tv Dateline MSNBC May 31, 2020 11:00pm-1:00am PDT
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i'm joshua johnson. good to be with you tonight from nbc news world headquarters in new york. picking up our continuing breaking news coverage. it is midnight in the east. 9:00 in the west. we are now entering another night of protests following the death of mr. george floyd. the anger is growing across the country, the calls for justice are louder, and in washington, d.c., lafayette park, secret service and the national guard are among those who surrounded protesters. in downtown boston, a police car was set on fire, as thousands of people marched through the city streets. protests in los angeles also turned fiery again as more police vehicles were set on fire there. while protesters in minneapolis where all of this started continued to take to the streets. so much for us to catch up on this evening and we begin in santa monica with gadi schwartz,
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you've been watching through the evening as the protesters have moved out, looters have moved in. law enforcement has tried to restore order. where does it stand now? >> reporter: so these looters are now being caught block by block by police and in this game of cat and mouse going on right now. let me show you this, this is basically 30 to 40 people that we've seen, there are so many people who have been arrested so far, that that entire bus over there is filled with people that have been arrested. and then we're going to walk this way here, this city bus, it is not a bus that you normally house prisoners in, but this city bus has been repurposed for people that are going to be processed at some point tonight. so you can see them all in handcuffs, and then as we make our way back here, we've got officers in skirmish lines, they've been chasing down looters that they've seen running from block to block, and i'm going to take you, to show
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you some of the different places right now, that are open. and so as you can imagine, it's very dark here in santa monica, the streets are empty, there's a curfew and no one is supposed to be out here, but this right here, this is a lens crafter, you have drawers open, you have everything cleaned out. and that is what we see block by block. so people who are opportunists who come in, and they make their way into the store, we've seen, it they grab things and take off running or they have a car that they jump into, and get away. here's what looks like possibly a residence, the front door is smashed in. and then over here, there's going to be a corner store, and we're going to take a look down here, and what happens is the police, as they move from block to block, they leave something like this to go respond to something else and then we see people sneak back in, and make their way into stores. so down here, we've got a
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t-mobile that's been completely gutted as well. and then some sort of situation is going on down here, with firefighters, and we've seen the police have to go respond before the firefighters go in. and a lot of these circumstances, the firefighters will go into a store that is on fire, and they find themselves face to face with the looters. we've seen that play out. and it's oddly cordial. the loaders make eye contact with the firefighters, and the firefighters make eye contact, sometimes looters even continue to loot, with the firefighters inside. so we're going to stop right here but it seems as though they're staging, it is not clear if there is an actual fire right now, but there are so many different calls going on, from all different directions here in santa monica, it is sundown, obviously it is very dark out here and you've got block after block of open store fronts and making their way in, and police making their way in and making arrests and in the buses and
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we're not sure if they're going to jail, that is a whole other concern. here in california, there have been concerns of overcrowding at jails because of the pandemic, and even before the pandemic, we've seen about 5,000 nonviolent offenders released and we understand most of these people will be processed and released by tonight, possibly tomorrow morning. over 400 arrested yesterday. so it is very difficult to know exactly how much of this is going to continue to play on, throughout the night here, in los angeles. not just here in santa monica, but throughout the greater los angeles metro area. joshua? >> in santa monica, they have been under a curfew for quite some time, not far from the ocean, that's where gadi schwartz is right now. thank you very much. let's head near the white house in washington, d.c. msnbc's garrett haake is joining us and a pretty crazy night near the white house and lafayette square which is on the north
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side of the white house, lots of fires set and i can't tell exactly where you are but it seems like things have calmed down at least somewhat. >> that's a function of the way that mpd is sweeping through downtown d.c., and our team is trying to stay one step ahead of or behind ongoing confrontations between protests and police who are still out now in an hour-long defiance of the city's curfew. the last hour, if you watched at the top at 11:00, when things went into place with the curfew, things were pretty chaotic particularly just north of lafayette square where we were at that time where park police and mpd cleared out protesters, with flash-bangs, rubber bullets, pepper spray, you name. they cleared the larger element of protesters and now they have separate problem, scattered around the city is much smaller bands of protesters and i would like to show you but
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removed by mpd a few seconds ago, a few young men smashed the windows of a bank of america and finished ripping out the atm out of the wall of the bank next door and tried to light out fireworks in a trash can before mpd pushed them further east. it is a very strange vibe here in the city tonight. i think you can see over my shoulder, 17th and 8th street, the north end of lafayette park where so much of this has happened earlier tonight. that entire crowd of people have been reformed in the last hour, completely scattered to the winds by police in the intervening time. folks out now, out in defiance of a rare curfew in washington, d.c. and probably safe to say, this is not about george floyd at this hour, the vast majority of people who are out right now, are out to smash windows, and to have the conflicts that they have been looking to have all day with police, and in many cases, were stopped by other
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protesters out here in good faith who were trying to avoid those kind of conflicts. like the kind of conflicts i'm trying to avoid right now. joshua, back to you and try to get our team out here safe while we still have an opportunity to do that. >> thank you, garrett. garrett haake in washington. and before we keep going we should note two things happening in washington and give garrett a chance to get to safety. and the protest tonight began in large part with a protest that started at howard university, an historically black university and then made its way down to the white house. two, we've learned of some of the damage in that area. which includes the basement of st. john's church which sits right just northeast of the white house. this is a significant loss. st. john's church is 205 years old. every president since james madison, the fourth president, has attended services at st. john's. there's a special pew, pew 54, which is known as the pew of presidents. so this is a piece of american
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history, of our national heritage, that's been destroyed, by these fires. just off the lafayette square, the border of lafayette square, near the white house. also, moving to another square from lafayette square to union square here in new york, chris jansing is standing by there. there was a crowd that moved across manhattan brinl, toward the plaza and the municipal complex in downtown new york. what's going on right now. >> reporter: we see a lot of the same things that garrett was talking about, which is a lot of protesters, thousands of them, i walked with, from barclay's over the manhattan bridge, to lower manhattan, and started to splinter off. and into smaller groups. what you're seeing now is a large gathering of police officers, many of them have been at various intersections throughout the night, because what had been largely peaceful, especially around lower manhattan and barclay's as well, turned into some confrontations with police. people throwing bottles at
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police. people throwing garbage at police. police using their baton to make an arrest. we don't have numbers but we personally witnessed a couple of arrests tonight. we witnessed people clearly trying to incite the police, as they were blocking off parts of the city, as they were standing across some of these lower manhattan intersections. one guy came and he tried to push one of the policemen. everybody stood still, there must have been 20 police there, none of them reacted and they pushed them back and then they started to move everybody back. basically this is about crowd control. i think the big story that i saw here tonight after i came over the bridge is really the tale of two kinds of people. one are the protesters, the other one are the vandals. and let me give you a couple of examples, joshua. when we came over the bridge, a couple of guys had clubs, batons and i'm not sure what exactly they were and they saw a police van sitting there and they went
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to town, they smashed the windows, they dented in the sides, and most of the other protesters walked through, and then when they all stopped, and some speeches were being given, the first thing being said is we're not looters, we're not vandals, we're here with a message which is stop killing blacks, no justice no peace, one of the chants we heard a lot. and then we walked, if anybody knows lower manhattan, we walked probably 20, 30 blocks up broadway and i have some still pictures, i don't know if they were able to get them to you joshua, to show you, but we have a number of store fronts that were batted in. glass broken, and on the other hand we saw one young woman who was cleaning up glass that was damaged in the bank and i asked her if she worked in the bank and she said no, just a local resident cleaning up the street and the bag of garbage that was thrown at police, littering broadway, there was an elderly man in the middle of broadway
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who was taking the time himself to clean it up. there were a couple of guys who were clearly there to make some trouble, yelling, screaming, angry because police had turned them away. they started grabbing garbage cans, and blocking the street. when they did that, they went away kind of cheering. and a couple of other guys came in behind them and dragged the garbage cans off the street to let the traffic through. so it has been kind of that story. thousands and thousands of people who came from brooklyn, into manhattan, people who started in manhattan, who have largely peaceful protests, who had a very similar message, about they want to organize, they want to make sure that this message, the true message that they're trying to get through, doesn't get lost and then a handful of other people who clearly, as we witnessed tonight, meant to agitate, wanted to cause trouble. but what we saw from police, the
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movements again, we've seen over the last couple of hours, at intersection after intersection after intersection, they were calm, they were standing pretty firm, but in a couple of instance, when people got aggressive, we saw arrests. joshua? >> thank you, joining us from brooklyn. it sounds like there is a bit of a pattern emerging, as you hear awful these reports, it seems like we're hearing, in dc, that there was a group of protesters, a core group, and when they left, then trouble started. in santa monica, in brooklyn, now let's head to minneapolis, to see if the same story persists with nbc's morgan chesky joining us from there and it sounds like today was a very different day from friday and saturday and there were some instances as well including something involving a tanker truck on the highway. what happened? >> reporter: joshua, very tense scene this afternoon. we arrived at this bridge, i-35 west, a major bridge over the city of minneapolis, and there were several thousand people
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that gathered for what they thought would be a peaceful, what they thought would be a peaceful protest this afternoon and while they were on that bridge, someone drove a tanker truck right into the middle of the crowd. it wasn't going fast, however. it did give the crowd enough time to spread out, before that truck finally came to a stop. and from what we understand, the crowd swarmed the cab of the truck and pulled that driver outside and held him on the scene until police could arrive. taking that driver into custody and also dispersing that crowd, using mace and tear gas. now, that came just a couple of hours after the biggest peaceful gathering we've seen so far, happen at the minnesota state capital, where the crowd of at least 2,000 people gathered for several hours, to try to drive home the message of, what they want people to remember from this, and that is that the death of george floyd is not in vain. and the main message that they're really sharing is that
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they're separating themselves from those damaging crowds that have just torn through this city, night after night. and they also want to say that justice has not yet been served. with the arrest of just one police officer, derek chauvin facing third degree murder charges and manslaughter and three other officers who have yet to see any accountability for their actions, in the death of george floyd. in the meantime, we're standing here, on what was a busy intersection, filled with protesters about an hour ago that have slowly dissipated and a big reason behind that is what you see behind me. a staunch line of law enforcement vehicles, those national guard humvees, making themselves very apparent, and we're told that earlier this evening, just beyond that line, 150 protesters were taken into custody, by police. so joshua, what we're witnessing tonight, is it is not a, if not a total 180 from last night, very close to it, and the big difference between that, actual enforcement of that curfew that was put into place and lasts
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until 6:00 a.m., central standard time. joshua? >> thanks, morgan. nbc's morgan chesky joining us from minneapolis. a pattern is beginning to emerge. a different kind of reaction at least today, between protesters and law enforcement, including a few moments where protesters and law enforcement were able to interface, to see eye to eye and to negotiate, and that's one of the stories we heard earlier this eving from nbc's jo ling kent from seattle. let's go back to seattle. and you said there were some moments of connection between law enforcement and the protesters, things seemed pretty copacetic where you are, but what's happening? >> reporter: that's right. we saw earlier a moment between activists and protesters, shaking hands with law enforcement, as they were able to negotiate where they were going to take their march peacefully. and it ended here in west lake park near west lake center.
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a major center of shopping here. of course most of it having been closed for months now for coronavirus. it was also the site of a huge cleanup effort earlier today. lots of volunteers coming down to clean up some of the looting and graffiti that had gone on last night, that we reported on here. and i want to show you here, as well, a major gathering of protesters and demonstrators, focused on black lives matter, and individuals coming forward, making speeches, indicating their support for minneapolis, and protesters all across the country. but beyond what you see here, and there is also a very significant police presence, there's national guard, coordinating with the police here, and i just want to show you what that looks like, joshua. you can see, you have demonstrators and protesters here, linking arms, and facing law enforcement, in a peaceful way. alongside the national guard here, and they've been standing
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here, for the better part of 10, 15, half an hour, we've been down here, walking alongside many of these demonstrators, today, and it has been quiet, it has been peaceful, and they are sending a message, and without a doubt, you can see the national guard here, and they are holding -- what i was about to share with joshua, is beyond this particular line here, sam, we can spin around here, you can see there is police blockades on every single side of west lake park. and so as you see here, the boarded up abercrombie and fitch store, all the way down, is a may josh double layer of security and police. and turn around, you can see the people, the demonstrators here, joshua, and past the nordstrom, past pacific place, there is another police barrier and that's where we came from. we had been walking alongside
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these protesters, from downtown, to capitol hill, the neighborhood, and then back down again, and the goal, it seems, of law enforcement, is to keep as many people as possible in one place. to maintain some semblance of order, and so far, as night has fallen here, it continues to be peaceful. >> so just to be clear, if people wanted to leave, could they leave? or are they stuck there? >> reporter: absolutely. that's a great question and that is something that we have vetted out here. you can leave, behind sam here, our cameraman, you can also leave in that direction, as well. >> gotcha. >> reporter: but there's definitely a police presence on all sides tonight. >> gotcha. thank you very much, that's nbc's jo ling kent in seattle. let's go from seattle to sacramento. where nbc's joe fryer is standing by. what's going on? >> a lot of elements in the last couple of minutes. we're in sacramento. we have police right over here. they have what appears to be
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rubber bullets. here comes the tear gas. tear gas. we are looking right over here. people are moving this way. you you can see from this side, to this side, looking at the intersection, they are moving over there. in the last few minutes, you can see which direction they're working. peaceful protests throughout the day.
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but there is a curfew in sacramento now. the city council ordered the curfew. those are the flash-bangs. so this situation is quickly unfolding here in sacramento. they're talking about calling in the national guard. there is looting. there is vandalism. we're going in this direction over here. we don't really know if moving, going toward where the protesters started hours ago, they were staged here throughout the day.
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>> it's hard to hear because of the mask you're wearing. are you many midtown sacramento right now? are you near the capital? where are you? >> the capital is literally right there kitty-corner, i apologize if you couldn't hear me, that is the capital, the protesters have been right in the front of the capital. they have gone there numerous times throughout the day. peacefully. sometimes getting down on one knee. there is sort of a metal barrier around the capital. the highway patrol on one side of that, the protesters on the other side. we saw a large group doing that. just 10, 15 minutes ago. then that group started to move into this area. we've seen squad cars move in there. but literally about two minutes before you came to us is when the squad cars came down this street right here and we saw the police officers come out. here, you can see that the crowd has been disbursed and whether they move to other areas of town, we don't know at this point but we've seen hundreds of protesters in the streets of sacramento today and everything we've seen has been largely
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peaceful, we did see a small group go on to the on-ramp of interstate 5, a few blocks that way, slowing down traffic and police and authorities were able to push them back in city streets. that's the most we've seen until this moment, just a few minutes ago. so we can see the police are here, the intersection has been cleared out. right before that happened and you came to us, there was a person with a medic sign on the back of them they were clearly bracing for something to happen. and that's where we stand right now. >> joe, thank you. not far from the california state capital, the capitol building, rather, in sacramento where it seems like the situation is getting a little more tense. joe, thank you very much. let's move from sacramento to oakland, california and we see nbc's jake ward. jake, what's going on there. >> reporter: joshua, an extraordinary moment happening right now, the protesters around me took a knee and just moments ago, the police also began to kneel in momentary solidarity. you can see a few of them on their knee, they can't stay down there for long, they are not
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allowed to but they did for a moment. and a real moment of connection between people and i think the thing that we lose sight of in the coverage of the protest across the country right now, there is a great deal of violence, a great deal of anger, of course, but there is also a lot of cooperation going on right now. people are doing good work here, and i would say -- and they had the belief -- >> they took a knee with us, man. you're getting trained. >> how long to take a knee. >> 25 minutes. >> i can't help his language. but he's right, they did have good interaction with people and they did come together from all over. this has been a protest tonight, that has been really quite extraordinary. there has been children in the shift ambulance and first aid gist ambulance and first aid station set up, and just a few moments ago we had not only the protesters taking knees and the
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police doing it here, as well. so certainly, a lot of sad scenes across the country tonight but here in oakland, at least for this moment, there is a real feeling of solidarity. which i think everybody can be pretty proud of, joshua. >> if i recognize where you are, it looks like you're not far from oakland police headquarters. it is pretty remarkable that that moment is happening. thank you, jake, for giving us two things to smile about, one, is seeing that display of solidarity with opd, and two, one of the best descriptors of civility that i've heard in a very long time. the news is not all bad tonight. thankfully. things are starting to come together. maybe some of the anger is beginning to ease. but much more going on across the country. this isn't the whole picture. much more to show. hi, i'm jonathan, a manager here at colonial penn life insurance company, to tell you it is possible. if you're age 50 to 85, you can get life insurance with options starting at just $9.95 a month.
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sacramento, california. we just heard from nbc's joe fryer about some crowd dispersal methods that were employed by sacramento pd. and some methods that a number of police departments have been under scrutiny. tear gas has seemed way too common place. and an investigation was opened in new york after this video, if you haven't seen it, it's a little hard to watch. this video showed a pair of nypd suv driving in a crowd. here it is. it is a little hard to watch. if you haven't seen it, the suv, and then heads into the crowd. that is under investigation. and that is one of the things we want to discuss now, with corey johnson, who is the speaker of the new york city council. councilman johnson, good evening. >> good evening, joshua, thanks for having me on this really hard night for america, and for the u.s.
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>> that video that we just saw, what the hell was that? nypd police officers driving an suv into a crowd? what? >> unacceptable. the mayor was somehow defending that video, and that video is indefensible. those cops could have gone in reverse. and we have seen other videos across the country and even in new york city, a video, joshua, yesterday of a young black man, with a mask on. having his arms up, and a cop coming over, and pulling his mask down, and macing and pepper spraying him, in the face. and this comes on, as you have been reporting, and talking about tonight, it comes on new york city being the epicenter of covid-19 in the country, the vast majority of people who have lost their lives, have been black or brown, one week ago
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tomorrow, a black man was peacefully bird-watching in central park, and a white woman called the police and tried to weaponize his race against him. george floyd murdered on the street in minneapolis. almost six years after eric garner was killed on the streets of staten island. and then you have just countless black men, who have been killed in new york city over the years, amadou diallo, all of these men, and you still have a police force, that i believe, the last few nights, have been meeting protests of police brutality with more police brutality and we need to have a real conversation about what policing actually looks like and we're going to do that here in new york city. >> we should note, since you mentioned mayordy bla de blasio
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did initially take the side of the officer who drove into the crowd of protesters. let's play a quick clip of what he said earlier today reversing his tone somewhat. >> i didn't like what i saw one bit. i don't want to ever see something like that. i don't want to ever see it again. and clearly, we need to do a full investigation and look at the actions of those officers, and see what is done, and why it was done and what could be done differently. but i want to emphasize that situation was created by a group of protesters, blocking and surrounding a police officer. we need a full and impartial investigation but we need to be clear about the context. that was happening against the backdrop where police officers had been attacked before, in the exact same situation and that is a situation that has to be resolved, it could not stay that way but we need to understand more about it and if there is discipline that needs to be meted out, there will be. >> and i am interested in where we go from here. there are some other instances in new york that we heard reports of. a few fires in parts of manhattan. i heard from a lot of people on
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social, saying yes, we support the protesters but if the police tell you to move, and you don't move, you are literally asking for trouble from the nypd, or from any police department. before i have to let you go, what is the one most important thing that you want to see done in new york that you and the council can make happen asap, to make sure these kinds of things don't happen again? >> well, we are going to look at the nypd's budget, over the next month, as we adopt our budget, we're looking at bills to ban choke-holds, we're supporting an effort in albany, to actually be able to have officers disciplinary records be made public, and joshua, i know we have to go but i wanted to quote a colleague, an african-american council member from southeast queens donovan richards, he said today, we have knelt, we have marched, we have legislated, we have voted, we have done everything that we could be asked to do in the struggle of justice, and i say that, because this outrage didn't come from nowhere.
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people are feeling a lot of pain. and that's what you are seeing tonight. and we need the police to really change the way they are handling these protests, because this will not stop if they keep policing this way, on the streets of new york city. >> last ten seconds, councilman. you said the budget is coming up. does that mean that the nypd does not, if the nypd does not perform to your satisfaction, they could see some of the budget cut? >> we have to look at cutting their budget. they have a $6 billion budget. we have a $10 billion hole in our budget. their budget has grown tremendously. it is something that we have to look at. we are looking at every city agency and the nypd won't be immune to that. >> that is new york city city council speaker johnson. thank you very much. >> thanks for having me. let's make our way back to sacramento and nbc's joe fryer looks a little calmer where you
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are. what is going on? >> reporter: definitely much calmer, joshua. and we can tell you, sacramento police have put out on twitter, that they were starting to see vandalism in this area within the last hour, which might explain why police moved in. some smash and grabs and other things being reported, around this same time, the previous two nights that there has been some vandalism and looting and i guess police did not want to send relief to that tonight, let's me walk you through what happened just a few minutes ago, before you came to us, we were about a block down and around the corner, protesters have been gathering at the state capitol, throughout the day and into the night and they started to move into the intersection with face to face but peaceful interaction with police officers and the group was starting to move up this way where we are and all of a sudden something happened to have the group turn around and start rushing back into the intersection. we saw some tension building up
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with some of them and the police officers around the corner and that's suddenly when this whole line of police cars and you can see how many we have here, all filling down here, all the way down, going down into the intersection, all of this, all of a sudden all of these police cars moved into the area and that's when we saw the officers come out with sacramento police, with the rubber bullet rifles and they came out and were pointing in that direction, and basically, all of the protesters were caught in the middle and that's when the tear gas started, really clearing out the area, and the corner there. so that was sort of the buildup to what we saw. although we should point out there is no curfew here in sacramento. mayor and the city council met earlier today to do that and they did not want to have a curfew and not calling in the national guard at this point, but obviously sacramento police say they were receiving reports of vandalism in the area. we do hear a lost horn honking and folks in the area but clearly what was going on in this area has been disbursed. it was a peaceful day of protesting that started nearly
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eight hours ago. and throughout the day, the groups were marching through the streets of california, often coming to the state capitol. one group splinters off and went to the interstate, eight to ten blocks that way, some of them had started to get on the on-ramp, slowing down traffic and eventually that group was pushed back into the mainstream here. there were a lot of speeches going on at a rally a couple of blocks that way throughout the day. it was largely a peaceful day but it turns out that once the vandalism started, that's when the police moved in to try to disperse the crowd. >> thank you, joe. we've been watching these protests tonight. and we wanted to talk a bit about the claims from both federal, and state and local officials, who believe there are groups with ulterior motives among the protesters across the country who ared a voi kating justice in the memory of george floyd. joining us is joyce vance, and
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retired nypd detective and president of the black law en forcement alliance mark claxton. good to have you with us. and mark, let me start you with. the claim of outside groups disrupting protests. i have covered protests before in oakland, where we have seen that there were arrested people who came from way outside of california. just to come to oakland and break stuff. so it's not like this is unfounded historically. but now, that there's talk about antifa and bugaloo boys and many groups that the american people are hearing about for the first time, from a law enforcement perspective, what do you do? >> first of all, you have to accept the fact that there has been a shift in the culture, and that it is no longer a straight-up protest, or individual, singular, organizations, that have a primary focus, who work towards that one goal.
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there are opportunists who have infiltrated these organizations, and these events, and they are extremists, and i think it is undeniable, the intelligence information that's been released publicly, can validate and verify that, they are in obvious danger when they have these extremist groups. a lot of times they operate as anarchists. there are even anarchist groups. a lot of times they operate in a way that really is counter-productive and i think it's time for organizations who are sometimes leading these demonstrations, to realize it is not always the case that the enemy of your enemy is your friend, and in the case of these extremist groups, they're very dangerous, and they should be watched and really investigated heavily. and one final thing, too. if we're going to talk about extremist groups in the demonstrations, and at the
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protests, we also have to begin to examine the infiltration of law enforcement and in government as well. i think it will be unfair, and get us nowhere if we don't look at the actual, tracing why they have been the demonstrations. >> attorney general william barr said something yesterday regarding what mark was talking about, that i'd like to get your thoughts on, he said, quote, groups of outside radicals and agitators are exploiting the situation, to pursue their own separate and violent agenda. unquote. what do think of that, joyce? >> there are protests going on all across the country, at light speed. i think it would be very difficult to get a comprehensive set of intelligence together on who was involved at each of these separate events across the country so quickly, so i was surprised to see the attorney general come out with a bold
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declaration, about who he thought was involved. this is an issue that requires careful investigation. i suspect it is not one size fits all. there may be different sorts of infiltrations at different sorts of the events. there may be some cases we've been watching the meeting in santa monica tonight, it looks opportunistic but in other areas we heard the seattle mayor, talk about that there was infiltration there. in other protests, there have even been reports of people coming from out of state. that bears close watching. close investigation to determine what the motivation is. we're in a difficult time in this country, we don't need agitation. we should have a picture, it is a mistake for the attorney general to jump to a conclusion. >> briefly, mark, i understand the concern about outside agitators and other groups. on the other hand, agitators and no agitators, black and brown people have been getting
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lynched, shot, killed, and mistreated, by the police and other governmental structures, for centuries now. what difference does it make if there are these outside groups? that's not the point. i mean the point is supposed to be what happens to people like you and me, right? >> yes, that's exactly it. and part to have issue is when you have the infiltration by these extremist organizations, they move, they have the conversation, move away from the actual issue. for example, even this discussion that we're engaging in, as opposed to dealing with some of the issues that you spoke about, that are race-based and deal with the abuse of black people historically, we have to spend some time now going over some of the actions of individuals who are part of these extremist organizations. and i think it's also proven for us to be careful and to no longer refer to these extremists, violent extremist organizations who are encouraging the destruction of our very governmental structures, as outsider agitators. historically outsider agitators
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were those people who came from outside of the community where the protests occurred. that is not what we have here with these extremist groups. what we have are violent organizations who are bent on the destruction of government, and the destruction of property and endangering the lives of everybody. that means the protesters and the one issue that they came to march on. that means what is next to those protesters and then also our law enforcement community. so there is a deep rift of the infiltration of these -- i don't want to call them outside agitators, i really want to call them what they are violent extremists. >> mark and joyce, we appreciate you staying up and talking to us. thanks very much. let's head back out to the west coast now. all day, we have been watching images of peaceful protests that have been marred by looting throughout southern california. including santa monica, as nbc's gadi schwartz showed us earlier this hour.
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joining us now is the mayor of inglewood, california. in southern los angeles county. mr. mayor good evening. >> good evening, joshua. >> how is englewood doing tonight? >> it's quiet. and we want to keep it that way. >> you served as the chief of police in santa monica, so you have an understanding of the communities that are being affected and the area that is being affected. what would you be doing, if were -- if you were in santa monica tonight, dealing with these protesters who seem quite legit, in order to looters and trouble makers who are kind of exploiting the chaos. how would you be hearing this? >> you should have bifurcated your response, there was a perfect response to the peaceful demonstrators, even to the point where they wanted them to disperse, they dispersed. however, there was the looters on fourth street and third street and on the santa monica boulevard and we should have had
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a mobile field force and taken three into custody and all of them would have been scattered. i think by not addressing them, you embolden them and displace -- destabilize the feeling in the community. >> englewood is 42% black. among the population, half of that population identifies as hispanic or latino. how does this protest movement, how does this issue play out differently in a city that has such a significant concentration of people of color? >> honestly, it doesn't play out differently. this is an issue that is actually nationwide, and global in its perspective. the police are expected to provide the compassionate protection under the law, in the way that they perform their duties. and if you have officers that are not well-trained. if you have a department that doesn't have an established culture of compassion and customer service and
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professionalism, you end up with situations like this, that you have in minneapolis. that officer, there's no one in that department who didn't know his predilections and his habits and behavior. that's just the way it is. and the culture of the organization was to ignore his behavior, and it resulted in finally being captured in its most egregious form, sadistic form, where he basically, with the assistance of two other officers, slightly tortured a gentleman to prevent him from breathing properly and eventually his heart failed. >> mr. mayor, before i let you go, there are those in the department that must have know, or at least we presume, had a predilection for this perhaps and that's how you say the system needs to burn to the ground and policing in this country isse ir rredeemable and
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need to start all over again. what would you say before i let you go, that the system is irredeemable. >> that is absolute untrue. there are model organizations that have revised their culture, changed their culture, become better organizations than they were, even organizations that have had problems. and so you need to have councils and mayors that hire a good police chief, male or female, hold them accountable for outcomes. not just trying, but hold them accountable for outcomes. and that is a way forward. >> james, the mayor of the inglewood, california. stay safe and thanks for talking to us. >> thank you very much. let's head back to santa monica and nbc's gadi schwartz. what's happening? [ no audio ] >> gadi, hang on one second. we're having a little audio issue with you. stand by. we want to see if we can get your audio together.
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gadi schwartz, in santa monica. we will come back to you in just a minute. we will get the audio together and try to come back to you in a second. let's speak to another lawmaker now, about how we move forward with this. joining us now is lee carter, a virginia house delegate who was tear gassed and flash-banged during saturday's protest in manassas, virginia. so what exactly happened last night? >> so last night, i got reports from some of my constituents of police violence at a protest up on the other side of town, so i went out there, i was in contact with local authorities, i was in contact with county police, asking them to radio ahead, that i would be coming, and asking for answers, for what happened. when i got there, i saw a line of police in riot gear that were preparing to advance on a crowd and i saw a crowd of people just standing around about a feet
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away from them and not doing anything. 2k3w4r5 a so you know, i went up to the line, i said i'm a member of the general assembly, i heard reports of tear gas, and rubber bullets, and i want to know what's happening, i want to speak to who is in charge and they pointed a flash-bang grenade at my feet and at that point, i said okay, i am going to stand between the agencies that are here and my constituents that are reporting the police violence to me, and i'm going to get answers to these questions. and over the course of about an hour and a half, i was flash-banged three times. twice while i was walking away. here's one of the grenades. i was -- >> i'm sorry, mark, hold that up one more time. could you hold that up one more time. i've never seen one of those in the clear. hold that up again. okay, got it. the fact that you went to go --
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the fact that you went to go talk to law enforcement and say i'm going to get answers, i can hear in the back of my head people that i know saying that is the first mistake and figuring they would slow down for you when they were trying to deal with crowd dispersal. i think on one hand good for you trying to get answers. on the other hand, what did that tell you about the nature of policing? were were they just on auto pilot. did they just not care? did they make a legitimate mistake? what do you make of that? >> no, they definitely did not make a mistake. especially not with the second and third flash-bang grenades. they knew who i was. and this is the state police that brought the flash-bang grenades. this is an agency that i directly regulate in my role in the general assembly. so they were familiar with me. this is just a case of police in this country, rejecting any attempt at accountability. from any source. this is the empirical data has shown, that the overwhelming majority of protests that turn
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violent, the first act of violence is initiated by the police. often, with the quote-unquote less lethal types of weapons, such as cs gases, bean bags, rubber bullets, flash-bang grenades and a lot of police feel it gives them a license to be violent because they're less likely to kill someone and face an inquiry for that. >> before we keep moving, it is interesting you were in manassas, where the battle of bull run was fought in the civil war and if you go there and walk around, you will learn that both sides of the union and the confederacy thought this was going to be quick. and some of the soldiers enlisted for 90 days, and that's how quick they thought it was going to be and they kept fighting from 1861 and 1862.
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and it was a long battle, longer than expected. been before i let you go, to improve policing, what is your next salvo? do you think this is going to be resolved quickly or are you settling in for a long war? >> i think it can be resolved quickly, but what it will take is something that law enforcement is unwilling to do. and that is law enforcement standing down. instead of insisting on strict compliance with their orders, whether the orders are justified or not. we had people protesting against the brutality of police, and the response by police, everywhere in this country, is to enact more brutality upon the people that are already protesting actions. and in is everywhere. you can't have outside agitators the outside violent group last night was the virginia state police.
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>> lee carter is a delegate in the state house. thank you very much for talking to us. >> of course, thank you for having me. let's check back in with nbc's gadi schwartz in santa monica. i think he has the audio together. gadi, what you are seeing? >> reporter: yes, so we've seen this eerie scene play out all throughout santa monica. a car over there, that's where protesters were earlier smashing windows up and down this street. i want to show you something you guys were talking about, lethal weapons that we said earlier, we're seeing the lethal weapons being held by people who are out to protect their property. we've got the gentlemen here at the broadway line and spirits and we saw them with the ar-15 here. you guys are both carrying tonight. there aren't any police, we've seen in this area, we've seen broken windows, a broken window here. what happened here? >> well we went to lockdown at 4:00, and before i could even get halfway home, my neighbor
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called me and told me that they had tried to get into the store. so i came around and came back, and scared them off and then my neighbors came. >> so at this point, you guys are standing out here, and you clearly have a rifle with you. what are you hoping is the message here? >> there is no message. the real thing is, you can't go around tearing up other people's property. we don't want violence. this is more of a equalizer to say, hey, just calm down, it's not that serious, we understand that someone else has lost their life about the situation, but it doesn't mean that it's okay to go around and terrorizing everyone else. >> thank you very much for talking with us tonight. >> thank you. that's what we've heard over and over again. in fact, some of the guys down here were saying, they were down at the protest and they saw many other protesters trying to stop agitators engaging with police. we saw the three different
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groups. we've seen the protesters protesting peacefully. we've seen the people who are committing crimes of opportunity throughout this area. and we are seeing people who are looking for a fight, and the police, all three of them, working at some point, touching and overlapping, but again, those peaceful protests happened on the far side of santa monica, the looting has happened, all throughout the night in many of these neighborhoods, as you can see, the window here smashed. these gentlemen here are going to be holding down the night, and keeping guard, and there aren't any police around her that we've seen so far. back to you. >> thank you, gadi. that's nbc's gadi schwartz reporting in santa monica on a very busy night. we've been seeing these scenes all over the country, looking against at seattle, washington, where there is kind of a tenuous peace between police and protesters. that seems to be the story across the country. so much to discuss. we have covered a lot of ground.
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thank you for making time for us here on msnbc. i look forward to seeing you next weekend. until we meet again, i'm joshua johnson. stay safe, stay sharp, and oddly after tonight, i believe this more than ever, we will get through this. good night. will get through this good night - when i noticed my sister moving differently, i didn't know what was happening. she said it was like someone else was controlling her mouth. her doctor said she has tardive dyskinesia, which may be related to important medication she takes for her depression. her ankles would also roll and her toes would stretch out. i noticed she was avoiding her friends and family. (woman sighs) td can affect different parts of the body. it may also affect people who take medications for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. she knows she shouldn't stop or change her medication, so we were relieved to learn there are treatment options for td. - [announcer] managing td in today's uncertain environment may seem daunting. but we can help.
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as you can see from these images, america is crying out amid a global pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the depression, the country is consuco convulsing with once in a generation civil up rest. there are protests this country. let's go right back to washington, d.c., right in front of the white house. a couple hundred yards away where we find msnbc's garrett haake. garrett, it is 11:00 p.m. the curfew is officially in effect. are those protesters going anywhere? >> reporter: they don't look like they're moving anywhere. at 11:00, the curfew went into effect. the police have pushed out out of lafayette park. i'm keeping my head on a swivel to see if they will push us back further. you're hearing some flash bangs in the distance. i assume that's enforcement of the curfew on other metropolitan
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streets. d.c. fire is attending to the structure fire behind us that became an issue within the last hour or so. and at the moment where i stand, ironically, this is the most peaceful i've seen this peace of real estate in the last 48 hours. the demaining demonstrators have been kneeling with their hanz up, trying to make a point in any way they can to police, peacefully if possible. through other means, if possible. the question remains. d.c. is not usualry a curfew town. with we do a lot of things in d.c. as enforcement begins it will be pretty touch and go. that's what we'll be watching for here. >> i watched you all last night through the drama that you faced yesterday. i've been watching you today. what can you tell me about who
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these protesters are. are they people from washington, d.c.? are they coming from out of town? how many of them are agitating? how many are there to peacefully protest? >> reporter: it's a mix like anywhere else. today i talked to students from howard university, the historically black college, to want to be politically outspoken about this. i spoke to a mom from virginia who drove up about an hour with her kids because she wanted them to see it. there are absolutely people who came here to cause trouble. i saw a group watching earlier, five guys deep, all in black, all with metal baseball bats. softball practice isn't happening in d.c. those aren't tools for free expression. it is a mix. overwhelmingly, both yesterday and today, although the pictures of what happens after dark are more dramatic, what happened during the daylight hours was a whole lot of people who wanted to come and express a very justifiable anger. there's nothing wrong or illegal
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or against the rules about being angry at the cops. that's what we saw primarily all day yesterday, all day today. like my parents used to say, not much good happens after midnight. that's when things got bad last night. it may happen a little earlier tonight. >> garrett, you are a couple hundred yards away from the white house. what do we know about the president's whereabouts right now? >> reporter: with apologies for not being in a position to check my phone recently. i can tell you he's been home all day, the white house called for a lid meaning he would not be traveling. he's been tweeting. as early as friday night, the first of the protests in lafayette park, he was moved to a secure bunker underneath the white house. he has been in that building. i can tell you from where i'm standing, when the lights are on behind me, you can look down into the residents.
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with the additions of the fires, loud enough for anyone who lives or works at the white house to have seen it. the president's tweets within be recent minutes about fake news, i don't know what news he's watching, but this is very real and very much outside his residence. >> garrett, what does it feel like there tonight in comparison to last night? >> reporter: oddly, we're going to walk backwards because we're going to try to leave ourselves between the police and protesters. oddly tonight feels calmer than last night, despite the fires, despite the images you're seeing. the cops are moving behind me. we're going to keep the same distance here, as safely as possible. last night was one big protest.
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it came clear they would not be able to get any closer to the white house or lafayette park than they wanted, they splintered off into the surrounding streets, setting cars on fires, smashing windows. i haven't had an opportunity to get much out of there because this has been a much more centralized protest here this evening. at least in my experience, it has seemed more focused. again, as the streets start to clear, and as police start moving people out, that's a different story. look to my right. this is the headquarters of the afl-cio, the union here. these unions are completely smashed. you can see the sprinkler system is going off inside. this was not here four hours ago. this was not here three hours ago. the destructions-plagued d.c. last night is back here tonight in some small measure. i'm not sure it's as widespread. last night we saw windows smashed as far up as georgetown,
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as far as vernon square, 15, 20 blocks away from the white house. tonight things have seemed more localized. i'm limited by my own perspective here, which is having kept at least one eye on the white house all night. as we progress up 16th street i want to show you what we're seeing here. n. . d, metropolitan police department in d.c., main cops in d.c., are coming in from the east. they've essentially tried to close off the south towards the white house. the east towards capitol hill. you can see fire burning in the distance. i think that's another burning suv. we saw that last night. they're going to force everybody west. they're going to force egress into the city. my god. that's at least one car on fire and another flipped over here on i street and 16th in downtown central business district of
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washington, d.c. and those are fireworks being used by the protesters. we're going to continue -- forgive me. we're going to make some moves here so we don't -- oh, shit. we're going to end up in a place we don't want to be if we we aren't careful. oh, damn it. >> move out of there as quickly as you can. stop talking. move out of there. get safe. we'll check back in to make sure he's okay. sounds like he might have been hit with something there. oh, wait, he is still with us. garrett, are you okay? >> reporter: yeah, i'm here. i was hit in the side with -- i don't think it's pepper balls. i don't want to be overly dramatic about it. we've been under curfew for
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eight minutes. >> garrett, you're cutting out. as your friend and as brian said a moments ago, as someone who knows your parents as well, i want you to get to a safe place. get out of there. there are people running towards you. god forbid you get hit with something again. we're going to keep watching your shot. it's startling to see what is happening across the country but especially what is happening in washington, d.c. garrett is just a few hundred yards away from the white house. there is a fire burning in lafayette square. 200, 300 yards outside the park outside the white house gates. a couple blocks away there is a car on fire. there is another car that is overturned. the headquarters for the afl-cio is -- the windows are smashed,
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the walls are tagged, the sprinklers are going off in the lobby and there is a fire inside there. as garrett said, we only have the ability to see in a very limited way what is happening in the city where garrett is right now, and the couple other places where we have our cameras and we have our aerial shot so it's unclear what else might be happening across this city. what you're seeing on the right-hand side of your screen, that looks to be people who have been arrested there in washington, d.c., with zip ties used as handcuffs. there are peaceful protesters. there have been peaceful protesters in washington, d.c., all day long. there are images out there of very young people hopping the gates into lafayette park to try and kneel in front of cops. they have been largely peaceful throughout the day, but if you've been watching msnbc for the past couple hours, as the day has turned into night, the
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bad elements have come out. a fire was set to some sort of utility building. a small building in the park outside of the white house. you're seeing on your screen right now cops gathered. they are ready and they're trying to keep things as calm as they possibly can. but this nation is angry. it is hurting. and there are people in these crowds who are exploiting that. there are people in these crowds who are setting fire to things. there are people in these crowds who are trying to get into confrontations with the police, who are trying to make things worse, as there are also peaceful protesters who are trying to demand that police brutality end, that innocent -- or that unarmed black men are not targeted by the cops. are not killed by the hands of police officers across this country.
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we're going to keep an eye on washington, d.c. we're going to check back in with garrett as soon as we make sure that he is okay. let's head now to minneapolis. this is where it all started, where george floyd died under the knee of a police officer just last monday. look at this image right here. this is a semitruck driving directly into a crowd as protesters were trying to cross this bridge. it does not appear, though, as anyone -- that anyone was hurt from this. thank god for that. the driver of this truck is currently in police custody and just the image of that red truck, that tanker, will make some people think of the l.a. riots in 1992 and reginald denny. this is not the same scenario at all. let's go now to nbc's morgan cheski live from minneapolis. what is it like right now and can you tell us what happened on
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that bridge? >> reporter: katy, i absolutely can. the first thing, what a stark contrast from last night to tonight where around this time we were seeing hundreds of law enforcement officers make their way through the city clearing out areas where thousands had gathered earlier in the day and tonight an almost eerily quiet evening here, katy, after a series of arrests that happened within the past several hours. we know 150 people were taken into custody not too far from where i'm standing, in fact, you'll see a line of police and national guard humvees. about 50 yards down this street. we know there was a gas station a short distance on the other side of that barricade of vehicles where police and law enforcement officers were able to round up that many protesters and take them into custody. and that is one of the more aggressive actions we've seen since this footprint from law enforcement really tripled yesterday, katy.
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now, as for that incident that happened earlier on the bridge today, we arrived on that scene within just a few minutes after it happened to see people running away, fearing the worst. when the truck drove into the crowd, katy, a lot of people thought it was protesters in its path that couldn't get out of the way. fortunately, we know no protesters were injured. after speaking with officials we heard that when that truck drove into that crowd, the crowd then swarmed, when it came to a stop, actually pulled the driver outside of the truck. held him on the scene until police could arrive. we do know the driver was taken to a nearby hospital but with non-life-threatening injuries and is, as you mentioned, in custody facing charges. in the meantime, that crowd that was several thousand large has since dissipated throughout the city. we've been hearing reports of smaller groups. 100, maybe 200 in certain areas. we know law enforcement at this point not hesitating to use tear
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gas, mace, to clear out those crowds. and get them from congregating in these areas especially since that curfew was put into effect at 8:00 central standard time. we know this is the third night with the curfew in place. the first we did not see any enforcement. last night is when we saw the state police roll out in that riot gear near the 5th precinct where we were reporting from and basically take very aggressive measures to move this large group out. i think that contrast in how this is being enforced is why we're not seeing a lot of people out tonight. we did drive down this area. a lot of people were sitting out in front of their homes anticipating, seeing the protests come their way. here in minneapolis, one of the things i've noticed is a lot of people put out bottles of water, gallons of milk, on their front steps, to help anyone who may need it as they make their march through the city. today when we made our way down, all that was unused. i thought there might have been anticipation of a larger protest tonight. that's certainly not something we're seeing at this point in
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time. however, as garrett mentioned earlier, katy, nothing goods happens after midnight. that's been when we've really seen the most destructive people make their way through this city. we're going to keep a close eye on things in minneapolis. when you consider the damage that's already been done to block by block, dozens if not hundreds of businesses damaged to point where they can't continue to operate, burned or gutted completely. the road to recovery here is going to be significant and it's going to have to parallel a fight for justice that a lot of people feel is not yet met because every person i spoke to today at a peaceful protest at the state capitol said one police officer in custody is not four police officers who are involved in the death that took place monday that has become such a passionate cause for the people here. not just in minneapolis but all across the nation,and so, katy,
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tonight minneapolis grappling with the fact that maybe the worst is over but also looking ahead to see how they can carry this momentum for justice forward and have momentum. katy? >> morgan chesky in a quiet and what a welcome sight that is, a quiet and it seems peaceful for the moment minneapolis. let's go back to garrett haake in washington, d.c. garrett, where are you and what's happening now? >> reporter: hey, katy. so we are being moved north and west by mpd who is taking their enforcement of the mayor's 11:00 p.m. curfew plenty seriously. as you saw if you were with us at the top of the hour. we're on "k" street right now. police have been mostly working people north away from the white house. i'm still hearing some of those explosions in the distance i'm associating now with cars on fire. at least that's what i've been able to match them up to. as i've seen, i can hear the police helicopter overhead. i can tell you where i am in the central business district of d.c., the city has seemed to
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clear out substantially. you know, there's no one behind me as i'm looking west. further toward virginia. back east, the police, again, mpd staged sort of on the eastern side of the city and cleared what remains of these protesters. just an ugly end to what was i think,by and large a sort of a positive emotionally effective day of protests here that just completely went off the rails in the last hour and a half with the starting of those fires near lafayette park, confrontations escalating with police then police using pretty much everything in their arsenal to clear those intersections there. my crew and i each took some projectile contact, let's say, and were separated from each other briefly. that's why we lost audio there just because we weren't all in one place. we're back together now on streets of d.c. that are quieting down. at least where i am here in the central business district. >> garrett, let's hope it stays that way. clearly, they were going to get very serious about that 11:00 p.m. curfew.
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garrett, thank you. let's go now to the other side of the country, to santa monica where we find nbc news correspondent gadi schwartz. last time i saw you you were on the promenade and watching as people -- this is jo ling kent. we're going to get over to gadi schwartz. last time i saw you, you were on the 3rd street promenade. you were watching as people were looting a foot action and cops had flooded in to arrest them. it seems like you're still there. give us an update on what's happening now. >> reporter: yeah, so we saw that foot action being looted for about eight to ten minutes and saw the police finally coming, you probably saw it live on tv, so right now a lot of these people are being processed. you've got about 20 or so that are now wearing those handcuffs, those plastic handcuffs and sitting here waiting. officers are actually giving some of them water right now. they're pouring it in their mouth for them.
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which is kind of weird because everyone's wearing masks and so it's this awkward dance. some people have been cordial with the police officers. others have been somewhat hostile. things are simmering down on this street right now and they're waiting for transport. i'm going to walk you down this way. this was the foot action that they were looting. if we take a look on both sides, it's very different than what we were showing you earlier on 4th street which is a street just up the way. that was almost every single storefront that we saw had been broken into and cleared out. but here you got a lot of them that have been protected by police that were blocking pedestrians from coming into the promenade for most of the day then just around about 40 minutes ago, an hour ago, all it took was somebody coming in here with some sort of hammer or possibly a rock or something, smashing this window, then suddenly there were hundreds of people that were running inside, they were grabbing everything they could. just watch your step here. you can see the destruction that they did. we saw it live.
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it all happened within about five to eight minutes. and then people just scattered. they ran that way and ran this way because this is where they were being dropped off by cars that were waiting there. some people even bringing plastic containers to throw the loot in and then get away. in fact, we got this plastic trash can and inside is just filled with nike air force ones that are brand-new, still in the box. those are littered throughout this area. right now police have this blocked off so it's unclear what's going to happen to the merchandise. i want to show you this right here is the 3rd street promenade. it goes all the way down. this is the only store that we've seen on the actual promenade that appears to have been lotted from our perspective. and this is where police are now concentrating so you've got some of them standing at ease. it goes all the way up to 4th street there and they're making sure that people aren't stopping on the promenade and going into many of these stores that are
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still filled with merchandise. however, for about two or three hours, katy, over on 4th street, there were no police around so we saw store after store after store looted live on television. all that was happening here on this side of santa monica while on that side of santa monica unbeknownst to the hundreds or thousands of protesters that showed up to demonstrate peacefully, the police had containment, were there to make sure, to facilitate is what they put it, that peaceful protest. then over here, you had skirmish after skirmish. police uncomfortable coming in clearing the streets because there were too many people. two different things going on. two very different groups of people. this was looting that we saw. doesn't seem to be a lot of crossover between what was happening here and the protests but those protests on the other
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side of santa monica were beautiful and peaceful to behold, so just a really difficult juxtaposition out here to wrap your mind around. katy? >> gadi schwartz on the 3rd street promenade in santa monica. gadi, thank you very much. let's head back now over to seattle just up north where we find jo ling kent. jo, you're walking on the streets there. have the protests stayed calm there? has there been any confrontations? >> reporter: katy, i want to tell you about a moment that i just witnessed which i did not expect to witness. we were back up at the edge of downtown in the capitol hill neighborhood. it was dozens of police in a line and hundreds of protesters, mostly peaceful, but it was getting tense and you had activists, perhaps the organizers of that particular group of people, coming up very close with the police and
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but it's still daylight, katy, as you know, once night falls, things can change quickly. send it back to you. >> it's 8:24 over there in seattle. still daylight, indeed. jo ling kent, thank you very much. let's go to the mayor of that city, seattle, mayor durkan. madam mayor, thanks for joining us. i guess, what's it like there, and what are you expecting for tonight? >> you know, i will say that it's been a very challenging day for seattle as a city, but that's true across our country. and one thing i picked up even from all your reports that i think is really important to remember is we cannot lose track of the central message that we should all be focused on. and that is the death of mr. floyd once again showed the deep betrayal of our systems for people of color, and particularly for african-americans. we have to honor his sacrifice. we must make sure that the
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people who are protesting peacefully, sometimes in anger, showing their trauma, their furor over what's happened over generations in america, does not get co-opted by people who use that just to further violence and conflict because so many of the reports are focused on the car fires and the looting and the conflict. really what we should be focused on as a nation, how do we get better, how do we improve the lives of every american, particularly black americans? from the time of slavery on, we've not grappled with the systemic racism and injustice in their lives, whether it's education or health care. or the outcomes you can expect from covid. whether it's opportunity in their day-to-day lives or how they're treated by police. and we and not lose sight of that message. that's one reason why i condemn the violence by the other people who were not, were not, part of the protests.
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we had thousands of people protesting in seattle last night. peacefully. and they were there to speak of their anger and their anguish and their grief. to come together in communion. then we had thousands of others who came for the sole purpose to create conflict, to loot, to steal, to cause damage. we cannot have the second. that is not what we need in america. we need to focus on the true injustices and move to a country of greater justice. and i truly believe at the end of the day, at the end of the day -- sorry. go ahead. >> just, i want to stick with the root of this problem. and this is the death of george floyd. not just george floyd. it's the death of multiple black men and women at the hands of cops over the most recent years, but for decades now. is this a problem? you're talking about systemic racism. and those points are well taken. when it comes to law
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enforcement, is it a problem in training or is it a problem in recruiting? >> i think it's all of the above. and remember, police are going to reflect their community in many ways. you need to, you know, i've been involved in police reform for years when i was at the department of justice, we instituted the consent decree for the seattle defense department which ten years later has changed its use of force. it is training. it is how they're held accountable. but it also goes to the root causes of injustice in our society and while we must, we must demand better from police, and we cannot allow for people to die at the hands of the police wrongfully, we also have to make sure that we are attacking injustice everywhere. that we truly make good on the promise of america for those people who were not considered full americans when our constitution was founded.
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and we must remember that, you know, i want every child who grows up in seattle to know they're going to have equal access to education. they're going to have equal access to job prosperity. their family will have health care and housing. we must focus as a nation on how we make sure our prosperity is shared and how we make good on the promise of america, to the generations of americans that have been left behind. that should not be lost. you know, for every car that burns, there have been families who have suffered for generations. and so i really deplore the people who came solely for the purpose of taunting police, creating conflict with police, looting stores and causing damage. that did nothing to honor mr. floyd. >> madam mayor, thank you very much for joining us. we appreciate your time, and good luck in your city tonight. let's go over to atlanta, georgia.
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we find nbc's blayne alexander. the last time i saw you, you were getting over a coughing bout with pepper spray. the intersection behind you is empty, quiet. does that mean the city of atlanta is the same? >> reporter: you know what, that certainly seems to be an indicator. this is the best way to tell the story of what's going on in atlanta right now. to get the understanding of why exactly i was choking, coughing, me and my team were right in the direct path of that tear gas because, yes, this is really kind of command central for law enforcement, for national guard troops. this is where they've been holding the line. and just within the past few minutes or so, katy, we actually saw a lot of the troops line up, walk away, get in their transportation and leave. we've been checking with our crews on the ground and what we've seen typically over the past few nights is once that tear gas is kind of sprayed among the crowd, they scatter. they disperse among different places downtown. and then officials go off and try and find them. it can be a painstaking process.
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that lasts the better part of a night. we were out here watching it unfold for three hours last night. it appears for the most part the pockets of unrest, people who may have been going by, smashing windows or continuing to stay on the streets, have been cleared. now, we can look over, you see some military vehicles right over there. they're slowly starting to pull out as well. i will tell you -- >> blayne, sorry to interrupt you. we have to go to minnesota where the governor is speaking right now. >> a few requirements to allow law enforcement to make sure out city streets remain safe. i want to reiterate, again, i think many of you like me have watched that, the video of the truck and the peaceful protesters. i am so incredibly thankful we had no fatalities or no injuries. i just think it highlights the fact, again, of trying to make sure that we create space and keep the ability to peacefully
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protest there, and i think over the last two days. minnesota, we've clearly shown a difference between people exercising their 1st amendment rights, showing passion to injustices, and trying to make their voice heard. and those that were trying to do something very different. so i'm going to have paul snell give some updates on where we're at at this point in time. we are seeing very few incidents. i think some folks who got caught after time, some very respectful interactions, and those folks, again, were simply, i think, exercising their rights and got caught behind the curfew and i'm just grateful how that has panned out so far. so with that, paul snell. >> good evening. thank you, governor. just to provide a quick update as to where things are, as you've seen, as the governor mentioned, the incident with the truck coming onto the bridge was obviously a significant and great concern when that happened.
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we had been -- we had been monitoring the crowd that was involved in that walk. we knew that they were peaceful. there was no real issues. and when the truck came on and the things that evolved and the great deal of concern we had for the safety of everyone in that situation, as you can see plainly that once the truck came in, again, we didn't know exactly at that point in time what the intent was of that truck driver. and then the concern about was somebody -- was anybody hit? early on was also a concern. then obviously the driver was removed from the truck and was assaulted by a number of people. and then i think a positive note, there was also a large number of people attempting to protect the man who was driving that truck. so, you know, all in all, that
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situation was -- we sent a lot of resources there, as you saw. there was gas deployment that was really about wanting to disperse the crowd. to move people away from the scene. ultimately, as you saw, officers came in and it was very slow and methodical. different than you might have saw from a tactical standpoint of last night. based on what the commanders saw in the group, that the group appeared largely cooperative. we didn't see high levels of resistance at that point in time. ultimately, you saw the encirclement that happened, 150 to 200. i don't know the exact number. and, again, those people, you know, were involved in acts of civil disobedience which we respect. they were very respectful in terms of their interactions with officers. it was slow and methodical. this is a textbook kind of response to these type of situations.
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and that, you know, they're finalizing that as we speak. as they are doing that, we have moved sum resources from st. paul into minneapolis to begin to address other areas. while there's not been significant unrest, we have had people out violating the curfew. based on what we saw them engaged in, we decided to really focus on that area on or near washington there and address that group. you know, right now, that will continue. those efforts will continue as we finalize these arrests and the booking of those arrested out off of washington. and after that, you know, we will, again, hit hotspots and disperse, get people to get home and comply but ultimately we feel very fortunate that that
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situation on the bridge did not end any more seriously than it was, and we were also grateful, as the governor mentioned, that so many people did, once again, comply with the curfew which makes a huge difference. as you know, that incident with the truck occurred prior to the implementation of the curfew which, you know, did create challenges because when the curfew was enacted, but commanders based upon field observations made a specific and explicit decision to give focus to that area to address that group. and ultimately to effect arrests, as you're seeing
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happening now. so we -- the situation is at present stable. the protests at the capitol during the day was, i think, a large event. largely very peaceful throughout the course of the day. later this evening, there was a rush on the fence. a larger group of people who were saying that they were not going to leave the capitol grounds. that was after curfew. they pushed up against the fence. there was an attempt to breach the fence. there was a small deployment of gas to disperse some crowd at -- who are at the fence at the capitol. and ultimately, that area is now cleared. there was a small number of arrests. a small number of people were arrested at the capitol -- >> so minnesota officials right now talking about calm protests today. a relatively calmer night so far. certainly hope it stays that way. we're going to take a really quick break and we'll be right back. $9.95 at my age?
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you've heard it from numerous elected officials including the president blaming outside groups for some violence and property destruction that we've seen. joining me now is nbc news reporter ben collins, who has new reporting on the involvement of fringe groups in the protests. so the president and his attorney general william barr labeling it as far-left extremists, antifa. at one point an official in minnesota was saying everybody that they had arrested was from out of town. they had to walk that back.
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always skeptical of blanket statements, ben. tell me what you found from your reporting in terms of the organized outside groups that might be involved in these protests and some of the more violent conflagrations. >> sure. so, we saw a lot of posturing from a lot of these kind of groups, both white supremacist groups on the right and on the left, antifa-style groups as well. the white supremacist groups from what we've seen, they took video while they were there. they took photos while they were there. you know, they posted memes on open facebook groups and closed chats saying pretty keptly, let's burn down these things, and all this stuff, but they didn't actually post any proof that they did these things. so, you know, there was a lot of talk of online chatter from elected officials saying there was people from outside the
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state, outsiders coming in and wreaking havoc, but frankly, the people who would be responsible for that haven't really shown any proof of that so far. >> and just for all of our viewers, a moment ago you were looking at images outside of philadelphia. this is boston right now where we have seen some clashes, but a moment ago you were looking at philadelphia where there was, it seemed to be looting at a family dollar and some other businesses. and i want to be clear, the images that you're seeing, these are -- these are not the entirety of the protests, and this doesn't tell the whole story of what we've been seeing in america for the -- you just saw a cop push that man to the ground that was running away. for the past few days, we've seen violent confrontations between protesters and police. at some points getting completely out of hand. to the point where some officers had been relieved of duty or fired in certain cities.
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there's been a lot of anger at the way that the -- that many officers around this country have treated a number of the protesters who say they were just trying to demonstrate peacefully. and listen. ben, when you talk about who's involved in what's happening, it can seem a little easy to just blame outside groups. it can seem a little easy to say, well, it's these people who are there to do no good and maybe use that as a justification for some of the -- some of the stronger use of force that we've seen around the country. >> yeah, that's absolutely right. and, look, there's been a rush to blame antifa in other events other than just this. really antifa isn't the sort of movement you'd see from other sort of terror groups or say, like, white nationalist groups who try to recruit people and
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then announce they made it, you know. with white nationalist groups, they recruit on facebook, they recruit on twitter. once something happens, they post that they've tried to take over a thing, right? you know, the one white nationalist group that said they were trying to do something this time, they are actively trying to foment a second civil war. that's not really the case with antifa. we know this is -- antifa is a loose collective. it's a loosely defined group. intentionally. some cases it's just one or two people giving out advice. it's not really, you know, you can't really define them and nail them down as one specific kind of group. and to define larger sects of protesters as this, it would be unfair to the movement, which, you know, we see a lot of terrible stuff in the news.
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we see a lot of the most -- you know, we keep flying over these looted stores and things like that and there have been tons of peaceful protests all throughout the day and all throughout the cities, all throughout the country. so to lump those two things together would be unfair both to protesters and to police. to police. >> ben collins, who lives in the digital world of extremist groups and misinformation, ben collins, thank you very much. let's now go to philadelphia. you're seeing these images, these aerials, but let's go to another part of philadelphia where we find my colleague and anger, ayman moyheldin. what do you have any. >> we are here in the heart of philadelphia in the center of the city. it's a very different scene that has unfolded here over the past couple of days. there is no doubt this was the epicenter of the protests for a whole host of reasons. the former mayor of philadelphia, also former police
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commissioner has been the lightning rod, if you will, of so many of the protests that take place here because of what he symbolized in this city's past. that in itself is up for debate, but a lot of the protesters are very angry with the fact that that statue remains here in place. it was spray painted, it was vandalized. official here cleaned it up this morning. the we walked around the city for a few minutes, got a chance to see some of the streets that were vandalized over the past couple of days. a lot of those windows have been boarded up after the looting and riots took place in those areas. for the most part, though, as i was saying, this area tonight has been very quiet. the focus on the protests and the demonstrations and in some areas, the looting has focused on western philadelphia. the police commissioner in this city trying to maintain the peace a little bit.
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the police have lost about 15 or so vehicles, many of them set on fire as a result of those demonstrations, smashing those windows, lighting those cars on fire. for the most part, though, with the presence of the national guard expected later on, public transportation shut down until at least tomorrow morning, there has been very little underlying activity here. we're going to see as the week gets under way tomorrow morning when the city reopens again, to what extent we're going to see an emergence or reemergence of protests and demonstrations. for the most part, it is quiet, it is calm. most of the activity is focused in the western part of philadelphia where there remain smes looting of targets and other stores in that area. >> what a different from the images we saw last night across the country, including in
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let's go to portland, oregon, where violent protests yesterday force dollars td the order a second night of curfew. mr. mayor, thank you so much for joining us today. the images out of your city have been distressing at times. you have another curfew today. what are you expecting as it gets darker in your city? >> we've had a curfew for two nights and three nights ago, we had substantial looting and vandalism. last night was a little more chill. tonight we have a couple of thousand people protesting in two different locations. so far, it's been largely
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peaceful. there's been a little bit of violence towards the police officers throwing water bottles and the likes. so far, things seem to be pretty good. >> so what is the tactic in order to keep things under control? what we've seen in cities across the country, a lot of the protests, a lot of the tensions, a lot of the protesters have dissipated. another part is the police maybe having a bigger strategy, the national guard coming in. what do you do in order to calm things down or does it just run its course? >> every demonstration is different, but first of all, you start with clear expectations. we obviously support people's rights to assembly and free speech. we do not tolerate violence or vandalism. we've taekdestablished a curfew.
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we've limited public transportation and tonight we took an unusual step in closing off on ramps into the city of portland. we heard anecdotally that some of the demonstrators were coming from outside of our city. so every night is different. but i also want to underscore this. there arer many people in this city, particularly black portlanders who are very, very frustrated that all of the discussion around vandalism is over-shadowing the larger message around justice and the death of george floyd and what i'm hearing in particular from brock portlanders is they don't want us to lose the larger context of the fight for justice for black people in america. >> in looking at these images from portland from saturday is we're seeing young people, lots of whiteboards with skateboards breaking open windows.
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what is the message that these protesters are sending by damaging buildings? is it a message that -- i guess, would they be heard? would this moment in our history be heart as loudly as it is being heard right now without all of this chaos, without all of this drama? >> you know, that is a very provocative discussion. of course, there is a long and strong history of demonstration here in portland as well as all around the country. that is a very american value. there is no question if you look back into our own past, there have been times when provocation or aspects of violence have shed light on important civil rights issues. but we actually have young leaders in our community saying hey, if you're a young white
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person and you're committing acts of vandalism, don't do it in my name. that's not honoring the legacy of george floyd, that's not a portland value, either. so we do not support and we do not condone either violence or vandalism in the name of any political ends. >> and open up social media and you'll see that happen in small interactions all throughout the country. people going up and saying don't do this in my name. thank you for joining me. >> yeah. thank you. i appreciate it. >> good luck in portland tonight. i do appreciate all of your time. tonight. i do appreciate all of your time $9.95 at my age?
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this sunday, america in crisis. another night of demonstrations and violence across the country. protests break out in dozens of cities. sparked by the death of an african-american man while in police custody in minneapolis. >> do something about it. clean up this police department. >> that could be my father, that could be my brother. that could be me. >> minnesota authorities getting more aggressive to maintain control. >> we're changing our approach because this is intolerable and we are coming to stop it. >> we need justice. we need systemic change. but first, we need to save our soul. >> president trump weighs in. >> we have our military ready, willing, and able if they ever
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