starts right now. >> good evening, there are demonstrations going on right now across the country. people on the streets in middle of the pandemic protesting the killing of george floyd in minneapolis. police officer's knee on his neck. charged today with third degree murder and manslaughter, he and three others had been fired. live reports from minneapolis and nationwide. lot to get to, start in new york, outside barclay center in brooklyn. what are the demonstrations like in new york? >> reporter: started peaceful but thousands now. largest demonstration we've yet seen in new york city, relatively peaceful. within last hour everything has changed. police have moved in, they've put barricades we're behind, trying to get the protesters out the other way. there are police everywhere, you can see a woman there being taken away with the rest of --

continuing to make arrests here last 40 or so minutes we've seen this. police moving in. could see more police officers running. this has significantly escalated here in the last 40 minutes. as you can see, we are being pushed back as well. protesters and police here right now, police challenging the protesters. we've seen pepper spray from the nypd here at some of the protesters. seen officer with his -- now out. and now bottles, water bottles, glass bottles being thrown at police and police coming in again, chasing people down as they're throwing bottles at them. this started peaceful, anderson, but something changed, and then the police, who mostly were not -- did not feel any kind of

threat, let the protesters go. then all of a sudden, everything changed and police moved in with riot gear, wearing helmets. another bottle just thrown, that's been going on last hour, more police moved in. protesters became more agitated. pepper spray, several people with pepper spray all over their face. red eyes. woman here now walking away, but certainly things have been tense, anderson. >> do you have a sense how large the crowd is? >> reporter: thousands. some people are left but problem is now there are people all around us, barclay center in downtown brooklyn is completely surrounded by protesters and police. it's starting to rain, hopefully will help the police.

thousands of people here, perhaps as many as 5,000 at one point. but it was peaceful, anderson. something changed and we saw setting a trash can on fire and fireworks started going off, police trying to get people to move out of here, that's what we're seeing now. it's a very tense situation for sure, anderson. >> we'll continue to check in with you. want to go to washington next. chief white house correspondent jim acosta. what is the situation where you are? where are you? >> reporter: i'm in lafayette park across the white house. the white house is behind me. several hundred protesters here just a few moments ago, they're beginning to clear out of here. you see about 100 secret service agents lined up outside the fence of the north lawn of the white house. anderson, just within the last hour it's been a very volatile scene. we've seen people being pepper

sprayed, some shoving and pushing between protesters and police officers, i will tell you right now, it appears the secret service has arrested at least one person outside the white house but largely does seem at moment that secret service, as you know is charged with protection of the white house and grounds and president, done a pretty good job de-escalating the situation. don't know everything that's happened so far but managed to wait out protesters. protesters moving on to another part of washington. there is one moment i have to tell you got very tense. standing here in lafayette park, heard pops. i had 60 or 70 protesters rushing towards me and seemed as if for a moment things were getting out of control but largely things are calming down in lafayette park and seems as though the secret service have a handle on the situation right now, anderson. >> appreciate it. brian todd is also in

washington, joining us now. brian you're with the group that was in lafayette park, they've now left. where are they heading? what is it like? >> reporter: it's boisterous, paci passionate, angry but not as violent as what we saw a few moments ago, i was not far from jim when that happened at lafayette park. crowds rushed to us and pushed us to the side as well, so did the police trying to subdue one young man. police got the crowd against them at that moment, crowd turned on the police and was violate for span of about five minutes. at that point there was standoff in lafayette park not far from where jim and i were, protesters pushing down barricades in front of the white house and police were setting them back up again, got pretty tense. right now marching on 15th street northwest, one of the organizers told me they wanted

to get out of the park because they thought the police were trying to hem them in. but we don't know where they're going exactly. 15th towards the national mall and chanting. just again, very passionate about sending a message to the minneapolis protesters to keep up the good fight. one of the organizers told me what they don't want here is looting in streets, property damage, violence. they've had some violence, confrontations with the police, but those fizzled out pretty quickly. anderson. >> and brian, how long has this protest been going on? when did it start? >> reporter: started about 5:00 eastern time. a little over three hours. and again started out with a couple dozen people and ballooned to a couple hundred, now it's a couple thousand. see the chants behind me, very passionate. don't want people to forget the

names of george floyd, eric garner, greta gray. they keep chanting their names and getting boisterous now, anderson moving down toward the national mall on 15th street. don't know where it's going, may stop for impromptu speeches or block intersections along the way. >> we'll continue to check in. nick valencia in atlanta. where are you, what's happening? >> reporter: anderson, it's ugly out here. situation has deteriorated fast. demonstrators showed up 3:00 and just last 30 minutes things turned for the worse. see behind me, just set a car on fire. prior to that breaking windows of atlanta police cruiser. you have armored vehicles, s.w.a.t. team from atlanta police department and plain

clothed officers. demonstrators came here ready to confront the police. began throwing objects at cnn center, breaking windows. pan over to see what they left behind as police presence pushed them past cnn center, left behind graffiti, profanly, sorry about showing that live but that's what's really happening out here anderson. they graffitied the cnn red letters and broke windows out. this is where they were. happening live in front of us, another demonstrator is being taken into custody. witnessed at least six people, this is the seventh we've seen with our own eyes taken into custody. these objects were thrown with aggression at the police. did see at one point what we believe was tear gas fired at the demonstrators as they've been pushed back towards the main intersection if you're

familiar with downtown atlanta, right at centennial and ted turner intersection. pan left, william, if you can. seeing dozens of heavily armed in tactical gear atlanta police -- state police rather coming in. flanked by tactical gear, i'm a little breathless, this is something to see here. you're familiar with atlanta, spent a lot of time down here, nothing i've ever seen happen. even prior to coming down here, there was hope as atlanta resident, this is a place that's really missed out on a lot of violence throughout the years, especially in 2015 with the rash of police shootings against african-american men. there were demonstrations here but nothing that turned violent, nothing like this. i'm sorry, officer, thank you so much, i know you're doing your job sh keeping us safe. anderson, we're from vantage point behind the police line.

go ahead, anderson. >> just give a sense, it's hard to tell from how many people are involved, how large this is. do you have a sense, with the crowd it's hard to tell, of crowd size? we can see some people obviously in the background, and see the police, armored vehicles, and -- tactical gear as well. do you have a sense of the scope? >> reporter: we hate to estimate on numbers without talking to the police, but just from educated guess, anderson, over 1,000, perhaps more than that. some people are wearing masks. we have the coronavirus happening right now, pandemic that hasn't gone away, and you really don't know with those showed up, wearing masks because afraid of the virus or want to conceal identity while confronting law enforcement. we've seen a lot of patience on the side of law enforcement so far in atlanta, trying to reason

with the demonstrators. within the last 30 minutes that individuals began throwing rocks at cnn center, breaking windows. that's when police made the decision to advance. that wasn't welcomed obviously by those that came to demonstrate. >> and do you known -- >> reporter: go ahead. >> vehicle on fire looks like police vehicle. was that -- obviously i assume somebody through incendiary advice? >> reporter: just started before this live shot. we don't know what they did to set that on fire. right before that, anderson, they were breaking out windows of police cruiser. all the cars had been parked there as way to act as barricade i assume, flank the demonstrators outside of cnn center. don't know what caused the police vehicle to go up in

flames but it's on fire now and i'm sure there are concerns about it exploding. we're far away enough from here but it's still -- this is -- this is terrible to witness. terrible to witness, anderson. >> nick, how long has this been going on for? i saw the crowds outside cnn center at least an hour ago, how long has this been going on? >> reporter: they've been warming up out here at least five hours. got out here according to national desk about 3:00 p.m. this afternoon. and that crowd only grew in size as the evening progressed. you see now they're all basically in front of corner of centennial olympic park there, site of the 1996 atlanta ceremonies. you see now live pictures, going to come back down here, william pans down, fire truck shown up to extinguish the flames.

you see empty water bottles, projectiles littering the streets of atlanta. another fire truck, it's hard to say this but seem to have calmed down a little bit. another object thrown. they're still throwing objects. >> what i was going to say, looks as if there's i don't know if standoff or standdown. police and demonstrators, doesn't look like there's interaction between the protesters and the police at this point. seems like people are watching the car burning and more police are moving in. >> reporter: that's right. very astute observation. doesn't seem to be confrontation right now at this point in this second. but you know, you've been in situations like this around the world, things can change very, very quickly. we're going to be keeping an eye on it right now, quite a sight to see in downtown atlanta, even

the police officers here seem nervous, anderson. >> nick -- >> reporter: just exploded. >> yeah. >> reporter: something just explode. that car's going up really fast. >> yeah. obviously it's a hazard for everybody in that area. hopefully the fire truck can at least get to it to put out the flames. joining us on the phone right now, retired fbi supervisory special agent, and nick we're staying with you and your images as long as you're in safe place. james, from a -- there's a lot of issues to you canta about, unfortunately right now, situation like this, end up focusing a lot on the demonstrations taking place, which are important and important to focus on because people want their voices heard, but obviously also there is the actual killing of george floyd to focus on as well, which we

will throughout this hour. in a situation like this, there's a lot of moving parts, lot of things can go south in a lot of different ways very fast. >> yeah, and anderson, what we're seeing right now is that this is metastasizing. i've been exceedingly critical of the minnesota police department, the four officers charged in death of george floyd but also what i felt was lack of preparedness. 96 hours outside of this, what didn't happen in time to better prepare and not know or expect there was going to be angry, impassioned folks that were going to be protesting. and obviously a small segment of folks will be acting out. some provocateurs, some just into rioting and looting and those type of things. we had to be better prepared. this is exploding out -- don't mean to use that term literally,

but watching these scenes on television with you, that's what's happening. takes me back. i'm from atlanta, takes me back to 1992 as young fbi agent. father worked at georgia state university, right around the corner from cnn building down there, we're looking at these scenes. small pockets of riots and protests broke out. what i'm viewing now takes me back to 1968, and 1992 and rodney king riots, 2014 and 2015, baltimore riots, ferguson riots. how have we not learned to be better prepared? police have a tough job, no doubt about it, they have to disperse crowds, maintain public order, disrupt the rioting and keep the peaceful protesters and innocent bystanders out of the

way. we're seeing property damage and potential for people to be injured. some people suggest it's just property, this is people's livelihoods. burning cars and stores, these people have no way to recover from that quickly, especially now with businesses dealing with the pandemic and having sales down. this is frightening to watch. guy that was s.w.a.t. team leader and hostage rescue team member in the fbi, this is frightening. don't want the police to look or act like occupying force but in incidents like this only way to disperse crowds is have a -- force as deterrent and anderson, gosh, i'm just not seeing it. >> obviously when you talk about the time line of demonstrations that we have seen, you know, the other flip side way to look at it is the sadness we're still in the situation where people feel

there is no other option but take to the streets to have their voices heard when we have seen time and time again injustices occurring and people dying. and nick valencia, it is -- you know, we have seen this before. i feel like obviously not this particular permutation of it but -- and again it's i think a mistake to just focus on the demonstrations which are taking place and not the underlying reasons that people are out in the streets because those, whether 1968, 1992 or right now, you know, places change and names of those killed change but this continues, this lack of understanding, this dehumanization of others, it's

got to stop somehow. >> reporter: you know, this is a group, anderson, tired of remembering names as hashtags. a group that clearly feels as though their voice is not heard. famous quote from martin luther king that uprising is the voice of the unheard. there is clearly anger. combine that with what's going on right now, pandemic, people home, home from work, we're leading into the weekend here, saw what happened today in minneapolis. i spoke to so many people that saw and were so angered with what happened today with our reporter omar jimenez. this is not lost on this crowd here. you're right. can't just focus on the cursory images we see. it is shocking to our senses sh not something we're used to seeing in atlanta. 14 years i've been here, something like this hasn't happened in more than a v

generation here. talking about 1968, people alive then look at these images, harken back to those days. give you update. people on the rooftops behind me, behind the police line, part of crowd that began throwing projectiles and soda cans and bottles down on the police as they began to push the demonstrators back towards the intersection of marietta and centennial electric park. car that was on fire has been contained, seems as though the police made advancement past the cars. armored vehicles, sight of that and fire trucks and graffiti that's left behind, our workplace, anderson, this is not something you want to see anywhere in america. >> nick, i want to go to sara

sidner in minneapolis, curfew set to go into effect about 40 minutes from now. what is the situation? what are people saying to you? >> reporter: we're just down the street from the precinct that we watched burn last year. protesters and police face-to-face here, chancing one down, three to go. one officer arrested and charged, believe three more need to be arrested and charged because they believe justice cannot be done unless those officers are charged and ultimately would like to see officers convicted. obviously the justice system has to go through its normal course. but right now they're aware of the curfew, counting down to it. we've been listening to people say look, if you want to be out here and get arrested, you can stay but keep safe. clearly folks may not leave when the curfew comes along.

>> sara, it's hard to get physical sense of where you are, where this is happening in minneapolis, also kind of the ebb and flow of this. you've been there now several days, what is the course of events from time lookiike now t throughout the evening? >> reporter: this crowd is much smaller here than the past 72 hours. but i'll give you a sense of where we are, police sign you see here, yesterday i was standing there at wine & spirits outside of that. then moved beyond that to intersection where you will see the third precinct that was set on fire yesterday. we watched it as it happened. that's been destroyed, there are no officers in that precinct. this is just one side of the street. basically what's happened is police and national guard have cordoned off huge swaths of the neighborhood, much burned, at least a dozen buildings on fire

and burned completely through. there's a perimeter set up here. protesters were inside, push the camera this way, they were inside the area that's absolutely empty, no one inside that area, where they've set up the perimeter and protesters are coming up to where the police line is on this side. there's a police line on the other side where there's protesters, all the way around, protesters coming up to the police line. reiterate and mention that george floyd is the reason for this. but it is not just george floyd, it's all the other cases before, ph philando castillo and so many others. that's why people are so determined to be out here. >> sara sidner, appreciate it. be careful but thankful you're there. joining us, benjamin crump,

representing the floyd family. thanks for joining us. wondering what the floyd family reaction is to the one officer at least now being charged. >> anderson, they were relieved that he was arrested. however as they said, with much conviction, they expected first degree murder and want first degree murder, and they began to tell me stories about how when they were little boys, talking to the brothers, how george would always sleep on the edge of the bed they shared, he would put his brother rodney in the middle because he always was there for them, and to see him down like that, to die with that police officer's knee on his neck and the fact that the last

three minutes he was unconscious, and the fact they told me we saw him urinate on himself, they're just outraged that they would not charge him with first degree murder because they said he treated -- they treated his brother less than they would treat a dog. >> the charging document, which i've read, i'm sure you've gone over closely. it quotes preliminary autopsy and claims revealed no physical findings to support traumatic az fixia or -- had underlying health conditions including coronary artery disease and hypertensive heart disease, combined effects of restrained by police and underlying health conditions may have contributed

to his death. i understand why you want another autopsy. certainly sounds like something to be used about i the defense in any trial. >> the family does not trust the minneapolis police department or anybody affiliated with the minneapolis police department, anderson. remember the first report that came out they gave so much false information in that report, talking about george was resisting. george was threatening, saying that he died of a medical condition. never once mentioning the fact that this officer had his knee on his neck, not just for one minute, two minutes, three minutes, four minutes, five minutes, six minutes, seven minutes but for seight minutes, and i do that on the family's behalf for dramatic effect.

people need to understand the last eight minutes of his life he was struggling to breathe, telling them i couldn't breathe and they offered him no humanity. when this autopsy by the city's medical examiner says that had nothing to do with his death, we understand they did the same thing to eric garner, and we're not going to allow that to happen this time. that's why you see those people protesting in minneapolis, protesting in new york and washington, d.c., and atlanta, because african-americans are just fed up with them killing unarmed black people, people supposed to protect and serve us. we will have independent autopsy performed and will get to the truth of the matter because we know, we witnessed a terrible crime that happened to george floyd, and that crime was

murder. >> george floyd, not only held down but narrating his own death, explaining the stages of his death as it was happening, and it's one of the things that's so sickening about seeing that video, we now have seen another video from another vantage point, we see a number of officers actually on mr. floyd, and in the charging document itself there's a lot of damning stuff for the officers obviously. fact that one officer says -- points out he seems to be in distress and asks if they should put him on his side, officer who has now been charged said no, he's staying exactly where he is, which means face down on the ground with my knee in his neck. and even after the officer cannot find a pulse, and they're all aware they can't find a

pulse, that officer, now been charged, does not remove his knee from the neck of mr. floyd for some two minutes at least. >> and anderson, that's why george floyd's family and people all over america are saying how can they not charge first degree murder. fact this d.a. came out yesterday and added insult to injury when he said there may be evidence that proves there was no crime. we were just -- george's family were just disgusted. you mean to tell me you're saying that you still can't arrest all four of these officers based on what we see on this video? they feel this is just like they did in eric garner, just tried to delay, come up with all kind of ways to justify unjustifiable

killing of yet another unarmed black human being. and his family wants the world to know that they're going to keep their foot on the neck of these officers until they are convicted just like he kept his knee on the neck of their brother, their gentle giant. >> all right, benjamin crump, appreciate talking to you, sorry it's under these circumstances as always when i talk to you. but thank you. >> thank you. coming up next, how prosecutors can make the case and challenges they face. more on the problem of presidential leadership this moment, incredible thing that president decided to tweet last night this morning, and how it fits into the long arc of american history. dr. cornell west joins us as well.

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we're seeing demonstrations on streets of number of cities across the country. watched earlier a building on fi -- vk on fire in atlanta. outside the trump hotel in

washington and outside the white house. protesting the killing yet again of african-american man. we saw third degree murder and manslaughter charges against one of the officers. it's not tamped down the anger. what goes into making a murder case against a police officer. joining us now a professor of law, "race, law and american society" author. and dr. sanjay gupta. fact that officer kept his knee on george floyd's neck even up to three minutes after they knew he did not have a pulse, he was you nonresponsive. how damning is that? how damning is that?

>> as a prominent minneapolis lawyer said to me today this is undefensible case. there is no way officer chauvin can win at trial i don't think. and there's one more fact you didn't mention, george floyd was handcuffed. so the usual argument that is heard when a police officer is charged with some sort of misconduct with regard to a citizen, that i felt threatened. and juries are often very responsive to that because police officers do deal with threats. but george floyd was handcuffed. so he couldn't possibly pose a threat to these officers, and i think that's what makes this case virtually open and shut, at least against officer chauvin, then we'll see about the other three who are likely to be

charged with at least some crimes as well. >> professor, are you as confident as jeff toobin? third degree murder charge is much different than first or second degree, family would like to see first degree. prosecutor left open the possibility of more charges. what do you think of the case based on what we know now and the charges? >> well, i, in think even thouge family wants first degree murder, that's great thing except that requires planning and premeditation. i don't think we have that here, we have diabolical soul giving into blood thirst but i don't know if can prove promote vated. and they have another officer who pulled a gun for no reason, that officer should be arrested as well.

>> it's also startling when you read that one of the officers raised concerns about mr. floyd's condition, suggesting or asking other officers about putting him on his side, and that was turned down immediately. even after they couldn't find a pulse, to keep this officer's knee on mr. floyd's neck for nearly three minutes, is that what makes this case so clear? >> i think this is clear but we have to go back to how many times we had what we thought would be a clear case with a video, only to be rebuffed by prosecutors who would not do their job properly, not return an indictment using the same skill they would use with civilian on civilian crime and undermining of the case by jurors who come on the case

lying to be unbiased, decided to let the officer off no matter what. there's so few wins you can't even be confident. i claim this is part of a genocidal commission of people who have decided this is what they want to do, execute black people, and this can do it with impunity. that's why the protests are so impassioned, we clearly see that this is -- these murders that go on every single year are part of a pattern of american history of killing black people. >> sanjay, we don't have the full autopsy report, family wants their own, you can understand their point of view on this. complaint as i mentioned earlier does detail some information, stating there were no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation, what does that mean? i mean, does that -- if -- if it's not strangulation, sitting

on somebody who is saying they can't breathe and i don't know if their chest isn't able to rise and fall with breath, but this man died. >> yeah. that's what a lot of people are going to read about, i don't think i read too much into that. if there was physical evidence, that would be clear but no physical evidence doesn't mean anything, people can still essentially asphyxia without that physical evidence. that's biggest takeaway there. look, you have other things that could have happened to him. carotid arteries supplying blood flow to the brain, were they being compressed? unnatural position, prone, harder to breathe. someone standing on your neck and you're prone, makes it more challenging. lots of different things could have caused this. they also wrote underlying

history of cardiac disease and possibly intoxicants. first of all, possible intoxicants they just threw in there. lab results would be still fo e forthcoming and would have no relevance here. those things did not precipitate his death right now. they checked for pulse, not only take knee off his neck but even afterwards when the paramedics arrived, i was reading this report, put on a stretcher, clearly pulseless, unresponsive gentleman put on stretcher by paramedics, first thing you do is start cpr, nothing happened. they just put him in ambulance and drove away. that's quite striking. >> if i can add one point about that, ultimately it's going to be up to the jury to decide whether this officer or all the

officers caused this death. good luck to a defense attorney telling a jury, no, no, no, eight minutes of a knee on the neck didn't cause his death. i think common sense plays a part here. >> yeah but jeff, seeing the rodney king video, also thought that and jury thought otherwise. >> true. >> as gloria brown marshall said. >> thank you all. joining us, professor cornell west. i'm glad we're talking tonight. what are your thoughts watching these images tonight around the country, people in the streets, and the horrific images we saw of george floyd, and what is happening. >> i just want to begin by extending my condolences to the floyd family. they exemplify spiritual

nobility, long history of 400 years of black people having to come to terms with these kind of vicious murders, assassinations and attacks. i haven't seen you, anderson, since little brother wyatt made his appearance. in midst of the ugly greed and corruption, it's important to celebrate that. i've been trying to bear witness to over 53 years of telling the truth, trying to say something about the least of these, but i think we are witnessing america as a failed social experiment. what i mean by that is that the history of black people or over 200 and some years in america has been looking at america's failure, its capitalist economy

could not generate and deliver in such a way people can live lives of decency. legal system could not generate protection of rights and liberties. and now our culture so market driven, everybody for sale, everything for sale, can't deliver the kind of really real nourishment for soul, for meaning, for purpose. so when you get this perfect storm of all these multiple failures at these different levels of the american empire, martin king already told us about that. when i saw in the pictures in atlanta, could see martin right there saying i told you about militarism, i told you about poverty, i told you about materialism, i told you about racism in all of its forms, whatever forms it takes. i told you about xenophobia, and in america we see the chickens

coming home to roost, you reaping what you so yw, and in this instance, brother george, so clear, lynching at highest level. nobody can deny it. i thank god we have people in the streets. can you imagine this kind of lynching taking place and people are indifferent, don't care, are callous? few people with signs? i recall during the reagan years there were a few of us out there. in '60s, masses out there. now a younger generation of all these different colors and genders and sexual orientations saying we won't take it any longer. but what's sad about it, brother, at deepest level, looks as though the system cannot reform itself. we've tried black faces in high places. too often our black politicians, professional class and middle class become too accommodated to

the capitalist economy, military nation state and power, fame and superficial stuff that means so much to fellow citizens. we have a neofascist gangster in the white house who doesn't care for the most part. neoliberal ring of the democratic party in the driver's seat with the collapse of brother bernie, don't know what to do, show more black faces but losing legitimacy too. black lives matter movement emerged under black president and black national security and they couldn't deliver. precious poor and working class black people, brown, red, yellow, whatever color, they're the ones left out. they feel so thoroughly

powerless, helpless, hopeless, then you get rebellion. we've reached a point now a choice between nonviolent revolution -- and by revolution i mean the democratic sharing of power, resources, wealth and respect. if we don't get that kind of sharing, going to get more violent explosions. sad thing is in the neofascist moment in the white house, neofascist brothers and sisters out there already armed, show up at u.s. capitol, don't get arrested or put down. president praises them. see what i mean? >> that's the extraordinary thing. you have white weekend warriors showing up as if they're former special forces ops when they're not, busting into the state house and the president praises those people. and yet everybody else is a thug to the president, he quotes, you know, a white sheriff from the south in -- i guess '67 or '68.

that's -- if you wrote that in a movie, people would say no way the president of the united states would quote a southern sheriff on the night that a great city in this country is seeing people in the streets. >> that's exactly right. and also -- >> but keep in mind, he's being true to himself, saying what he really feels in his soul. see what i mean? we have to recognize to, like tup tup tupac shukar, i've got thug in my all day. call them people what they are, neofascist in the white house called my brothers and sisters in the street thugs. how do we keep alive moral standards, staying in context of humanity of everybody across the board but recognizing living in

moment of massive economic capitalist economy failure delivering needs, nation state failure to protect, criminal justice system, failure to be fair. you see. and only response we have is samuel beckett, try again, fail again, fail better. try again, fail again, fail better. >> that's it. >> white supremacy is going to be around a long, long, long time, don't be surprised when this happens again. try again, fail again, fail better. that's the blues line of our brothers. but we must fight. even in moment we have a failed social experiment, we must fight. have antifascist coalition against the white house/republican party. we have to tell the truth about the milktoast cowardly activity

we see too often in the neoliberal wing of the democratic party and be critical of ourselves, keeping alive the spiritual standards of martin luther king and fanny lou hamer and ella baker. and you see that work in the soul of brother george floyd's family. >> dr. cornell west, i appreciate your time tonight. >> love you, brother. stay strong. >> thank you. >> you too, thank you. back to brian todd in washington, where are you now? >> reporter: anderson, we're on independence avenue by the capital. photo journalist is going to take you to a tense moment we had a short time ago. protesters are still here. most by police cars at this spot have now left. moment of ago they were menacing a police car and police officers by it, screaming, had hands on

the car, menacing the police and car, thought would be more incident here but this gentleman in orange vest, one of the protest leaders got the crowd to back away, then the police backed the cars away. they're down there right now. again it was tense moment. thought something might happen to the police car but cooler heads prevailed on the police side and one of the protest leaders, this gentleman over here got the crowd to back away. crowd has moved back that way on independence avenue and police cars have backed down independence more toward the mall. tense moment averted here but looked bad for a few minutes here, anderson. >> little bit of good news there. brian, appreciate it, be careful. there's been apparently another development in minneapolis. back to sara sidner. what's going on? >> reporter: let's go. >> sara, what's going on?

it's anderson. >> reporter: anderson, we're hearing lots of loud explosions. that's tear gas deployed. police line where we were earlier -- another explosion. see what that is? all of that smoke is tear gas. the line of officers, state police and sheriffs department that you saw earlier, they're gone, have backed up. we weren't able to get anywhere near this. another explosion of tear gas. all right, i'm going to let you see for the first time today since they cordoned this off, that is the third precinct right there. definitely damaged from fire but also see that acrid smoke. let you back up, you're going to get it in your eyes and really burn. folks are tears in their eyes as gas comes closer and closer. it is extremely strong. i'm going to have you turn around now to show what is happening in the streets.

we've been away from this area all day, where the state police and national guard had stopped people from coming anywhere near this area. we don't know why they backed up but we know there is a curfew that starts in nine minutes. in nine minutes you're supposed to be out of this area and back home, not on the streets. there are people that have absolutely no intention of doing that. absolutely no intention. [ booming sounds ] >> reporter: more flash bangs going off. >> can you tell, sara, why the tear gas is going off in this location? seems like a different group over there. >> reporter: yes, i can show you why if i can get a little bit closer. careful guys. there is a line of of police, they moved back from about -- here's the police, state police.

this line is getting hit, pelted by rocks and bits of concrete, responding with tear gas. but this line moved back and we don't know exactly why, but eight minutes until the curfew at minneapolis, outside of the third precinct that was set ablaze, we watched it go up last night. incoming rocks at the state police there. just to the left, target foods, they've cordoned this place off but they're gathering in one area. that's why you're seeing all the explosions. they're responding. see the rocks thrown there, they're responding with tear gas at this moment in time. >> sara, we're going to stay with you and your images. just want to bring in bakari sellers, former south carolina democratic state lawmaker, author of new book "my vanishing

country," bakari, wondering your thoughts to what is happening in the streets, in the legal system and america. >> that's a rich question. i've heard a lot of your guests talk about 1968 and this does harken back to 1968. bakari you were born in 1964, what do you know about it? tom brokaw wrote a great book called it boom, 1968. orangeburg massacre, my father was shot, three others were killed. 28 others shot along with my father on the campus of south carolina state university. also had assassination of dr. king april 4th of '68 and assassination of robert kennedy. combined with uprisings from soldiers coming back home in vietnam, this is reminiscent of this year. i want people to understand we're only one generation away.

trauma that many people, black folk, are displaying in the streets right now is real trauma, perpetual sense of grieving that you're seeing, underlying cause. i'm a son of the civil rights movement and i love brother cornell west, but my father and i are sharing too many of the same experiences. i'm 35, buried a good friend worshipping in church with others. he had emmitt till, i have tamir rice and breianna and george an ahmaud. i want to take the statements further. lot of white folk watching the program, trying to figure out what they can do. that's interesting question. first thing you have to realize, it ain't on black folk to cure

racism in this country. sick and tired of people thinking that. second thing, what the president fails at, doesn't have empathy or nuance to understand this. you can either be racist or antiracist. that's only choice you have in this country. it's not good enough to say i'm not a racist, you have to be antiracist, you have to root this out. and it's incumbent to have conversations around understanding and empathy to heal the divide in this country. racism is killing black folk, through covid and on the streets of places like minneapolis. >> bakari, want to bring sara into the conversation. explain what's going on if you can. >> reporter: i can. i want to get you two pictures. other side of this street, rocks are coming. national guard coming. on this side of the street, look what you see? what you're looking at, folks who feel like the streets belong

to them and are taking a knee with their hands up. trying to show that they are peaceful protesters but they believe these streets are their streets. you'll hear that chanted often. this side of the protest, absolutely peaceful, quiet, hands up, standing, although in the street, right near the third precinct. going to have you move. they're making a move. see the military vehicles, national guard there rolling past the first place to burn here during the protests, auto zone. to my right, that is the third precinct there. rolling past the third precinct. there has been an announcement telling people it is time to clear the streets because there is an 8:00 curfew. you can hear people chabting say his name, george floyd. that's what people are here for,

in response to the video they saw of george floyd dying and they're not planning on leaving. it's very clear they believe they are the citizens that belong to these streets and this is their home, and they're not going anywhere, even though there is a curfew that begins in two minutes. you're going to start seeing people roll back because all right -- let's go. all right. >> fast, fast. >> reporter: it's just smoke. that's smoke from a flash bang, but it's -- okay. that right there is not tear gas but you are seeing tear gas deployed as well. here. trying to get people to move back. but again, folks are moving back, they're not leaving. this group of people, there were more earlier who decided to go

home. parents with children, but these folks believe this is just -- this is wrong to them. to them these streets are now theirs, some are taxpayers and do not want to go. their pain, anger and frustration is still very high and they don't feel they should have to leave, anderson. >> and just from those just joining us, third precinct that burned is past the red brick building to your left. where the police -- we saw a line of police in i guess riot or tactical kbegear coming in. don't see them anymore, are they off to the side? >> reporter: yes. this is a really interesting tactic i haven't seen before. i know you've covered these protests as well when they've happened in other parts of the country. never seen the police completely leave a place again. last night there was no police presence whatsoever at a certain hour, that's why you see the

damage to the third precinct there, people decided their ire would be pointed at that. that is tear gas there, going to back up a little bit. you see the smoke-colored gas, that's not tear gas but this is, and it is point and strong, anderson. >> sara, going to hand things over to chris cuomo for "cuomo prime time." chris. all right. everybody. i'm chris cuomo, welcome to "prime time." right now a new curfew going into effect in minneapolis and st. paul, minnesota. on the third straight night of unrest you see on your screen. curfew will remain in effect until 6:00 a.m. question is will it work or will it be another very long night there and