good evening, i'm chris jansing, tonight a nation on edge. death of george floyd continues to spark another night of protests in dozens of cities. mayors from coast to coast enacting curfews to try to keep demonstrators off the streets. in many cases ignoring the curfews. center of it all, minneapolis. officials say they're overwhelmed responding to hundreds of calls about gunfire,

burglaries. most of the protesters are not destructive or violent but little more than an hour ago, despite the relative piece, police fired tear gas where ali was reporting in minneapolis, unprovoked by protesters. >> reporter: nobody was doing anything. they pulled in, opening fire. working towards us. get back, get back, he's hit. step back. step back. i got it, whoa, watch it guys. got gas here. all right. back up, back up, back up. they are now moving toward us. moving toward us. there was -- >> shooting at us. >> reporter: they're shooting. put your helmets on, miguel, stay with me. we got gassed. >> highly dramatic situation as you can see. tensions are flared in other

cities, philadelphia to pittsburgh to columbia, south carolina, new york city. windows shattered, and authorities deployed tear gas and rubber bullets. nine states are all joining minneapolis in calling their national guard forces to respond to those protests. george floyd's brother told reverend al sharpton he spoke with president trump and former vice president joe biden. this is what he said he told joe biden. >> i asked him, could he please, please get justice for my brother. i don't need it. don't want to see him on a shirt like other guys. nobody deserve that. black folk don't deserve that. we're all dying, we're all dying.

black lives matter. >> ali velshi, on the ground as he has been for days. you and what was peaceful crowd were fired on, saw the clip, with tear gas a while ago. what's the situation now and how had did it all unfold? >> reporter: very unusual. that's where the fifth precinct was, peaceful protests held all day. thousands of people. 8:00 p.m. our time, 9:00 p.m. eastern, curfew went into effect. everybody started walking, marching peacefully through down. no incident, violence, looting. nothing going on. then at some point, half to 2/3 of the way back, not close to the front.

we saw police cars suddenly move into the intersection, no warning, split the group. group in front went running forward. group behind we were in were in front of the police line and they opened fire within seconds of getting on the street with tear gas as you saw and then flash bangs and other projectiles. got one of them in my leg, must have have ricochetted off something and hit me but we were doing nothing. just trying to get out of there. you and i talked shortly thereafter, they had dissipated the crowd, all walking backwards and same thing happened in another intersection, police closed it off. couldn't get out, media people walked to them with hands up yelling media, and police or national guard, we don't know who said it, yelled we don't care, and opened fire a second time. we've been weaving our way around minneapolis last hour or so, trying to avoid interactions

with the police. we just saw a convoy of national guard and police moving this way. helicopter's been up there a while, blackhawk, a national guard helicopter. trying to -- these were peaceful protests. police without warning, they're coming toward us again, makes me nervous right now. miguel, let's get ready to move. without provocation and warning, opened fire. let's move back here and started firing into the crowd. in fact as you know, chris, you mentioned earlier, i had tear gas mask, had it with me whole time. didn't have time to put mask on. let's get a shot as the police come down, see what they're up to. that's the story. let's watch what's happening here. this is what they've been doing,

moving around the city, then suddenly stopping and getting out of vehicles. that's fire. all right. so this is a different story, one of the problems is that i can see fire -- i can see a fire burning to our left in direction that the fire trucks are going in. you can see this is national guard escort, this is part of the problem. fires that have been started haven't been able to be put out because the fire trucks haven't been able to get in without military, national guard or police escort. does seem they're being aggressive tonight because last night there were a lot of fires. we've got more military coming in this way, national guard, meant to be escorting the fire vehicles. everything coming down now is national guard, following the police. there's a lot more activity here, curfew, don't have good enough picture of this standing

on a random corner in minneapolis but like i said, entirely unprovoked opening fire of tear gas, rubber bullets and flash bangs into a crowd walking very peacefully. >> first of all, glad you're okay, hope other people caught up with that as well as you are okay. we'll continue to watch this scene. don't want to lose sight of why all the people came out today, as you pointed out, came out peacefully were there -- >> reporter: we've got more police coming, hang on a second. all right. that's county ems. there's a fire which looked like it may have been in the last ni. until midnight, a crowd gathered

there. bry brian williams who listens to the scanner said the national guard had been activated. up to 700, then another 1,000, 1,700, then activated every last national guard member in the state, 13,100, don't know whether activated means they're on the street but what you're seeing tonight you have not seen is massive national guard presence. fifth precinct is focus of protesters attention. unlike the third precinct which was taken over by protesters, seems the police are very determined to make sure another police station doesn't fall into hands of the protesters. we're seeing smoke from there. can't tell you. police station is brick building so amount of smoke doesn't suggest that's on fire. we're not interested in walking down there right now to find

out. but i do want to emphasize, can't say it enough, saying it three days and getting a lot of flak from right-wing media and social media. majority of people protesting here are doing peacefully, giving speeches, eloquent, they have signs that say black lives matter, things like that and police fired on that crowd tonight. >> did you find a difference in mood of the crowd day. talked about the raw numbers, 500 to 700 to 1,700, then every last member of the national guard, but have you noticed visually a major difference in the police presence today? >> reporter: yes, tonight was first time i saw minneapolis city police. i had not seen them at all, been entirely absent from the third precinct. seen state police and supporting national guard members.

now seeing heavy presence of military vehicles, national guard. and group that shot into the crowd we were in, minneapolis city police. we have more coming down the road. typically wouldn't move out of the way for this sort of thing because exactly what happened two hours ago, literally standing there, police pulled up, got out of car, assumed position in front of the crowd and starting firing. everybody is a little bit skittish what happens when police come. they spent three days not getting into i a -- confrontations with protesters, that's a firecracker. even to the point they moved in on the third precinct. went to the roof and fired tear gas and flash bangs but seemed to be deliberate strategy not to engage where not necessary. yesterday had state police and

national guard members standing there with protesters in their face, criticizing them and getting up in their face, they didn't do anything about it. something changed tonight. police drove into an intersection and opened fire on a crowd. i don't know what the strategic change is but something is different in the air. and mood of the crowd was different. they was entirely, not agitated crowd. police reaction to this crowd surprised me more. two nights ago may not have surprised me. we continue to hear noise that might be flash bangs. don't know what it is. we see some smoke, some action behind us. >> if you're able to determine safely what that is, i know you'll get back to us. >> reporter: yes. >> thank you and your crew under extraordinary circumstances have kept your cool and gotten us information. we appreciate that. ali, thank you, i'm sure we'll talk to you later on tonight. where i'm sitting is new york

city, behind what you see behind me, windows to my apartment. what i have not heard are sirens. all throughout the night, then moments ago when ali was on the air, heard sirens. hundreds of thousands gathering. 70 protesters have been arrested and number of nypd officers have been injured. richard louie with another group in brooklyn. what's happening? lot of folks are obviously still there. >> reporter: yeah, talking about the group walking across the bridge was splinter of the group we were with, it has grown in size and brought in other ad hoc protesting groups. about five block long group.

police just arrived down the block. been pretty much -- i don't know if we can see it here, pretty quiet protest until about 30 minutes ago, we were at target and seemed to be some conflict within the protesters, should we stay away from the glass doors and windows of the target here, or should we do something, quickly tension peaked and everybody ran away, now we're close to fort green park. as you know, covering so many of these yourself, the ebb and flow. had very quiet moments, candlelight vigil 20 minutes ago, holding up phones, then accelerated again. it's early in the evening. last night in brooklyn there was a lot of conflict. police have arrived. there is going to be a change --

[ no sound ] >> we've obviously lost the audio, and our crew i'm sure when they have a chance to safely re-establish they will. we're clearly seeing in brooklyn a police presence moving in. richard lui and his cameraman started running for cover. this has been the experience, saw it in minneapolis, police start coming, people start to move because realize that tactically things have changed. while we continue to watch the pictures and maybe get re-established with richard at some point, want to bring in marq claxton, a retired new york city police detective and ask you if you're there, what your

reaction is to what you're seeing, first in minneapolis, now in new york city, and we see frank is with him as well, former fbi assistant director for counterintelligence and nbc national security analyst. but start with you because of your new york city and police experience, if i can. something changed according to ali velshi tonight, he said strategic change. he had a crowd much less agitated but much larger crowd of police very quick to engage. what do you make of what you saw? >> quite obviously, based on information that's been released in minneapolis, there's been a dramatic increase in manpower and resources, they're utilizing that to redeploy to critical

infrastructure targets perhaps. clearly want to take back certain sections or sectors of the area there. they want to absolutely be more assertive and proactive. don't want to get caught on their heels as has been the case past several days. part of the reason they say that caught on heels, lacking resources. they're making a clear statement, taking back to areas and committing to defending critical infrastructures. don't want to lose another precinct or appear to be retreating constantly. want to be proactive and reclaim different areas of the street. also the streets for flow of emergency vehicular traffic is easier. people on the street really have to be wary, they have obviously

decided to take back certain sections. >> and we're looking at high picture, this is not where richard lui is, this is union square west, downtown in manhattan, new york city, people are blocking the street there. what do you make of the increased police presence and how it's being used, frank? >> i think what we're seeing, no coincidence across the country tonight various police agencies have decided this has shifted from legitimate grievance protest to violence, suppression and largely this is based on intelligence. where the intelligence units at the departments really earn their salary. likely what they were seeing was influx of outsiders who posed too much of a risk, and they decided we've allowed protest and peaceful protest to occur, we're now going to surge resources because we think a

line is being crossed. we think we have people intent on violence only, and we're going to draw that line tonight. when you see the police -- >> going to stop you if i can for a second. sorry to interrupt, i want to go back to this topic. watching movement again in manhattan but we've re-established signal with richard in brooklyn. what's going on? >> reporter: what had happened when the crowd was running toward the camera, crowd began to throw bottles and rocks at the police and police pursued the crowd, ran towards us and our camera position, that's when we got disconnected. crowd now has dispersed and they've brought in another group of police officers from the opposite end, seeing them return back to the location where we were standing a little bit earlier.

at the moment seems like the crowd has been dispersed. they're not behind us either, all running that way. at the moment, seems this protest group has been dispersed but you can certainly see what was zero police presence has now turned into i'm counting maybe ten on my left, ten in front of me, around 30 police vehicles that seem to be closing in on something in the center of the block. we have ambulance here as well. we just got here and chris, we're not sure if they've identified somebody or moving towards the center of the block. looks like they're blocking up to get to somebody in the middle of the block.

[ sirens ] >> reporter: all right, chris. does not look like -- where the police officers -- go ahead chris. >> just going to say while you were moving, marq claxton, retired new york city police detective was talking about problem of people in the streets when you have to get emergency vehicle through. and before that we saw fire trucks going through in minneapolis, now the ambulance there in new york city. they can't do it if the streets are blocked. seems to be around you now a little more sense of calm -- although the police are moving toward you? >> reporter: yes, they are. you know how it works. after the crowd gets dispersed, they find a new front and then

the protesters come back so this latest scrum you're seeing right now is because one or two of the protesters 0 proe protesters approached the police line and began running away, pursued by police officers. we're going to move a little bit out of the way now. so it looks like at this point they have decided to pursue the protest group, which is three blocks in front of us, the original dispersement is. >> explain to us -- >> reporter: can see this? >> yeah. >> reporter: if you can see this on camera right here, what has happened, this is one of those handful of protesters that decided to not follow the police recommendation to stand back.

they then may have done something -- we didn't see that, but police officers in masks as you saw, pursued that individual. this is not five, ten, 20 people, this is two, three, four people. >> on the sidewalk! on the sidewalk please! >> get out of here. >> reporter: asking us to get out of the way as you can probably hear. in some of the other scenes you've been showing across the country, this does not seem to be en masse large numbers against each other. two or three people. now pushing a young woman out of the way, asking her to get off the sidewalk, clearing the area, asking us to move as well at the same time. but not a lot -- a large number of protesters, this is largely, crowd behind you that ronnie is showing you. probably 100-1 what we're

looking at. >> richard, stay with us -- >> reporter: this is -- >> we're going to watch your cameraman -- are they giving you instructions now, the police? >> reporter: yes, they are asking us to step back, third or fourth time. this was very quiet evening relatively up to this point. looks like someone has -- they're arrested somebody. if you can see the shot. >> we see the restraints. >> reporter: now on the ground. ronnie can you get that shot? person on the ground. from our vantage point, on the sidewalk where the police asked us to stay, looks like there is one individual prone at least, crossed legs, hands behind her back. one police officer on top and person that is prone has

backpack, that person now standing up. so this is also another individual farther to the left. two individuals it looks like in this case have been arrested. at this location. >> richard stay with us and if you're cameraman can stay with his shot, i want to bring in marq claxton to tell us what you're seeing happen here. >> [ inaudible ]. >> we're going to stay there. we will come back to richard lui. let's go to washington, d.c., where garrett haik is, there's a

developing situation there as well. garrett, what's happening? >> reporter: chris, after 6 1/2 hours of mostly peaceful protests around the white house, things have taken a turn, line crossed. standing at corner of connecticut and "i," two blocks north of the white house and looking at at least one car set aflame by protesters. i don't think you can make it out but lot of the windows here have been smashed in businesses here, banks, restaurants, office buildings and so forth. what we saw here tonight was protesters stymied in attempts to get closer to the white house and lafayette park which was locked down by park police, secret service and others, spreading out into the downtown d.c. area, with them has come more destruction so far, just in the last moments, d.c. fire and ems have got on the scene and look to be getting this car fire

under control. not a position to get up and around the corner right now. i think you can probably see metropolitan police officers, normal rank and file d.c. police, blocked off rest of the street here, separating crowd of 150, 200 protesters who had broken off to the larger group closer to the white house, separating them from the street where the car is on fire. seen at least one other vehicle on fire in the area. larger group had been outside the white house, earlier tonight one of the protest organizers came out and chastised through the megaphone loudly a protester for setting fire to a trash can. said that's not what we're here to do, we're here to convey a message. that message is going to get lost in this, some significant damage two blocks from the white house, chris. >> is this the biggest

escalation you've seen throughout the night? >> reporter: by far, by far. there was a series of protesters who marched from different points to the white house to lafayette park, that's normal in washington, d.c., if not weekly, monthly you have large protests at white house, in lafayette park. it's common, one of the things people come to washington for, protest their government. you see it all the time. over the course of the night, things were tense but never full on violent, plastic bottles tossed, occasionally pepper spray used to break up crowds, only last 45 minutes seen the escalation a couple blocks north of the white house. it's tricky to get around now. patchwork of police agencies that patrol d.c. are out in significant force. d.c. national guard, federally

controlled, not by mayor but theoretically secretary of army, department of defense, has been called in, not laid eyes on them myself. greater white house region of downtown d.c., center of activity here tonight is not part of district where many people live. it's business district and normal night, even saturday night -- d.c. is happy hour early town, this area would be completely empty. hundreds and at times thousands of people were surrounding lafayette park on the northern region. if you've had your picture taken in front of the white house, you've walked through lafayette park, it's essentially a police zone now, fully controlled. now seeing pd officers clearing across connecticut avenue trying to clear out protesters who broke off from the main group

and spread north. see them doing so now down "i," might give us an opportunity to move closer as well. >> garrett hague, thanks very much. i know you'll check back in. also want to show you what's going on not far from washington, d.c., next major city along the amtrak rail is philadelphia. what exactly is on fire here? looks like apartment building? do we know what this is on fire? we're not sure. what we can say, we know earlier today that stores were engulfed in flames, had been arrests going on as curfew enforcement continued there. hundreds of people had been on the streets there but obviously you see a pretty major blaze there in philadelphia. we'll keep you posted as we learn more about that. let's go back to new york city where richard lui has been

standing by, watching police activity. what's going on now richard? >> reporter: from the last shot, it is clearly much calmer. as you can tell behindce force y numbering about 100. but this is the location where there were people knocked over when we saw the crowd running from police officers responding potentially as you remember seeing in some of the video to projectiles thrown at them. weren't close enough to see what it was. looked like bottles or rocks. have seen rocks thrown at windows tonight. that's really the peak of the evening, not seen violation or altercations up to that moment we were on camera. last night we had 200 arrests, 70 reported earlier mentioning from police officials. tonight, if this is the amount of altercations we're seeing at

least in brooklyn so far, it is not necessarily been at the level it was at barclay center where it was absolutely packed, a flashpoint last night. pretty calm, three or four people arrested we saw so far. >> richard, thank you so much. what an eventful half hour we've had so fardelphia. building on fire. two cars on fire in washington, d.c., where garrett was, and pretty aggressive police action in minneapolis tonight. going to take a quick break and be back with more developing news right here on nmsnbc. learn more at libertymutual.com/covid-19. [ piano playing ] why accept it frompt an incompyour allergy pills?e else. flonase sensimist.

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we are back live. it was fast and fierce, a show of force by law enforcement in minneapolis, trying to prevent what we had seen in recent days, widespread destruction from

protesters. so curfew went into effect 8:00 local time and police moved in. where we find morgan chesky who has been there throughout largely a peaceful day and into the night. what are you seeing and hearing now, morgan? >> reporter: good evening that peaceful protest has since ended. minneapolis police with help of state police and national guard are in process of retaking areas that they let crowds do with what they wished past several days. wearing the gas mask because that haze is tear gas deployed to scatter a crowd of several hundred people. they're off in the distance there. they were congregated at this intersection about a block away from the third precinct where minneapolis pd, see the officers holding their position here, crowd as firmly entrenched as they were dissolved rather

quickly once the tear gas was deployed. few of them have a gas mask, so having caught a whiff yesterday without this on, doesn't take much to get people moving from the area. several dozen vehicles were blocking the intersection here, when we walked up, they were waiting for police to come to this area. half dozen people were seated in front of the police cars, not moving. but as you can see now, intersection is cleared out. appears to be police restreeting back to their vehicles at this point in time. that's a positive sign. we've seen several instances -- >> we're going to interrupt, we have a live press conference. we'll get back to you. mayor bill de blasio is starting a press conference. >> pespent a lot of time in br s

brooklyn and manhattan and saw actions by a very few people trying to create a negative atmosphere. those people don't represent the values of new york city and what they're doing is not going to help us move forward in new york city, joined by deputy mayor phil thompson, by commissioner marco kab reown, seen a few number of people protesting to begin with, very few of whom committed acts of violence but those few were systematic in efforts to harm police officers, create damages to police vehicles, store fronts and other property. that's not going to get us anywhere. to the peaceful protesters if you're still out there tonight, trying to work peacefully for change, let me be clear, we hear your desire to see these issues,

relationship between police and the community, need for justice, for real change in our society, we hear you loud and clear, we appreciate and respect all peaceful protest, but now it is time for people to go home. if you went out peacefully to make a point about the need for change, you have been heard and change is coming in this city, i have no doubt about that. it's time to go home so we can all move forward. those who are out there simply to create violence, those who are out there to express hatred towards our police officers, we won't tolerate that. if you're out there to commit act of violence, you're going to get arrested tonight. fewer people are out there now tonight, those engaged in negative activity will feel the consequences of that activity. nypd all day long has been working hard, been a difficult day for our officers, some put

into very dangerous situations, and that's not appropriate, that's not the protest reality and history we believe in in this city. we believe in peaceful protest, civil disobedience, people exercising democratic rights, but not attacking police officers and communities. what i heard from tleelected pee today, resentful that people were coming in from outside their community and creating negativity and violence that did not represent their community. we have a lot of work to do in the city, capable of great change and great progress, always has been. i have faith in the people of new york city to get through this moment, make the changes we need to, at the same time we're fighting a huge crisis of the coronavirus, a pandemic, we're fighting that together as one new york city. story of the last three months

has been new yorkers uniting to fight back a crisis we could never have imagined, a disease we didn't know about, new yorkers came together to do that. reason this city is getting healthier and safer all the time is because new yorkers banded together. we'll band together again to overcome the challenges we face. that's how new york city moves forward. let me see if there's media questions. >> concerned people in new york city, you said were going to be continuing -- what beyond platitudes, the violence and rising concern of what's going on right now? >> been present all day where i needed to be -- >> we'll continue to listen in to the mayor and will let you know if there's major news out of it. message is it's time to go home. back to washington, d.c., where

garrett haake has been standing by. what's the latest? >> reporter: hey, chris, things are devolving quickly. i'm back in front of lafayette park here, protesters have been pulling away at barricades all night. we've got park police pressing out, getting squeezed from the other side. let's walk a little bit this way, tony. getting squeezed from other side by mpd officers. 16th street, more folks breaking windows, tagging buildings, additional property crimes. you can hear fireworks behind me, makes my heart skip a beat every time it happens. thrown in amongst the park police remaining in lafayette park, not coming out into the street as this has gone on. nor yet have the national guard back inside the park. getting gassed here a little bit

chris, going to keep moving back. but we've got gas cannisters, pepper spray. police are trying to disperse the crowd that's been out here -- first six hours of the day, peacefully but the situation has changed here. trying to keep on the edge here, not get caught up in anything. even more unsafe than this. chris. yeah. definitely getting the pepper spray experience now. tony, stop here if we can. see what we've got here. in the same boat. park police, get a shot across the park, tony. park police trying to maintain this barricade all night long. think of this as northernmost end of the white house complex. that's how it's been treated all night long by park enforcement.

protesters and police have coexisted reasonably well along that barricade all night but as things have escalated, protesters getting more and more aggressive along the barricade, park police apparently had quite enough of this. [ no sound ] >> we seem to have lost audio now with our crew there. let's see if they can re-establish, they may not even know, frankly. we've got them back. we've got you back now if you can hear us. >> it's dead. >> okay. >> reporter: chris can you hear me? >> fast moving situation. go ahead garrett. >> reporter: can you hear me? >> yeah, we can hear you now. >> reporter: good, good.

yeah. audio difficulties. police shooting pepper spray. >> you all right, man, you all right? >> reporter: park police trying to hold this line if you will on the north end of lafayette park. north end of the white house complex. there's been uneasy truce between protesters and police along that line so much of the night but obviously as we saw protests spill out in other parts of downtown d.c. area, car fires and windows getting smashed, police are now taking more aggressive posture to try to control the situation. but none of this looks for feels anything like -- at this point, protesters throwing rocks at police. police throwing pepper bombs with protesters. police control lafayette park but not much else in downtown d.c.

>> we're going to let this scene play out a little bit, watching it unfold. >> reporter: obviously where don't want to be right now -- [ alarm ] >> reporter: several agencies. very hard, lafayette park. up connecticut avenue, totally different picture. >> we're going to let the video play. obviously it's very difficult to hear what garrett haake is

saying. see some protesters trying to breach a building there. >> mic still dead? >> reporter: i don't know if you can still hear me. >> there's a lot of ambient noise. i don't know if you can hear me, closer you can get the mic to your face is great. >> get this -- >> reporter: what we're not seeing at this moment is any significant effort by mpd to get control of the situation. get the fuck out of the way. >> it's on the street, don't want us to witness what's going on in the district, bizarre situation. >> no violence. >> reporter: live on nbc right

now, why are you out here right now? >> j here, i can't explain, don't know what to do about it. seeing my kind killed constantly by the police over nothing. i ain't going to try to be -- actually talking about wherever i see it. i love you, try to calm down, want us to stay apart, act like criminals, don't do it, brother. >> reporter: what do you think when you see what's happening here? >> it's anger, built up, anger builds up in you, your actions are based on the anger. tried to control my anger best of my abilities but i feel them. these people don't have same -- fucked up out here. you know what i'm saying?

>> reporter: do you live in d.c.? >> i do. be safe. >> reporter: you too we're having technical difficulties and i'll throw back to you, try to re-establish. >> we'll get back when you're in safe position to do so. garrett haake, a fast developing situation in washington, d.c., saw at least one person trying to kick through the door of building there. marq claxton, director of the black law enforcement alliance and frank figlusi, get your reaction to what we're seeing in washington, d.c.. >> seems to be a bit of strategic consistency in the different locations, police decided to gain control of critical infrastructure area and

maintain perimeters best as possible in those areas, also try to clear the streets for emergency traffic to get through and access the different points of the city. and committed to making sure any protesters on the street stay mobile, no one allowed to congregate and fester in a particular area or establish a stronghold in one area. constant movement is key to dissipating some of the larger crowds. >> and we see that's working. people moving in direction the police are pushing them in all the places we've seen. back to you, frank, we were talking half an hour ago, lot has happened since then. one thing that's relevant to what you were saying when we interrupted you. mayor de blasio has been seeing systematic effort by a few people to disrupt, cause trouble and inflict damage.

talk about that statement by the mayor. >> right, it's the role of violent agitators that i think has largely contributed to the strategic shift we're seeing in police decision making across the country tonight. they have realized that the protests have shifted, including a small number of disparate groups on the left, on the right, number of groups are participating. but they've made a decision to take back the streets or minimum protect groundwork and infrastructure and they're drawing the lines tonight. i want your viewers to understand if they're distressed by large police presence and use of gas and flash bangs and arrests taking place, understand, the police have said we've got to defend the city. we've allowed the peaceful

protest but police can't distinguish, don't have luxury to scan 2,000 people on the block and see which belong to militia, right-wing group or left-wing group. or who is armed or has billiard ball in a sock, which is technique for anarchists. they're going to push them back if the crowd surges into area they're defending. >> we want to take you to another place where there were demonstrations. capital of ohio, columbus. wcmh has reported it was overall peaceful. what we heard from most cities today, until just a short time ago, then protesters had a confrontation with police. alarmed the crowd and pepper spray was dispersed with no warning according to

congresswoman joyce beatty among those hit with the pepper spray. and ohio national guard have been activated in the city, under a city-wide curfew until 6:00 sunday morning. joining us, congresswoman joyce beatty, democrat, vice chair of the congressional black caucus. so glad to see you, take us into that moment. where were you, what happened? >> i was in the capital city and went there to show solidarity for those protesters. we all are feeling so much tension, so much frustration and anger, especially in light of what just happened in minnesota with george floyd, what happened in georgia with ahmaud arbery, and in kentucky, so i went there

because it was the right thing to do. it was a peaceful protest, under no circumstances am i one to support tearing up our communities, cities, breaking into businesses. it was two-hour protest, i was there with two colleagues, we went together. people were happy to see us. we were able to be helpful, asking people to stand on the sidewalks, not get in the street. shortly before the 12:00 noon hour when police were deployed there, all of a sudden it was several of the police were fine, another string of police came through, if one person had a foot on the curb they started going into riot mode in my opinion, pushing and shoving with bicycles. then once one guy was thrown on the guy, there were young sisters there i was trying to talk to, trying to identify

myself and say don't excite the crowd, there goes the guy down. and then i'm saying no, this is wrong, stop. because i knew what would happen with the protesters. before we knew it, pepper spray went everywhere. our president of city council was sprayed, i received some of it. at that point i was taken away. >> yeah, we saw some of the pictures shot by local affiliate. see your eyes being wiped out. you said you clearly identified yourself and there was nothing going on that would indicate to you there was a need for pepper spray, nor any warning it was coming? >> no warning that i heard of it coming because we would have moved. that's not an experience you want to have, pepper spray in your eyes, inhaling it. but it happened so fast, but i just think because of the

tension on both sides, it was clearly not all of the law enforcement but the strands of officers that were there in front of us, people were not throwing rocks or bottles, there was no excitement until there were a few of the protesters would put one foot in the street at the point and it just started. it was so upsetting. i'm still emotionally upset about it. because i think being out there and protesting was the right thing to do. but we have to come together. it has to be peaceful, it has to be allowing people to exercise their freedom of speech, all lives matter but black lives matter. we were asking people to stand with us against injustice. we know about the disparities in the capital city we're now going through the coronavirus, the pandemic, there are so many

disparities. we make up, african-americans make up 12% of the population, 25% of the people have tested positive, 13% of the african-american population has died from this. we are releasing statements about poverty, it's based on racism. there's so much going on today, in our community and across the nation. this is a time for us to stand in solidarity, this is a time for us to unite because what happens directly to any of us happens to all of us indirectly. >> so as a member of congress, you have a lot of contacts, work closely on any number of issues with local officials. have you tried to get answers for why what happened happened? any indication how it came to pepper spray? >> i have not, certainly ministers in the community, people from all over my district

have reached out. young protesters have called and reached out. we are just trying to stand together. work through this. i have talked with other elected officials, explaining why i was there, how i still want to work with everyone. i believe in unity, i stit on te house floor with john lewis every day, and we talk about getting into good trouble. that's what it was, going down there to stand up and fight against -- people are being murdered. it's taken us back some 60 years to when we were fighting for civil rights and voting rights and here we are in 2020. i identified myself to be helpful, to say don't excite the crowds, you know, we're working with you. saying also to the protesters, continue to exercise your first

amendment right, continue to be able to say that we're standing here and we're protesting against the injustices. >> well, one of the things that unfortunately is getting lost in all the reports of what we've been seeing tonight and earlier in the day and some of the police activity is the fact there's a man at center of this by the name of george floyd, that his family and people, vast majority of people who have come out are simply asking for justice. congresswoman beatty, thank you so much, we appreciate it. glad to see you're back home and safe. we look forward to many more conversations that are focused on exactly what needs to change in this country so we don't have to see those kinds of protests again. thank you for being with us. we do appreciate it. >> thank you. i'm chris jansing, coming up on midnight on the east coast,

11:00 p.m. in minneapolis, another night of protest raged there and in dozens of cities over the death of 46-year-old george floyd, black man killed after white police officer held his knee on george floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes, nearly three minutes after he had stopped breathing. multiple governors have activated the national guard and curfews have been enacted in several major cities across america, including atlanta, louisville, denver and milwaukee. but at least some of those curfews have been ignored by protesters. minneapolis is bracing for more unrest that could be more violent and destructive than the city has seen so far. in washington, d.c., nbc's garrett haake described scene as riot