourage everyone to pull it down from the u.s. justice department site in there there are things we can do right at this minute to begin to build relationships in our recruitment process, the

police officers in our training in the technology that we know we need going forward, but it is very, very important, regardless even of what's happening in baltimore at this very moment relationship building is key and it's going to be a very important as that community and other communities across this country continue to move forward. >> nick mosby you're a councilman we know there's a state of emergency in baltimore right now that's understandble bleunderstandble, we know schools have been closed not going to be a major league baseball game the orioles aren't going to play because of the 10:00 p.m. curfew in part and there are thousands, literally several thousand national guard troops on standby to come into your city if necessary, if the community starts seeing national guard troops military personnel, joining local and state police on the streets of baltimore, what will be the impact? >> i mean immediate shock. it's real to sit and see tanks,

you know coming down streets and, you know, armored folks around the city but it's surreal to see buildings burning, cars on fire folks running around with masks. at the end of the day no one wants to be in a police state but it's also critically important we attack this issue and attack it immediately. we have to defuse and deescalate this as soon as possible and need the subject matter expertise to make it happen happen. obviously, you know, the situation has escalated throughout yesterday into the night and we cannot afford as a city community, country to see that again broadcasted throughout the world. these kids are not just baltimore kids these are american kids. and we have to get to them, we have to make sure the folks causing the unproductive rioting make sure we provide the right enforcement and again i will continue to stress i do not condone it it's illegal and we have to go after it but we have to calm the situation as quickly as possible because the longer

we allow it to go on the more destruction that could happen and the further the chasm between the criminal justice system police and community will continue to grow. this is an issue that's going to take time to heal and nothing that's going to happen overnight but we have to deescalate the situation as quickly as possible. >> well said. nick mossby stand by. we will speak with a leader of the community, congressman elijah cummings standing by took to the streets to stop the violence last night. he lives in this community. we'll ask him what's going on right now. what needs to be done representative elijah cummings joins our conversation after this. [phone rings] [man] hello,totten designs. sales department? yes...i can put you right through. sales department-this is nate. human resources.

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there's no excuse for the kind of violence we saw yesterday. it is counter productive. when individuals get crowbars and start prying open doors to loot they're not protesting. they're not making a statement. they're stealing. when they burn down a building they're committing arson. and they're destroying and undermining businesses and opportunities in their own communities. >> strong words from the president of the united states in the rose garden just a little

while ago condemning the violence that erupted on the streets of baltimore last night. once again, nick mossby is joining me a councilman and cedric alexander the president of the national organization of black law enforcement executives and bernard parks the city councilman former chief of the lapd. you hear the president bernard parks make a strong statement like that what goes through your mind? >> i think those are statements that are necessary, but wolf i think what we keep going through these processes and whether no matter what city they're in i think we're missing one of the major points that is we keep critiquing whether -- how the police handles a circumstance in which they have little power to change. the real problems in our society have to do with things outside of the police department. we can create all kinds of relationships with the public but if you can't provide them a job, can't provide them mental health can't provide them with the things that are necessary in

the communities like drug stores grocery stores then the police ares just dealing with symptoms and when they break out as it relates to issues throughout our nation the police are critiqued on how they handled it. the real problems in our society are not within the police departments wherewithal or expertise. the police department can do little about poverty. they can do little about education. these are things that keep getting overlooked. if you go back to the '65 riots in l.a. and you read all the reports that identify what the problems were many of them still exist and yet we're still critiquing how the police responds when there is an outbreak. >> that's a fair point. the president made that point as well part of a much bigger picture. the police can't control the issue of poverty, a bigger issue that has to be assessed. cedric alexander, the baltimore police department just updated us and said there have been 235

arrests. of those 235, 34 juveniles and 201 adults but adults mostly in the range of 18 to 30. and we're trying to figure out if these people arrested were local residents of the chance from baltimore or so-called outside agitators. at least the initial impression we're getting these are local residents of the community not necessarily outside agitators. that's significant, right? >> well it is significant and significant in the sense that it tells you that there are people who are indigenous to that community where we're seeing these problems today and last night, that are making themselves known and are pushing back against the police. but, you know, i tell you, councilman parks is so much right on point in terms of what he's saying. this is a much larger social issue, police departments are

left to do the work and the fact that we are left to do the work it -- the fact of the matter is this is what we have to contend with. so we still have to build those relationships, we still have to look to technology to help us as we advance policing in the 21st century, because there's some things right here right now, that we can do. are they largely systemic issues they are, wolf but there are things we can do here and now to help build an grow our communities. >> a lot of stuff all of us need to do to fix this problem. that will take a long time. nick mossby what do you think of the way the mayor and police chief have handled this crisis since the death of freddie -- the death that happened almost two weeks or so ago? >> wolf i think there's been significant challenges but, you know it's really important for us to focus on maybe not monday morning quarterbacking what hasn't been done but how can we handle and address things going forward.

we have to take a sus sinct and sound approach to calming the city down and the subject matter experts who can perform that. if i could comment on the conversation prior, you know you're right, police officers can't change socioeconomic issues and communities. however police officers like any public servant, teachers or firefighters is critically important that we have sound and quality relationships with the communities that we decide to serve as public servants. i think that that's the main issue. it's you're right, social economic issues are there, but why is this prevalence of distrust with our communities and the law enforcement and why do time and time again we run into these issues where seemingly healthy young men goes in and 40 minutes later is paralyzed. >> excellent questions and important issues, nick mossby. standby. ryan young our correspondent on the streets of baltimore. what's the latest over there,

ryan? >> wolf ten seconds ago you missed a stirring scene here. the community has taken over the intersection here. they started singing "amazing grace" and look at this crowd there are all walks of life. listen to them clapping and watch how long and big the circle is. the circle is wide and now they're screaming "peace and unity." they sung "amazing grace" three times. this is -- you can hear it. they want peace. and this has been sort of -- you can see how people have taken over while people have started cleaning the cvs across the way. no tension here right now. this is more baltimore coming forward and showing what they really -- what they told us what they want to show the world is they can come back together. the police have faded in the back. look back in this direction, that's the police line. you don't really see them anymore. they've been separated because of the crowd. >> peace unity and save our

brothers. peace, unity. >> why do you think this is important to be here right now? >> this is important. we're in a pivotal moment. there are multiple things going on right now. one of the most important things i think the message that the city councilman and the city representative sent out yesterday it was a sad message. the mayor got on public got on national television and called her, said these were her children and also said these were the thugs of the city and the same breath. you can't call the children of the city and the thugs of the city the same thing. >> are you glad everybody is coming together? >> it shows that -- it shows naturally unity and peace naturally reside. naturally humanity we possess a unity and peace that naturally lives on the inside of us and this shows us. >> you can hear the passion from people who have decided to come out on their own and sort of police themselves. once again, wolf police have faded to the background people singing an the tension has washed away so far. >> all right.

ryan standby. let me get reaction to what we heard knicks mossnick -- nick had to leave. bernard parks, from the one protester upset the mayor of baltimore referred to some of those individuals as thugs, presumably those who ransacked the store, wept in looting, started the fires, destroyed police and other civilian vehicles. they weren't happy with that. >> the issue is whether -- there's many times in these circumstances that we get taken off course and we can debate and dissect a word and lose sight of the larger issue. the people involved with breaking in buildings and looting are criminals involved in criminal activity and there's no way that you can shine that and make it anything different. so the issue is you can spend a lot of time depending -- i used the word criminal and the mayor thug and lose sight of the issue of why are we having fires in

baltimore and how did we get to this point. i think the issue is important for the media and everyone involved to stay as focused as you can on the main issues and the resolution and at some point we're going we'll come to grips with the fact that the major issues in our community, although we do need relationships with the police and community, they only go so far if that person in the community can't get a job, if that person is mentally ill and can't get care. these are major issue in our community that we need to resolve. they haven't changed in the last five decade that i've been in public service. so the key is again, let's not get distracted. let's not get to the point of dealing with issues that are picking specks in the sense of looking at things very minutely. let's stay on focus and let's stay with the larger issue of solving the problem and find out

where the symptoms are the things that we spend a lot of time on, and the symptoms rarely take us to a conclusion of success. >> yep. hard to believe this stuff is going on in a city like baltimore now. bernard park stay with us. let's take a break, resume our special coverage right after this.

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we're standing by for a live news conference from the baltimore city police. at the top of the hour we'll

have live coverage here. get the latest information. in the meantime we've got statistics. the latest numbers coming from baltimore right now. we'll put it up on the screen. as of right now, there have been several arrests, more than 200, 235 people arrested. of those 235, 201 are adult, mostly 18 to 30 years old, 34 juveniles also arrested. 144 vehicle vehicle fires police vehicles, civilian vehicles, 19 structure fires, meaning buildings that were burned to the ground. 15 police officers have been injured. ryan young is on the streets of baltimore for us. ryan relatively calm so far. let's hope it stays that way. you have a special guest. >> reporter: yeah relatively calm. i'll tell you now you hear the music behind us. the people are singing. a lot of self-policing going on. as you see young men that we had talked to earlier, leading people singing. they've been holding hands for

the last half-hour making sure it remains peaceful. when someone started yelling at police they made sure to pull that person back. one young man who's been in this crowd wanting to talk about the community he lived in his entire life he said we are glad to see what's going on today. but you want change in the neighborhood. >> yes i do, yes, i do. it's awful here, man. we have too many homeless people and too many abandoned houses. how is that possible? so how it possible? this is -- seriously, it's a liquor store on every corner. >> reporter: when you saw what happened yesterday, when you saw the -- when it was burning, how did it make you feel? >> it made me feel bad, but at the same time i knew it would bring attention. look, it did. we're getting the attention we need. we might not be doing it the right way. that's because some people are not able to express themselves, but it should not be a liquor store on every corner.

>> describe what's going on for everyone at home and what today feels like compared to yesterday. >> what's going on today is a lot of tension here, people is getting fed up you know. it seems like -- it seems like it's just -- about to be the last straw. it's about to be last straw. >> reporter: you think today's not peaceful? today -- >> it's peaceful. yes, it's peaceful! but people are getting tired. no justice, no peace. that's what it's -- no justice, no peace. it's been peaceful now. but when will the justice come? when will it come? waiting too long. if an officer would have got killed the person would have been committed -- he would have been arrested. he would have been went to court and all that. it would have been happened. >> reporter: thank you for stopping for us. appreciate that. you see, a lot of people still want that justice/peace. people talking about that. they want to hear from the mayor and city council about the investigation. to tell you, as we're talking now, there are people walking around with bullhorns addressing

the kroupd.crowd. people walking around addressing the public. across the street, cvs is still being cleaned out. and we can see officers here. so far once again, it is remaining peaceful at this time. >> let's hope it stays like it. but you don't see much of a police present where you are, ryan is that right? >> reporter: there is a police presence. let me show how they've been insulated from everyone else. i'll let my cameraman walk that direction. you sze everyone is standing. they are at the ready but not needed at this point. >> obviously they've got shields, helmets. they're ready. the protesters are not doing anything. yesterday they were throwing rocks. none of that has occurred, right? >> reporter: no. i'm going to walk down the line. this is the line, this is the line that insulates people from

-- what's up, brother? this insulates people protesting from the police officers, they're doing this on their own. no one told them to do this. you see older men from the community making sure thing remain peaceful. this line has been here for over an hour. no one's talking. if anyone walks up to the line they have a conversation with the gentlemen here and it's squashed at the line. it doesn't go past these men who here protecting their community. >> how are you being received by the local community? any problems? >> reporter: none whatsoever. i took my badge off i took -- put the mic down walked through the crowd for over an hour talking to people. this gentleman and i talked earlier about the ideas of what's going on, what they absolutely want. that's something, they want to be heard. they wanted to make sure that the picture that was shown to the world of the one that's going on here. where men have shown up today to stand up and make sure the

conversation doesn't change to what it did yesterday. yesterday they were upset to see young men throwing rocks and being involved in what was going on yesterday. yes, they were sad to see that burn down, but they wanted to make sure today it's changed. >> thank you very much. this it for me. i'll be back at 5:00 p.m. eastern in "the situation room." our coverage continues with brooke baldwin in baltimore now. here we go, top of the hour, i'm brooke baldwin, special live coverage from the city of baltimore. i'm in front of baltimore city hall. heads up, we're watching a lot this afternoon. first and foremost any minute we are expecting a news conference which will take place live not far from where i'm standing at the baltimore city police headquarters. we expect to hear from the police commissioner anthony batts. we'll take that live. but perspective