The. I guess you call them protestors. Im not sure what to call them. But they were masked, and globing bottles and projectiles. What was your line of sight . Where were you . And youre describing a scene where, and im assuming these are mostly young people and they were leaving school they were all young people. Right, i would say they were all 20 and under. And they were doing what . I was immediately at the front. They were anything that they could fine, bottle, bricks, and rocks. And the projectiles started at the beginning of the riot. And it started back near the park. And the police moved them along and then it was a big standoff, at the corner of the parkway. Thats where they deployed the a. T. V. S and a lot of the riders scattered down there where they looted and destroyed a c. V. S. And they blew up, they lit on fire, two of the Maryland Transportation Police cars and both of those exploded and now were getting reports of protestors and riotedters moving to the mount vernon area, yeah theyre destroying bars and theyre putting bricks through bar windows and destroying stores in in the high end district. Wow thats a significant development. Do you want to end on this . I was going to tell you, i was watching the fire trucks pulling up at the c. V. S. , that he has been talking about. It is now on fire. Yes, they are now laying the hose. About an hour ago, you saw them throwing flammables on the outside of that. And the question is, now whether or not these firefighters go ahead. If i could cut in, what you saw was a number of protestors were trying to put a barricade and, they a group of protestors took 9 8 bottles of propane, for the c. V. S. , and lit it to fire to make a homemade bomb. I need to ask you since you had, sorry to say this, a frontrow seat as all of this was happening as it was developing, and, then, as the contron tracing started, how would you describe the Police Response to the activity that was unfolding before them . They didnt do anything. They stood im moabl and let it happen. They didnt step in to stop any of it. Looters were going through a Cash Checking bank place. And destroying businesses. And, the police held a Straight Line and didnt do anything to stop it. Is it your sense that, police have have this situation under control or is it no. Its growing out of control. My city on fire. The baltimore sun, have called it a war. Which it is. We have the military vehicles, and national guard, has been on alert, and state Police Helicopters are flying around, and i root this is really bad. The police have just lost control of the city. What im trying to understand here, in covering this story. Do you have an explanation when youre talking to your friends about this, asking you questions about how this is, gotten to this place, what is it that you say to them, in terms of the reporting on this story it seems to me, the idea that there were questions that seem pretty straightforward, talking about the freddie gray case and straight forward questions have gone unanswered and that does not explain away, what were seeing here. But it does explain a level of frustration. Is that fair . Theres beening engagement with the Mayors Office and general public and, they have been attended fundraisers, and the overnight when i was on the frontlines, and overwhelmed by police, the photographer was arrested and i was beaten on the ground. That was neighborhood people. That was not people coming in from other places. That was the neighborhood. And the people are very ann grivment they have no answers and they want to know why a guy, in Police Custody had eight vertebrae broken. Its not about reaching for a gun and ending up with a a broken spine. And what you are seeing, its a symptom. Im looking at the dynamics, at the c. V. S. , and it speaks to the larger crisis. You have police are that have gathered around the c. V. S. The crowd seemed to leave the firefighters alone. Are you in the middle of that . Im in the new Shiloh Baptist church. I had to roll out to recharging and, get more memory cards and also im going to be rolling around the city, with a writer, who took the video of overnight of the police, so were going to be rolling around the city all night. It is not even dusk, and were genuinely concerned about night fall. With the police not breaking this up early they have given Carte Blanche to these rioters. It does, the narrative is, the police versus the rioters. When the fire trucks pulled up, there was no attempt to stop the firemen from doing their jobs. The anger is not directed at the firemen, and and those that are injured. You can hear a firetruck going by. Last thought. I im sorry. Go ahead. Yeah okay, i i just wanted to make one final point that 99 of these protests were peaceful and family of fred dri gray has called for peaceful protests and its just gotten out of control and it is sad. They were peaceful, and the police were showing up in their regular street uniforms and not riot gear, and the protestors respected that, and im getting back to your point of the firemen, they know its not about the firemen. Theyre very angry with the Police Department. Thats what you are seeing. Wow joseph, thanks for your time. I know you have work to get to it. Thanks for the information. Thanks. Lets do this. Lets cycle through some of the pictures and, this is the scene just in front of c. V. S. , and, west baltimore and not very far from a major intersection and, he was talking about, gwen falls. And, you know that area, thats major intersection there. Those are saying something is wrong. Its a community divided. And it is divided along the lines of education. Help me, in the gallery here. The pictures on the right are these from earlier. Everything is live. Oh, lets do this. Well take a break and were going to do a reset here and figure out what we have, and well come back with more. This is the c. V. S. , and then, a quick break and back with more the new Al Jazeera America primetime. Get the real news youve been looking for. At 7 00, a thorough wrapup of the days events. Then at 8 00, John Seigenthaler digs deeper into the stories of the day. And at 9 00, get a global perspective on the news. Weeknights on Al Jazeera America. There was a fail licks of you saw several young men with Flammable Materials throwing them on the outside of the c. V. S. , and then we heard the photographer from the city say that they fashion homemade bombs, and through them in. And as the police protected the building, and the firemen were able to come in and do their job and in cities like this. Their First Responders. And they show up at the same time and because theyre seen as First Responders they are not the inmake any. But the lines have been drawn the police, and the protestors. I would say another way to look at it, is who has the power, and i think this is the issue around the movement. Its about the Power Dynamics between the community and the police. The Police Department that says, that theyre designed to protect and serve then why arent they . Other the Police Department, and i think this is a question about who has the power. So that tees us up perfectly, and john add conversation with two young men frustrated and wanted to have their voices heard. Why are they looting their own city . Because its the frustration, its not in their own neighborhoods. I dont believe that violence should be, you know, handled with violence, you know what i mean. But, the frustration builds up because this is not a onetime attack. If it was one time, it was just something that was out of the norm, and then, people will have no right to be, you know, missing up shops and but when the police, this happens, its like what else are we going to do . We have to prove to people that were not going to stand for this. And we have thank you. City councilwoman helen holt ton and represents southwest baltimore. She shows how complex the problem is were seeing. I think the people watching want something easy and something that can be wrapped up in time for primetime programming, but if there is a Common Thread that emerged from everybody i heard you talking to on the air, its that this begins with freddie gray. It began a long time ago. She says it dates back to the 1960s. My issue is stories get passed down and parents tell their children and i heard stories from my mom. You have to you have to figure out a way to create a new reality for yourself dont you . If you were one of these kids and you know to dels point your mama wouldnt have it your father wouldnt have it no one in your Immediate Community would have you on a car throwing a rock and going to jail for it. It has to register at some point for these young people that they have to figure out a way to create a new reality for yourself. I had to do it for myself. I think this is a place where organizations like baltimore unitedance dorisment block and baltimore project, a lot of the localbased grassroots organizations doing work right now on the ground to really coordinate and organize. This is a great opportunity to organize people. Also to the councilwomans point, this is also an opportunity to create some stuff, right . I think we were afraid to have a conversation about what is the alternative to policing as an institution, how do we create alternatives to deal with harm and how do we create alternatives where we create investments in our communities and divestment from institutions that continuously harm communities of color and disproportion levels right . How do we create the can we be honest with one another . Right. If this stays on pennsylvania avenue if this stays on rice ter town road and near the park but not in the park then for many in the city its contained. But its not. Its contained. I want to tell you what a student of mine if they want to burn up their neighborhood, let them burn up their neighborhood. Now, the one thing that was said in our time on the air here that makes me think that this has the potential to become Something Different is when i heard the photographer say that hes getting reports that its moved to mount vernon. Now were talking about something potentially totally different. That is a wealthy area of the city. I want to tell you what a student of mine once said about growing up in baltimore. She said its like being in a nightmare where youre screaming and screaming and screaming and you wake up and you realize that nobody heard you screaming because it was only a dream. She said in her lifetime it was a dream, but it was a bad dream. She still is screaming. Thats what she would describe what youre seeing as. So lets do this. Give me a sweep of these pictures here everything youve got. Throw it at me. Were looking at demonstrations and protests and some of it has turned violent. Lets cycle through it all. Earlier in the day about an hour or so after the end of the Funeral Service for freddie gray, we started to see a confrontation. Make just a touch before that there was a call that went out over social media for kids to leave school and to demonstrate and to protest. We heard stories of kids moving towards Druid Hill Park a big park in the city of baltimore where there was a police line waiting for them. We started to see scenes like this that played out with the young people throwing stones at police officers. From there we saw and jumping on a police car. Scenes like this and totally vandalizing that car and destroyed that car. And then there was the scene at the Cvs Pharmacy Store on pennsylvania avenue in west baltimore that was totally vandalized, and eventually del, you saw the young people going in and fashioning homemade bombs and setting that store on fire. The Fire Department is now working on the fire. The question now moving forward is what happens at night fall in baltimore . It is a story that we will continue to follow for you. Were going to leave you for a moment here with these scenes from baltimore, maryland. My thanks to del, my thanks to dante, the former mayor of baltimore who joined us earlier and the councilwoman and members of the Ministerial Alliance in baltimore joined us. Well take a break and come back with Al Jazeera America in just a couple of minutes. Protestors are gathering. Theres an air of tension right now. The crowd chanting for democracy. This is another significant development. We have an exclusive story tonight, and we go live. Al Jazeera America gives you the total news experience anytime, anywhere. More on every screen. Digital, mobile, social. Visit aljazeera. Com. Follow ajam on twitter. And like alJazeera America on facebook for more stories, more access, more conversations. So you dont just stay on top of the news, go deeper and get more perspectives on every issue. Al Jazeera America. This is Al Jazeera America live from new york city. Im tony harris and we continue to follow the breaking news out of baltimore, maryland. Clashes between protesters and police have broken out in the city. Several neighborhoods in the city. At least seven officers have been hurt police cars have been set on fire people are also Looting Stores and damaging property. The violence erupted shortly after the funeral for freddie gray. He died after being injured in
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