succeeded in enforcing it. thank you very much to joy reid and chris hayes for joining us from baltimore. up next msnbc's coverage of the events in baltimore tonight continues. this is a special two-hour edition of "the last word" on the people of baltimore in 47 years. in total 144 vehicle fires and 15 building fires last night. 235 people were arrested. 34 juveniles. baltimore city police say 20 police officers injured in the activity yesterday and last night. let's go right to msnbc's chris hayes there in baltimore. chris. the curfew is now officially under way. i'm seeing a lot of people behind you. is that media? are there the people of baltimore still in the street? >> reporter: you know, it's a mix.

large media presence and a large percentage have gone home. some who remain behind. the police line that has been in effect all day long. that police line that is over my left shoulder has been there all day. has not budged. has not moved. the s.w.a.t. vehicle parked behind it started running what sounded like a looped taped message possibly from the mayor or someone told me it was a local state senator. fairly garbled saying we did an amazing thing and showed baltimore pride. you know we were respectful and cleaned up our neighborhood and let's disperse. the police told media we can stay which is why we're out here right now. there doesn't seem to be a rush or any sense of a countdown till 10:00.

they'll do what they cannot to escalate a situation on a glide path towards a peaceful resolution unless something changes radically these tend to be like that. >> the baltimore police tweeted officers are making arrest ss at ninth street. a group starting attacking them with rocks and bricks. that's something they would have arrested for under any circumstances. have you seen any of that? >> reporter: it's been the opposite. maybe there was a moment where things got tense. you had baltimore residents linked arms between the crowd

and police for the whole day so you had the police line and resident line people moving through the crowd. some were gang members. it is bizarre but peaceful. i talked to two young gentlemen from a high school let out yesterday. some of their friends were involved and told me they weren't certain they wouldn't be out tonight. all remains to be seen whether the tenor is in marked contrast to the tenor of the day. >> the police announced they had a 9:30 press conference a half hour before the curfew and

announced they will have a 10:30 press conference a half hour into the curfew a progress report. is it your sense that by 10:30 there will be no one out there who doesn't have a legal right to be out there. >> you know i wouldn't -- i would bet on no. i think it depends on what tactical decisions the police want to make. let me compare to the last time i was at a countdown. huge phalanxes of different officers from different levels of government. the county and local and state troopers in huge amounts of tactical gear marching towards people in this confrontational manner. you had those lrad sirens and people on bull horns saying this is unlawful assembly. a real pressurized attempt to

clear people. i would imagine -- i can't read the mind -- would only escalate. gauging the general atmosphere. that seems right. there is right now it doesn't seem a huge urgency in this small area. again, i think what we're seeing right here now in this square which has been the epicenter of both sort of celebration and protests today and heavy police presence and heavy community presentation. this is not necessarily representative of how bpd is dealing with things all over a huge city 40 square miles so this might be a very different scene than what's happen ago way from the cameras. >> thanks chris hayes. we'll come back to you. that's elijah cummings in the bottom corner of the screen there. congressman elijah cummings a maryland congressman very near

the cvs store burned looted and burned yesterday there. we're going to go to rehema ellis now. nbc news correspondent at city hall. rehema the police have been careful in the last hour to emphasize that this is a script curfew but it will be enforced with some discretion. they left open the possibility that there are possible reasons to be out that they have not considered in the work and/or going to medical treatment exceptions that they've allowed for. but it could be that what we're seeing now is that the discretion includes when to try to move large groups of people who remain on the street at what is now 10:06 p.m. >> yeah i'm getting the impression that police want to temper their actions as much as they can.

and they've directed people to do to get off the streets. at the same time they don't want to -- they don't want to incite people or make people as more angry than they already are. to your point the police commissioner said they'll exercise discretion. the governor said earlier that they are going to impose this curfew in a way that is absolutely prudent and they will make exceptions where necessary that they would apply the curfew restrictions as necessary. out here at city hall i have to tell you about an hour ago, about ten or so young people making a lot of noise here around the city hall area. they got everybody's attention but they were totally peaceful making noise. they are not here anymore. it is -- it's pretty calm here again you can see the barricades at city haul. there is a heavy police presence here. so it doesn't look like anyone particularly is going to be violating that curfew here of

course. as you just heard as chris was pointing out throughout the city. they're keeping a watch over it. there's so many people in this city who really do hope that the curfew holds tonight. they think that that will help to lay a blanket of calm over this community, over this city and that's what they want. everybody that i talked to today said they want calmness. they want peace. they want their message heard and they know that when the flames are flaring and people shouting and when there is a riot going on the message that they came out to protest about is not a message that's being heard. so they want to counter any of the excitement any of the violence with the calmness and if the curfew helps to do that many say they are for it. >> do we know who will make the call about enforcement, will the mayor ache that looking at these images and looking at just how

large a crowd of people are out in any given location after 10 p.m. >> will she be the one who basically orders the police to show restraint or go in and make arrests. i can't say exactly. i would suspect there will be cooperation between what they should do between the mayor and police commissioner talking with his dippityeputies engaged in details trying to make certain it is enforced. i think that they've been trying to be very measured in their actions throughout what's been happening in this community. some people say too measured age have been having to do backtack if you will and try to explain it. the mayor said many times today that the armchairman quarterback quarterbacking has not been helpful and many are not aware of all the circumstances and all of the --

there's a lot of consideration between her and the police commissioner, police department. >> we have toure live near the cvs store. where are you exactly and what's the situation there? >> lauren i'm right across from the cvs. i can see the line of police that has been there all day long. there were a lot of questions about what would happen at 10:00 would they start firing tear gas and gave us gas masks to wear in case that happened. so far the police have shown extraordinary restraint. they have been telling people to go home but they've been playing the tape from the mayor telling folks to go home but they have not done anything as yet. i saw something happen at 9:00 that was fairly extraordinary. somebody threw a bottle of water at the police and you could see the police start to want to move and folks who have been standing in front of that line with their arms locked almost all day long

stopped the police from doing that. grabbed the folks who have been throwing the bottle and restrained them and it was bloods and crips that were trying to keep the peace, move the people away from this line in front of the police. it was pretty extraordinary. i spoke to a blood earlier today, nico caldwell. do you have the tape of that to run. >> i believe i saw you do that. i believe the control room has that. as long as there's nothing active right there in the studio let's go to toure's tape that have extraordinary interview with that gang member. >> we're definitely promising peace tonight. we were founded on the idea of protecting our neighborhoods and the citizens of our neighborhoods. >> we heard that the crips and bloods are working together in that peace initiative. how did that happen and how did the two groups come together. >> because of the death of freddie gray. i went to school with freddie

gray on the west side and based on ideology that what the bloods and crips were founded on we don't want that anymore. we decided to unite and for the record everybody in the united states that's a blood pressure or crip that have a certain type of beef squash that and unite. >> toure, that was an extraordinary conversation to hear and you've been seeing them follow through on that. >> yes, we have. they said that they would try to enforce peace tonight, so far we are seeing that and they're just one of the members of the community who are working very hard to try to keep this peaceful. let me show you -- let's push in and show you there's a group of people who are standing in between the crowd that's still milling about and this phalanx of police trying to keep people

away from the police trying to make sure that nothing happens, even as we have helicopters over above us saying go home time to go home but the community is working very hard to try to keep this peaceful lawrence. >> toure, what is your sense of what the police attitude is where you are? they're clearly are some people there in violation 13 minutes into violation of this curfew at this point. >> well we have to give the police credit at this point. see, now a bottle just came flying at the police. we're being told -- >> toure, chris hayes, i want to go to your camera position. what's happening there? >> so we are -- we have been told by police we can stay in this area. i think what happened was there's a big media scrum. there's this contagion effect where there's a bunch of cameras and people rush towards it. one pushed up near the front of the line and i think that has tipped over the police into now -- they're flying a police

chopper overhead saying all media needs to clear the area and telling people to clear the streets. earlier before there was a s.w.a.t. team -- the s.w.a.t. vehicle over the bull horn telling people they need to clear the streets so they're clearly wanting to get people out of here and do have to say at this point it is mostly us and the media out here -- there's maybe, oh i don't know maybe a hundred folks from the community out here at this hour this chopper flying overhead and you get the

. are you still with us here? >> ron allen, the people near you scattered. what was it that may -- >> hang on.

>> what made them scatter. -- there's a phalanx of them that you can't quite see and they started to move forward and you could see over in this direction to the right over here they're pushing forward and saw an object go into the crowd of police which is the big concern. >> ron allen, we'll -- thank you. we'll go to chris hayes and come back to you. >> the police line moved and the glass bottle and have riot she woulds up. it's mostly water -- there's

maybe a hundred. possibly the last few hundred. few hundred people and the police -- as you can see in that position, their shields are raised. and projectiles and increased the amount of area but they have taken reinforcements and come through so they can claim a larger portion of ground and you can hear now -- i don't know if you can pick up on my microphone but the sound of broken projectiles. they're holding their position however. out in the crowd talking to people. >> have they told you as media to leave? it's very unclear. earlier we were told it was fine. and the chopper that flew overhead i thought did something about media but frankly both the chopper and s.w.a.t. p.a. is extremely garbled and very hard to tell. we have -- the police now

approaching and walking forward to clear the square. as they do more projectiles fly in. mostly water bottles but also glass and rocks. water bottles being chucked at them. >> can you tell who is throwing them? can you tell who is doing it -- >> to be honest -- it's honestly impossible to tell. they're being thrown from pretty far. people telling residents telling them to leave saying this is our city. >> chris, is the -- is the bull horn announcement that the police are making is that audible to the people there or is that being drawn out by the helicopters? >> it's basically a kind of din in the background. anyone who is out at this point i think is sort of made a

decision to be out. most of the folks, certainly the vast majority of people i've been talking to eight hours sitting on this intersection talking to different people walking around the neighborhood. the overwhelming and vast majority of them have left. so there's a small contingent that remains behind. as i look out wherever those projectiles are coming from. they're from sort of behind the line. they're being chucked from pretty far back. can you see down there a bunch of the folks -- you can see the guy waving his arms down there. a few of the folks manning the line earlier today that was sort of separating the crowd and the police and a few are now down there milling about trying to sort of push people back and push them off and away from the intersection. >> chris, local folks are trying to keep -- trying to tell people to go home.

are those still going on? >> yes, definitely -- there definitely are. there's also -- there's also a bunch of young men out. almost sort of scarves over their faces or bandannas. >> we'll be coming back to you. what do you see? we don't have his audio. we'll go back to chris hayes. chris hayes, we had a clear shot there and have it right now of the front line of these police officers with their shields. >> yeah. >> having -- they have now stopped. >> yeah they've advanced -- they have probably advanced about a clear hundred feet from the -- maybe 150 feet and fanned

out and formed that crescent and pushed down. they advanced projectiles and advanced again and took a defensive -- they batted their batons against their shields and heard them yelling out when a projectile comes in. they've been rotating through that have been holinge holding the line eight or nine hours. >> have you seen them make any arrest in the last ten minutes since they began that move? >> i have not seen a single -- i have not seen a single arrest all day. there was one moment earlier when police went into the crowd to clear for an ambulance to put someone in the ambulance and there was an apparent medical emergency. but what did going on nine or ten hours at this intersecond or eight hours i vance seen a single arrest and still haven't seen one even as projectiles started to come in. >> what we saw sometimes is that

the police tell people to leave or start corralling them in a way that seems to indicate they should leave but they don't have anywhere to go. once they're in a situation like this it doesn't seem that's what is going on here. if they want to disperse they can. >> that technique which is often referred to as kettling which nypd will do that if they have an area bound by some perimeter. they'll surround people and make mass arrests. looks like tear gas. tear gas or now -- a few molotov cocktails behind me and a few firecrackers. >> is that tear gas fired by police. >> no, i don't think it's fired by the police. i think it's basically -- yes.

no. it's -- >> no hold on. >> we're seeing something thrown into the police something flaming and smoking. >> not tear gas. >> just went into the police. >> not tear gas. it's not tear gas. that's coming from the crowd and it's basically firecrackers being sent to the police. police now -- police now coming to our camera position and -- you can see -- all right. we're going to get out of here. we're not trying to cause anything here. you got me? you got me on a zoom. move back, move back. we're good. we're good. we're moving.

everyone chill. we're breaking down. >> you can't break it down. >> we're all connected. >> we got to come back together. >> am i live? >> yes, we have you, chris. >> okay. hey, guys so we now have the police line right up against us. they got bombarded with a ba braj raj of smoke bombs. chunks of concrete. we're now trying to move the camera position back to give police space here. that smoke, though i should be clear, the police have not used -- >> chris we're going to go to ron allen and come back to you. ron, what's happening at your location? >> you got me? >> yes, ron allen, what's happening at your location? >> reporter: we are opposite

where chris is. we are at the back end of this and we're retreating because the smoke from these incendiary devices blowing in the opposite direction and hold our position at the moment. but you can see the crowd is coming back here. nobody knows exactly what is -- thrown -- what's being shot. it's not tear gas because it's not irritating at the moment but getting thick out here and the police have moved the intersection is basically cleared and we'll keep moving down the street. keep moving back because it is getting thick. >> ron can you see what it is that has been thrown at the police? is it firecrackers or molotov cocktails? can you tell what it is? >> reporter: i don't know exactly. putting a gas mask on. >> okay ron -- >> i don't know exactly what it is that's being thrown in the air. i don't know exactly what it is.

what it is is a firecracker. somebody is telling me they think it is tear gas. let's move back. let's move back. setting up barricades here. let's move. move back. getting into our vehicle. are we still running? >> ron, we saw at least one projectile thrown at the police that was flaming and smoking as it landed at the police -- at the feet of the police. did you see anything thrown at the police? >> yes. i saw water bottles and so forth and then when they fired these incendiary devices, people picked them up. people picked them up and threw

them at the police. what we see here they're trying to block the road. people who are out here trying to block the road and what was happening last night, a lot of different places there were huge fires at intersections where people were burning trash, burning cars trying to block the police. i think i can take this off now because the smoke is not that bad here at this position. we're a couple of block as way from where the police were. but it's -- we're probably now about 100 yards from where the police line is and people here are regrouping and trying to figure out what to do next. but for the most part the square, the intersection up there is completely cleared out now. there's a few people there who are lingering, figuring out their next move but you can't

go up there now because of this smoke. because of the tear gas that's really -- it makes it difficult to breathe up there. but we are in a position that's safe and in a position that's where it's not blowing at us. we move to a safe place and so so -- >> ron -- >> i'm -- >> is it clear to you people who are being told -- sdmrrs i'm not certain. >> we're told by the police it is not tear gas. the police are being emphatic about that. obviously you're the one who is on the ground experiencing it. the question for you, are people who are being told to leave able to leave? >> yes, yes, people are able to leave. i mean the streets are open. there is a way out. you can leave. and, again, yes, i agree. it's not -- it's not tear gas but it is irritating to your sense or whatever it is whatever the smoke is. >> ron allen, we'll --

>> walking -- >> we'll go to chris hayes now. you've been told by the police this is not tear gas. >> yeah i mean ron -- i had a clear line from sort of watching down from where i was. it's not tear gas. it's basically smoke bomb smoke canisters thrown at the police. the police has of yet have not deployed anything to clear the area other than their shields, batons and bodies so there's not been any deployment of pepper balls. no sort of orange spray or green smoke or tear gas. all the smoke you saw on your designs came from a few people back here who are chucking those at the police along with chucking some bottles and now there's a group of young men who proceeded down away from the intersection. tossed some stuff in the middle of the street. >> chris, could you -- could you -- >> could you try to qualify

something for us with the police because it was ron allen's impression from the other side of that line that those projectiles came toward the crowd from the police. they were picked up by the crowd and thrown back at the police. >> i honestly -- that is not what -- that is not what i saw and i can talk to the officers in a second although they're not really in a talking mood right now. >> whatever you can get from them. we'll go to tramain lee now. what's happening in your position? >> i'm on the opposite side of where ron allen is. the police have essentially cut off the intersection here and so protesters and other folks are starting to move and come on this side. it's certainly not tear gas. we all remember from ferguson the smoke was in the air and you would feel the burn. if you look at the officers they don't have gas either.

i did hear a few pops a moment ago. still things flying into the crowd and heard a few bangs. another thing, it's eerily quiet out here to where most of the people are journalists. >> trymaine i want to classify what we know. the baltimore police tweeted officers are now deploying pepper balls at the aggressive crowd at north avenue and pennsylvania avenue. so the police are taking responsibility for having deployed pepper balls. >> and that makes sense again. the way the tear gas in the air even by secondary contact you would have felt the burn. you can tell it is smoky and it did make it difficult to be out here for a few moments but it kind of cleared out pretty quickly. >> trymaine does it look like the crowd is retreating? has any of this in any way

worked in helping to enforce the curfew? are people going home? >> reporter: it certainly seems to have worked as a deterrent. you don't see them digging in their heels the way we had earlier in the week. folks going down -- here on pennsylvania going down the further end and they've shown some restraint. there are bottles flying into the crowd. a few glass bottles. some plastic filled with liquid that spewed all over the place and officers just kind of stood in formation, pushed up a little beat. beat their baton and shields and that's about it so far. you heard a few commands urging people to decision percent and go home and for the most part from my vantage point they seem to have done just that. gone down to either end of the street. >> trymaine we're certainly seeing that but they made this advance across the street but they're now holding in this new position across the street.

have you seen any arrests made yet? >> i have not seen any arrests made at all. unlike not to always go back to ferguson but to go back to ferguson where you were in cramped quarter, here there are exit points on each end of the street so from this vantage point we don't see much action. now, you can see -- you saw the smoke on that side and still seems to be smoke and seems to be activity there but from my vantage point i cannot see it. >> we had a close-up of that now of what's happening over there now and there is a lot of smoke over there. it's unclear what's creating that smoke at this particular moment. there's a fire. >> now you see flames.

yeah, there is a fire. there is a fire. and any indication -- heavy, black smoke and can you see the flames. >> yes and any indication what started -- >> it looks like trash or debris. it looks like trash and debris in front of a stone building out there. >> trymaine i think toure is closer to that. he'll tell us what he might be able to see there. what can we see there? >> lawrence i see several sort of firecrackers like trymaine was talking about. it is not tear gas standing here without a mask and seems fine to me. the police are holding their position for now. the streets are mostly clearing out. the folks who were still here are mostly media. some folks who are fairly

digging in their heels daring to challenge the police to the last bitter end but for the most part the streets are clearing out. there's still helicopters above so with the phalanx of cops moving at this second moving forward at this moment but still moving forward somewhat slowly it's somewhat tense, but there's not -- the police are not provoking the folks at this point. i see more of folks throwing bottles occasionally bricks at the police and now they seem to be moving a little bit more. now they are holding their position but nothing has been -- i haven't seen any of these firecrackers sort of things come from the police i keep seeing them go toward the police or into the space in between the police and where folks used to be so i'm not seeing the police shoot things at the people just as yet. >> can you see who is from the

protesters' side and is it coming from the same group? is this thrown from different areas? >> i have seen a few young men throwing things at the police bottles, bricks sort of things these are the sorts of young men who are out here wearing bandannas and, you know people who seem to be like i'm going to challenge the police as much as humanly possible. certainly not the folks who are out there trying to you know achieve justice or get a certain message across so they seem to be confirming the stereotype of the folks who want to be out here challenging the police to the end. >> so the small group of guys doing it. it does not seem to be inciting any larger group to either be joining them or doing anything else to confront the police at this point. it's an isolated --

>> yeah, that's right. that's what i see. i mean i saw a group of five men wearing bandannas, one would sort of get the feeling and sort of run up and throw something at the police and then sort of fall back and laugh and the other ones would sartre ofort of laugh with him and another one would sort of run up and do the same thing. i saw one holding a brick and sort of you know trying to pick his moment for when he was going to throw that at the police. but, you know the police have taken 15 20 bottles, some bricks at them. have to say that they have shown remarkable restraint, not really pushing -- not putting the clamp down as they could at this time. >> the baltimore police have just described that fire we saw. two minutes ago they tweeted a group of criminals have just started a fire outside the library located on pennsylvania ave and north ave. word for word what the baltimore police --

>> that library branch they were right in the middle of it yesterday burring cars and a lot of the worst stuff yesterday afternoon and ended up bringing the kids at the library and patrons out through a side entrance and turned their lights off and snuck out but opened as normal today and hosted a lot of kids because school was closed. hard for us to see if it's a significant fire. doesn't seem like there's a significant fire bring grade response to this fire outside the library but maybe we can get a better vantage point. >> one of the great positive stories, the library and kids who were not in school going to that library type finding a place of welcome for the day. >> in terms of our bird's-eye view from what we are able to see from the chopper and you've seen folks have been physically moved through this intersection by the police presence by smoke and by the other logistical

needs of being there. big picture, there are -- this looks like a lot of people. there are a small number of protesters and community folks who are out in the street right now. this curfew went into effect 40 minutes ago. nobody exactly knew how it was going to look in the streets when the police were so emphatic they were going to enforce it at the individual level. they would be using common sense in their own words to get their own justification for being out on the street if they found individuals out between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. tomorrow morning and said without elaborating they had a plan in the event of groups of people out in the streets. any large number of people. to the extent there were large numbers out at this key inter intersection out at pennsylvania avenue and you are not seeing large numbers there. the large groups all the police themselves themselves, honestly the media there to cover what might happen in this confrontation.

what we've seen over the last 40 minutes does involve disturbing pictures of that incendiary objects, whatever they were and bottles and rocks and glass bottles. somebody described seeing a molotov cocktail. own will i heard that once. a number of things thrown at police. what looked initially like perhaps police gassing the protesters, putting tear gas canisters out or smoke canisters out to disperse people does not now to peer to have been a police tack tifftic but they originated from the protesters' side, not the police space. we're not seeing a kinetic confrontation and not a lot of residents. >> chris hayes, it seems the police are still holding their position at your location. >> yeah i mean they have -- at this point they have succeeded tactically and they've taken the intersections and cleared the

area. they've done it without, you know i think -- i don't think any officers sustained injuries. i don't think any citizens sustained injuries. there was a fire i swear i saw a guy this a sweatshirt with a bandanna over his face take a bottle and douse the flame. he looked like the kind of guy who may have been a moment earlier hurling a projectile. they've now, you know they've not taken this piece of real estate and, again, rachel made the point before. we say crowd. there wasn't really a crowd. it was maybe two or three dozen young men and police are now taking more of this i imagine they're going to sort of keep this area kind of contained and under their control for the foreseeable future but they have succeeded in clearing the square and the question now becomes, you know we -- i talked to someone tonight earlier today who said look baltimore is a big city.

and it's going to be up to people all over the city to sort of either exercise restraint or stop other folks from doing stuff. i mean the fact of the matter is there was a kind of gravity and momentum to both what happened yesterday and the confrontation you saw play out now that isn't just starting out of nowhere necessarily across the city. but as for this intersection the police have -- with pretty -- i would -- if i could editorialize it succeeded in essentially achieving their tactical aim. >> thanks for that update. joined by pastor jamal bryant. he delivered the ulee at freddie gray's funeral. reverend bryant, what is your reaction to the way baltimore is responding to the curfew tonight? >> yes, gravely and woefully unfortunate and a contra

contradistinction of what happened tonight, emergency crisis, town hall meet, 1 200 or 200 people and to see this is regrettable because we were really hoping tonight would be a night of calm that we could, in fact, recalibrate the movement not about rioting but is really about finding ourselves in the place where we can get accountable police. >> reverend bryant as far as we know it was just one small -- relatively small crowd just at the intersection of pennsylvania and north and we don't at this point have reports of any significant violations of the curfew anywhere else. >> i'm very delighted to hear that. we sent out troops of men both muslim and christian as well as gang members who signed a peace treaty earlier today urging

young people to stay out of the streets and be in the house at 10:00. a small motley crew of those who are defying the law it's regrettable but thankful for those who have complied to what it is we're -- >> jamal bryant most people in baltimore are home with their televisions on. what would you say to them about what's happening in baltimore now and what your hopes are for the next few days? >> i want to say to those watching, thank you for not adding to the stain that baltimore acquired on last night. thank you for showing the world that we are people of high dignity, that we have a regard for law and we're looking for the law to work on our behalf. let me also say to baltimoreans this in no way deflates our momentum on sunday will be the largest march we've had outside city hall at 3:00 p.m.

all of the houses of faith are converging downtown to demonstrate what it means to lift our voices for what it is that we want which is in fact an equitable justice system in maryland so all of us can walk without fear of the police. >> in new york hearing you talk about the efforts you've been a part of to get people out on the streets in a con instructive way to get out fof of there the message and you and leaders have been able to bear on that it has been a remarkable thing to see. i just wonder through that organizing and through this big town hall that you had tonight, this large event with so many people speaking out there's all that focus on what not to do. what about what there is possley to do? is the next thing you'll be focused on that march or are there other constructive or overt things you're planning to do to try to change the energy

and anger in your community right now? >> oh yeah it was broken into two parts. one is the opportunity for that and second to strategize and start a citywide voter registration campaign where one year away from a critical election we'll be voting for mayor for u.s. senate for congress and for a new u.s. president and the black church is not going to be on the sideline. we'll be on the front line of that and be engaged in real tactical training on what it means to practice the principles of nonviolent protesting as well as we're going to be raising up men in our community to serve as marshals so that our young people are and our seniors will be able to protest without there being distraction. >> pastor thank you very much for joining us tonight. we really appreciate it and i hope the people of baltimore appreciate everything you've been doing to try to bring peace back to baltimore.

>> please pray for my city. thank you so much. >> thank you. we're joined by gabe gutierrez on the street in baltimore. gabe, where are you and what's happening there? >> hey there, lawrence. good evening we're here at the corner of west north and pennsylvania near the cvs. not far from where chris hayes was reporting a short time ago. the police have continued to advance just a few more feet i think we can say as you've been reporting this is a period of relative calm over the last hour or so. the curfew came and right now all we can see here is mostly media, very -- not very many residents here at all. a few dozen here have gone about a block down have been on the side -- most people have dispersed over the past hour. there had been some firecrackers thrown, perhaps a molotov cocktail or two. no tear gas or anything that we've seen that the police were able to disperse the crowd.

without any major confrontations. that is something that residents here have been wanting and it appears at this point it's something they have achieved. no arrests from our vantage point. as you can see behind me there are armored vehicles. the police had been in full riot gear now just seems to be holding some batons a few more officers over here are maintaining their position. and you hear the police helicopters hovering overhead but for the most part we seem to have calmed down quite a bit over the last hour. no major problems here to report and, again, no arrests that we could see from this position. >> one of the things that we can see from our news chopper view is that it looks strategically like what the police have done is basically moved their perimeter line of police officers that's pretty tightly held line so they are taking up -- they're effectively

occupying that intersection and taking up that space in a law enforcement capacity and just x'ing it out. does it seem that's what they're doing, taking over that space and holding it indefinitely. >> a few feet at a time. as can you see they're kind of -- the officers are not far behind me at all and an hour ago they had been posted at the other end of this intersection and little by little have been moving forward. now, when they first started to do that there was a little disturbance, there were several people in the crowd that were hurling objects at the officers. there was some uncertainty of whether that could escalate very quickly. there were some smoke bombs thrown by people in the crowd and so that smoke gave way to a little bit of -- somewhat of a chaotic atmosphere but didn't stay long that smoke dissipated. the crowd dispersed and the

police had been moving here just a few feet. now they're posted here as again you can see pretty calm. a lot of flashing lights. they've moved past that intersection and they're still monitoring the situation from overhead but no arrests that we can see and it seems -- they seem to achieve the relative calm. >> thank you for that. we're now joined by neal franklin, a former training commander of the baltimore police department. neal franklin we are 51 minutes into this curfew. we've seen one relatively limited police action just a movement of the line of police that provoked a movement of the crowd. no arrests reported so far. how do you think this -- how do you think the police enforcement of this curfew is going so far? >> well i think it's going quite well. the police are at the ready. they are prepared and they're

going to be ready for anything that may occur in areas around the city. this -- where they're at at penn north is the obviously hot spot last night. just a few blocks away from where it all started at mondawmin mall with the schoolchildren. they'll respond but overall i think we'll see little activity as it relates to the violence and destruction of property and whentit does occur they'll be prepared for days to come. >> neal many references tonight by the police department that there will be discretion used in enforcing this curfew. what are the kinds of discretion that you would like to see used? [ sirens ] >> well the types of discretion that i would like to see used i mean you're likely to still have stragglers out there that

aren't involved in actual destruction and violence and to be a little patient, give it a little time. people are going to have to get used to this curfew. this is the first night of it so just like with any law that's new, we give people time to understand the law, to learn that it is in effect. just because we've launched this curfew tonight it doesn't mean everybody knows about it yet. so just a little discretion you'll have stragglers out there who aren't involved in criminal activity. so gauge that appropriately and respond appropriately accordingly. >> i would like to say that the real champion tonight are the citizens of baltimore and i think we've seen that. you've shown that and i appreciate that. letting your viewers know what's going on here and the efforts that are being made by the citizens out there. these community leaders that have come together not just tonight but you're going to see this in days to come, as well. we can do this and we will do this in this great city.

>> you know baltimore well and though that hot spot well. why is that the spot tonight that has held the problem? >> well, you know i think it has a lot to do with what occurred yesterday. a lot of the people who joined in with those schoolchildren were opportunityists. opportunists from that particular area. you won't see it migrate to another part of the city because those are the people that lived in that particular area. when we had the unrest as i referred to it an uprising from the schoolchildren you had other criminals -- not other criminals but you had criminals join in opportunists to do harm and damage. they live in our community. they're not going to migrate to other parts of the city so that's why it's so concentrated to what we refer to as penn north. pennsylvania avenue and north

avenue. >> all those years in baltimore, thank you. i want to bring in a conversation -- thomas roberts by phone. i understand you're pretty near on the other side of the police line there. where are you? >> i'm on the south side rachel. just below the intersection here at penn and north so i'm in front of the police line as you're talking to gabe gutierrez he was explaining how they were slowly making their way through the intersection so on the other side of them. i'm right by one of the main terminals for the metro station. i'm looking at a sign that somebody put up if not for last night today wouldn't be remembered. i think that's the feel -- i've gotten in baltimore today and talked to a lot of people and the fact that they are frustrated there were certain people some bad arcs that tried to take place or take the city last night into a different place than they wanted to this evening. we have seen some singular bad arcs here on the street tonight

with -- throwing firecrackers and smoke bombs back and forth. but the police have been very detailed in how they've cleared the intersection. i think one thing that's gotten added was sheriff's deputies from hartford county. they were hanging out, just outside of the intersection to the east of the cvs and they were waiting to come in and reinforce. so it's almost like they were moving down north avenue from one direction and then sweeping in to complement them once they got to the intersection off of pennsylvania. so right now they remain static in this line and they haven't moved in some time. also there hasn't been a lot of activity on the side of the street where i am since the first -- since the first tosses of bottles and glasses they got thrown and some of the

fireworks. they've been able to push back anybody that was trying to act up or act in coordination. i know one person on this side it was interesting, right by the metro stop. there are different advertisements and street signs that are kind of big and triangular and there were some kids that were hanging out behind that sign one of which threw something at the police and then they since left from that position. but most of the people that we saw in this intersection if they would throw something they would run. there wasn't much of an interaction after if they would loft something toward the police line but right now all is pretty quiet. i'm on the other side the south side. it's pretty quiet over here. it's me and my producer and a few other cameras and that's it. >> thomas roberts at that

intersection, south side of that intersection. thank you for that. you know to the point of sign that thomas said were it not for yesterday today would be forgotten. there is a strategic and moral and really interesting question about the role of violence in bringing attention to long-standing problems. i mean the frustration rests in that sign is that had there not been violence yesterday there would not be huge national media interest and huge national political interest in what's going on in baltimore, and the concern over freddie gray's death. violent protests gets a lot more attention than even large-scale constructive nonviolent protest and that's what make nonviolent protest hard. it's also what makes it have a long-standing hard-earned longer term effect but as we see baltimore today it has been remarkable to see these people with different types of political capital in their own communities step up and say there's not going to be a second day of violence putting

themselves between protesters and the police to know that their challenge is to make that constructive protest stick and to make that as important and as catalytic as the violence almost inherently is. >> as violent as last night was 235 arrests yesterday and last night, none reported so far tonight, no arrests we saw in that first about 20 minutes in we saw a real police action against a crowd that dispersed. the shot you're seeing now was filled with contention just a half an hour ago, a crowd kind of fighting back toward the police but that crowd has retreated. that crowd is not there now. there is no struggle going on at that location at this point. we are now coming to the end of the first hour of this curfew in baltimore. this is nbc -- msnbc's continuing coverage of the enforcement of that curfew in

baltimore, which has now been in effect for its first hour. there were a few hundred people on the streets of west baltimore at 10 p.m. including a lot of media and leaders like elijah cummings. we tried to get a little bit of an interview with but couldn't. police held their line for the first 20 minutes. there was no real activity and around 10:25 we saw smoke fill the area around pennsylvania avenue and north avenue. scene of yesterday's looting was in that area. some of the people in the crowd appeared to throw objects at the police or were picking up objects that they were throwing back at the police. the baltimore police started to deploy pepper balls and the crowd was ordered to disperse. right now the streets are mostly clear. a fire started near owe local library reportedly from a molotov cocktail. rachel, the real news tonight, one hour into this curfew is