police all over the country. is that really the best we can do, you know, the idea of this country and i'm not better than you, you're not better than me, but both of us are better than this. where are our leaders telling people that have take ton the streets that they hear them, that they understand them, that they get the pain, they get the source of the pain, and that they're going to do something about that train. where is it? and if they're not in public service to do that job, why don't they get the hell out because we're seeing all together in one moment what we need and it seems to be nowhere. now, another flash point that is an outgrowth of the situation on our streets is atlanta, georgia, the the city's mayor there announcing today that two officers involved in an incident during last night's protests have been fired for using excessive force against two college students.

three other officers have now been put on desk duty. cnn just got the body the cam video from the incident. i'm told to warn you it is disturbing. my position on these things is you want to know the reality, you see the reality. don't have me describe it to you. don't get it offline. watch it when you can, especially when we're lucky enough to have body cam video. then you know what to think and feel. let's watch it. >> put her down, put her down,

put her down. go. hold them up. >> listen, you know, i don't know about you but i want to see it. i believe in body camera footage. i think it shows police when they're doing their job and it protects them from people saying that they did things that are wrong, and it protects citizens when things are wrong. how many of these situations do you not get to see for yourself so the only reckoning you get out of it is somebody is being accused of something and somebody doesn't want to be accused of something. martin savidge is on the ground

there. martin, what do we know that the officers were fired or put on desk duty. >> it's clear that all departments are under intense scrutiny as a result of what happened in minnesota and elsewhere and on top of that you have tremendous unrest in all major cities. the city of atlanta became very aware of that video. i think initially what they saw was probably reports on local television because we were just 25 yards away when all this happened. so, the intensity of the moment and what they saw on television, they then took a look at what they saw on the body cameras and the body cameras of course are just incredibly intense. let me tell you a little bit about what was going on -- yeah? >> that's exactly what i want to know. give us the context of what you saw before we just saw. >> curfew went into effect around 9:00 last night same as tonight. and what happens at the moment

of curfew is when the interface and altercation begins between the protesters and authorities. so, on saturday night, that's about 30 minutes after the curfew's gone into effect, there was a large crowd that had gathered around cnn and now they're being pursued and pushed by the large prolice presence down the street. what happens is they get to the intersection here, the waffle house by olympic centennial park. there was still traffic on the street and that became to be a flaw and a problem, a lot of cars backed up at the same time you had a lot of protesters and people throwing projectiles, still interacting with police and police still trying to push them away and get them contained all moving into that flow of traffic. and yes there were people inside of the carsment some of them were taupting police. some of them were holding up signs in protest. that's when you had that kind of mix that turned into the melee that you saw.

i'm not saying that excuses anything. i'm just saying that that is what set up the circumstance where suddenly you had officers that had been pursuing people on foot now directing their attention to people who were in vehicles. if anything was said or what caught their attention initially i can't tell you because we couldn't hear over the sound of the crowd and the sound of the helicopters and the explosions of fireworks. you could tell that something very intense was happening and i have not had the advantage of being able to see that video because it's only been released and i can't see it in the field. >> thank you very much, brother. i appreciate you i don't giving us the context. thank you very much. let us know what we need to know people. god bless. let me bring back charles ramsey. that's quick action, getting rid of officers for something that happened last night. what does that speak to in your opinion and what did you see on

that video? >> i would have to watch that video more than once because i was looking at it and i didn't see anything that would warrant that kind of action on the part of the officers. i might have missed something. i don't know. it's night and first time i saw it. there had to be something there for chief to fire him that quickly. >> yep. >> chief shields is a very good police chief. >> while you're talking i'm going to have them play it again. it is in all prudence that i tell you that this may be disturbing to you. i think the reality should be disturbing to you frankly, and i think you guys operate in the dark way too often. and if we're going to have body camera video, it's so rare that we get to see it as it is which i think is a huge problem but that's an argument for another day. i think you have to watch it. otherwise what's your basis for opinion. i'm going to run the video again. the commissioner and i will talk about it as he's watching it. you were saying there has to be something that drew them to it. you know, even them saying get your hands out of your pockets,

chief, you and i both know once that taser hits you, i don't know how the kid was even able to move his hands let alone do or not do what he's being told to do when he's under charge. >> yeah. the window was broken. i don't know if the police broke the window or if it was already broken or not. but in any event i didn't see anything that warrants that particular action. and apparently the chief didn't either. >> i mean, the guy is still tasering him when they're all on top of him on the ground. >> three different -- yeah, i think i heard three different charges, just charges of the taser. they cite them. i think they run for five seconds. >> and then they carried him off and the guy gets up, the kid gets up, college students, young -- at least one or two appear to be brown skinned, african-american, otherwise, and college students were told, they were saying what are you guys

doing, what are you guys doing? you know, that is a circumstances we're going to have to see how it's explained. you know what people will say is well, why don't they get prosecuted? and the reality is anything that's criminal is fireable but not everything that's fireable is criminal. that's a meaningful distinction, yeah sf. >> i would agree with that. i don't know if he had anything criminal there. but certainly administratively which is what we would classify even if you're terminated. it certainly would warrant that. and i applaud her for moving that quickly. and under the circumstances it's probably best she did because things like that just get -- just keep going on and on and on. and if you can take action, take action. >> right. now, commissioner, just so you know i'm getting details here. who's sending it to me? all right here.

thank you, steph. the two under the influenofficeg excessive force against two college students in atlanta saturday night both said they tased the couple over concerns they were armed. i'll give them the best defense. it seems to be a brown skinned officer. you can hear in his voice the way he was saying get your hands out of your pockets, he sounded scared as hell. you're trained to deescalate and deal with those situations. he sounded panicked. the officer who tased the male driver wrote the driver started grabbing his right pocket area, causing me to use my ecw, my taser on him. the officer who tased the female passenger said he gave verbal commands to the female to show her hands and stop resisting. he also wrote he heard officers say "gun" two to three times

according to the report. do this, put us inside the head of a police officer and how even if you're trained, the weakness of your humanity can take over in situations like this. >> these are chaotic situations. everybody's nerves are on edge. that's why it's so important as a leader to have your supervisors constantly check on your people to make sure they're not getting overly agitated, overly excited, overreacting to situations like that. i looked at that tape and i really didn't see any of that. i certainly didn't hear anybody yelling gun. you play it over and over again, maybe you start to pick those things up. that's the beauty of having video tape. but, you know, i just didn't see where those actions were warranted. now, whether it rose to the level of termination or not, that's debateable. i don't know. i would have to really get into that case to determine whether or not i would have actually fired them. i would have pulled them off the street definitely. but i don't know about the

firing part. but there's something there, otherwise the chief wouldn't have done it. >> i hear you. let me ask you one other thing, commissioner. then i'll let you get some sleep and thank you. god bless the family for letting you be with me tonight. there is expectation that when we see these scenes on the streets these are all african-american black males, angry black males, whatever term people want to use, and that's who's doing all this looting, and it's just an excuse, and they're just as bad as what they say they oppose. my experience is you've got a mix. you do have angry african-americans and with good reason and they are joined by white and other raced people from their communities who join in their cause doing the right thing, some doing the wrong thing. then there's this added element that i'm happy is finally getting attention which is the agitator groups you have. they're either wearing the guy

fawkes masks or anarchist masks. one out of every seven arrest has had a non-new york address attached to them. what's your experience and the reality that everybody looks at the crowd and thinks everybody is there for the same reason. >> first of all not everybody is there for the same reason. most of the times with the protests we've handled usually say diverse mix of people. it's usually not all one of anything when you're talking about protests like this. there are some who are yeah, you might get certain divisions like that. but anyway, it's not uncommon for it to be diverse like this. and you do have that element that will mix wiin to the legitimate administrators. yelling, screaming, holding up signs, that's fine. but burning and looting, that's

all different -- there's a group with a particular mindset that they come there to commit those kinds of crimes. i and sometimes hear people try to make excuses, they're just upset. i don't see what breaking in a foot locker stealing gym shoes has to do with being in pain. that to me is just -- i don't make the connection with that. but i do understand people being very vocal, being very angry, being very upset, yelling and screaming at the cops. i understand all that. i really do and got to take it out on something. but i do think uts a line there where if it goes too far then we really start to lose the focus that the legitimate folks are out there trying to make and it's easy to write them off as just a bunch of criminals or someone will say they're thugs or this, that, the other. nothing could be further from the truth. i respect protesters. if it weren't for proest thors, i wouldn't have been chief of

police. the sacrifices those folks made on my behalf, the future, is what made a difference for me. and this will make a difference for the next generation. >> commissioner, i've got to jump. i just want to people to -- first of all, thank you very much. commissioner ramsey, one of the more decorated police chiefs in the country. d.c., philadelphia, chicago before that just said if it hadn't been protests that got ugly and violent in the '60s he wouldn't be where he was because that's how he got those rights and opportunities. they were hard fought for a generation of people. i'm not going to go to break. i'm going to go to kyung lah. police there are taking more extreme measures against people. >> reporter: the group i was walking with just a short time ago ran into a line of police and they have started firing rubber bullets at this crowd. there was a very brief stanoff

and the police made the announcement by bull horn that they were in violation of the curfew and that arrests were going to start immediately. so, what you're seeing now, most of that crowd appears to have left. you're looking at the police presence as they're trying to get the rest of them to go home. from my vantage point it's very difficult to tell how many people are left. it looks like most of them have dispersed, but it did take the police firing into this crowd with rubber bullets to get them to go home. but something i want to point out is that they had been allowing them to march peacefully and they were marching peacefully. this was not a group that was looting. this was not a group that was doing anything other than walking, marching, and chanting. i didn't see any tagging of buildings. i didn't see any looting while we were walking with this group and we walked with them for

quite a long time. this protest which started hours ago has largely been peaceful. this is the police now saying they've had enough, it's time to go home, the curfew is now an hour and if and only 15 minutesd they're trying to clear the streets. >> did you see anyone get hit by the plug bullets? >> reporter: i did see at least one person. that person hit in the calf was limping away. i didn't see anyone other than that person. >> if you have your shooter zoom in on the median where the cops are, there's one of them on the ground. if you go straight in on his angle there, there's a cop covering it. to the right. you'll see one of the plug bullets. they're blue and they're like an inch and change across. i don't know if you see any on the ground by you. but even though they have a hard -- >> reporter: i don't -- >> -- rounded edge, they can really change somebody's day if

they hit them even off the ricochet. >> reporter: in fact, i actually have some on me because i've been picking them up throughout the day. i'm going to just show you really quickly then we'll show you what's happening here. in santa monica this is what they were firing. you can see this hard plug here. >> yep. >> reporter: this is -- this is very hard plastic. this is foam. it's a slightly softer substance. i can actually crush it in my hand. but this, i'm just going to knock it against the mic. you can hear how hard it is. this comes at you and the propellant is here at the bottom. this is going to hurt. this -- especially if it hits you in the face or in the eye, this will absolutely blind you. so, this is nothing to mess with. and, you know, this is what they were firing at that crowd and what you're looking at here, again, is the police in long beach trying to get rid of the crowd. i have not seen them use tear gas. i have not seen them take anyone

into custody as of yet. oh, they're putting gas masks on. if you look at them, you see the officer taking his helmet off and he's putting on his gas mask. so, what that tells us is that whatever crowd is remaining -- and it's quite dark out here. i can see a small, small crowd in the distance. you know, that's a bad sign. they're going to start -- >> right. looks like they're doing the opposite. looks like they're taking the masks off, putting the covers back on for riot. >> reporter: oh, they're taking them off now. >> yeah, hopefully they're more calm minded on this. thank you. that was helpful and instructive. let us know if the situation stays steady or not. you and the team stay safe and thank you very much for showing us this. >> reporter: you got it. all right. let's go to the nation's

capital, washington, d.c., obviously an acute concern, a lot of pressure on the white house. the president had been saying incendiary things, certainly if you've been listening to any kind of open mindedness certainly not helpful things. and this is a country that is starved for leadership that can get people on the streets and who are upset at home that understand there's reason to have hope in days ahead. what's transpired since we last saw you? >> reporter: chris, it is a polar opposite scene from when we last spoke which was as the various police forces, the number of different law enforcement agencies were flushing out what had become a violent protest out of lafayette park. let's set the scene again for our audience. right there in the distance you can see the washington monument. what you cannot see in front of it is the white house, the american flag is illuminated on top. so, we are right at the edge of this park which is where the

protesters gathered throughout the day. and chris, in the past hour all of the protesters have been pushed back. and it was really when we came on with you about two hours ago that was the real tipping point. there had been a growing tit for tat between the protesters and the police, but then they started setting fires. there was a huge fire just on the other side of this church, st. john's church which president after president has attended services at. there was a fire in the basement as well as another fire across the street in that utility building you and i were talking about. and this is really from what we could tell the moment that the police, the u.s. park police which is a federal police force because that is federal land, along with the u.s. secret service decided to push these protesters out. so, when we last spoke there was tear gas, pepper spray rounds being fired, fireworks being shot at the police by the protesters, a protest that had

really evolved and escalated very quickly and turned violent. as those protesters were pushed out, they came out this way. this is the cio building. that of course is the federation, the famous federation of labor groups. you can see it got tagged up. and there was a large fire in the lobby building -- in the lobby of that building that then the fire department here in washington had to respond to. right across the street you've got the ronald reagan presidential foundation building. you can see that that is boarded up right there. and then to the left of that you've got the haye adams hotel which is one of the most expensive hotels in washington. so, it is night and day compared to when we spoke to you an hour ago. but it is an extraordinary scene to see this area completely empty. right there on the edge of the park you still have a large number of police. we just spoke with them. they are u.s. park police.

some of them are mounted. but because of the scale of the protest, chris, they have called in reinforcements. it is, as we call it here in d.c., an alphabet soup of agencies that have gotten involved. the dea, fbi -- i was just speaking to an fbi agent. u.s. marshalls, u.s. secret service, department of homeland security on top of metro police from d.c. so, they are all responding to these huge protests not just because of the scale but because of where we are. this city is unique in that it is the nation's capital. it is the seat of the federal government. that is the home of the president of the united states. and one thing we haven't mentioned yet, chris, is because of the protests and what we've seen over the past few days, on friday night the president went down, and his family -- his wife melania and son barron -- had to go down into a bunker under the east wing because the

president's security detail had seemed the protests to have escalated to a level where he might not be safe. they spent just under an hour in that bunker before coming back up. this was night three of the protest. it's hard to compare, you know, whether this was worse than previous nights. but this was a significant night of anger, of frustration, of damage. here we've got d.c. fire department going past which now appears to be over. there was a curfew put into place by the mayor of d.c. that started at 11:00. we are now more than an hour past that, of course. and most appear to be abiding by it or they are being forced to abide by it because the police have completely pushed them back. so, these are empty streets filled with all sorts of instruction and other things just north of the white house, chris. >> all right. alex, thank you very much. you and the team stay safe. i'm going to take a quick break here. we're watching what's happening

all over this country. curfews are in effect in more cities each night that this happens. is it over for tonight? probably not. is it over in general? no. not until you see whether or not action is taken in this case of who killed george floyd, the four police officers, three still not arrested, let alone charged. this case is going to be closely watched, and we're also waiting for some semblance of leadership that makes this country understand that there are better days to come. stay with cnn. >> tech: every customer has their own safelite story. this couple was on a camping trip... ...when their windshield got a chip. they drove to safelite for a same-day repair. and with their insurance, it was no cost to them. >> woman: really? >> tech: that's service you can trust. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ is now more important than ever. at sprint, we understand saving money for your family that's why we're offering our best unlimited deal. switch and get four lines of unlimited for just $100 a month. that's right - four lines, for $100 bucks!

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with fifteen-percent-reduced personal auto premiums and immediate savings through our signal app, which gives a discount for safe driving. and then we'll do the next thing, and the thing after that, until this is another thing we've seen and done.

. you're watching this all over the country whether it's the nation's capital or new york or atlanta or san francisco or long beach and of course all emanating out of minnesota, remember people will not like what they see. that is almost always the case when people take to the streets to fight against a system that they believe is doing things that are not american. it's hard to please that same system. i mean, think about it. we don't like that they're not listening to the law and not following the surveillancurfew.

well, their issue is that following the curfew, following the rules, does not work both ways in their communities. or there are people believe that that is true about minority communities. yes, they're members of the majority, but they believe that america should treat everybody the same way. so, you're not going to have a protest of the system that the system likes. the problem we have here is where are our leaders? yes, you're seeing them locally. i have to say the mayor of atlanta certainly has been getting a lot of attention and for the right reasons. but where's the national leadership? where are people -- this is a national story. where are the national leaders says we hear you? we understand? the pain is recognized? not just the symptoms of an illness that we refuse to treat. we're just going to call out the symptoms because we don't like them. stop sweating from that fever of

injustice. where is that voice? where are those voices? i've got to tell you it's not our job that cnn's sara sidner is in minneapolis and i've had more people say to me tonight, the conversation i had with you about what this is about and why it hurts so much and what has to be addressed was, you know, soul feeding to them. you're there to tell people what's going on and help them understand it. but the appetite, the hunger for people to understand that somebody gets it and sees it for what it is and says that it's wrong is that strong. how has it been there tonight? >> reporter: this is the place that they really are keeping a sacred space. you're not seeing madness here. you're not seeing things looted and burned. you're hearing people express

themselves, chant, sometimes cheer, hold one another because this is the area where george floyd lost his life. and we have heard time and again from the people in this neighborhood -- these are neighborhood folks here. this is their space and they do not want it desecrated because this is where he lost his life, and they want to make sure that they are honoring him and his family. so, they don't want to see any kind of madness here. and they have kept it that way. there are flowers and people and a beautiful mural and folks that are out here giving free food. and that's sort of what we're seeing. but here's what we also saw, chris. and i know you know this because we just talked about it. that was one of the realest conversations i've had on cnn i think ever with you. we also saw the police chief show up. he came out here, and unbenons to me, he kneeled down and he prayed right near the spot where

george floyd lost his life just across the street in this huge area. i think we have a picture of it given to us by the lewis family who were there. you see all the flowers. he got on his knees and he prayed and then he stood up. he started talking to people because people started talking to him and telling them of their pain and anger. also they talked to him about how they felt, the fact that he quickly responded with firing the four officers involved in this incident. they thanked him for that. now, i then showed up and i said i want to see if i can talk to him. and i did. and i ask him something about the charges and what was coming forward because people are not satisfied with one police officer being charged with third degree murder and manslaughter. they want to see all of them, all who were fired for not following company policy. they want to see all of them at

least arrested. and he answered me when i asked him what do you make of what your other three officers did who have not yet been arrested. here's what he said. difference between what officer chauvin did and the three other officers, some of whom kneeled down as well, some of whom just watched, you see this as the same act. >> silence and inaction, your come police ent. your complacent. that did not occur. so, to the floyd family, i hope that's -- that's my response. >> so, he said their complicit. in other words it was just as if they had done it themselves. they didn't stop it. they didn't try to do anything to stop it.

they didn't stay anything. they didn't call anyone. they didn't report what was going on perhaps to their superiors if they thought this was wrong. so, he said they're complicit. i've never heard a police chief say something like that because departments are very afraid of not only criminal charges of the people who work underneath them but the civil lawsuits that often follow even when the officers aren't convicted. cities pay out millions, hundreds of millions of dollars because of these incidents. and so you don't want to hear the chief basically saying yeah, what they did was complicit. it was criminal. >> you don't want to hear it if you're worried about it, but if you're worried about a community having trust in transparency, there's certain things you can't put a price on. sara sidner, one of the things we can't put a price on is your value. i'll check back with you. stay safe. i want you to know something. i'm not one of those people

going out of my way to drag politics into a situation. this is about politics, okay? politics is going to decide what the tone, the at ttenor, the la the policy, the culture of criminal justice and administration of justice about in this country. and you need leadership. and i have to say the president of the united states tonight as i'm looking at his twitter feed, okay, and that is his main mechanism, the idea of his leaving twitter -- he's not leaving twitter. law and order! five hours ago. the united states of america will be designating antifa as a terrorist organization. if he's speaking to having agitator groups, he's right, there are offshoots of people who identify with that group. they're part of it. there are a lot of others too. interesting he only mentions that one. fake news! a country desperate for understanding. desperate for leadership that

there could be better things. he doesn't like that you're seeing this and hearing it. he thinks it's bad for him. what does that tell you? then his last one, lame stream media is doing everything within their power to foment hatred and anarchy. as we go to break just think about this. you know what our job is, to show you what's going on, give you context when it counts, and help you understand the story so you can make your own decision. you elect people to lead, to do a job for you. what is that job in the situation right now? what does this country need right now? now, whatever you think that is, you tell me how attacking the free press which gives us an ability to see it because they're not showing you the body cam footage, they're not showing you the body camera footage in minnesota. they have laws. they have reasons. all you get is what we can show in these situations. and you too with your cell phone

video. otherwise who knows what would have happened in minnesota. who knows what would have happened in so many other cases. even the ahmaud arbery case, even though the guy who wound up taking the video is part of the group being prosecuted. what do we need from leadership right now? at a minimum, do we really need any energy spent on finding another reason to keep us apart? we'll be right back.

all right. we're showing you right now live picture from portland, oregon. we don't have anybody on the ground but we have the camera there. and we are showing you what is obvious. people there have taken over a

street, stopped traffic. sometimes the traffic is in support of the effort so they're okay being there. i don't know the case here individually. that a sign in the circle over there stands for anarchy by the way, just to give a nod to how one group of people has very diverse elements. what do we understand about what we're showing people right now from the control room. is there anything you can tell me? nothing. all right. so, again, coast to coast we're showing you this. portland, oregon, again an outgrowth of a situation in minnesota but it reverberates across the country and not just with african-americans. you don't have to have brown or black skin to be disgusted by what seems to be an apparent murder by police officers of

somebody over a $20 counterfeit bill. it is disgusting on its face, and there was video that maybe we would have never gotten to see if citizens had taken it. it's another part of the frustration here. body cameras are very controversial thing in law enforcement and in legal theory. why? who cares. it's a very long discussion. there are obviously two sides to it. there are laws in minnesota that govern when it gets given to the public and when it doesn't. one of the big policy arguments about not releasing it in a case like that is it loads the deck for an impartial jury. and people will remove the case to a different forum, to a different area and take it out of the community that really should have a jury of the peers of that community judging it. you can weigh that argument as

you feel. others believe that the transparency is so important in these situations because very often they don't make it to the court of law. the court of public opinion becomes very, very important in understanding and calibrating our own culture. that takes us to the people you're seeing on the streets and what's happening and why and by whom, all right? i want to bring in an expert of this. phil mudd you've got to know as the cnn family, former cia counterterrorism analyst. a crowd looks like a big group of people but it doesn't mean they're all from the same place, all have the same face, and all there for the same reason. you're saying what you're seeing right now worries you actually in some ways more than 9/11 did. why? explain. >> i would say worries -- i would use another word. it makes me more nervous. i remember being evacuated from

the white house right there from near some of the scenes we're seeing this evening on 9/11. i was a white house official then. there are professional concerns then. america was never disunited. if you remember everything from polling numbers to how america celebrated the death of osama bin laden, 9/11 was a unifying period. i looked at this and i'll tell you one thing, a lot of americans don't have passports. they don't see third world countries where the line between chaos and working democracy is narrow. americans have the luxury of believing that that line between chaos and democracy is a mile wide. it's not. my bottom line about why i'm nervous, this makes me remember traveling overseas and remembering how comfortable americans feel, and believe me what we have today thwill fast forever. i'm not sure it will. >> what does that mean. why not? >> if i walk down the street in

an urban area i live in, we live in a myth that says every american is equal, the constitution says that, the founding fathers say that. in the housing projects i live near, those kids will never have the anywhere near close to the opportunity i had. they are separate and unequal. until we accept that that some people in this country get a chance and some don't, some people get abused by police officers, i never will, we're going to have a problem in this country and it might get worse. >> the idea that that truth becomes mitigated when the minorities, the agrieved take to the streets and break the same laws they say they want upheld, there are a lot of different ways to answer that. one of them is that don't blame all the bad things on the same people who are protesting outrage against their community in different factions. there can be agitators. there can be malefactors that

take advantage of legitimate grief and pain. how true is that? >> i think that's true. in fact to get personal, every single person -- i'm like you. every single person i've spoken with in the past few days has shifted from talking about the virus to talking about this, every single one. i've been surprised at how every person i've spoken with has been able to separate out the sort of somewhere between disgust and discouragement about things like breaking into stores to steal t-shirts and the fact there's a recognition this country is not an equal country. i think there's a conversation that's to be had about the damaging the property, but the conversation is among friends and these are mostly white people, is still focused on saying we have a separate and unequal country. and regardless of whether there's property crimes here, regardless of the mix of people involved here, when you see that

photo in that video we saw a few days ago you've got to look in the mirror and say we cannot, we can't live like this. >> yep. look, the truth is the minorities can't change the culture and the systems that don't treat them fairly and don't give them the opportunities that you are outlining earlier. only the majority can. only those with the power can. and that is the reality. and it always has been and we haven't faced it the way we need to. phil mudd, thank you for coming straight. i haven't seen you in a while. god bless. be well. all right. let's take a quick break. when we come back, we'll take you around the country, show you the state of play in america. stay with cnn. at visionworks, we know there's lots of things

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let's do a quick check out in california. long beach. cnn is there. what's the latest? >> reporter: things have calmed down considerably after a tense

standoff with that group of protesters we had been walking with. what you're seeing now, the police line. i should say, is the police line. you can see law enforcement gathering, really starting to relax after several of those protesters we were marching with were taken boo custody. they're in violation of curfew. we should point out that when we were walking with them, we did not see them do any tagging. we didn't see any violence from them. there was an announcement by police here, those officers you're looking at, for them to disperse and the ones who did not were take into custody. largely, though, chris, we did see them leave. as far as looting here in long beach, there was some looting. and i spoke to some of the people i was marching with, asking them, so, what happened? how did this happen? and they're blaming bad actors in the group, that they do not believe that the protesters who we were walking with and largely

the majority of those proteste s s throughout the day, for hours here in long beach, were not involved. and that appears to be the case, at least with the ones we were marching with. certainly not the case, as far as widespread looting in santa monica, something we saw a lot of, blocks upon blocks of businesses had their windows smashed and a lot of merchandise taken out of those stores, chris. >> the national guard is supposedly on their way there. when you say that it wasn't the protesters, what does that mean? how do they delineate between protesters and what else? >> reporter: that's what they're telling me. i did not personally see who was looting here in long beach. what they are saying is that it is almost as if they're the cover for bad actors to come in and to steal stuff and to damage items in this city. so, that's what they are

referring to. that the people who have come here to protest the police, to talk about systemic racism, to talk about the persistent issues affecting black america and people of color america, that they are not the ones who are going in and looting. that's what they're telling me and at least the ones we were marching with, that certainly seemed to be consistent with what we were seeing here in long beach. >> thank you very much. if something happens in the next few minutes, you know how to get me. otherwise, i hope it is safe and quiet for you and the team. god bless and be well. let's take a quick break. when we come back, i'll give you a roundup, show you if there are any hot spots, anything that we have to pay attention to have to pay attention to together tonight. ♪ ♪ [ engines revving ]

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a book that you're ready to share with the world? get published now, call for your free publisher kit today! to help you understand what's happening right now, we'll show you what's been going on coast to coast. americans standing shoulder to shoulder and going head-to-head, often, with law enforcement. all with one universal demand. well, not all. the ones who were there to fight against what is growing out of the floyd murder is racial injustice.

>> say his name! >> george floyd! >> say his name! >> george floyd! >> we are gathered here to call on our racist president -- >> yes, sir. >> amen! >> it is our duty to fight for our freedom. >> it is our duty to fight for our freedom. >> it is our duty to win. >> it is our duty to win. >> we will vote.

this ain't the first time this year, this ain't the first time this month, this ain't the first time this week. >> another firework right there. it's about -- >> there's nothing funny about this. we're getting killed. we can't breathe. >> no justice -- >> no peace. >> no racist -- >> police. >> uh-huh. >> remember, the question for this country is, what will make this stop? not just tonight, not just tomorrow, but so that we don't

wind up here again. that's something that can't just be about minority communities. it has to be about this country finally recognizing its best self, realizing its destiny of what it was always meant to become, when majority and minority no longer have a distinction that is found in law. i'm chris cuomo. thank you for joining me tonight. michael holmes and natalie allen pick up cnn's coverage right now. this is cnn breaking news. live from cnn center in atlanta, hello to our viewers here in the u.s. and around the world. i'm natalie allen. >> and i'm michael holmes. we give with a sixth night of protests amid sweeping curfews, lingering tension and tear gas. streets are quieter now, especially on the east coast, where it is just after 1:00 a.m., but that was not the case earlier in many west coast cities. >> crowded with demonstrators