ared to involve a small number of people and since then baltimore is calm. >> now, two hours basically into this curfew and it is holding and the police have 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" covering the first curfew imposed on the people of baltimore in 47 years. it comes a day after rioting and looting broke out. in total 144 vehicle fires and 15 building fires last night. 235 people were arrested. 201 adults 34 juveniles. baltimore city police say 20 police officers were 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? >> you know, it's a mix. i mean something of an odd scene to be totally honest. this kind of anticipation here. large media presence and there's also community members although a large percentage have gone home. some stragglers 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. has not released a sound all day. about half an hour ago the s.w.a.t. vehicle parked behind that police line started running what sounded like looped, taped message possibly from the mayor or possibly 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 we cleaned up our neighborhood. now let's all disperse quietly. the police have told me we can stay which is why we're out here right now. there doesn't seem to be a rush

at this point or any sense of a countdown till 10:00. the sense i have is that they're going to kind of let things disperse casually and do what they can not to escalate a situation on a glide path towards a peaceful resolution unless something changes radically and something could because these situations tend to be like that. >> chris, about 12 minutes ago the baltimore police tweeted officers are making arrests at patap. sco and ninth street. a group starting attacking them with rocks and bricks. that's thought a curfew violation. that's something they would have arrested for under any circumstances. have you seen any of that? any throwing of rocks and bricks? >> no, i mean it has been the opposite of that all day today. maybe there was a moment mid-day today where things got tense. someone drunk in the front line

was pulled out but there was this huge concerted effort. you had baltimore residents linked arms between the crowd and the police for the whole day so you had the police line you had the resident line and you had people moving through the crowd, whether those were pass pastors or elders or local college students some were even gang members. right now it's a little bit of a bizarre scene as these things tend to you but it's a peaceful scene. i talked to two young gentlemen who were from a high school who got let out yesterday. some of their friends were involved in rock throwing yesterday who told me they weren't quite certain their friends wouldn't be out again tonight so all of that remains to be seen whether the tenor of the evening is in marked contrast to the tenor of the day which has been concerted on sort of cleanup and self-discipline and celebration of this neighborhood and what it stands for. >> of course the police did

announce that they would have -- 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 that will probably be a progress report press conference. 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 that i was at a countdown for a curfew which was in ferguson. that was a very, very different scene. as the minutes ticked towards that countdown there was a sense of ratcheting up tension, impending confrontation and 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 going on and you had people on bull horns saying this is unlawful assembly. you must disperse. there was a real pressurized attempt to clear people. that's not what we're seeing. i would imagine -- i can't read the minds of the officers in charge here would only escalate things and from where i stand right now and 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 kind of the epi epicenter of both sort of celebration and protests today and heavy police presence and heavy community presence, 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 that's what's happening away from the camera we should note. >> 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, he's very near the cvs store that was burned, looted and burned yesterday there. we're going to go to rehema ellis now, our nbc news correspondent at city hall in baltimore. rehema, the police have been careful in the last hour to emphasize that this is a strict 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 possibly can and stay within the confines of what they have said and they've directed people to do and that is to get off the streets. at the same time they don't want to -- they don't want to incite people. they don't want people to be more angry than they already are. to your point the police commissioner said they'll exercise some 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, there was 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 a lot of 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 when people are 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 people say that they're for it. >> rehema do we know who will make the call about enforcement, will the mayor

be making that call and looking at these television images and looking at just how large a crowd of people are out in any given location after 10:00 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. but i will suspect that there is going to be a lot of cooperation and discussion about what they should do between the mayor and the police commissioner taking with his deputy with his officers out on the street those who are engaged in these details trying to make certain this curfew 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 and they've been having to do a backtrack, if you will and try to explain it. the mayor said many times today that the armchair quarterbacking if you will has been not helpful

and that many people are not aware of all of the circumstances and all of the -- of everything that she is considering when she's making a decision. but there seems to be a lot of consideration between her and the police commissioner in the police department. >> thanks rehema. we'll come back to you. we have toure live near the cvs store. toure, where are you exactly and what's the situation there? >> lawrence, 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 they 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. let's -- as long as there's nothing active right there in the studio at the moment let's go to toure's tape of that extraordinary interview with that gang member. >> we're definitely promising peace tonight. we weren't founded on an idea of destruction. we were founded on the idea of protecting our neighborhoods and the citizens of our neighborhoods. >> we heard that the crips and bloods are actually working together in this peace initiative initiative. how did that happen and how did the two groups come together.

>> well, the two groups came together because of the death of freddie gray. i went to school with freddie gray on the west side and based on the ideologies that the bloods and crips were founded upon, we decided to go back to our roots because we're tired of the hum that these police are giving us on a daily basis and don't want it anymore and we decided to unite and for the record everyone in the united states that's a blood or a crip that has a beef amongst each other i want you to squash that and unite. >> toure, that was really 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 i want to show you, there's a group of people who are

standing in between the crowd that's still mill ging 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? there 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, i have to come back to you. chris hayes, i want to go to your camera position. what's happening there? >> so we are -- we have been told by police that we can stay in this area. i think what happened was there's a big media scrum. there's this kind of contagion effect where there's a bunch of cameras and a bump of lights 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 i do have to say at this point it is mostly us and the media who are out here. there's maybe, oh, i don't know maybe a hundred folks from the community out here at this hour, and this chop erper flying overhead and you get the sense they're going to start pushing harder. >> i'm not sure if you can hear me with the helicopter but is it your impression that the police feel that the media is actually part of what is keeping these people on the street?

>> i mean it's impossible to know. i mean it is not just the media here. congressman elijah cummings is here and he's walking around talking to people. >> chris, we're going to come nbc news correspondent ron allen on the streets in baltimore. mr. cummings let me -- one second. representative cummings? nbc we're live. do you have one second, please? he's having a discussion with some of the young men out here who are obviously very angry, very agitated, and he's trying to convince people to go home. he's been out here for the last hour or so. and there is a lot of intense discussions going on right now. let's see if we can try and get a word in here. mrs. cummings, we're live on nbc news. can you tell me -- can you tell us what it is that you're trying to say to these young men to convince them to go home? what is it that -- hey, hey, hey. wait, wait.

>> calm down, calm down. everyone, calm down. the police are banging their batons against their shields. people are running in different directions. the police are advancing. they're moving forward very slowly trying to clear out this intersection. very slowly. they have not moved very far. we don't know how far this is going to go. are you still with us here? >> ron allen, the people near you scattered. kwhavs it that made them what was it that made them scatter so quickly? >> are you still with us? hang on. >> please get them out of here. >> what's made them scatter was that the police started banging their batons against their shields. there's a length of police up there under that red light that you can't quite see. and they started to move forward. and you can see over in this

direction, to the right over here they're pushing forward. and i just saw a big object go into the crowd of police which is the big concern. the police have been saying that they've come under attack. >> ron allen, thank you. we're going to go to chris hayes. we'll come back to you. we're going to go to chris hayes. we'll come back to you. chris hayes. >> lawrence, that police line moved for the first time in eight or nine hours. it has not moved all day. it just moved up and when it moved up, people ran. a bunch of projectiles came in. i saw a few rocks, a few bottles. you can see now people chucking water bottles at the police, at the glass bottle that just broke behind me. police have their riot shields up. it's mostly -- it's mostly water bottles, but they're definitely projectiles being tossed at the police. there's maybe about a hundred, possibly max 200, 200 people. the police now crouched, as you

can see in that position. their shields are raised for incoming projectiles. they've increased the amount of area that they have taken, reinforcements that have been fed to them from behind these buildings have come through so that they can claim a larger portion of ground. and you can hear now probably -- i don't know if you can pick it up on my microphone, you can hear the sound of broken projectiles being tossed at them. they are holding their position, however. elijah cummings is still out there in the crowd talking to people. >> chris, this is rachel in new york. have they told you as media to leave? >> it's very unclear. earlier, we were told it was fine. the chopper that flew overhead, i thought, said something about media, but frankly, both the chopper and the s.w.a.t. p.a. is extremely garbled. it's very, very hard to tell. we have -- the police now approaching and batting on their shields with their batons, walking forward to clear the

square. and as they do, more projectiles fly in. you can hear them, mostly water bottles, but also glass, also rocks, water bottles being chucked at them. >> can you tell who is throwing stuff? can you tell who is doing the throwing? >> it's honestly impossible to tell because -- they're being thrown from pretty far -- people telling -- residents now telling people to leave, saying this is our city. >> chris, is the bull horn announcement that the police are making, is that audible to the people there or is that being drown out by the helicopter? >> 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 that i've been talking to for hours

sitting in this intersection talking to different people, walking around in this neighborhood, the overwhelming and vast majority of them have left. again, as i look out right now, wherever those projectiles are coming from, they're coming from sort of behind the line. they're being chucked from pretty far back. you can see down there, a bunch of the folks -- you see the guy waving his arms down there? there's a few of the folks manning the line earlier today that were sort of separating the crowd and the police. and a few of them are now down there, milling about, trying to sort of push people back and push them off in a way from the intersection. >> chris, is there still a question for people of local folks who are trying to keep -- trying to tell people to go home? are those negotiations still going on? >> yes. yes, definitely. they're definitely are.

but there's also a bunch of young men out, some with sort of scarfs over their faces or bandannas. >> we're going to go to -- and see what he can pick up at his position. we're going to come back to you. jermaine lee, what do you see? we don't have tremain lee's audio. we're going to go back to chris hayes. chris hayes, we had a clear shot there, we have it right now of the front line of these police officers with their shields having made that move. they have now stopped. >> yeah, they've advanced. they have probably advanced about a hundred feet. from the line before maybe 150 feet. they've also kind of fanned out, so they've formed that crescent

there. they've pushed down, the vehicle has fallen behind. they've advanced. projectiles came at them. they've batted their batons against their shields. you can hear them yelling out to each other when a projectile comes in. the officers have been rotating through that have been holding that line for eight or nine hours today. but some of the people -- >> have you seen them make any arrests in the last ten minutes since they began that move? >> i have not seen a single -- i literally 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 that ambulance. but for that what is now going on nine or ten hours that i've been at this intersection eight hours that i've been at this intersection, i haven't seen a single arrest and i still haven't seen one even as those projectiles started to come in. >> one of the things we've seen in crowd control situations sometimes is that the police tell people to leave or start

corralling people in a way that seems to indicate that people should leave, but people don't have anywhere to go. they don't have a way to get away from the police. it doesn't seem like that's what's going on here, right? >> no, no. >> if people want to disperse at this points, they can. >> that technique which is often referred to as kettling, nypd will often do that if they have an area bound by a perimeter like in times square, they'll surround people and push in. make mass arrests. >> it looks like tear gas. either tear gas or -- now a few molotov cocktails behind me and a few fire crackers. is that tear gas fired by the police? >> no, no. i don't think it's tear gas fired by the police. i think it's basically -- yes. no. no, no, no, hold on. hold on. >> we're seeing something thrown

into the police, chris. something -- >> it's not tear gas. it's not tear gas. it's not tear gas. it's not tear gas. that's coming from the crowd. and it's basically fire crackers being sent to the police. police now police now coming towards our camera position. you can see -- all right. we're going to strike. we're going to get out of here. i understand. we're not trying to cause anything -- you got me on the zoom? move back, move back. we're moving. we're moving. everyone chill. we've got to go. >> we're going. >> we're breaking down, we're breaking down. >> we're all connected.

>> all right. am i live? are you guys good? >> yes, we have you, chris. >> okay. hey, guys. so we now have the police line right up against us. they got come barreded with a barrage of what looked like smoke bombs, essentially. a few molotov cocktails, some bricks, we're trying to move this back to give police some space. that smoke, i should be clear. the police have not used -- >> chris, we're going to go to ron allen. we're going to come back to you and see what ron has. ron, what's happening at your location? >> have you got me? >> yes. ron allen, what's happening at your location? >> we are at the back end of this and we're retreating because the smoke from these

incendiary devices is blowing in the opposite direction. so we can hold our position at the moment. but you can see the crowd is coming back here. nobody knows exactly what is being thrown, what is being shot. it's not tear gas because it's not irritating at the moment. we're going to keep moving down the street because it is getting thick. >> ron, can you see what has been thrown at the police? is it fire crackers or gas canisters? can you tell what it is? >> 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. but it is -- somebody is telling me they think it is tear gas.

let's move back, further back. >> hold on, hold on, there's glass. >> let's move further back, please. there's some cars in the way here. they're setting up this barricade here with the trash. let's move back. move back. we're getting into our vehicle. can you still hear me? >> yes, we can. 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 -- i saw water bottles and so forth going out there and then when they fired these incendiary devices, people pick them up and threw them back to police. over here, they're trying to

block the roads. these people who are out here are trying to block the roads and this is 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 -- the smoke is not that bad here at this position here. we're a couple of blocks away from where the police were. >> so -- >> but it's -- we're probably now about a hundred 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 -- you can't go up there now because of the 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. we're in a position that's -- where it's not blowing at us. we move to a safe place. i'm hearing that -- >> is it clear to you that people who are being told -- >> it is not tear gas, but i'm not certain. >> we're told by the police that it is not tear gas. the police are being emphatic about that. obviously you're the one on the ground experiencing it. question for you, are people who are being told to leave able to leave? >> yes, yes, people are able to leave. the streets are open, there's a way out. you can leave. again, yes, i agree. it is not tear gas, but it is irritating to your sense of whatever it is. whatever the smoke is. >> ron allen, we're going to come back to you. >> people are actually walking back up in that direction. >> ron allen, we're going to go

to chris hayes now. chris, you've been told by the police that this is not tear gas. >> yeah. ron, i had a clear line from sort of watching down the line from where i was. it's not tear gas. it's basically smoke bombs, smoke canisters thrown at the police. the police have as of yet not deployed anything to clear this area, other than their shields, batons and bodies. so there has not been any deployment of pepper balls, that orange spray that we saw yesterday or green smoke. all the smoke you saw on your screens came from a few people back here along with chucking some bottles. now there's a group of young men who receded away from me down in the intersection who tossed some stuff in the middle of the street. but the intersection, i -- >> chris, could you try to clarify something with us from the police? 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 -- i can talk to the officers in a second, although they're not really in a talking mood right mow. >> whatever you can get from them them chris, we're going to come back to you. tremain, 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 so protesters and others have started to move from that end of the street and come on this side. it's certainly not tear gas. the smoke we've been wasting in the air, you could feel the burn. this is not burning. if you take a look at the officers, they don't have gas masks on, either.

the one thing i did hear a few moments ago, still, they're flying into the crowd. i heard a few bangings down the street. it's eerily quiet out here. the crowd has thinned out tremendously to where most of the people on this side are journalists. >> the baltimore police have just 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. the way the tear gas in the air, even by secondary contact, it would cause a burn. it is smokey, but it cleared out pretty quickly. >> tremain, does it look like the crowd is retreating? has any of this in any way worked in helping to enfold the curfew? are people going home? >> it certainly seems to have worked as a deterrent. you don't see folks kind of

digging in their heels and facing off in the way we had even earlier in the week. folks going down that end of the street here in pennsylvania, going down the further end. and they've shown some restraint. there are bottles flying into the crowd, a few glass bottles, some bottles filled with liquid that spilled all over the place. and officers essentially stood in formation, be there and that's about it so far. you heard a few commands, urging people to disperse in the area, going home. spread out a little bit and going down the end of the street. >> tremain, we're certainly seeing that, that 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 that at all.

and not to go back to ferguson, but to get back to ferguson, cared to here, there are three or four exists on these streets. you saw the smoke on that side, and there still seems to be some smoke and there seems to be some activity over there. from my vantage point, i cannot see it. >> yeah. we have a close up of that now of what's happening over there now. there is a lot of smoke up there. it's unclear what's creating that smoke at this particular moment. >> again, it's relatively quiet. there's another bang on the other side. and more smoke. there's a fire. come around this way. you see there's a fire behind that building. we heard a cloud flame and now you see flames. that's not a fire?

>> oh, that is. >> yeah. there is a fire. there is a fire. >> any indication what -- >> you see heavy, black smoke over on this side and you see the flames. >> any indication what started that fire? >> it looks like trash or debris. it looks like trash or debris in front of a stone building out there. >> i think teray is closer to that. we're going to go to terray and he's going to tell us what he might be able to see that. what can you tell us there? >> lawrence, i see several sort of fire crackers, like tremain was talking about. it looks fine to me. the police are holding their positions right now. the street is mostly clearing out. the folks who are stell here are mostly media. some folks who are fairley digging in their heels daring to

challenge the police to the last bitter end. for the most part, the streets are clearing out. there's still helicopters above. so with the cops moving at this second, moving forward at this moment, but still moving forward somewhat slowly, it's somewhat tense, but the police are not provoking the folks at this point. i see more of folks throwing bottles, occasionally bricks at the police. now they seem to be moving a little bit more now. they -- i think now they're holding their position. but i think nothing has been -- i haven't seen any of these fire crackers or things come from the police. i keep seeing them go towards the police or go to the space in between and where folks used to be. so i'm not seeing the police shoot things at people just as of yet. >> can you say who is, from the protesters side, who is throwing this stuff at polices and is it all coming from the same group or is this stuff being throwing from different areas?

>> i have seen a few young minute throwing things at the police, bottles, bricks, sort of things. these are the sorts of young men who are out here wearing bandannas and people who seem to be, like, i'm going to challenge the police as much as humanly possible. certainly not the folks who were out here trying to, you know, achieve justice or get a certain message across. so they seem to be confirming the shareo type of the folks who want to be out here challenging the police to the end. >> so it does it do anything else to confront the police at this point? >> yeah, that's right. that's what i see. i saw a group of about five men wearing bandannas.

one of them 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 sort of laugh with him and then five, ten minutes later, 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. they have shown remarkable strength, not really putting the clamp down as they could at this time. >> here is the way the baltimore police have just described that fire we saw. two minutes ago, they tweeted a group of criminals have just started the fire outside the library located at pennsylvania av and north av. that's word for word what the baltimore -- >> you see that library branch. they were right in the middle of it yesterday with burning cars and a lot of the worst stuff yesterday afternoon.

they ended up bringing the kids who were at the library out through a side entrance. they closed their doors, they turned their lights off. they opened as normal today, posted a lot of kids who were there because school was closed. it's hard for us to understand from this vantage point that there was a significant fire. >> that was one of the great stories of the day. that library and the kids who were not in school, finding the place of welcome for the day. >> in terms of the overall location here, i mean, again, in terms of our bird's-eye view, almost literally what we can see from the chopper, and you've seen the folks be moved through the police presence. the big picture of what's going on here is that there are -- this looks like a lot of people.

there are a small number of protesters and community folks who are out in the streets right now. this curfew went into effect 40 minutes ago in baltimore. nobody exactly knew how it was going to look in the streets when the police were so emphatic that they were going to force it. they talked about ways they would enforce it at the individual level. they would be using common sense in there are their own words for people to justify where they had been out on the streets. but then they also said, without elaborating, that they had a plan in terms of groups of people out in the street, to the extent that there were large numbers of people out at this key intersection out at pennsylvania avenue in north and west philly. you are not seeing large numbers of people there now. the large groups that you are seeing are the police themselves and, honestly, the media who is there to cover what might happen in this confrontation. what we've seen over the last 40 minutes does involve some pretty

disturbing pictures of that, incendiary objects, whatever they were, and bottles and rocks and what appear to be bricks and glass bottles. a number of things thrown at police which looked initially like police gassing the protesters putting tear gas canisters out to disburse people does not now appear to have been a police tactic. it appears that those devices, including the smoke devices originated with the protesters side, not the police side. so we're seeing the police take up space, but we're not seeing a kinetic confrontation here. >> chris, it seems the police are holding their position at your location. >> yeah. i mean they have -- at this point, they've succeeded tactically. they've taken the intersection they wanted to take. they've cleared the area. they've done it without, you

know -- i don't think any officers sustained injuries. i don't think any citizens sustained injuries. there was a brief fire that i swear i just saw a guy in 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 taken this peace of real estate. again, rachel made the point before, when we see crowd, there wasn't a crowd to speak of. it was maybe two or three dozen young men and police are now taeg more taking more of this. the question now becomes -- we -- i talked to someone earlier today who said, look, baltimore is a big city and it's going to be up to people all over the city to exercise

restraint or stop other folks from doing stuff. the fact of the matter is, there was a gravity and momentum to both what happened yesterday and the kind of confrontation we just saw play out that isn't just starting out of nowhere necessarily across the city. but as for this intersection, the police have -- if i could editorialize, with pretty disciplined restraint succeeded in essentially achieving their tactical aims. >> thanks, chris, for that update. we're joined now by pastor jamaal bryant. he delivered the eulogy at freddie gray's funeral. reverend bryant what is your reaction to the way baltimore is responding to the curfew tonight? >> it's gravely and woefully unfortunate and has real contra distinctions from what happened at the church here tonight with our emergency crisis town hall meeting. some 2,000 people converged.

have to think about turning a new page in baltimore and to come out of that and see this footage is regrettable. we were hoping tonight would be a night about calm. that is not about rioting or finding ourselves in a place where we can get more. canningble accountable policing. >> it was one relatively small crowd just at the intersection of pennsylvania and north. we don't at some point have any indications of a violation 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 them to be out of the house around stay out of the streets and be

in the house around 10:00. if it's just a small motley crew of those who are -- the law, it's regrettable. if there are those who are consciously breaking the law, it is regrettable. >> many people, most people involved are at home right now certainly with their televisions on. what would you say to them about what's happening in baltimore now and what your homes are for the next few days? >> i want to say to those who are watching, thank you for not adding to the stain that baltimore acquired 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 take to baltimoreans, that this is no way deflects our faith, so that we can demonstration to lift our voices

for what it is that we want which is in fact an equitable justice system in maryland so that all of us can, in fact, walk without fear of the police. >> pastor bryant, it's rachel maddow here in new york. hearing you talk about tests the efforts that you've been been a part of to get people out on the streets in a constructive way, to not violate the curfew and all the different types of resources you and other baltimore 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, with all that focus on what not to do, what about what there is positively to do? is the next thing you're going to be focused on that march or are there other constructive or or veteran things you're trying to do to plan to channel the energy and anger in your community right now? >> oh, yeah.

it was broken into two parts. one is the opportunity and the second was to strategize. we're going to start a citywide voter registration campaign where one week -- one year away from a critical election we'll be voting for mayor, for u.s. senate, for u.s. congress and a new u.s. president. the black church is going to be on the front line of that. we're going to be engaged on real tactical training on what it means to practice the principals 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 and our seniors will be able to protest without there being any distractions. >> thank you so much for joining us tonight. we really appreciate it. and i hope the people of baltimore appreciate everything you have been doing to try to bring peace back to baltimore. >> please pray for my city. thank you so much.

>> thank you. we're now joined by gabe gutierrez. >> thank you, everyone. we're not far from where chris hayes was reporting a short time ago. the police have continued to advance. just a few more feet. this has been a period of relative calm over the last hour or so. the curfew came and went. right now, all we can see here is mostly media. not 1re67 residents here at all. a few dozen that were here have gone about a block down, for the most part, people have dispersed. over the past hour or so, there have been some fire crackers thrown, perhaps a molotov cocktail or two. no tear gas or anything that we've seen. 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 that is something that they have achieved. there have been no arrests, at least here from our vantage point. as you can see behind me, the -- there are a few armored vehicles bhievend me here. the police had been in full riot gear. now they seem to be holding batons. a few officers over here are maintaining their positions and you hear the police helicopters hovering overhead. but for now, things seem to have calmed down here over the last hour. no major problems here and no arrests that we can see. >> one of the things that we can see from our news chopper view and that it looks strategically what the police have top they're they've moved their perimeter line of police officers this tightly held line so they're effectively occupying that intersection and not allowing -- and taking up that space in a

law enforcement capacity and x'ing it out in terms of it being available for anyone else to be there. is that what they're doing, they're talking over that space and holding it indefinitely? >> right. and it was really a few feet at the time. the officers weren't far behind me at all. 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 hurled some objects at the officers. there were some uncertainty as to whether that could escalate quickly. there were some smoke bombs thrown by the people in the crowd. so that smoke gave away to a little bit of a somewhat college atmosphere. the crowds have dispersed. now they're posted here. again, as you can see, it's pretty calm. a lot of flashing lights.

they've moved past this intersection. they're still monitoring the situation from overhead. but no arrests that we can see, wrach rachel. and they seem to have achieved that relative calm that they were searching for, at least from our vantage point. >> david dave thank you very much for that. we're now joined by 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 them, a movement of the crowd. no arrests so far. 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. they're going to be ready for anything that may occur in areas around the city. this, where they're at now at

what we call penn north is obviously the hot spot. it was that last night. it was just a few blocks away from where it all started at the mall with our school children. so they're at the ready. they're going to respond to whatever they need to. overall, i think we'll see little activity as it relates to violence and destruction of property. and when it does occur, when it pops up, the police are going to move in. they're going to make the arrest and they're going to be prepared for the time times. what are the kinds of discretions that you would like to see used? >> well, the likely possessions -- you're likely to have -- out there.

people are going to have to get used to this curfew. this is the first night of it. just like with my law that's new, we give people time to understand the law. just because we've launched this curfew tonight doesn't mean everybody knows about it. gauge that appropriately and respond appropriately. the real champions tonight are the citizens of baltimore and i think we've seen that. you've shown that and it appreciate that. blet 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 the city and the citizens well. why is that the spot tonight that has the problem? >> well, you know, i think it has to do to do with what occurred yesterday. a lot of people that joined in with those school children is opportunists. you're not going to see it migrate to another part of the city because those are the people who lived in that particular area. you know, when we had the unrest, as i refer to it an uprising with the school children trying to get their voices heard you had the opportunity to chime in to do harm to our community, to do damage, to do destruction. they live in our community. they're not going to move to other parts of the city. that's why it's still referred to as penn north. >> chris, thank you very much. particularly with all your experience in bamt morale those

careers. thank you, sir. >> thamgs for having me. >> i want to bring in our thomas roberts. where are you and what do you think? >> 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. gutierrez was explaining how they were making their way through the intersection. so i'm on the other side of them. i'm beside one of the main terminals for the metro station. i'm looking at a sign that somebody taped up. if not for last night, today wouldn't be remembered. i think that's the feeling i've gotten into baltimore today and talking to a lot of people, they were frustrated that there were some bad actors that tried to take place or take the city last night into a different place than they want to take it this event. we have seen some singular bad actors here on the street tonight with throwing some fire crackers and some smoke bombs back and forth. but the police have been very

detailed in how they've come through to clear this intersection. i think one thing that got added to this compliment of police force, they were hanging out just outs 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 and sweeping in to compliment them one they got to the intersection off of pen pep. so right now, they remain static in this line. so they haven't moved in some kind. there hasn't been a lot of activity on the side of the street where i am. since the first tosses of bottles and glasses they got thrown and then some of the fireworks. it seems like they have been able to push back anybody that was trying to act up or act in coordination.

i know one person on this side, there are different advertisements and there were some kids hanging out in hoodies behind that area. they've 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 intersection after if they would lob something towards the police. over here on 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, pennsylvania and north thomas, thank you for that. and, you know, to the point,

saying that he saw, were it not for yesterday, today would be forgoting. i mean, there is a strategic and moral and really interesting question about the role of violence in bringing attention to long-standing problems. the frustration expressed in that sign is that had there not been violence yesterday there wouldn't be huge national media and and huge political interested and over the concerns of freddie gray death. that is what makes it a long standing, longer term effect. it has been remarkable to see all these people with different types of political capital in their own communities step up and say no, there's not going to be a second day of violence, go home, the turn around, putting themselves in between the protesters and the police to know that they're trying to make that protest stick.

and so make that as important and as catalytic as the violence is. >> and as violent as that is 235 raeftsdz last night, none reported so far tonight. no arrests we saw about 20 minutes in. we saw a police action against a crowd that dispersed. the shot that you're seeing now was >> it was a crowd that was fighting back towards 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 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 10:00 p.m. including a lot of media and leaders like congressman elijah cummings who we tried to get an interview but couldn't quite pull it off. police held their line for the first 20 minutes. then around 1:0:25 we saw smoke fill the area. the scene of yesterday's looting was in that area. some of the people in the crowd appeared to be throwing objects. the crowd was ordered to disperse and right now the streets are mostly clear. the fire started near a local library, reportedly from a molitov cocktail. well over 99% of the residents of baltimore have observed of this curfew from the start.