just be leveling that playing field. that's hardball for now, thanks for being with us. all in with chris hayes starts right now.

>> not at all. when we spoke earlier, they had this parameter. there were two big trucks with gunners sitting on top flanked by police officers, some in blue uniforms, others in fatigues, and green uniforms. they light started to fall and the crowd started to thin. the feeling in the air started to get more intense. every time someone would get too close, a police officer would say, back up 25 feet. keep it peaceful. at some point something -- i thought i heard something bounce off one of the police trucks, maybe a plastic bottle. immediately the police officers said this is no longer a peaceful protest. you must disbursed immediately. within 15 seconds, the first teargas canister hit off the street.

another, another, flash grenades. all broke loose. people backed up about 200 yards. the police said, this person really, disperse immediately or be arrested. until about five, ten minutes later, you saw the police starting to march forward, march forward, and then another barrage of teargas and another barrage of the grenades. it became a chaotic situation. it was so thick in the air. my eyes were burning. my lungs felt like they were on fire. my entire face, chris, was on fire. i couldn't imagine the people in the thick of it. i back of an up so i could get on the phone and talk with lawrence o'donnell. i can still feel it.

a live stream coming to us from radio. the reason you are not seeing cable news coverage, i should note the reason you have not seen the normal news coverage, the reason we don't have a satellite truck is that police have ordered all those trucks out of the area. is that your understanding as well? it was communicated to me that we were up against a curfew for those trucks when we were doing our live shot a few hours ago. >> i never caught wind of any directives to get trucks out. he would have been in the heart of several canisters of teargas. i cannot say enough or explain how bad the burning is the. it's such a hostile situation

and chaotic moment. you guys would have had your reporters out there. a number of reporters were in the mix. we were all in the group of protesters. everything started to really bubble up. directive or not, you need to get out of here and out of here soon. >> this situation does not seem to be a situation that is being brought towards more equilibrium, towards more peace and justice and towards more calm. it seems to me that the police have played, but any judgment, the police have played a major role in essentially escalating the situation in the wake of the very tragic, by all accounts, horrific shooting of an unarmed teen age man that began this entire thing over the weekend. >> when we talked earlier, and i hate to keep referring to it, but i said it didn't appear they were trying to usher the evening and.

they were trying to ease the community into a sense of peace and hope, even though that is what we have been hearing from the speakers, the ferguson mayor and police chief. i look at the police chief in the eye, and he was talking about letting the community heal. when you have a sniper on top of the roof of a truck training a gun on civilians, unarmed civilians, the clear message is sent. it's not lost on any of the people out here tonight. it's not lost on any of the people that have armed officers aiming their guns at them walking to their homes for doing little more than expressing themselves and their right to assemble and speech. before anything popped up, any intimation of anything violent, people were trying to assemble. they were told they could do so during the daylight hours. as i said earlier, it looks like someone dropped the ball and they're trying to handle this in a very careful, measured manner.

>> i am seeing this from a lot about political leadership up the train. jay nixon is the governor, a democrat. he attended a community forum. the mayor and the police chief as well. today mr. nixon has not been heard from. there are folks trying to call his office at this moment. there has been no comment. right now you are looking at a live stream, as it appears, and i am now reading what i am seeing, as it appears, remaining protesters that have stuck it out and are still on the main thoroughfare where mike brown was shot and killed by ferguson police earlier this weekend. as they continue a standoff with police, it appears they are holding their hands up. it has become the rallying proctor for protesters in ferguson, missouri, as they have encountered police. hands up, don't shoot sign appropriated from eyewitness accounts that suggest, again, and confirmed as of yet, but

eyewitness accounts that michael brown himself had his hands up when he was shot. and that is, right there, live as you are seeing come a tear-gas canister being fired at those protesters who remain -- this is live footage coming to us. that is a tear-gas canisters being sent towards the remaining protesters who are occupying that main thoroughfare near the cutie market that with the site of the beginning of this story, as people understood. later it was not confirmed that the owner of that market had called the police, initiating what later ensued. police now, again, continuing to fire on protesters. those protesters, as far as we can tell, just standing in the middle of the street. again, putting their arms up in what has become the rallying symbol for protesters. where are you right now? >> i am further back down at the

sight of where michael brown was killed. i am at the site. i am trying to get closer to the main thoroughfare, but the teargas is so thick. people are running back in my direction. many of them have t-shirts wrapped around their faces, wrapped around their mouths and noses, covering their faces with handkerchiefs. a few minutes ago i heard what sounded like some sort of shot. i don't know if there were gunshots or some sort of firing. it was a rapid succession. i am trying to what closer to the name throw fair. the smoke is still coming this direction. >> we have seen a whole variety of crowd control message used. we have seen police and heavily milli tyrus and your. brandon friedman, this is footage from earlier, heavily militarized gear. brandon freiman is a veteran of

the iraq war as sending out an image of a split screen of himself preparing to invade iraq and one of the officers from ferguson, missouri, today and said got officer had more gear than he did upon the invasion of iraq. it does feel that part of the shock that is emanating from social media and around people watching this, is just the kind of optics of what looks like an occupying army in the middle of an american town. >> that's exactly what it looks like. i'm not sure what may have provoked this kind of response. i haven't heard -- beside the shooting of the armed person earlier who brandished a weapon at police officers, i have not heard of any attacks or anyone in the weapon at civilians. i talk to a number of people earlier who said this has been a long time coming. a lot of these young people that are disconnected say they have been waiting for this moment. now there is an opportunity. it is about standing up to

themselves. a lot of them don't feel they have the voices to respond. again, it means being on one side of a police sniper's rifle. i am trying to get closer to the main thoroughfare. everyone is watching me and telling me not to go. the teargas is too thick. >> just to be clear here, on the first night, i believed it was sunday night when there were protesters in the wake of the shooting, some of the protest did lead to looting. it was a relatively contained, one store. there was a store that was burned down. there was fear for public safety. since that monday night, have you seen or heard of reports of other instances of threat to public safety of that kind, things being set on fire or

places being looted that would suggest there was a need for anything like the kind of response we are seeing here? >> no, i haven't crossed that there might have been a shoe store broken into. that was a very limited -- that was just at that location. i haven't heard anything else. they are still firing teargas. again, nothing that to me, and i have been doing this for a while, would lead to this kind of force. we are talking about military vehicles, officers with rifles pointing at people. many of these people are standing strong because it is more than about mike brown. while they are not backing down, it doesn't seem that they are backing down. it seems they are ramping up their aggression. as i said earlier, i think it will be a rough night.

we will see where things fall in the morning. >> it should also be noted this is a town of about 60,000 people that live in ferguson, missouri. there is good reason to believe that the biggest threat to their public safety is the teargas that is now wafting through residential neighborhoods there. there is teargas fired into backyards. a whole bunch of citizens are right now affected by the police action taking place to disperse the relatively small number of protesters you are seeing from earlier tonight. that is having ramifications for all the members of the committee of ferguson, missouri. thank you for your reporting. i really appreciated. >> thanks for having me, chris. >> dante has now is john swain, a reporter for the guardian. he is in downtown ferguson tonight. what are you seeing? >> i am beside the main drive watching the last stand, if you like, of protesters further down being penned in.

we came out from the side streets where police -- you can hear cracks there. there is some more. just come out in a small residential street where people are not knowing what is going on in their houses. these gas canisters are being fired into their yards. young guys just shouting, laughing, just been told to get out, get out, and they live there. they are telling them to go away. there is a bafflement among some of the residents here. they know that there have been these protests. on sunday, there was an isolated torching of this gas station, but they are not seen riots outside, just cops in riot gear coming down the streets. >> just so folks are clear, the images we are showing our luke images of images taken earlier. we do not right now have a live feed to show you.

just a we are clear about the images, they are looped images of what happened earlier this season. jon, what led to this moment that precipitated this kind of response? police were out before the sun went down. we saw pictures of weapons being pointed at the crowds. was there a turning point? >> there was a. the protesters gathered from the afternoon into the early evening. it was increasingly angry, i think it's fair to say. people were chanting and swearing and screaming at the cops. two bottle flashes could be heard. they landed somewhere, and suddenly everything changed. people scattered. a siren came from the police van. the first gas canister was fired. police were ordering people to retreat, retreat down this main drive westward.

from then, since then, it has just been this pitched battles, if you want to call them that, in this more residential streets off the main drag where people are retreating and then being pushed even further down. >> jon to what you think will happen tomorrow morning? is this going to continue through the night, and in the cold light of day, what do you think the response is going to be from the local authorities, had in which two reported for arrested. we will get to that later. we have some evidence of rubber bullets being fired. what is going to be the conclusion of the decision making tonight? >> you know what, i don't know, because i thought after seeing this a couple nights ago that in the morning they would think that was a bit excessive, maybe we should rethink. but here we are and it's

happening again. it doesn't seem to be any kind of retreat from these tactics, as with -- it doesn't seem to be any sort of reassessment to suggest this is the wrong path. reporters been arrested might change that because the media will be will highlight what is going on here. the police don't seem to be holding back at the moment. >> john swain, a reporter for the guardian in downtown ferguson. thank you so much. >> thanks. >> we will be right back with much more coverage of the events transpiring in ferguson, missouri, tonight. don't go anywhere.

you are watching live, breaking coverage of on going disturbances in ferguson, missouri, in the wake of the police shooting and death of an unarmed teenager in ferguson, missouri did that happen this weekend. this is the third successive night of protests there. fourth, i should say. i misspoke earlier. the population is around 20,000 people, not 60, as i had earlier said. you are seen footage from teargas been fired in police. police coming out as early as 7:00 p.m. local time. some was still out while protesters were by all accounts peaceably assemble with suave vehicles. they were pontine sniper rifles at unarmed and peacefully demonstrating protesters who were in the street and sometimes on the sidewalk.

this is not the first time that teargas has been fired by police to break up crowds. we have seen scattered reports of rubber bullets. of rubber bullets. quite a day in ferguson,

it's 7am and steve is already thinking about tomorrow. of rubber bullets. >>which is why he's investing in his heart health by eating kellogg's raisin bran ® good morning dad. hi, sweetie. here's another eye opener, not only is kellogg's raisin bran ® heart healthy, but its a delicious source of potassium.

mom make you eat that? i happen to like raisins. now that's what i'm talkin' about. invest in your heart health. with kellogg's raisin bran ®. should expect this tomorrow as well? >> as a reporter, i thought, okay, i have been here for four days. things seem to start coming down. at around midnight last night, things seemed to be calming down. i was at the quick trip, the symbol and a place for people to gather. people walked away that seemed like, okay, this is okay. i wake up, and there are two shootings that happened overnight. today, people and everything escalated so much earlier. the intensity was so much deeper. i actually think as a reporter, just looking at the last few days of reporting that i have done, that we might see this

saying we're trying to get you out for your safety. but their guns were drawn. i had my hands up in the air. i didn't know what was going on. they didn't send any tear gas towards us but one of my photo journalists was hit very close

with his tripod with a bean bag flying towards him. it was a scary situation when really we weren't -- we didn't feel like we were in danger. it felt like they were trying to clear the neighborhoods around here. >> so that was happening -- that was happening away from the actual main site of that showdown we've been seeing in the middle of the street there near the qt. this was on a side street away from that action? >> this is in a residential neighborhood. i don't know how much you can see behind me. it's completely dead out here. there's barely anybody on the streets. we have kind of a crowd around us watching what we're doing here but there's no one in the streets. we were jut down at an intersection about a block or so off to the side. we were talking about how the school district tomorrow was supposed to start school tomorrow. they've set that back until monday. we were sitting in a residential area getting ready for a 10:00 live shot not feeling luke we were in danger when police officers came in n told us to evacuate the area.

>> as someone from a local news network there, how hard has it been to get camera trucks into the site of where the protests are happening? >> so we've been covering this, obviously, since sunday. that was really when this all kind of peaked. it seems like if you don't get your news unit in here, you aren't getting them in. the past few nights we have been told move back. so we're in a section with -- >> i believe we've lost elizabeth, reporter with ksdk in st. louis. thank you for that live report coming to us from right around the site of where the protests and police tear gassing of protesters occurred. i'm going to talk to two journalists who were arrested tonight in ferguson by the police in ferguson when we come back. 's happening. today, more and more people with type 2 diabetes

are learning about long-acting levemir®, an injectable insulin that can give you blood sugar control for up to 24 hours. and levemir® helps lower your a1c. levemir® is now available in flextouch® - the only prefilled insulin pen with no push-button extension. levemir® lasts 42 days without refrigeration. that's 50% longer than lantus®, which lasts 28 days. today, i'm asking about levemir® flextouch. (female announcer) levemir® is a long-acting insulin, used to control high blood sugar in adults and children with diabetes and is not recommended to treat diabetic ketoacidosis. do not use levemir® if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. the most common side effect is low blood sugar, which may cause symptoms such as sweating, shakiness, confusion, and headache. severe low blood sugar can be serious and life-threatening. ask your doctor about alcohol use, operating machinery, or driving. other possible side effects include injection site reactions. tell your doctor about all medicines you take

and all of your medical conditions. check your blood sugar levels. your insulin dose should not be changed without asking your doctor. get medical help right away if you have trouble breathing, swelling of your face, tongue or throat, sweating, extreme drowsiness, dizziness, or confusion. (male announcer) today's the day to ask your doctor about levemir® flextouch. covered by nearly all health insurance and medicare plans.

♪ yeah, girl ♪ you know, i've been thinking about us ♪ ♪ and, uh, i just can't fight it anymore ♪ ♪ it's bundle time ♪ bundle ♪ mm, feel those savings, baby and that's how a home and auto bundle is made. better he learns it here than on the streets. the miracle of bundling -- now, that's progressive.

all right. joining us now, continuing breaking news coverage of the events in ferguson, missouri. hufgton post reporter ryan riley mean was arrested earlier today. ryan, tell me the circumstances under which you were arrested. >> sure. i was sitting in mcdonald's doing -- just doing work. and when three police officers in full s.w.a.t. gear came in. initially told -- initially talked to the manager and told everyone in the restaurant that they couldn't provide for their safety or guarantee their safety if they were to stay in the area. they then left and then returned a couple minutes later saying the plans changed and mcdonald's was going to be shut down. and when me and wesley did not apparently pack up our gear quickly enough to their liking, given a countdown at which point i was handcuffed and using -- the officer used his finger to push against my neck.

bent my arms. i was told to stop resisting despite the fact i had gone limp and was not resisting. on the way out, my head was purposely slammed into the glass door and the officer sarcastically remarked he was sorry. i asked for his identification or his name or his badge number in the presence of the two officers who were there. two or three officers who escorted me out, as well as additional -- i'd say a total of over eight officers were standing around. i repeatedly asked for any names. none of them were wearing badges or anything of that nature. so it was impossible to identify them. and, yeah, i mean it was just -- especially, i was someone just sitting in a mcdonald's working an their laptop. i wasn't moving quickly enough for the officers to be treated in that manner.

i can't imagine what other people are going through out there. and that's something that i think there needs to be focus on and hopefully we'll be able to continue to provide coverage of, you know, what's happening here outside of what just individually happened to us. >> ryan, my understanding is the way that you ended up, you and wesley, who we're going to speak to in a moment from "the washington post." the way you were released is that fellow reporter matt pierce there with the l.a. times also doing great coverage of things an the ground, called up the chief of police and said, do you realize that your police just arrested two reporters and then a little bit later you were released and there was no paperwork, no charges, no nothing. is that correct? >> right. we were given an arrest report number but we're told we're not going to be able to get the report for several weeks. yeah, we were just released and told not allowed to speak to a -- no names at all of anyone who we dealt with. we're not allowed except at the

end where we got a business card. but, you know, essentially they were just -- they just released us and that was it. we didn't get to talk to anyone. now we're still camped out here. and when they arrested us, we were both near our vehicles. our vehicles are both in mcdonald's. now we're over a mile away, i think, probably a little more. no way to really get back to our cars. we're here at the police station and, you know, a colleague of mine is on the other side sort of town and separated by lots of tear gas. so it's just a very chaotic and worrying situation. and in the escalation that the militarized officers sort of introduced into this situation when it was -- there was a peaceful protest, i think, was -- i think it was antagonizing to just the way they handled this thing. >> ryan, i understand you are there with wesley, the reporter from "the washington post," who

was also detained at that same mcdonald's and released while covering the situation in ferguson, missouri. wesley, are you there? >> let me get him. >> okay. >> hey. >> wesley, tell me what happened to you. >> so again, we were both in mcdonald's working. the police came in. they gave the initial, who are you? why are you here? you should leave. we said do we have to leave? what's going on? and they essentially said, well, we are not going to -- we can't ensure your safety. it's dangerous out there. if you stay here, you call 911, we're not going to answer. so we stayed. then they came back a few moments later and said, no, you have to go. we're evacuating this place. you have to go. i pulled out my phone and started record chicago angered the officer. he told me stop recording. i said i have a right to record you, sir. he then -- hurry up, hurry up. i was trying to pack my stuff up. he was telling me to hurry up at which point i start walking out. i see ryan having a verbal back

and forth with some of the officers. i tried to record some of that. i'm asking him where i should go. my car is out here. which way should i go? they take -- it was -- it angers them. they are giving me conflicting back and forth and then i take and -- as i turn around. they directed me to a different door, my bag starts to slip off. i said give me one second. at one point they said let's take him. they throw me up against the soda machine, put my hands behind my back. i dropped things out of my hands and said i'm not resisting. they said you are resisting. i said, no, i'm not resisting. they take me outside. we're standing outside and they refuse to give us any information, tell us what we're being held on, file any charges, refuse to allow us to talk to anyone. and then, as all that's happening, we -- as all that's

happening there's this man screaming for help in the back seat of this police van. they don't care about him. they bring us -- eventually they bring us in where they book us. go through our belongings, put us in a cell. we both tried to make phone calls. ryan was able to get through to his dad. i couldn't get through to my mom. then 15 minutes later, maybe 20 minutes later they just let us walk out. no charges. no paperwork. we asked repeatedly, can we speak it a commanding officer. can you tell us what officers were involved? they said, no, there were no charges so there's no paperwork. now we're here in the lobby. >> there was a tweet. i've been following your feed. you've been doing excellent reporting. you had a back and forth on twitter. was about an hour beforior arrest that someone said, are you more scared of the protesters or the police? and you said, i'm paraphrasing here, the police. i'm a black man. and that was -- >> exactly.

>> that was an hour before this all happened. >> yep. this is exactly why. the moment i have been -- two moments i've been most scared. when i first arrived monday night and was watching a full formation of police officers fire rubber bullets and tear gas to protesters standing feet away from me as they held he's automatic weapons. couldn't be sure if it would be a bullet or tear gas. these are people nox me getting hit with these things. and the second most scared i've been was today when i was being told by officers trying to take me into custody that i was resisting arrest when i was not resisting arrest. as a black man in america, i know what that usually leads to. >> i want to read the statement from the executive editor of the "washington post." wesley briefed us on what occurred. there's no justification for his arrest mean was illegally instructed to stop taking video of officers. we followed officer's instructions to leave the mcdonald's and after contradictory instructions on how to leave he was slammed against a soda machine.

it was an assault an freedom of the press to cover the news. physical risk to wesley himself is obvious and outrageous. he was released with no charges n no explanation and denied information of the names and badge numbers that arrested him. we are appalled by the conduct of police officers involved. wesley, are you going to say there and continue to cover ferguson? >> of course. i'm waiting for my phone to charge so i can get back out and send updates about the protest. we can hear protesters outside. we can hear the chants, no justice, no peace. we can hear the chants of hands up, guns down. hands up, don't shoot. yeah, as soon as i can get a fully charged phone battery, i'm going to be out there. it's unfortunate all this happened. and i don't want this story to be about us. we don't want it to be about us. people need to imagine, "the washington post" has my back. i knew as long as they didn't shoot me, i was going to be fine.

come hell or high water, i was going to be okay. i've got the greatest news organization in the country has my back. the teams and the mothers and fathers and sons and daughters and grandmothers and grandfathers out here protesting, they don't have that. if i was not a 24-year-old reporter for "the washington post," justice a 24-year-old black man from ferguson, missouri, and this happened to me, i'd still be in a holding cell right now. it's important we tell these stories and it's important that the knowledge of what's happened to us here gets out there because this is how they are treating credentialed reporters who are wearing their credentials, who have the audacity to sneak into a mcdonald's for a carton of fries and charge their phone. this is how they are treating us? imagine how -- just imagine how, like i said, the 24-year-old black kid from ferguson is being treated by these police. >> wesley lowry and ryan reilly, both briefly detained by police today.

we'll be right back with much more coverage of tonight's events in ferguson.

we'll be back with much more from ferguson in just a moment.

we have news from the governor jay nicks. a lot of people asking where the governor jay nixon has been. he tweets, canceling all appearances at the missouri state fair to visit north st. louis county tomorrow. we want to bring in the president and director of naacp legal defense fund and msnbc contributor goldie taylor. something's got to give here. i can't imagine this situation continuing the way it is. >> well, there needs to be leadership.

what's got to give is the failure of leaders, elected leaders to step up in that state. i remarked earlier, chris, that people are talking about the police. appropriately we're spending a lot of time talking about the police activity. should be explaining to them whether there was a curfew, why there's a curfew, whether they approve of the actions of the police and what they expect to unfold over the next few days. there has to be leadership. that is the only way we're going to have a break in what we've seen happening the last four days.

>> is this a wake-up call for the st. louis metro area? >> i hope so. i hope this is a wake-up call. and to speak to the point of who should step in and who should do what, i think a little historical context is necessary. there is a void here in this region in terms of leadership. there's a void in terms of organization. there's a void in terms of addressing the serious questions that are raised by the killing of mike brown. and i think unfortunately, this region has been historically resisted and actually resisted to addressing the issues that bring us and that have brought us to this point. >> goldie, you were -- you've been in st. louis. you know a lot of folks there. what do you think folks there want to see happen in the next few days? >> i think what people -- >> i did not agree with lizz more when she says there's a

lack of leadership both organizationally on the ground from so-called civil rights leaders from elected and appointed officials. where are they tonight? where have they been over the last four or five days as this has begone to unfold. i spent my teenage years in ferguson. the same high school mike brown graduated just recently. any political official, any elected or appointed official that tells you they are surprised something like this happened is guilty of malfeasance. we've been living under these conditions, many jurisdictions across the north metro area. living in those conditions of nearly a police state for decades and decades on end with this kind of -- >> generations. >> hard relationship. >> generations have been -- >> generations have been living under these conditions. quite frankly, i think that what has happened is a marvelous opportunity for this community to address these issues that have not been addressed. >> lizz brown, sherrilynn and goldie taylor.

thank you all for your time tonight. >> thank you. we'll be right back.

quite a day in ferguson, missouri, tonight. tear gas continues to waft through the streets after police fired teargas canisters at protests. heavily armed, heavily outfitted police in s.w.a.t. gear confronting protesters for the fourth night in a row. governor of missouri has canceled his appearances tomorrow and will be coming to

northern county. a small sign of how dire this situation is getting there four days after the death of the unarmed teen mike brown at the hands of the police. there's a lot going on in the news right now, in domestic news, we're going to have the latest in a live report from ferguson missouri, in a moment. we're hoping to be speaking with another journalist who appears to be arrested for unknown reasons by the local police in the middle of protests there. the upset and the protests continue in ferguson tonight