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 elsewhere.

d.c., new york, denver, los angeles, seeing and hearing echos of the outrage. cnn world headquarters in atlanta, swarmed and defaced. cars set on fire outside our building. all this on the day that fired officer seen kneeling on the neck of george floyd was arrested. his name is derek chauvin. that is the officer we clearly see pinning floyd to the ground with his knee on his throat for nearly nine minutes as floyd gasps for breath. chauvin now faces third degree murder and manslaughter charges but crowds of mostly black but you'll see on the different streets if you look, lot of people have masked on, ironic, out there in a rage to riot but being conscientious enough to wear masks in middle of pandemic. clusters of whites, young, old,

people from the community and elsewhere, all making the same plea for justice. many saying they're waiting for other three disgraced officers to be arrested and then charged. henny pen official expects more to come. is it really what prosecutor is going to be, more likely after today, but why the officers acted this way in the first place. we have new information for you on this. new video of the stop from the beginning, how the incident began in floyd's car, and the really long process that included what you're seeing now, one of the new pieces of video, but i have stuff even before this to show you. that is what we're going to show you tonight so you can decide for yourself. let's get ourselves to the scene right away, sara sidner in

minneapolis, how is it going now? >> reporter: give you the scene. behind me is the third precinct, what you watched last night burn, catch fire. protesters trying to get in. down to the street near the target, that's where the police line is, along this street here where the protest has been. but they've been pushed away from this for hours today. there was no one here. to my left you're seeing the protesters refusing to leave even though the curfew started three minutes ago. what is interesting, chris, is that as we're watching this, there was an entire group of state police and you also had -- we watched the national guard roll in with their military style vehicles, and they've moved back. in an unusual move. usually you have a police line pushing protesters forward, trying to push them out of an

area they said they wanted people to leave. here you have a very different scenario. what's going to happen next, we don't know. don't know if they're going to flank the group and try to move them as they tried two days ago when we were here. but we know the police keep moving back and so does the national guard at this point. and we also know talking to some of the protesters, they have no intention, folks here now, of leaving during the curfew, going to stay here because they believe the streets as they chant are their streets. >> sara, stay with us for a second. you just reported that they know about the curfew. you have have seen no enforcement of the curfew at this point, even past 8:00 local time. now let's talk about the composition of the people on the street where you are. obviously not all black protest, plenty of white kid there's, lot of young people. what's your idea of the composition of the groups? if you can talk and stay safe.

>> reporter: all right. we got to -- there's a lot of folks run and reason -- hold on. >> get safe. sounds like fireworks but get somewhere safe. >> reporter: we're all right. reason they're running, this is what they do, see an officer lift nonlethal weapon to send out tear gas or smoke bombs or flash bangs, this is what happens, people see it, start running knowing what as coming, usually followed by tear gas. folks setting off fireworks that had people a little bit spooked, but folks knew, we were listening to them say, we've got 30 minutes until there is the 8:00 curfew, if you want to stay and get arrested, stay, if you don't want to get arrested, leave. these folks are very aware that is what the law enforcement is asking them to do. they've also heard from the national guard and from the

state police that indeed they are -- they've been asked to leave the area. not asked, i should say ordered, as you know. orders to leave the area. >> are you okay with what you're walking into now? >> reporter: curfew now -- yeah. i've been looking around to see where the police line is. and look, nothing is ever perfectly safe, chris, you know this. we're just taking a calculated risk as we have done, i and the crew, dozens of times in our career. but we're taking the calculated risk to try and show you exactly what is happening on the streets. people who have been in a rage over what they've been seeing, trying to stay as safe as possible but give you idea what is happening here in minneapolis, chris. >> also two things. mask you have on, you have a stay safe from covid, not tear

gas or pepper spray, remember that stuff will go right through that mask. and lot of young and white people around you, what are the compositions of the protesters where you are right now? >> reporter: yeah, it is a very mixed crowd. it is different than some protests i've been in from baltimore to ferguson for many months, there are far more people, bigger mixture of people than we've seen. quite a few white folks here, obviously a lot of black and brown folks here, native american folks here. composition for a little while was 50/50. 50% white folks and 50% black folks with a few folks sprinkled in from the native american community, but definitely seeing a gathering of many of the folks out here now, younger. saw families earlier who had children, decided to leave to

protect their children, don't want them exposed to dangerous situations. they all took a knee just before this, literally took a knee. mow you' now you're seeing the tear gas and smoke bombs, all of this happening again. exactly where we were by the way. over my right shoulder, we watched as they tried to breach that precinct, all their ire pointed at this. they believe for too long they have been targeted themselves and never felt like they've gotten justice for the things that have happened to not only them and their families but other black men in particular in this community. you're seeing -- and want to let you look around. picture here. remember when i said, you asked me the composition, you can see it yourself here. white folks here, black folks there, you've got a real

combination of people, and there is no doubt, there is no doubt that these folks are not in solidarity with one another. they say they recognize that what is happening to the black and brown community is not only wrong but is so deeply painful for so many people. i want to give you a last picture here, because what happens oftentimes you see the police send out tear gas and protesters send it right back. so we're going to go a little bit further, they have set up a barricade here. going to have you turn right, police line has gone further back, right near the railroad tracks. but show you what protesters are done. to your left, you're going to see they have set up boards, taken some of the fencing that

was part of the fencing around the police precinct, taken it down and used it to protect themselves from projectiles as much as possible. folks begging people to be peaceful, other folks have lost comportment and don't care anymore about the idea of being peaceful because they feel like that is not how they're treated by police. you do have a combination. don't be surprised if people start running when you start seeing that tear gas come flying this way or smoke bombs as well. they watch to see whether or not the police officers are lifting their nonlethal weapons toward the crowd and then for lack of a better word, chris, all hell breaks loose. >> and i've been with you, sara, you're a pro, once they start running, you have to be careful, people get hurt, scared and

desperate. who is the pj? the photographer? >> reporter: sike and jason have been with me this time. we have incredible crews trying to record history and this is historic. historic moment. people i've been talking to in the community that said this has set back the american way, set that back a decade. that's how people feel. what they saw on the video tape. >> felt like that even when they got the arrest of the main alleged assailant. >> reporter: yep. >> did that news mean anything? how did it impact or not impact? >> reporter: it's interesting, first impact was wasn't first degree murder, people were frustrated. then you heard chants, one down, three to go. what they were saying, one officer arrested, we want to see

three more. it is a balance of feelings here. there is acceptance that someone has been arrested, and brought into custody and charged. but with every detail there's still frustration there are three other officers involved in this who were fired, just like the officer chauvin who was fired who have not been charged. let you listen to the announcement. >> you're ordered to cease unlawful behavior and disperse peacefully in the air. >> reporter: disperse peacefully. state patrol in a military style vehicle, making that announcement. people are going towards them, not away from them. and so clearly these folks here today are not planning to go anywhere despite the fact there is a curfew, they're staying put. chris. >> let's see what happens, the

night is very young. sara to you and your team -- they only see the people on television but people behind the camera, integral part of the team, keeping each other safe and figuring out best way to tell the story. >> reporter: absolutely. >> god bless to all of you, be safe. sara, you know how to get in my ear, be safe. tell the team as well. thank you fellows. fellows and sara. want to go to atlanta now. outside the world headquarters in atlanta. let's find out what's going on there now. nick. >> reporter: hey, chris. we're inside cnn center, just in the last ten minutes demonstrators have started to come up and down the thoroughfare and breaking windows in cnn center.

shooting what appear to be bbs at us, i was shot with a bb pellet. surreal to watch it. officer is down, don't know how she were injured. another officer standing on these steps took glass in the arm. demonstrators are ready to confront the law enforcement officers. law enforcement in heavy tactical gear, protesters clearly ready -- just see something else happen there, another demonstrator threw what appeared to be a large object at one of the s.w.a.t. officers. throwing signs at the police officers and not showing any sign of dispersing. they gave an order from armored vehicles that showed up just outside, gave the demonstrators order to disperse and we saw more show up in tactical gear, tear gas masks, and we heard over the radio this had happened, broken out windows

here, continuing to throw objects, another projectile fired, appeared to be full water bottle. at least two officers have been injured, one appeared seriously injured, being dragged out. could see what was left behind, glass partition that separates the street, now launching something that appears to be a smoke grenade throwing inside cnn center right now. they're kicking it back out. live happening in front of your eyes. thrown i think power ade or gatorade or liquid on the officers. officers are being confronted -- and these demonstrators, they know what's on the other side of this, they've been warned, officers have already fired or deployed tear gas into the crowd. saw another with long gun fire what appeared to be rubber bullet at another demonstrator who had thrown another object.

this demonstrator walking inside, this man is being detained. see if we can talk to him. another rock just thrown there at police. we're right behind the police line. these are very large objects. police being hit. this demonstrator, see if we can ask him why he was here, guys. why did you show up today, why are you here? why did you come here? what made you show up? >> they need to be changed. in our country, it's not black/white, officers need to be trained better. >> reporter: took me off the air? >> you're still there, you okay? >>. >> reporter: sorry. this is live situation. >> what did he say?

>> reporter: he said police can do better. i'm here for change. we heard the chants of no justice, no peace. another large object just thrown at cnn, our home, chris, where we come to work every day, journalists trying to tell the truth and deliver information, one of the noble parts of society, demonstrators are taking out frustration and anger not just on the police but on cnn as well it seems. police officers are advancing, grouped together as objects continue to fly, blocked by s.w.a.t. team shields, appears to be one person in front of the demonstrators, chris. i don't know if you can make him out on camera, white bandana on with shirt off, trying to keep his crowd back, and appears as though this is happening live in front of us, understanding the gravity of the situation here and what might escalate next.

>> nick. >> reporter: as this is happening, taking objects out of mccormick and schmicks to remove objects from the demonstrators. >> are the cops inside the cnn center the only cops there or more on the back side of the crowd? >> reporter: no, no, no, we're giving a different perspective. there is a larger police presence. but as the demonstrators were pushed out in front of the cnn letters and into the main intersection, they started to move more towards centennial olympic park and took advantage of police not being in this area, started to throw rocks at this windows just before we joined you live on air this situation unfolded. it is unreal to see this. i keep using that word but never

think something like this would happen here. atlanta has held demonstrations through the rash of police shootings of african-american men held demonstrations by and large peaceful, this is nothing but. >> how long has this been going on nick? >> reporter: been here since 3:00 this afternoon. we understand it was a smaller crowd which gathered this afternoon, about 7:00 we started to get alerts from national desks they were throwing projectiles in front of cnn center, doing graffiti. we showed up about half hour later and within minutes things took a turn. another object thrown by demonstrator in mask. more reinforcements brought in. coming behind william walker, our photographer. what is going on kevin? they're calling for more shields. things are getting bad out here chris. >> nick, they're going to create

a flphalanx, angle of shields a then they'll have to make a decision to either hold, which is they expect the windows to be broken and people to vns, and this is going to be the line that the officers draw, that you will not come any further than this. the decision that's more complicated for them is whether or not to move forward because they only have where this white guy with the skateboard is standing, that's only way out of the building for them. they will not fit through there. >> reporter: night. >> that's a dangerous thing to do. they're doing a stand and hold right now. what are you hearing? >> reporter: well, it's pretty clear these officers are nervous. seeing this situation escalate, trying to as you see hold this line here, and to the credit of the police officers so far we've seen them not use much force while they've been having these large objects thrown at them.

they are establishing their presence now, no doubt about that, holding this line, chris. we're watching it happen in front of us. >> they are preparing for what they anticipate to be a rush of the building. >> reporter: this individual in front of you, and man with the skateboard. weapons pointed at him. this is just so sad to see happen here. >> that's what the umbrella is about to try to block the officers' vision of what's going on. question becomes once the guy with skateboard succeeds and breaks the window, what does it mean to the crowd? is that the satisfaction they want or will they try to advance. god forbid they do, going to have a very different situation. >> live right here covering it all, chris. we're behind the police line. clearly the officers are

outnumbered. demonstrators are going back to -- they're deep back towards centennial olympic park. i -- i -- i believe i heard a taser deployed but don't see anyone on the other end of it. seeing more shields and reinforcements come into the line. police officers telling their colleagues, directing them to where they need more reinforcement. more demonstrators come to the front, seem antsy, ready to charge. not a good look or sign for the officers on the other side of it. certainly not for the demonstrators coming towards us. >> nick. let's go through this one step at a time. you and the team have a secondary location for you? if they come through here. >> reporter: we do. >> you have a way to get -- >> reporter: absolutely. we've put ourself in a position

where viewers can see what's going on, but we know safety -- no story worth risking life over. i have daughter and wife to get home to. >> beautiful family, lucky man. make sure the team has a place to go. you can always report later. and again this is a tough situation, you have a small opening, and if they break the other window, you have a bigger opening for the protesters to come in, although that would be a really, really dangerous thing for them to do. and then you also have another option for the officers to try to move the line farther outside cnn. big question becomes, nick, do we have any way of knowing what's happening with that crowd outside in terms of policing or is this it? just these cops here. you said there's a larger police presence. where? >> reporter: there is a larger police presence just east of me here, chris. majority of the officers are

here, where the reinforcements are coming from. crowd -- hate to give estimates because you have to talk to police but there was over 1,000 people, perhaps closer to 2,000 people here, officers outnumbered. they brought in reinforcements, s.w.a.t. team, members of the bomb squad, state patrol, local police officers, plain clothes they've given the orders to demonstrators to disperse, were starting to gear up with tear gas masks ready to deploy when the windows started breaking. projectiles continue to fly in the direction of the police, chris. there's another one, gosh. >> just so people understand what's going on, this is a big building, and expansive lobby area. you're not in the newsroom but front of the corporate complex. >> reporter: this used to be the world's largest indoor amusement

park, wacky world of sid and marty kroft, this used to be sight of indoor roller coaster, still the world's largest free standing escalator. thousands of cnn employees here, connected to hotel -- the cast -- >> hold on. are they preparing to light something on fire? wrapping his hand up -- >> looks like it. >> either he he's going to punch the glass but saw him pouring something on it, maybe just hurt his hand and trying to wrap it. hopefully just taking care of a wound if he cut himself, not going to bleed too much. that's what it seems to be. >> reporter: already hit a police car on fire around 8:00, signs on fire. this is a crowd that came to

confront police. they're angry, and can't underscore on cursory level, see the violence in our cameras. on the premise that black man was killed by police, want to hold police accountable, but the message has taken a violent tone and don't hear george floyd's name at all, just see violence happening in front of us. >> this is a bizarre scene for people who aren't used to this. you have some people laughing, some video taping. >> reporter: threw something on fire, firecracker. on fire. shit. >> nick, you all right? >> reporter: you okay? you all right guys? everyone all right? crew's okay. just threw a firecracker. >> that was more an a firecracker. >> reporter: powerful firecracker. >> might have been a flash bang.

may have gotten hands on undetonated flash bang that the police use that does exactly what you just saw. everybody's okay? >> reporter: good gracious, something else on fire. everything is okay but set something else on fire outside, chris. we don't want to get closer, can you see what's going on? push in on that. okay. these demonstrators are starting now to make way back towards the park. my producer says they're loading tear gas cannisters up now. >> if that's tear gas in front -- >> reporter: security iss tellig us to go. >> it's going to come up the stairs fast. >> reporter: we're getting out of here, get back to you later. thanks buddy. >> here's what we've been watching. you're not looking at minneapolis. on the screen, see it's atlanta,

cnn world headquarters. police have been outside and then as the crowds advanced on cnn, on top of the cnn logo and spray painting things and started to light cars on fire and become increasingly violent, we had the police move inside cnn. then the windows of cnn were broken. and then so you had big point of ingress. but then you had what we were showing you last few minutes, standoff with rows of protesters or whatever you want to call them, demonstrators, angry, agitated individuals, up against the face of phalanx of police inside cnn headquarters. nick valencia took cover after what appeared to be a flash bang, which does what it sounds like. now see cannisters coming, probably deterrent spray, pepper or tear gas, and the officers

are trying to clear the area in atlanta as you watch on your screen. again, this is not minneapolis. two sides to the police presence, one small group inside cnn and larger group down the street where there had been more violence. see the stairs top of your screen on the right, that is the entrance to the cnn building, where we just were. now see where the smoke had been coming from that started to fill the lobby, fired by the officers. here you see they're trying to create a corridor in the street. see the officers standing on the street creating a phalanx with the tear gas or whatever the deterrent is, i don't know, i'm not there. to keep people back and create a new line. there are two reasons they're doing this. one, they have their own parameters within their plan of policing for what creates a safe perimeter. secondly, they were in a bad spot inside that cnn lobby. only one small area of ingress

and egress. if the protesters had come in -- call them what you want to call them. if you see it as rebellion, they're rebels. right rioters, they're rioters, protesters, et cetera. but if they came inside to confront the police, literally nowhere for anyone to go, can get ugly very quickly. also looking at scenes in d.c., minneapolis, los angeles, new york, denver. why? because what we saw in minneapolis, even on the day that the officer who is now infamous for having his knee on the neck of george floyd was arrested, charged with third degree murder, a little bit of a peculiar charge. if we get an open window later on i'll explain how legally that's confusing charge.

and also manslaughter, something so wrecklessly done you should have known something horrible would come as result but you did it anyway. where is marquez? >> going to st. paul, next to minneapolis, here is miguel. can you hear me? >> reporter: we are in minneapolis. this is downtown minneapolis. >> good, thank you. >> reporter: thousand people out. check this out, we are a half hour into the curfew here, this is defiance on every level. and it is everybody across coming out. white, black, latino, a massive turnout. seen very little police presence so far, blocking traffic for the most part. one interesting thing here, the crowd has gone different ways, broken up at least once, smaller crowd went one direction. we're with the larger number

here. turn it on here, show how big this crowd is. it just keeps going. it was the the stadium, gathered there, started to get a little smaller as 8:00 hour approached when curfew goes into effect. as they started marching, crowd exploded, much larger. not clear where we're walking. tried to talk to the leaders up there, not clear they know. there is concern that the first precinct, biggest precinct in the city, which is near us, that may be the target of these protesters. police are in downtown in very big numbers but they're not making themselves known to this protest so far. staying off to the side. it is not clear where this is going, but the anger is real, this city is angry, and they

don't feel like anything's been down so far has met the threshold to not come on the streets and defy the curfew order. chris. >> miguel, be careful, you and the team. in minneapolis we have mixed crowds. lot of young people, lot of backpacks and school, university-aged kids. lot of white kids frankly mixed in with people. often presume going to be all african-american experience. in my experience at these situations, never been like that. always is exactly what you're seeing now. only tell you because you're given a lot of explanations by people about what this is about, how certain people want to destroy society, and this is about angry blacks and they're the tyrants. you're seeing that they get joined by a lot of white people equally outraged by what's happening. look at your screen, that's minneapolis.

nick valencia is in a different situation outside cnn world headquarters in atlanta. nick had been inside the officers dispersed some deterrent gas and sent people moving outside. that's where nick is right now. you see him. what happened? >> reporter: hey guys, back here live. saw that scene that unfolded inside cnn center. crowd has largely thinned out. see the s.w.a.t. police, the tactical gear, officers in tactical gear have pushed the demonstrators further from the intersection. they're continuing though, chris, to throw projectiles. show you one of them here as i make my way toward the police line, some of the remnants. still hot. tear gas cannister, that smell is still in the air, burning your nostrils. we've got to back up a little bit guys, getting too close to

the police line. but the news here, just in the last couple of minutes, police have been able to push those demonstrators back further out of the intersection. really the heart of downtown atlanta. it's hard from this vantage point, at ground level, can't see how many demonstrators are left but the crowd is half the size if that from when we first showed up here. clearly still angry and agitated, chanting no justice, no peace. holding signs up. we just before we went on air saw somebody being detained, led away in zip ties. this is far from over here, chris. though it appears just in the last several minutes the police have been able to gain the upper hand. that scene -- pull away from the crowd. show you where we were on the other side, if you want to walk

with me, it's dark here, but this line here, police officers here were the officers on the other side of the flash bang, rocks and projectiles thrown. these are the windows, sorry brother, the business, broken out windows. signs left behind, justice for sean reed, crowds tired of seeing names by hashtags, brothers gunned down by police. that's what we saw before things turned violent. now seeing officers injured because of what happened here. one officer struck by object and dragged away. don't know how seriously he was injured. other side of the s.w.a.t. officers on the scene one atlanta police officer was hit about bs, i got hit by bb guns. be careful, brother, that's hot.

tried to pick it up. left over, tear gas cannister. this is intersection of downtown atlanta. you've been here several times, brother, know what joyous scene it usually is on friday night. now it's unbelievable. coronavirus pandemic happening, not anywhere near top of the minds of the demonstrators here. they're angry, frustrated and taking it out on law enforcement and seems to be collateral damage as well. chris. >> give me a sense of the composition of the people you've seen on the streets there. >> reporter: they're diverse, mostly young. haven't seen anybody that appears over the age of 40. they appear to be anywhere from college age to early 20s, 30-something-year-olds. working-class people, white-collar people in the crowd. demonstrator who showed up after they set a car on fire, said i

got here too late, wanted to be part of that, wanted to join my friends. tried to interview that demonstrator who said he wants to hold people accountable. but by and large as we've seen throughout the country in the demonstrations, uprisings and riots you and i have both been on the ground for, by and large the composition of the crowd is young. what we're seeing on the streets of atlanta tonight. chris. >> nick, stay aware of the situation, keep the team safe. this is not a good setup where you are. because you have this happening at an intersection, you're going to have all these different potential angles for people to break through. aren't enough police to guard all the angles -- >> reporter: >> the good news, there are armored vehicles right here. >> yeah. >> reporter: this is protected. we know this building better

than we do, going to count on that for our safety. >> once people go into the rage, they're not thinking anymore. you have to think where to be, not be. stay safe. let me know when i need to come back to you. >> reporter: thanks for caring. >> you thanks for caring, thank your photographer and producer, thank you for letting people see what's going on in their country right now. i'll be back to you. stay safe. >> i want you to hear what mayor of atlanta said about what was happening, and that did flow right into the cnn headquarters. >> you are burning cars. you have defaced the cnn building. ted turner started cnn in atlanta 40 years ago because he believed in who we are as a city. there was a black reporter who was arrested on camera this

morning who works for cnn. they are telling our stories, and you are disgracing their building. >> there's the mayor talking about what happened to cnn. just to be clear, cnn is here to tell the story, that's what we do. cnn is not being victimized. people are attacking the building, a lot of things going on. this isn't about us, it's our ability to tell the story, that's not going to change. there are different situations and dynamics in different cities. this is atlanta, we showed you minneapolis. reverberating in different spots around the country because what happened with george floyd is not unfamiliar to communities, and let's be honest, it's not unfamiliar to you either. now we come here to new york city, specifically brooklyn, by the barclay center.

shimon is there are. people are angry there, how are you, how's the team? what do you see? >> reporter: everyone is good here, almost three hours here, about the same scene. police, essentially a standoff between the protesters and police through the night. at different times police put on their helmets because protesters have been throwing water bottles at the police. gathering on various corners. it's been peaceful but as they get agitated and tension increases, police move in. seen several dozens of arrests in last several hours, bringing busloads of people, loading them into busses, making arrests and moving them. but this is the scene every night. police looking at this, wearing helmets, standing around with batons, lot of protesters getting in their face, trying to

agitate them, for the most part been calm but pockets of tension where police will move in and use force. we've been seeing that throw the night. really it's been almost four hours now that this has been going on here, chris. >> you said they put on their helmets. they have them on now, shimon, tell me a couple of things, has it gotten worse? did this have to put up shields, get in position to push back against the crowd? and who is in this crowd, what kinds of faces or organizations are you seeing present? >> reporter: obviously a lot of anger, lot of people chanting black lives matter, no justice, no peace. they're here and agitated, want justice. that's type of people we're seeing. do appear to be local folks here. i marched earlier with a lot of them from brooklyn, downtown,

lower manhattan, marched over the bridge. at first very peaceful. police allowed them in, huge area here at barclay's center and gathered and chanted and clapping. then things escalated. protesters started pushing on the metal barriers that we see the police use and police went in to push them back. that's when things escalated. we did see police use pepper spray, officers with shields and then the helmets. it's very rare that protests in new york city the nypd wears the helmets. reason is they don't want to escalate and know that appearance matters. rare to see them wearing helmets. some here are not. then seen others on my left here are wearing helmets, that's because of the bottles thrown. there was fireworks, fireworks going off, protesters throwing

fireworks at the police officers. it gets tense, then it calms down, chris. for the most part this has been going on now as i said almost four hours. >> shimon, stay safe with the team, keep an eye on the situation, let us know what we need to know. thank you and the team for telling the story. again this is new york, brooklyn, seeing pockets of this all over the country. important thing to do in moment like this is see it for what it is, don't make it into something it isn't. we try to take you through moment by moment, give you sense of the composition of the crowd, who is doing these things. not as simple as what you're hearing in fringe media, angry blacks tyrannically running the streets. you see that's not the case. anger and outrage is real and taking it out in ways that are destructive to communities across the country but it's not a simple story of angry blacks

running all over the place. we'll show you what's going on in different pockets. when we come back, try to give you perspective of leaders and what's happening, there is a pandemic going on inside this state of outrage. we'll be right back. stay with cnn. sleep this amazing? that's a zzzquil pure zzzs sleep.

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to you. an officer was getting attacked badly by the crowd here. for whatever reason, he got out by himself trying to get his hands on somebody and he was met by, like, an increasing number of people who were beating him badly. and then someone else came out of the crowd, certainly plain clothed. i assume it was a civilian. i don't know. it might have been a plain clothes officer. pulled him away from the crowd to safety, reoriented himself and then walked out of our current frame. now you see the officers are getting more aggressive. they are pushing people back, okay? they're using a nightstick, double, you know, handset on that nightstick. that's what he's holding. you see a protester there. now, this is a recurring thing. you see a protester come up. someone threw something over the top. it was a sandbag from one of the other areas. the protester will come up, in this case the white guy with the

sign and tell people, stop, stop, stop. then you can have a back and forth. and, of course, in this new technology age, ever-present are people filming these situations. so very often people will get up into the faces of the officers with cameras, either to be provocative or because they're trying to document it. you know, very often it's a combination of both. so that's what we're watching in los angeles. you know, instructive also, the crowd. look at the faces. what do you see? garbage bag just thrown over the top towards the officers. you see obviously african-americans, but whites, young, a diverse crowd. this has been true in every city. i'm pointing this out just so that you have the perspective of this not being as simple as angry blacks rioting because they don't know how to control themselves. as you're hearing from fringe media.

and people saying they are the tyrannical. they are trying to destroy society because they don't -- they're not stakeholders and they want to ruin it for everybody else. this is not a political issue. this is a humanity issue. you understand? this country cannot be about cops versus outraged citizens. that's not what we can be. it doesn't work for us. in this experiment. and i think it is a good sign that you do not see one color in this crowd. you see different colors. and, yes, i've been in these situations. yes, you've got guys with the masks on that are looking for trouble. yes, you have the anarchists who are looking for trouble. yes, you have people who are brought into these situations to foment trouble. that is true. but a lot of things can be true at the same time. there is something organic about this. there is something that has been

building about this and there is something that has been around just too damn long about this. the disenfranchisement is real. we're seeing it during the pandemic. covid is an extension of the same complaints. it's not just policing. it's who dies the most, who gets sick the most, who gets treated the least, who has the hardest jobs, who gets fired the easiest. there are a lot of issues that play into this outrage that you're seeing playing out on the streets across america. now, what the officers are doing is very commonly they don't like being in intersections. and not just because they want to keep traffic going, which seems to be the case in los angeles, but it winds up being a very different -- difficult area to hold for them, in terms of position. because of common sense. there are too many ways in and out. so they will often push people off public streets, especially out of intersections and into other areas. and that's what you see happening right now. now, remember what i told you when i came back from break, that this had been bad.

as i hope you know, i am not in the hype business. i'm going to tell you what happens. and when i say an officer got beat, i mean it, okay? i'm not trying to provoke a situation. here it is. this is from moments before i came back on air. please pick up the video. all right? now, you see the officer. he had his hands on somebody. that white guy runs up, gets him in a choke, pulls him off. somebody pulls him off. he goes away. the officer is still on the back of this guy that he obviously wants to detain. other people are coming out and attacking the officer. you're going to see it. you see the kicks. you see them coming from behind. he still has his hands on the guy in the hoodie. that person pulls out of traffic. they're afraid. they don't want to be a part of this melee. they're trying to pull the officer off. but you see the guy in the yellow. but they're beating the officer, all right? make no mistake. this is the civilian i believe i was telling you about in the hat. comes out trying to keep the officer safe. the officer is getting pissed off, understandably, and now

he's going to walk away, okay? now they walk off. you see them walking off the upper right of your screen. that's when these officers started to create a position of strength and start pushing them out of the intersection. all right? so that is the situation that i described. it is not unique in this country. and we're going to keep seeing it. for how long? who knows. that's going to be about leadership. it's not going to be about the streets dictating the tempo. it's going to be about people in this country hearing what they want to hear so that they move from the moment of not wanting to hear anything anymore to starting to listen and to trust. that takes action and it takes time. omar jimenez -- jimenez and his team have been in minneapolis. he is now of the famous moment from this morning when first he and then his entire team were arrested. let's say detained. because even though they were

saying we're cnn, we're on live tv, they took him. once the governor found out about it, phone calls were made, they were released. omar joins us now. he's back out covering with his team. i know you and the team are fine. this is something you will look back on for a long time. what did it mean today to the team to hear the governor speaking about why it was wrong and how he wanted it understood by journalists, including you and the team? >> reporter: it really meant a lot because i think he understands the moment that this community of minneapolis and his state is in right now. it comes down to a relationship with the truth and how the truth actually gets out. and even in the aftermath, the immediate aftermath of our release from -- from their custody, the minnesota state patrol put out a statement on twitter saying their reason for why we were held for the time that we were held, a little bit over an hour to an hour and a

half or so. they say they were trying to verify that we were actually journalists when multiple times if you look at the tape we showed our credentials. we said not only myself but my producer bill and my photographer lionel told them we were cnn. we were also live on the air as they were attempting to put handcuffs on us. and we sat in the transport van for a good 30 minutes before we moved, giving them presumably plenty of time to verify after they had gotten my name, confiscated my i.d. and verified the facts that this video was already even spreading on social media within minutes of this happening. so our communications team corrected that. the governor came out and again issued that apology, in part tied to that because, again, this is add its core, the story that we were covering, george floyd, a relationship between the truth and how that truth is getting out to the community, chris. >> now, omar, one of the things that makes this situation somewhat unusual is it's one

thing about attacking local businesses and even local people and police. but a police precinct being lit on fire and forced to abandon. i don't think i've seen that in recent history. it is near you, right? >> reporter: well, chris, i want to give you a look at where we are right now because it is essentially ground zero of where these protests have been happening. so over my shoulder here, this is what used to be the police precinct, the third police precinct. as you see people actually walking inside the precinct that was set on fire just after 10:00 p.m. last night. to use the governor's words, what we have seen over the course of the past two evenings is 48 hours of anarchy. and that was something he was hoping to stop over the course of tonight. that we don't see a third night of doing so. well, you see that police precinct and how blown out it actually is. well, if you pan over to the left, you see what was also affected, liquor stores, small businesses here in the area completely blown out.

looking almost like a war zone at this point because, again, every single night since george floyd's unfortunate death that we saw play out on that terrible cell phone video, we have seen protesters gather at this site. usually at this time it is a lot more violent and aggressive than it is right now. this, i can say, is the calm it has been all week, but then to give you an idea of the impact as well. as you continue to pan over to the left, you see -- showed you the police precinct, the liquor store. you see the building that burned out over there. then you see this auto zone that is completely looks like a bomb absolutely went off. this is similar to damage that you would see when you're covering wildfires out in california. and, again, this came from what started largely as peaceful protests but then eventually devolved into rioting and looting. that was where officials here drew the line. they supported the idea of protesting and making your voice heard over how george floyd's death unfolded and how it was being treated. where they drew the line was

destruction of property. that is why we saw the national guard deployed. additional state patrol officers as well to try to preserve as much as they could. and only time will tell to see whether we see a third night of destruction similar to what we've seen from the previous night and the one before, chris. >> all right. omar, thank you very much. we know it's going to be a long night for you. it's important to have you out there. keep the team safe. the explosions that you're hearing that sound like gunfire, my reporting is that's not what it is. there has been no reporting of any type of identical gunfire. it's either fireworks going on, flash bangs, which the police use which are what they sound like, smoke and sound to kind of disorient people and move them away. or tear gas canisters. so we've had no reports of actually gunfire. it is now time for more continuing coverage. don lemon, "cnn tonight," picks it up right now. >> interesting to watch all those pictures coming out of atlanta and, of course, minneapolis, chris. i worked in that building in atlanta for seven years and