hold certain critical infrastructure certain areas that we believe we need to hold. >> so the details are starting to come together of what has happened and what will happen in the future. i'm shepard smith in new york. megyn kelly begins right now. and breaking tonight. a state of emergency in a city brought to its knees. as a violent group of so-called protesters who seem to have nothing but destruction on their minds target businesses police and the press in the city of baltimore, maryland. less than 50 miles from our nation's capital. welcome to a busy night on "the kelly file," everyone i'm megyn kelly. we'll continue to monitor authorities for the news there at a press conference that is wrapping up now. we are just an hour away from a 10:00 p.m. curfew that lasts until 5:00 a.m. tomorrow -- no, that's not right. the curfew begins tomorrow night, but a curfew is already in place for juveniles. if you're 14 or under, you have to go in at 9:00. if you're between 15 and 17 you have to go in by 10:00.

but the mayor said tonight the curfew for the adults doesn't kick in until tomorrow night. locals say the agitators who have been attacking police are pipes and concrete nearly all afternoon have nothing to do with their neighborhood. nor they say does this crowd have anything to do with the outrage that was inspired by the death of freddie gray. he is the man 25 years old who died from injuries he sustained at some point after being arrested by the baltimore police. while gray was finally laid to rest today, with an investigation into his death continuing more than a week later, there are still some serious questions about what happened while he was in police custody. or how he found himself there to begin with. while we watch the picklive picture from a city that's being burned in places looting under way, confrontations with police that have hurt and injured at least 15 police officers we are told we are going to go live to

leland vitter who is in the middle of it now. >> reporter: well megyn, the smell of tear gas is in the air with nightfall here. this is one of the many standoffs you're seeing here by police. you've got what you could describe as something between protesters rioters and looters on one side of this then on the other side a line of very heavily armed police officers. very different than ferguson. this is happening over dozens of square miles here. we saw all the malls that had been looted. that was about a mile from where i am. the cvs that was burned is about a half a mile up the way here. you can see these protesters just in the past five or ten minutes confronted the police and the police now are moving backwards. you can see with the tear gas guns riot shields and those kind of things why whether they're consolidating and trying to secure a certain area we don't know but certainly the police -- say again? >> leland it'smegyn, sorry.

i think one of my producers is trying to talk to you in your ear. i want to ask you, are you next to your cameraman right mow? are you able to interact with these protesters? have you spoken with any of them? >> reporter: we have spoken to a few of them. mostly what comes out is a long string of words that aren't really fit for family television or any type of television. a lot of anger. it's kind of unclear what exactly they're angry about when they are looting stores and those kinds of things. a lot of yelling toward the police and that kind of stuff. the folks that you do talk to say they're angry with the police over how they've been treated for years. this is a culmination, you can tell of a lot of anger. not about simply one event, but about a number of events that they have all felt have been incredible injustices that have been brought upon this community. obviously it's not the first time baltimore has rioted. this certainly may be the worst night of it. remember back in the '70s there were a couple of people who died on that first night. so far, no deaths but this is

certainly a violent and confrontational beginning -- >> what is the man we see in front of the camera yelling at the camera? is it possible for you to interview him? we're interested to know what it they're protesting exactly. is it police brutality, perception of racism? is it all of that? >> reporter: we'll walk up. we'll walk up and ask the very same question. this gentleman's here. how you? >> i'm doing well. >> reporter: hi, i'm leland. >> nice to meet you. >> reporter: nice to meet you, sir. tell me why you're out here. what are you angry about? >> oh, okay. listen the people -- the people need to be heard. you filming? >> reporter: speak up a little bit just because we're out. >> i said the people can be heard. it's only something you can do after you said so much and done so much. there's only so much more you can say. you know what i'm saying? the people need to be heard. >> reporter: what do they need to be heard about? >> oppression. >> reporter: by the police? by who? >> by the system. by everything. you know what i'm saying? i don't even know. i'm short of words because this is tough for me.

it's a very controversial topic. protesting riot it's controversial. >> reporter: when you see what's happening to your city in terms of all the violence the looting, we have a large fire truck driving by us right now. we don't know where they're going. there's been a lot of fires all over this city. but as you see what's happening to your city, is it worth it in terms of getting the message out? is this what protesting is about? >> the vieolence is not worth it. definitely not who it. the protesters have been heard. the voices have been heard. >> what do you want to see, change a new police department? what do you want to see? >> i want to see some results, man. what's important right now is that we all, you know what i'm saying first of all, they're killing us without any guns man. you go to google and press the hands up video, he's talking about the people that didn't kill. >> reporter: what's wrong in baltimore? what's happening in baltimore that makes you is a ss ss you so angry? >> it's not that i'm angry. we're all human beings.

the police don't respect us. >> reporter: one at a time. the police don't respect you? >> the police don't respect us. >> they burnt my store down. >> reporter: talk to me. hold on. talk to me. you said your store was broken into? >> yeah. >> reporter: this is your store? >> yeah. when it was broke down no police came in. >> reporter: when did that happen? was that today? >> today, like what? three hours ago. when they go they come. >> reporter: who's they? who's they? when the police go -- the police are gone right now so you're worried. >> the police -- >> reporter: we can't curse at all. we can't curse at all. >> i'm telling the people when they was protesting they broke down -- >> reporter: the protesters came in. >> and the police didn't do anything. then after they leave, they took the money, everything. they come. we need more safety and protection. >> c vrksvs and all that. >> reporter: come on over. you own a store around here? if you look down, see the remnants of this riot. >> you can't see the glass?

there they -- they broke every single thing in there. >> reporter: so this is your livelihood? >> yeah. i'm so mad. they -- >> reporter: we can't curse on air. no, no, no we can't curse on air. just talk to me for a second. you own the store. what kind of store was it? >> the grocery store. >> reporter: the grocery store. what did people take out of it? >> every single thing. everything. bread, milk, chips, soda. >> reporter: so they took everything out of this store and at this point, megyn, the police have now moved a full block down so you can imagine just how worried -- >> leland, why -- >> reporter: what you're worried about right now is this group over there. if we look over -- okay. we can't curse. no cursing. but obviously you can sense the anger here. the folks here are so worried and now coming to protect their store.

>> leland question -- first of all, question for you. question for you. why -- >> reporter: go ahead, megyn, the folks wearing the masks, why are they wearing the masks? why is there the need to protect their identity if you can speak to the man who's still there? >> reporter: that's a most excellent question. most excellent question. probably one given the crowd i'm not going to ask anybody directly. >> no worries. you there.are there. i'm in the studio. i didn't know if it was a matter of smoke or protecting identity. >> reporter: you obviously get a feeling in terms of what's going on here that there's a lot of different factions and it's pretty hard to tell which side everybody's on. in terms of -- in terms of who's angry, who's rioting, who's protesting. and that -- that happens in cases like this. as everyone's angry. the one thing that strikes you here though is the level of violence and destruction that we've seen in just a couple of hours. the police were clearly caught very very off guard. if you look over there, it

certainly looks like some folks looting that liquor store right across the way. and i'm not sure if we can zoom all the way in there, but as you're watching this go happen live and the police are about 300 yards down the road doing absolutely nothing as folks are running in and out of that liquor store. >> you can hear the frustration of the businessowners the one you just spoke to. you can see folks emerging with bottles, though i don't know whether the business is actually open selling liquor at this hour. >> reporter: it doesn't look like there's a lot of legal transactions going on inside that establishment right now. >> you can hear the frustration of the businessowner you just spoke to. we've been hearing it all day from others that they say the police are not there. they're not stopping -- that they are there but they're not stopping the looting, and in one case a cvs was burned other businesses have been targeted. are they under some sort of an order to not intervene? >> reporter: well we don't know what the police have been told

but we do know what they're doing. you see the liquor store that's being looted. remember all the police were on this corner just about five or ten minutes ago when your show started and if you look where the police have now moved to all the way down the street they didn't have to go. they clearly have the upper hand in terms of weapons, really manpower. there's more police officers than rioters, protesters looters, call them what you will. the police have been certainly willing to let this happen to the city. why? we don't know. but you get a sense that they have some idea they don't want to enflame things further, perhaps. it's difficult to ascribe motives but it's clear what's going on here. >> what we're seeing is a line of police officers that seem to be moving away from you, and then a line of what appears to be civilians or protesters or -- i don't know -- are these folks who are causing trouble or folks trying to stop trouble? do we have any idea about the

line that we're looking at what's the goal there? >> reporter: well difficult to say. the line of folks -- there's definitely a line of folks going into the lickquor store. we know what they were doing. what these folks are doing, we don't know. if you look right to the right of this car, this bmw that's been trashed in the middle, there's a woman holding a sign and it says "stop lethal force." so that's what one person wants out here. now you can see these folks beginning to stop traffic. whether these are folks who are sort of trying to bring some semblance of peace or not, difficult -- difficult to say. they seem a little bit more orderly, though at least this group, especially the guy who has the sign that says "god first" over there, than rest of the crowd. we can walk over and talk to them and see how things are going. sir, you have the "god first" sign on? >> no he has a liquor bottle in his hand. going on. they don't want to talk to us. so now we have the two groups yelling at each other.

and folks running down -- >> we got to go. >> reporter: we're going to step back here a little bit and see where this is going. >> do what you need to do to stay safe. they're running toward the police if should be noted. >> reporter: it's interesting, megyn, over here, there's a couple gentlemen in suits that might be worth us talking to. we're going to cross the street here. come up to this gentleman. hi how are you, sir? >> good. >> reporter: i'm from fox news. are you from baltimore? >> i'm a city councilman. >> reporter: as you're watching this tell me what this means for your city. [ inaudible ] >> reporter: when you're watching this go on, does it break your heart to see this happen? >> definitely. what it is is young folks of the community showing decades old of anger, frustration, for a system that failed them. i mean it's bigger than freddie gray. this is about the social economics of poor urban america. and, you know, these young guys are frustrated. they're upset. and unfortunately, they're

displaying it in a very destructive manner. you know when folks are under-educated unfortunately, they don't have the same type of intellectual voice to express it the way other people are doing. that's what we see due to violence today. >> reporter: we just walked the liquor store being looted bunch of folks running out of there. >> they're doing nothing. >> reporter: what's wrong with that. the police are all the way down there. you're a city council member. is that right? >> you missed everything i said. everything out here happened wrong. the violence is wrong. that's never acceptable. understanding that there's a symptom of something that's going on here, what i'm trying to articulate to you is when we look at communities like this in urban america, lack of education, lack of commercial development. lack of opportunities. it's the social economics of it. it has nothing to do with west baltimore or this particular corner in baltimore. this could erupt anywhere in socially economically deprived america. >> reporter: we've certainly seen this in other cities obviously ferguson comes to mind. >> we also see it in rallies like kentucky when kentucky

lost their basketball game we saw crowds that loot and flip over cars and stuff. unfortunately, you know all the 95% of the positive rallying that has been occurring here in baltimore, the national media is going to focus on this. that's the problem. >> reporter: so what are the legitimate grievances in your mind that folks have about being here? is it against the police? is it against the poverty? what -- >> i think this is culmination of a lot of different things. you know, decades-old of failed policies, decades old of lack of development for these communities. i mean it's a lot that pours into it and these young boys are speaking tonight unfortunately in a very wrong way. >> reporter: do you have any idea why, as we're seeing what's going on here and obviously you've got the police who have now backed off. >> we asked them to back off. the men in this community came together. we talked to the police. we told them we would be able to kind of talk to the young guys out here. we asked them to back up and they did it. it worked out. >> reporter: it worked out but the liquor store is still being looted. >> that's past. at this point, this is not

productive. you keep talking about -- >> leland? >> reporter: go ahead, megyn. >> ask one, because we've seen allegations even though he says this is about a lack of education, lack of opportunity. some are alleging this is about institutional racism that exists in baltimore which has a minority/majority police force, has a black mayor, black police commissioner. yet many have said notwithstanding those facts there is institutional racism inherent at the city level, at the police level, and beyond. and that's what this frustration is. are you hearing that? do any of these folks agree with that? >> reporter: i think there's certainly a lot of anger out here on the streets and that's what you hear that it's about. that there is a racism issue here. remember megyn, this is one of the worst riots that happened after the death of martin luther king was the baltimore riots. there were a number of people who dwiied on the streets. there were 400 arrests in the first night. a lot of injuries a lot of

fires on that first night during the martin luther king riots. since then the four-block community in baltimore certainly has remained very poor. the area that we're in, it's certainly a very rough area that we're in. there's a lot of folks vary angry about that. you say it's not a rough area? >> i was born and raised around here. >> reporter: what's going on? >> this is rough. >> reporter: this is rough what's happening. >> what's happening. the police constantly beat on us all the time. it's a -- good arrest and bad arrest. it's too many bad arrests. i, myself got arrested because i did things. good officers arrested me the proper way. >> reporter: just don't yell. calm down a little. >>eded me the right way. bad officers beat me take me to the back of the police station. central booking. at the police station. in the back, beat up. >> reporter: seeing the folks who are so angry -- >> they get beat up too. >> reporter: so but --

>> look at mercy hospital i got beat 2013. >> reporter: hold on. >> whole face kicked in. >> reporter: hold on. i understand you're angry. let me ask you this. you say you've been beat by the police -- >> there you can see it. >> that is little kids acting up they're little children. half of those are children. >> there you can see it see the looting happening as we watch the television screen. this is a local community people are roshbbing their own stores. they're robbing their own stores. the mayor came out and said this is idiocy. >> reporter: there's no question that's what's going on. go ahead and keep that shot up right now as we see everybody coming out. just give me a second. megyn, can you still hear me? >> i can hear you. right next to you obviously they are looting this convenience store. the mayor came out and said these are thugs. she said this is idiocy. >> reporter: they're breaking into another store, too. >> people who believe harming can improve their lives. the people had nothing but harsh

words. yet the police force as we saw moments ago is not that far away. it's happening all over the city. a question do they have the resources to handle this or have they been given some sort of an order to let the protesters have some room? mayor came under fire for suggesting the latter but today she said it's enough. >> reporter: we heard from one of the ministers who's over there praying. we just heard from one of those ministers who said they had gone to the police and asked them to back off and said they would stop things. now, the ministers are praying, but they haven't stopped much that's going on around here. [ inaudible ] i am. just step back. just step back for a second. help me a little bit here. you have folks who are praying and have folks who are looting. i'm going to step back here a little bit so we can talk and let you know what's going on here. >> there have been folks, people should know there have been protesters out there. >> reporter: all four corners now that you've got folks looting, so that seems to be what's going on. the looters seem to be winning over the prayer group. that's for sure. >> uh-huh.

and the viewers should know that over the weekend and today, there have been folks out there trying to stop the bad behavior. trying to stop those from looting who are looting. and just tonight there was a city councilman who said at the press conference the mayor held he urged all law-abiding citizens to go own there in a query, whether this was the best idea but to stand up to those folks who mean to cause havoc and exploit a situation that while troubling has many questions around it. just to bring the viewers up to speed, i want to tell you we're on a delay tonight which sometimes is effective and sometimes not to try to screen some of the profanity that you've been hearing. our apologies to the extent that gets through. it's live tv and it's breaking news. but this is the case -- this erupted because of a case involving a man named freddie gray. he was 25 years old. he was seen by the police in an area known to be used frequently by drug dealers. he made eye contact with the cop. the cop said he then started to run. the police chased him. they apprehended him.

they put him in handcuffs. they found a switchblade on him. however, there's nothing necessarily illegal about having a switchblade on you. it still remains unclear why he was placed under arrest. he was placed in the back of a police van wearing shackles. at some point that police van stopped twice. they say to fill out paperwork. and by the time the police van got to its destination, freddie gray was paralyzed with his spinal cord severed and within a week he was dead. that led to peaceful protests at first and now they are getting more and more violent by the day. and today, it erupted in looting, burning buildings, sabotage of the firemen's equipment we saw. we've seen bloody photographers from police stations and we've seen general unrest in the city of baltimore. and the national guard has been called in. a curfew imposed as of tomorrow. no one at the police conference amazingly asked the mayor why she didn't think it would be a good idea to enforce the curfew or begin it tonight.

now you can see we're live covering these events which have been described as disastrous by many who have been covering this situation. i want to bring in now leland stays on the scene and continues to cover the breaking news. there's now looting on all four corners. this is just one corner of baltimore. western baltimore in particular is under siege at this moment. but looting under way at all four corners. the police largely standing by in the face of the looting according to the reports. the mayor saying that only the peaceful protesters have been given leeway to express their rights but others have been agitators, coming in and trying to exploit that situation to loot to burn and otherwise. joining me now with more on this as we watch the leland picture, mark furman, fox news contributor, former lapd detective. richard fowler nationally syndicated radio host. richard, let me ask you whether, you're, as the mayor said, what we're seeing tonight is about thugerry and idiocy people who don't know what to do to improve

their own lives. >> i tend to agree with that. it's a very, very sad day for the people in the city of baltimore and i think the mayor is right to say this is a big distinction. you can't conflate the peaceful protests we've seen over the past two weeks and what we're seeing tonight. tonight is violence and thuggery at its finest. last hour shepard smith said an interesting thing about the whole situation. freddie gray case was the tipping point for the city of baltimore which has been bad relationships between the police and communities of color. when you have oppression you have defregspression and bad relationships between law enforcement and the community, this becomes a breaking point. we as a nation -- this is is not the first time second time third time. this seems to be happening every week. we should really take a pause here and say what's not working and what can we do to fix this? >> we just saw as you were speaking richard, a woman standing in front of a burning building wearing yellow. she's a local reporter. we're trying to figure this out. another fire has been set. it's a newly built senior

center. let's hope there's no one inside. it may just be a building. with no one in it yet. we're working to confirm that. i'm seeing the pictures now. can we put them on the screen so we can see what they're seeing? a newly build senior center. earlier they set a cvs on fire. when police got there to put out the fire they hooked up the hose, they stuck switch have been blades into the fire hose to cause a leak in the fire hose so the fire in their own city of their own cvs could not be put out. and you see the locals there upset and mystified as to why they are being hurt and their businesses are being looted and burned down as a matter of protest. mark your thoughts on that and the fact that now so far as of an hour ago the latest number was 15 police officers have been hurt, at least a couple remain hospitalized this evening. >> well, as first with the

police officers, i certainly hope none of them are injured seriously, but this is a direct result of the lack or complete absence of leadership from the mayor's office down to the orders given to the police. the police had cs grenades delivery systems. they could have taken control of that situation. they were told not to, told not to engage and that's what occur occurred. there's something here that's deeper. 99% of these people don't know freddie gray and couldn't pick hip out of a crowd of three people. they don't know who he is. this is an opportunity to act out the disappointment of their own life disappointment of their lack of whatever they want which seems to be going into a liquor store and getting alcohol, getting a new tv getting a microwave, taking a check cashing facility where they cash their check and destroy that. destroy a drugstore, pharmacy.

it goes on and on. there's absolutely no reason for it. if you're going to use oppression as a word you have to ask yourself the police are responding to calls and people are committing crimes. are we this upset about gang members and gangs in every corner and drug dealers? it doesn't appear that the community is that upset about -- >> mark mark. >> speaking of gang members, richard, i'm going to give you the floor, but speaking of gang members, they came out tonight and said there had been an agreement, according to the authorities that they had a credible threat from gang members in the city of baltimore including the bloods and crypts and another gang that had agreed instead of fighting each other now, they we're going to start to fight the police and try to kill police officers and the police union has been advising the cops to take every measure to protect their own safety tonight as well as the safety of the communities, but, you know richard, these officers who are

out there are under real threat tonight. i say again, this is a minority/majority police force. baltimore is a minority/majority city. it is run by african-americans. and there is a threat to kill the law enforcement officers tonight in a case that while anyone taking a look at it would say looks bad, we do not know what happened in it yet. >> this is what we know, megyn. he was shackled and ended up in the hospital with a broken spine. i disagree with mark wholeheartedly wholeheartedly. nobody is condoning drug dealers or gangs. what the peaceful protesters are saying is all we want is justice of freddie gray. whether we know him or not, he didn't deserve to die for looking a plif inolice officer in the eye. that's the largest argument here. with that being said rioting is not appropriate, hurting police officers is not appropriate because 99% of police officers are good police officers. like you said, 99% of

african-american aren't criminals. right? >> right. >> so the message, let's reflect the facts very clearly. let's also understand this community has been depressed. we heard an early reporting there was no grocery store in the community. right? not to mention the fact that the mayor said herself, that a lot of these individuals are looting are members of the community. >> well she said that but the man who's at heart of a lot of these protests said that's not true. he said these are local folks who live in baltimore who are upset with the way the city is run, the way the police in particular have been treating them. there's a conflict of opinion on that. mark, litigator representing mr. gray's family came out and said this is an indictment of the police of baltimore. he said the less on in this case was that he freddie, should have run from that cop and he didn't run fast enough. and what they're saying is police officers in baltimore before have given van rides to arrestees that are known as

rough rides with police accused of leaving suspects not wearing their seat belts and then taking hard turns. that was actually asserted in a piece by ben jealous of the naacp in an article today. >> well megyn, we still don't know the cause and method of death. we don't know when his injury occurred so until they put a timeframe around that we're really speculating on something that wasn't witnessed and we have an officer that comes forward, makes a statement about something he observed or a citizen, then we have something to work on. >> video, mark. >> we need to really look at this. richard -- rifd, let me talk. this isn't about gang members or drug dealers. when is the last riot a community had because there's too many gang members and drug dealers? this is about police that the very people in the community tried to have them there to

maintain some order with the people that decide they are going to be gang members and drug dealers and they don't help the police because the retribution from the gang members and the drug dealers. so this is a chase your tail situation in some of these communities that you're not going to solve by getting a black mayor and black police commissioner and half the officers black. >> what about that? >> because this is a problem between policing. >> to his point, richard, what about that? because in ferguson missouri we were told that at the heart of that problem which, you know obviously officer wilson was exonerated in that case but the police department was condemned widely after that doj report. what we were told was that police force was not reflective of the community and that that was a main thing that needed to be done. there were too many whites on the police force given the racial makeup of the city of ferguson. so that was problem -- one of the first problems they needed to tackle. look at the situation here.

i mean, it doesn't seem any better. >> megyn, the justice department report that was released on ferguson is pretty clear and indicated the police were inappropriately targeting african-american men in police stops. i've been to ferguson. i've been to baltimore. i've been to all these places and the fact that you're saying that you know people are afraid of the gangs, that's not true at all. that's what those ministers are out on the street trying to take their community back mark. i really think you live in an alternate universe if you see what's happening in the community, people are trying to clean the community up if you look at this footage. >> let him respond. >> richard, you have been in those places but you haven't worked or lived in those places. you only see things you're looking through an aquarium lens at what's going on. you're seeing what you want to see. you're seeing what -- >> do you live in these neighborhoods, mark? >> i'm going to tell you when the -- >> here's my question for you. >> yeah i work in those neighborhoods. >> do you live in those neighborhoods? >> i have to ask you, mark, as

you look at the situation here tonight, how much danger do you think the police are under? i mean just to pick up on what i said before it is a threat -- this is according to the baltimore police department members of the black guerilla family bloods and crypts have partnered to harm law enforcement officials. they say it's a credible threat. the law enforcement agencies have been advised to take appropriate precautions to ensure the safety of their officers. is that why we're seeing them stand back tonight? >> well, no. i mean, if you're not going to completely go on the offensive, pull back completely and keep the officers under cover. if the leadership is not going to allow the officers to be officers and you need to get them out of range of the bgf and the bloods and the crypts who will take shots at these officers. and i think they're in grave danger. and they're in grave danger because of the lack of leadership in the last week that has brought the city to this point and they've encouraged and

really inflamed this to the point where some people are going to die before this is over. >> let's hope that's not right. listen gentlemen, stand by for a moment if you would because judge no paulapolitanonapolitano, fox news analyst, judge, look at that picture, look at that city look at the smoke rising in an american town that's known as charm city. >> it's hard to believe that it has gotten to this point and there's a lot of factors that can help explain it. but very few that can help justify it. the police should have been charged by now. something happened to this -- >> six police officers who had custody of him? >> absolutely. it's one of the reasons there was no problem in south carolina. of course they had the film of the shooting. the police officer was charged immediately. there cannot be -- >> and oklahoma. >> correct. there cannot be the perception that when police cause death, they are treated differently than when civilians cause death. >> you don't know what the police officers have testified to. five of the six have spoken to

police. we don't know what they said yet. supposedly they were going to release a report this friday may 1st. now they say there will be a report on that day, however, it may not be made public on that day. but maybe they've said something that we don't know. shouldn't we wait? >> well we don't know what the district attorney knows, but he should move with all deliberate speed the body is buried the autopsy is done. we're talking about a broken neck and crushed windpipe. >> how can they prove -- this is a live shot here trying to -- it's police heading to a new location. we're trying to keep our eyes on the various problems popping up in baltimore. but there are too many to bring to you. you're getting the feeling for that city which is under no curfew amazingly, tonight, judge. go hayahead. >> you know far of what our longtime colleague mr. fuhrman said is absolutely true, the leadership has been horrific. this happened nine days ago and the leadership of that city has done nothing to put its finger on the tipping point of these racial problems.

>> the mayor's got 15 cops who got injured today and doesn't -- i mean these injuries -- >> hard to fwlooef. >> -- happened today. why not impose the curfew tonight? not one person asked her, no time like the present. >> it's almost as if she's campaigning in this environment. her first job -- >> in her defense, hasn't she -- she made those remarks which were controversial. she said they were taken out of context where she was accused of allowing people to cause havoc. she's setting a nice tone if you listen to her, she's condemning the thuggery telling people to stop it she's -- >> i wish she had done that earlier, but we have the benefit of hindsight. you know you and i are trying to analyze this thing after these events happen. she's living during it. i wish she had been firmer earlier. i wish that the district attorney had said what happened. it's inconceivable that nobody's going to be charged with a crime. >> all right. that's where we left off. pick up there. because how are they going to prove these six cops did anything to freddie gray and his catastrophic injuries appear to

have happened inside that van in there's no videotape. and there's no one who can tell us -- >> well somebody made the decision to treat him in such a way as if he were an animal to administer punishment to him without ever there being a charge or a conviction. >> well putting -- >> whether it was a hard ride or whatever you want to call it. >> putting him in a police van and not securing him is totally unallowed and they've admitted that. >> arresting him without probable cause is absolutely unacceptable. >> how do you know they did? i don't know what -- i agree with you, it looks suspicious right now because they shay he looked at them the wrong way and ran. that's not enough. >> if there was probable cause for the arrest something beyond the looking in the eye and the run running, they should have told the city by now so the city is not drawing the conclusion that cops get treated differently when they kill somebody than the people on the road do. >> know somebody who speaks to the exoneration and should have released it or something that would lead to a condemnation or arrest they should have made

it. >> absolutely. i don't know how it could be taking this long. unless he was poisoned and there's a chemical they have to extract from his system and it takes day to do it. he was killed by a broken vertebra and crushed windpipe. there ought to be an explanation for that that the public has the right to know about. >> what of the lottingsotings we're seeing tonight, burning down of businesses. we saw this happen in ferguson. does anything ever happen to the perpetrators of the crime? >> fuhrman knows this better than i do. it's almost impossible to finger the people that do this in such a way as to prosecute them and they often get away with it. there is absolutely no justification whatsoever no legal justification for this kind of behavior. the police are in an intractable problem. they have to protect themselves. they have to protect innocent human beings and they have to try and protect property. >> well and this is -- i want to bring the viewers this update. the baltimore police have just sent out this message speaking about a large group of criminals at the intersection of monument street. the group is looting and destroying property saying

"we're deploying resources throughout the city to ensure residents are safe. despite our efforts, criminals continue to assault officers." then they say "six minutes ago groups of violent criminals are continue to throw rocks, bricks and other items at police officers." where is the national guard? they called in the national guard. where are they? >> boy, the national guard should be there and not be surrounding the city. they should be in the city and they should be in the streets. this is from a civil libertarian. the police have to stop this violence and this marauding and this destruction so that people can go back to their homes and go to sleep for the night. not worry about a cinderblock coming through the window. >> and yet you saw the tape. we saw -- once again, as in ferguson we have actual tape of people looting stores. you can see their faces, see their crime. and the odds of anybody following up on that -- >> how is it that the leadership of that city and that state were ignorant of the fact that baltimore was a tinderbox waiting for something like this to happen, to explode into a conflagration the likes of which they haven't seen since martin

luther king was murdered? >> uh-huh. judge, stand by. i want to get to civil rights leader joe hicks who is with me tonight to speak to what is it? is this the culmination of several police/civilian incidents we've seen in many cities often with black men being hurt or being killed by police officers? or is this about, as we heard the one man saying something -- something bigger than that a depressed economy, lower socioeconomic status few opportunities? you tell me. >> well there's no correlation between poverty and trying to burn down your own centers of the city in the places that you need to have, obviously places to go to work at. what i think has happened here kelly, is that -- megyn, what we've seen is a pattern that's emerged starting with trayvon martin case. obviously no large-scale violence broke out. but then we had ferguson. then we had staten island. now we've got a series of other incidents concluding with

freddie gray and it's almost this notion that this has become the new civil rights movement. oddly enough and this has got to have people like dr. king spinning in their grave, to hear people describing this as some sort of movement now. >> why, why? because we hear that black lives matter and what we are told is you know folks feel like every week they see another black man get shot by a cop. now in the most recent two cops got charged, but there was videotape, and that's what these folks say. >> right. >> that there's not videotape in every case. when there isn't one, the cops don't get charged. >> but, of course and i think there's a certain amount of justifiable outrage over the killing of freddie gray because it's a very mysterious and bizarre circumstance. obviously the man didn't break his own neck. so then there's clearly incidents here that we need to get more information about. that's why there's a number of investigations going on. but there's almost an infantile urge here to get what they want

and get it now on the part of the protesters like i want the kind of justice that i demand and i demand it right now. well that's not the way things operate, so it's almost an infantile impulse to get what they want despite the fact that we do hear people calling for calm here. but there's an expectation here that they're somehow the front of a new civil rights movement. i think that's outrageous. we knew what the protesters were trying to get in the old days if you will, of dr. king and others. it was about justice. it was about becoming part of an american society. >> were they running around looting, were they burning down their own stores? i mean minority-owned stores getting burned to the ground. >> that was unheard of. that only came about in the long hot summers in the 1960s where you did have these -- the numbers of these riots, certainly here in los angeles where i'm speaking to you from in detroit, in chicago, in washington d.c. almost every major urban center

had its riot in those long hot summers. but this was after the culmination of the '64 and '65 civil rights act and voting rights act. the early civil rights folks were after something very different. the question needs to be asked, well what are these folks after? and that's the mystery because if you ask them you get all sorts of issues from capitalism is horrible, to we want jobs. then there seems to be an impulse against places. they're burning down places offering jobs. so it's a very interesting -- and i think we stand at a very interesting point in american society where after all the progress after a black president, after a black attorney general, you've got these thugs in the street that do create real issues for race relations in this nation. >> the -- just again, we're looking at the fire. now we were today there was a senior citizens center on fire. now we're told the congregation the southern baptist church

that their new community center is currently engulfed in flames. they're saying it may not be connected to the -- >> outrageous. >> -- rioting. this is what they're saying. may not be connected to riots. everything we've heard tonight that they're saying is said it may not be connected to the riots. it certainly is awfully coincidental. joe -- >> sad times. >> you look at this, it's not going to help. you know what is this going to do to the police force? how is this going to make them listen? who's going to get behind these folks who have declared themselves criminals by going out there and tearing down their community? who -- they completely drown out out the the voices of those peaceful protesters we've been seeing for days and the ones trying to stop them because the loudest voice always gets heard. >> well you know going back to moynihan report there was this threat this danger of the kind of people we're seeing on the screen that just as we're

speaking here this kind of dysfunctional element that was created in the centers of cities. some argue that certainly welfare and dependency on welfare had a big part in creating these kind of folks. >> right. >> here they are -- >> is that true. do you believe that? >> i do believe that. i do believe that. i think moynihan is coming back to harm us in a very interesting kind of way and the civil rights movement as it exists now isn't addressing those issues. despite all of the carnage that's going on in cities, black men killing other black men, which is the real threat not police killing individuals. yet we only see the protests when police will kill a black individual then it's a matter of black lives don't matter. >> what about beyond -- what about, joe, beyond police on civilian violence or incidents, because the greater socioeconomic status, folks here in baltimore are dealing with and african-americans in particular i mean you hear a lot about, you know how they

got this way, how the situation got this way, how the city got this way. but not as much about personal empowerment and how people take responsibility for their own lives and lift themselves up. and a lot of folks will say even saying that misunderstands their situation, that they can't do it they've been kept doing for so long that society needs to lift them up now. >> see, we can't continue to make excuses. los angeles right here, a lot of damage done a lot of lives lost a lot of buildings burned. people said, well we need more stores in our community, we need big box stores we need more business to come we want more investment in the community. yet, look at the message that it sent. the owner of a big box store or a corporation, you'd be rethinking whether you wanted to rebuild in baltimore or whether you wanted to open a site in baltimore because why? potential of it getting burned down by thugs. so it's a self-defeating -- it's

tail chasing that goes on here about people saying oh there's poverty, there's not opportunities. none of the same kind of amenities that we have in other parts of our city yet look at what goes on. and those people that own those businesses small businesses or large businesses, they have to be reconsidering whether or not they're going to rebuild or whether they want to invest in a place where you might lose everything in several years. >> joe, thank you. i want to stand you by and tell the audience this is the latest update on the fire of the community center. it was under construction. that's good. it was not occupied. it was under construction. and they are saying of course now, if is related to the riots. the burning of it which comes as no surprise i'm sure to the viewers watching us now. want to bring you an update now from brooklyn new york. where we are being told that three people have been shot trying to get the details here in front of me. three people have been shot. and yet we don't know their

condition. hold on a second. trying to get the information now. three people shot in brooklyn. we have a chopper en route to try to find out what the situation is but we've been keeping our eyes open for any related incidents as we saw back during ferguson violence did break out in several other cities besides. here you go. here's the brooklyn live shot from overhead. so we will work to find out whether this is in any way connected to what we're seeing in baltimore which we don't have confirmed. but as i said there is some precedent for related violence coming out. joining us now by phone is rod wheeler, he's a former washington d.c. homicide detective and a fox news contributor and he is live down in baltimore now in the middle of the situation there. what have you seen? what are you seeing right now? >> it's completely out of control, megyn. the police clearly don't have a handle on this situation. i just watched a group of young males get out of a car and just start throwing pelting the police officers with bottles and

rocks. they just -- they're undermanned. i don't know what the problem is but it's horrible. it's a chaotic situation here. >> rod, where -- have you seen any sign of the national guard? they were called in. they were placed on stand by. they were supposedly ready to help if needed. it sounds like they're needed. >> well they are needed. let me tell you, if they don't get this situation under control within the next couple of hours, this whole city is going to burn down. i mean everywhere you turn there's rioting. i mean every store on this block where i'm at now, i'm about one block over from where the funeral was held today for freddie gray. every store on north street is just about burned out and windows are shattered and there's a ton of people on the street. you can hear them behind me right now. they're bringing in more police reinforcement, but the police are undermanned. they just don't handle it. >> what are the police doing? >> they're retreating right now. they're backing up. the crowd is backing the police up. i think they're waiting on more police to come because i see a whole stream of police cars coming up the street here. but it's just -- they're

undermanned. they just -- someone just threw a -- wait a minute. hold on. oh it's a major, major -- you can hear this. now they're firing something. i don't know what that is. but it's chaotic. i got to get out of here. it's really bad. >> who is firing? >> someone in the crowd. across the street from where i'm standing. there's about 30 young males and they were firing some kind of an object over at the police officers. they have a police line set up. they have their shields out. they're bringing in reinforcements right now. did you hear that? >> i did not. >> sounds like gunshots. i don't know what it is. i'm just kind of stooping down behind this house. but it's -- it's just chaotic. >> i mean you see these pictures and hear these reports, rod. this doesn't look or feel like the united states of america. >> oh it's horrible. i mean to be here, to see this and i've seen this all day. i got here today at around 2:00 megyn. and when i got here there was only about 200 police officers

here and they were totally outmanned and the city was burning. it was unreal. and i've been here ever since and the police are still outnumbered. what they need to do is impose a curfew right away. that's the only way they're going to get this under control tonight. >> why on earth -- >> there's too many people on the street. >> why on earth didn't they do that? why on earth did the mayor say the curfew would begin tomorrow night? is it possible that they couldn't get that imposed? she was holding this presser at 7:30 this evening, rod. >> well let me tell you. i've been here all day and i can tell you firsthand, megyn, that they need a curfew right now. i'm looking at this situation. this is totally out of control. they need a curfew. they need to do that right now because they have no control of this situation. >> what is the -- what is the attitude of the protesters you're seeing? is it anger? when we saw the group speaking to leland vitter earlier, there was frustration. >> right. >> there was a lot of anger by the businessowners at the protesters and looters who damaged their stores. but, you know when we saw the ferguson protest we saw real

anger from those on the street about that case. what are you seeing here? >> right. this exact same thing. i mean i'm actually looking at it right now. i'm looking at about 30 males just pelting the police are rocks, bottles, you name it anything they get their hands on. it's a lot of anger. them just pelting the police with rocks, bottles, anything they can get their hands on -- it's a lot of anger. >> did the police fight back? >> no the police isn't fighting back. they're actually retreating. they're outnumbered. they need more assistance. they need the national guard in here and they definitely need to impose a curfew. this is unreal. it's just unbelievable that this is an american city -- hold on an officer just got hit. hold on, let me get dloescloser here. i don't know what hit him, but something came from the crowd that hit him. there's a bunch of officers around him now. >> there are some professional aj agitators who are there. the head of the new black

panther party is there, who is being described by the media -- let's listen in. could you make that out, rod? >> no no. what did they say? >> we're trying to listen on your phone and we heard somebody yelling. but i was speaking about malik shrks shibaz who is the head of the black party. the main guy is out there saying how they need to kill white cracker babies. it's not all white organic protest, some of it it is but it's white agitators, right? >> yes, it is. there was about 50 of those gentlemen out here and nobody was listening to them and the rioters just went right around them and continued to riot. so they weren't much help. >> what i heard about the nation of islam is they were trying at least, to establish order, and some have been trying to establish order but to no avail.

rod, thank you. continue to gather information, if you would, and i want to go live to darrell parks who was the attorney to trayvon martin and michael brown's families and part of the crump law firm. darrell, when you see what happened to freddie gray and the city of baltimore. for what it's worthy used i used to live in charm city what's what they called it. people take pride in their city feel connected to one another, and yet they seem to be setting it ablaze and tearing it down tonight. >> without question meghan my heart goes out to all the people. my mother was actually born in baltimore, maryland so i feel a close affection to it. and i think that many people are are trying to do some good things but these protesters are shameful to all of us for them to take the situation in the way that they're doing and

destroying that city and destroying the actual neighborhoods that they live in. >> why does this keep happening, darrell? why does it keep happening? >> meghan it's a few people. it's a few people who don't know how to conduct themselves right? it's bad for all of us who do this type of work in that the country is just getting at a point where we're actually having meaningful discussion about how, after the african-american community interacts with the police in general, but this type of behavior tonight makes us take our focus off what it's about and onto the officers. the two officers that are still in the hospital i pray they will have a quick recovery. but it's shameful for the country, and we hope that we can get past tonight. i see the mayor of baltimore is doing all that she can. the governor of the country as well and i see the president and attorney general also weighing in on the situation. we have to get past this.

it does nothing to help the memory of freddie gray. think about it on the day he's laid to rest that these people would do the things they're doing in the streets of baltimore, maryland. and so his family that they are still feeling the effects of his funeral today, that they would have to witness this in their home city i can't imagine what they're feeling. >> the family said they don't want this. we've seen this before. they said they don't want this that it's no way to honor freddie gray's memory that he wouldn't want it. just to bring people up to speed, loretta lynch released this statement saying she condemns the acts of violence by some individuals in baltimore that resulted in harm to law officers not to mention destruction of property et cetera. the civil rights division and the fbi already have an ongoing independent civil rights investigation into the death of mr. gray which they'll continue to look at. i want to ask you, darrell, the same question i asked earlier,

which was we were told in ferguson one of the main things that needed to happen there is there needed to be more parody between the racial makeup of the police and the city leaders and those who actually live in the city of ferguson. because it was predominantly white, the police force, and yet ferguson is not. and yet here in baltimore, you have a minority/majority police force, you have a black mayor -- we're watching our own leland vitter take us through the streets. stand by darrell. can we listen to him? go ahead, leland. we can hear you. >> hey, meghan we've moved a little from where we were in the beginning. you see this ambulance behind this police line? they've clearly reinforced this. this wasn't far from where we watched that massive retreat and all the looting going on at the beginning of the show. you get the sense now that the police have begun to realize that they are really outnumbered here, as rod wheeler was saying and if you look at the street where this police line is you get a sense of the amount of

violence that has occurred here. this is very clearly a very violent city. you don't want to use a word like a war zone it's not quite that but it certainly is getting close. that smell of tear gas is there. you can see the burning fires that have now been set here -- that have been set down here. we have a gentleman here -- you can't cuss on tv but tell me why you're angry. >> i'm range because everything we go through, they say the size of the police. you killed my man freddie, dragged him to the stage -- you understand what i'm saying? you really dragged my man who was already out. you're shooting people out here for nothing, though. we got a mayor who don't say [

bleep ] about it. >> we have to watch the language. >> we have a mayor who doesn't care. >> tell me your name. >> keith watson. >> you've obviously had a run-in with the police? >> they hit me with three beanbags. >> does he have injuries? let's see the injuries. >> can we see where the beanbags hit you? oh wow. there you go meghan. >> do you got the light on? >> a lot of viewers are seeing what's happened. you're saying that's right there? and there's another beanbag. >> i ran because i'm tired of police. >> stay with me. are you going to stay out here protesting? >> yes, i am. >> what about the curfew? what do you think about that? >> when the curfew comes, we have to respect it. >> so you think you'll go inside. >> so we got to go inside.

but i want everybody to protest. i'm not trying to do more than my means. >> you're a protester, we understand that. what was happening on this street when you got shot with beanbags? >> i was were people throwing things at the police? >> they was. they was. >> what were they throwing at police? >> like maybe bottles or maybe even this. >> you were throwing that at the police. >> it's not a beanbag. we're throwing stuff like this at the police. but it made really loud shots. i got shot. >> that meghan is the wound. we already showed that. we're going to walk a little farther over here toward the police just to give you an idea of the way the police line looks here now, and they really secured this area. get steve, steve is going to come this way. he's done incredible work here throughout this entire time. i'm going to get steve to walk here. i've got a lot of folks pretty angry here. i'm going to get steve to just

walk up -- steve, walk up on the steps so we can get a little shot to show what's going on here in terms of the way things are going. you get a sense of these battle lines that have now been drawn in the city of baltimore, and you have this first line of riot police and then you've got dozens of reinforcements. and something we've seen a lot of meghan you've got that large, armored vehicle, and that will sit on the streets of baltimore, a city clearly on the brink of some very dangerous times ahead. >> leland thank you very much. we're going to be back to you. the kelly files will be live tonight at midnight with a follow-up report. and in moments, sean will be here as well as we see this city. our kudos to leland vit tert clearly putting himself in a dangerous situation. you have to tip your hat to him. he gave it the old college try,

better in some instances than others but we try to show you the live coverage. we are attempting a delay so we can screen some of that out, but you have to bear with us. again, we'll be back again live at midnight and our coverage continues live now with sean hannity. stay tuned with us. thanks meghan. this is a fox news alert. chaos in baltimore tonight. the governor of maryland declaring a state of emergency in the city with the national guard tonight on stand-by. the baltimore police department saying 15 police officers have been injured after clashing with very violent protesters. the rioting continuing at this hour with protesters looting stores attacking police. and as we look at all that's happened we got looting, the burning of buildings, 15 police officers injured, one severely. rocks and bottles being thrown at police officers. a curfew is in place not tonight, but tomorrow night. you've got buildings ablaze