Kneeling on mr. Floyds neck. As he repeatedly said i cant breathe. That mandatory curfew began more than three hours ago, yet some protesters are still in the streets as of this hour. Earlier this evening we saw minneapolis authorities trying to push back demonstrators using tear gas and flash bangs, and although minneapolis and st. Paul are still reeling tonight, they are not the only cities that are facing unrest. Peaceful protests in atlanta turned violent earlier with buildings damaged and Police Vehicles set on fire. Thousands have gathered in new york with clashes breaking out between demonstrators and police. More than 700 miles away from the twin cities in louisville, kentucky, protesters have taken to the streets for the second night of demonstrations as that city reels, not only from the death of george floyd, but also from the death of brianna taylor, a 26yearold emergency medical technician who was shot by Police Inside her home earlier this year. Now, were watching all of those protests and many more that are ongoing at this hour. But we begin in minneapolis with my colleague ali velshi. Hes the host of velshi on saturdays and sundays here on msnb msnbc. Ali, i know youve been moving location to location throughout the course of the night. Tell us where you are and what youre seeing around you. Reporter all right. Im going to step out of the shot so miguel can give a clear shot in front of us down lake street. And what youve got is a number of protesters in the hundreds that have come from the right side of your screen and theyve moved forward. What youre looking at is a shot in front of the fifth precinct. That has still got police in it. The protesters have moved beyond it and off to the right. You cant really see it now, but well over 1,000. You can see the stop shop. There is some smoke to the left of it. Theyve broken a hole the protesters have broken a hole through the scaffolding there and have gone inside. And theyre looting that. Then if you look back over, miguel is going to pan the camera over to the right, and what you can see between us and the office depot sign is more smoke. Something is on fire there. And theres something burning on that side. Above us is a blackhawk helicopter that has just been circling at relatively low altitude, probably well under 1,000 feet the whole time, keeping an eye on whats going on, but that fire that smoke is growing and billowing. Its moving over to where we are in front of us. The fifth precinct still seems to have police in it. There doesnt seem to be direct confrontation between protesters and the police. The protesters are moving off to the right. Whats important as you see the shot, joy, is to understand that the curfew went into effect at 9 00 p. M. Eastern. At no point has there been anything that looks like a curfew in this city. There is no National Guard presence we can see. There is no Minneapolis Police presence and there is no state Police Presence. This is, again, a night in which the protesters are controlling the streets, at least in some parts of minneapolis and us suburbs. Joy . Thank you very much, ali. Appreciate it. Ali velshi, host of velshi here on saturdays and sundays on msnbc. Thank you so much. I want to go over to retired nypd detective and director of Public Relations for the black Law Enforcement alliance marq claxton. Mr. Claxton, thanks for being here tonight. Give us the perspective of police tonight. There is a sense of, i will say, siege that the black Community Feels at the hands of police. Police are now out here in cities across the country attempting to protect cities and businesses and properties, et cetera, but, you know, how are average Police Officers thinking about what happened to mr. Floyd . I can hear you i think joys asking me questions. Oh, i dont think that he can hear me. I dont think marq claxton can hear me. Can you hear me, marq . I can hear you now, joy. Im sorry. You can hear me. Great. Listen, its Live Television in the midst of a pandemic on top of this that were seeing now. So im going to ask again. There is a sense of siege that the black Community Feels, a sense of exhaustion, a sense of fear of police, a sense of helplessness in a lot of ways thats producing the anger that youre see on your screen and youre seeing all over the country, but im wondering if you can give us the perspective of how Law Enforcement officers feel, particularly black Law Enforcement, as africanamericans, but particularly as Law Enforcement, how they feel about what happened to mr. George. Of course Law Enforcement feels increased pressure, increased scrutiny. Of course being in place the additionally in the line of fire, figuratively speaking, hopefully. So there is increased pressure. As far as black and brown Law Enforcement is concerned, i think they made their feelings quite evident and quite obvious on social media. There are facebook posts indicating their support for the arrest of these Police Officers here. And thats something thats never really happened before, regardless of the cases. The most egregious cases, youve never had a lot of Police Officers, black and brown Police Officers primarily, but of all colors, of all different ranks universally condemning the actions of a colleague of them and demanding for justice and an arrest of a Police Officer. So there are some mixed emotions going on there, but thats all part and parcel to what you do as a Police Officer, as a professional Law Enforcement officer. And, you know, the four officers who confronted mr. George were not all white. One of them was asianamerican. Yet no one related enough to the man on the ground to say to the lead the main detective who had his, you know, his body, his physical weight, his forearm resting on his neck and pressing down on him. No one said stop. Why do you suppose that is . And is this a case for making sure that in communities where black people are being policed that there need to be black officers present . And do you think had there been somebody, a black Police Officer there, that theres a chance that somebody would have said stop . Well, first of all, why they didnt stop their colleague, their partner from slowly and gradually increasing pressure on mr. Floyds neck and leading to his death is because they were cowards, and, quite frankly speaking, and really, you know, the sentiment across the country as far as professional Law Enforcement is concerned because they were cowards. They had an obligation to do something. And to stop that. And they failed to do so. And thats why they share in the responsibility and mean of us have been calling for their arrests as well in all of this. Now the question of whether or not if you increase brown and black representation in the Police Department in Law Enforcement across the board it will make any significant difference. I think without changing the very culture of policing, it wont make that much of a difference. I, quite frankly, believe and ive discussed this before that often times black and brown individuals who come from these communities that feel under siege get into Police Departments and become subsumed by the Police Culture and disregard and reject their own culture and experiences and even experiences of their own family. So the idea, the challenge is to shift and change and attack and reform the Police Culture, and then youll see some Significant Movement in as far as recognizing the humanity of people. You know, i think the thing that is one of the most chilling things about that video, you know, other than the fact that you essentially are watching the end of this mans life is watching the lead Police Officer just stare right at the witnesses. They knew they were being watched, and that didnt impact them at all. Is that about the power of Police Unions and the confidence that Police Officers have, that even in a case where someone dies, as george floyd did, that nothings going to happen to them, that they feel perfectly confident in continuing to do what they were doing, even though they knew they were being watched and recorded. Its part its part of the dynamic of the Police Unions, as you indicated earlier. I was watching earlier some of the comments you made about the power of the unions. Police unions do wield a lot of power, but its deeper than that. It is part of the culture of policing and the arrogance. I was speaking to some people earlier on today because i was wondering what makes people react to this particular incident so viscerally and so angrily and so outraged . I mean, a reaction like i said from a Law Enforcement professional across the nation. My friend explained it to me in a way i should have understood from the very beginning. That is because what he saw is an individual in his smugness, you know, stand directly and defiantly in the face of all civilians and black people in general, and with and really was determined to execute, to conduct an extrajudicial execution on the street. It was his smugness, the appearance, the posturing that really new york citconnects the emotions and outrages people across the country. Its a larger issue. Police departments across the country, unless there is a shift and a change will continue to have these examples of tragic incidences. And unless there is complete and total revolutionary police reform, well be back here time and time again discussing these very issues. And do you you know, in the case of walter scott, you know, a couple of years ago. The officer in that case because of another brave person who taped the killing of mr. Scott, that officer actually did go to jail. Do you think that the real answer here is that prosecutors have to be brave enough to separate themselves enough from Law Enforcement, who are their partners, and prosecute them or that outside groups, senator Kamala Harris suggested earlier when i spoke with her that it may need to be someone else other than the prosecutors who partner with police to do prosecutions. That maybe if more officers went to prison for killing suspects and subjects who were in their custody, that that is the only thing that will actually change that culture that you talk about. Yes, that is absolutely what will change the culture. If Police Officers understand and actually see their colleague who went off the farm, so to speak, go to prison. Go to jail. There has to be a punishment associated with everything. We can increase rules and regulations and add laws and committees and task force. Until Police Officers who go rogue, go renegade are put in jail or in prison, there will not be a significant or substantive change. And, quite frankly, what people are looking at now saying to themselves, this is a matter of the integrity of the Justice System for black and brown people. If you can allow for extrajudicial executions on the street under the color of law, then black and brown people will claim will defiantly state there is no integrity in this Justice System, and the system is broken or perhaps working like its always been planned to work. But there is no justice for black people. Well, wellstated. Marq claxton, retired nypd detective, thank you so much. Really appreciate you taking the time this early, early in the morning or late, late at night to speak with us about this issue. Thank you. Thank you, joy. Thank you. We have also seen large demonstrations tonight in new york city. Protests which began outside the Barclays Center in brooklyn soon turned violent as protesters clashed with police. Hundreds of demonstrators later marched through the fort green section of brooklyn where a police van was set on fire. Dozens of people have been arrested tonight. New york city mayor bill de blasio tweeting, we have a long night ahead of us in brooklyn. We dont ever want to see another night like this. And joining us now is new york city public advocate jamoni williams. Thanks so much for being here tonight. This is my old neighborhood. I lived in fort green for quite a long time and to see this neighborhood in this state is difficult. What should people know about the emotions of people in new york city tonight. Well, thank you so much for having me, always being a space for this kind of discussion. The emotions are like what weve seen across the country. People are tired. People are fed up. And theyre not okay. Im not okay. Were not okay. Of course, you know, the impetus is george floyd, but when you think about the Covid Response and who has been disproportionately affected, when you think about brianna taylor, ahmaud arbery, when you think about Something Like black women who are dying in mortality rates higher because people dont believe their pain, thats a lot of what communities deal with. You look at amy cooper who was comfortable enough to be recorded calling 911 to make a false call. This is the pain and the rage that is actually justified that we see happening across the country. And, you know, do you think that the amy cooper versus, you know, the bird watcher, also named cooper, michael cooper, in new york city. Do you think that that has added to the anger . The potential of what could have happened to him, what did happen in minneapolis, is this a compound reaction that were seeing in the screen beside you . Of course it is. Christian cooper could have been, god forbid, the next hashtag. And so if we miss the interconnectivity between what amy cooper did and what were seeing in these other cases, then were missing the forest through the trees. And so we can expect that people are going to express their anger. What weve seen in new york city, i do want to make plain, is something that were seeing across the nation on a whole host of issues, and we knew that this was going to happen. There is only but so much that people can take. I do want to make a few things clear how i think we can move forward in new york city. One, of course, address the pain that were feeling, but also there is something when i was there at barclays, the amount of Police Presence before even any protesters came was was problematic and intimidating. We cant start off the tone of the conversation like that. I also saw some instances of overpolicing where people were harmed indiscriminate spraying that we have to address. But there is Something Else that i saw that i want to address. I saw decisions being made by nonblack allies. I am so happy to see nonblack allies there, but i want to make it clear that the voice of this protest and the decisions of how to protest should be made by the leaders who are most affected by the things that are going on. I just want to make sure i get that message out there as well. Thank you for doing that. New york city public advocate jomani williams, thank you very much. Really appreciate you being here and staying up with us tonight as we wade through all of this. Thank you. Be safe. Now lets go thank you so much. Now lets go to louisville, kentucky where msnbc correspondent cal perry is standing by. Cal, tell us whats going on in louisville. Reporter hey, joy. So the police have managed to keep everybody split up. Thats the Current Police line right there. You can see the stores damaged. The park across the street has been pretty well trashed. If you spin around mark, and im sorry, you can see the whole street has kind of gone. A local news crew truck that has been destroyed. I want to talk very quickly about brianna taylor. Thats the reason a lot of people came out here. She was 26 years old. She was killed on march the 13th when three Police Officers came into her apartment at 12 30 in the morning. They did not announce themselves. They just came into the apartment. And there was a firefighter her boyfriend shot at the police. The 911 recording that was released today showed that he thought there was a breakin and now there is a federal department of justice investigation into why the police went into that apartment. The person they were looking for had already been in detention. He had already been detained. She was a medical worker. She was a 26yearold nurse. She was the people that we count on in this pandemic. And its what has brought people on to the streets in the last two nights. The other very important thing about louisville to know is that people are armed here. There are people with bats here. There are people with guns here on the streets. And last night there were seven people shot. So in the middle of a pandemic, in the middle of a riot that was brought on by what seemed to be a Police Officer murdering an unarmed black man, there was also a mass shooting. So louisville like the rest of the country is scarred and going through something deeply emotional. People are out here in sporadic numbers and police are letting people have the run of the streets. Theyre letting people damage stores, the cars, theyre trying to keep people away from that downtown area. There is a local jail there, the city jail. There is also a courthouse and the sheriffs office. They seem to have cordoned that area off and the side streets, joy, they sort of let people have the run of it. Well see if that lasts. I dont expect i dont expect it will last. I dont expect it will last much past 1 00 in the morning and then well have to see what tomorrow brings. We seem to have avoided what happened last night, a mass shooting and the protests. Thats what police were most worried about, joy. Before i let you go, cal, i just want to clarify. Is there reporting that says a mass shooting in what relation to the protests . Do we know no we dont know. If this was somebody who was in opposition so s. O. , okay, we just want to make sure we clarify for the audience. We dont know this was directly related to the protest. We just know it happened also last night. Reporter and we know the gunfire went into the crowd. It didnt come from the crowd. It went into the crowd of protesters. Police say theyre investigating. Into the crowd. Reporter they havent made any arrests in relation to that shooting. Three arrests in relation to damage and protests, but no arrests made as to who the shooter was and, again, that gunfire went into the crowd of protesters, joy. Thank you very much. Really appreciate clarifying that. So, gunfire into those protesters. Cal perry in louisville, kentucky. Thank you so much. Be safe out there, cal. I want to now show you some footage from the city of atlanta today. This is the Atlanta Police chief, erica shields. Shes out listening to and talking with protesters in her city earlier today, including pretty intense oneonone conversations like this. You can see her listening to a distraught, angry protester, and then putting her hands on the womans shoulders trying to reassure her. There was another exchange that she also had today. Im nervous because theres Guns Everywhere and i have no fucking idea when theyre going to put their hands on me. I need you to understand that. I need you to do something. If you do something, you need to let us know. You need to let the public know because anything that you do, we need to know, okay . Let me tell you something, im standing here because what i saw was my people facetoface with this crowd, and everybodys thinking how can we use force to defuse it. Im not having that. You have a right to be upset and scared and want to yell. Were going to have everybody do what we need to do and were going to get safety. Thats my first commitment. And i hear you. I heard from so many people that cannot sleep, theyre terrified. Theyre crying. This is what were talking about. What did he do because joining us now is shoememar stone, a reporter for new york station wnbc. What can you tell us about what youre seeing . Reporter well, right now we are live here by the white house, and if you come right over here, you can see these hundreds of protesters. They are approximately a half a football field away from the white house gate. Many of them have signs that read i cant breathe, making reference to george floyd. And you can see all of them out here. And if you come with me right over here, you can see that there are secret Service Officers who have on protective gear and they are pushing the protesters back to make sure they do not cross over this gate and then get close to the white house. Many of these protesters are tell me they are frustrated, upset over the death of george floyd. And many of them say that this is the type of thing that they have been waiting for because when i think about Philando Castile and all these other cases, brianna dollar, amadou diallo and they see they dont have convictions in many of these cases, many of them tell me that george floyd was the straw, in one words of one woman, that broke the camels back. Back to you. Really quickly before i let you go, shomari stone, what are the protesters saying they want or expect donald trump to do differently . Because donald trump is very consistent in what he does, who he is. Is there something they want from the white house or is this just an expression of anger at the white house . Reporter well, its a combination of both. You have an expression of anger, but also you have folks out here who want the white house to show leadership. To show sympathy. To understand the issue of race relations. To understand the killing of unarmed black people by Law Enforcement in america. They feel that President Trump is not showing enough leadership. That hes not sympathetic. That he uses words such as thug many of the people here beginning to get unruly. Were going to go back to you. Fuck trump i want to apologize for that language for our audience that is hearing this. This is all happening in realtime. So this is the way it happens. I think we have lost our shot. Well try to get shomari stone back a little bit later. Shomari stone from nbcs affiliate in washington. Thank you so much for being here. Lets go back to minneapolis where nbc news correspondent Morgan Chesky is on the ground. All right, morgan, give us an update on what youre seeing. It seems a bit more sparse where you are. Reporter joy, it certainly is. We are asking people where is the mass of people that departed this area at 8 00 central time . Thats when the curfew went into effect. Thats when the National Guard rolled by in humvees and thats when Police Deployed that tear gas and that smoke to try to get those people out of this area. They succeeded in that, but upon leaving the third precinct, which is just a block behind behind me, they continued down the road and theyve made their way across the city. We do know that the fifth precinct has been seeing a swarm of people around that area causing issues. Vandalism and looting like weve seen in this neighborhood for the past two nights. And so as it stands right now, we are continuing to see a stream of people continuing to make their way through this area. Fires have been lit within the past hour or two. That burn unabated. And there has been no sign of police, no sign of National Guard, and Fire Department has not made any effort to come here and try to put any of these flames out at this point in time. When we were standing outside the third precinct building earlier, we were watching a steady stream of people go in and out, walking out with whatever they could carry. And so, unfortunately, it looks like tonight is very similar to the past two nights, although the main difference is that were not seeing at least the crowd concentrated in this area, which kind of became the epicenter of resistance because this is where the third precinct was located, and that is the station where those four officers worked who were fired earlier this week. So right now were waiting to see if theres going to be any response of any kind. We know that a swarm of state Police Showed up very early this morning to establish a wide perimeter around the very area that im standing on right now. However, that disappeared whenever that curfew essentially went into effect. But were not seeing much enforcement, if any at all. Joy . Very quickly before i let you go, morgan. Has it been possible to establish any relationships between the groups of people that you said that were, you know, are reporting seeing looting or that youre seeing doing anything violent or starting fires and the actual demonstrators, the demonstrators with signs, the people that are protesting directly about George Floyds death. Have you been able to are these connected groups of people or are they two separate groups of people . Reporter its tough to say, joy. We know that at least yesterday arrived in minneapolis around 10 00 a. M. , and i watched, you know, a large number of people congregate, you know, with signs. Coming out to send a message against violence, you know . That was, you know, involving police and an unarmed black man, of course, earlier this week. We heard that message being shared throughout the day, but as weve seen time and time again over the past several days here, as soon as night falls, the tone shifts, the crowd shifts, and its a whole another attitude that comes out. And so i think that, you know, are there some of those people that were here during the day that come out at night . There certainly could be. But i would say the majority of people we encounter are not necessarily those who maybe drove in from out of town with a sign wanting to send a message of support to the family of george floyd and trying to be heard. And the unfortunate reality is that some people have expressed to me, they really fear that the devastation you see behind me, the fires that continue to burn, the damage thats inflicted upon this neighborhood will overshadow what they believe is the bigger problem, and that is that four Police Officers took an unarmed black man to the ground and he died just a few minutes later. Joy . Can i ask you also if just thinking back, take you back to conversations that you had with the demonstrators earlier in the day. And if you could take us back to around the time that it was clear that officer shaucchauvin going to be charged. He had been charged with thirddegree murder. Did that in any way how did that impact the crowd, the people you spoke with . Reporter i spoke with in particular im reminded of a conversation i had with the two bleck gentlemen who drove in from out of town today. They came here to clean up some of the mess, and they add organized a volunteer effort. I was the one when i said chauvins been taken into custody, charges are coming, it was before he had been charged wir with thirddegree murder. I said now at least that he is arrested breaking news. We have the governor of the state of minnesota, tim walz, scheduled to take questions from reporters after a fourth night of under arrest in the twin cities. There at the state Emergency Operations center. Lets listen in to that press conference, which has just gotten under way. And Mission Specific that theyre employing. Colonel langer is currently at the fifth precinct holding that ground with the state patrol. Dps and the folks with under dnr are out there and our local partners in Minneapolissaint Paul and our joint powers agreements are assisting. The situation is incredibly dangerous. The situation is fluid. It is dynamic. I would, first of all, thank all minnesotans who chose to protect our cities, who chose to protect their neighbors and stay home. Thank you for that. To all of the First Responders who are out there, from firefighters to National Guard to line crew to utility workers who are out there to keep us safe, i want to thank you for that. Law enforcement is responding the best they can in this situation. Well get you all of the numbers that are out there. I want to say, first of all, i, myself, can fully understand the rage. I spoke this evening to George Floyds siblings quite extensively. I understand that rage. Weve talked about it. We understand what has to happen. Whats going on out there right now is not that. The wanton destruction, and specifically of ethnic businesses that took generations to build, are being torn down. All of those infrastructures of Civil Society and the things that make our city great, which lends me to believe as we look at this, the disenfranchisement that went with what we witnessed with with georges death is one thing. But the absolute chaos this is not grieving and this is not this is not making a statement that we fully acknowledge needs to be fixed. This is lifethreatening, dangerous to the most wellqualified forces that are out there facing this. So i want to acknowledge that. Im deeply concerned with the people who you need to go home. You need to go home. The purpose of this and were seeing it spread up across the country is making it more difficult to get to the point where we can deal with these issues. Our neighbors are afraid. People are watching this across and they want to know whats happening. We promised you today and i want to thank mayor frey for the leadership today, and i think the issue of coordination and communicating together. This is the largest civilian deployment in Minnesota History that we have out there today. And quite candidly right now, we do not have the numbers. We cannot arrest people when were trying to hold ground because of the sheer size, the dynamics and the wanton violence thats coming out there. Colonel langer spoke about this often. Seasoned folks who have also deployed overseas and seen this and now seeing this here in our neighborhoods. We will talk about ways and the resources that we have left, but to put this into perspective, the force that we have out there now is about three times larger than the one in the 60s, which is the largest one during the race riots. Theyre out there right now. The capacity to do offensive actions and theyre out there doing that, arresting the folks we can. But as youve soon, theres already shots being fired back at our people. Theres arson that is taking place puts many people at risk. Our firefighters are specifically and very open to target, and minneapolis fire has been responding heroically. And i tell you all the citizens, the Response Time is fast as we want to get it. And that responsibility, as i said, today for coordination lies with us. I will take responsibility for the underestimating the wanton destruction and the size of this crowd. We have deployed a force that i think as we sat down together and talked about would have in any other civilian military or civilian Police Operation worked, but the terrifying thing is you hear people have seen this and myself looking at this, it resembles more a military operation at times, especially ringleaders moving from place to place. So i would ask all of us to, again, go home to protect our assets, understanding that the priority of this Mission Today and the plan to do it was was to deploy the assets we had, to work in coordination and beef up what we had to do very, very quickly in command and yocontro of those, put a joint force together to first and foremost protect life, followed by protecting property, followed by restoring order. And the issue, as ive said this time and time again, whether its something that now seems so simple to do stayathome orders about covid is to try and get the situation under control to protect all those things. But there is a compact that goes in Civilized Society that you have to have social buyin. And so with the elements that are out there now, theyre stopping semis by blocking roads and then raiding whats in them. This is not about georges death. This is not about inequities that were real. This is about chaos being caused. And so my responsibility on this and i do want to thank the mayor. Executing a plan is very difficult, and i think the frustrations we all feel certainly isnt aimed at the mayor. Hes performing admirably and doing Everything Possible. I accept that responsibility. Hes here asking and calling hourly, where can we coordinate. Mayor frey, i want to thank you. The same thing with mayor carter of executing together. This is an operation never done in minnesota. The scope of this has now reached globally excuse me, across the nation. We were in contact today and had an extensive conversation, general jensen, commissioner harrington and i with the secretary of defense, general millie, the joint chiefs of staff to talk about assets in the way we can help to assess the situation as theyre seeing it on the ground and to put those things into a plan to operate today. That plan has not changed and our folks are out there right now as we speak doing this. Our intention is still to do those very things, to protect the lives of minnesotans, to try to protect as much property as we can and try to restore order on the streets. Have to do that in a way that protects those who are out there doing that. To ask them to go in a Forward Motion to try to get some of these people, they are wellcoordinated. They will flank these groups. They will do Everything Possible to cause that destruction. So with that being said, im going to have mayor frey come up. Well have our folks talk about and well talk about what the next steps are because i want to be clear were about 72 hours into this. The mayors quick action of activating the National Guard i believe protected as much as we could. I think now as we think about this and were this far into this, it seems almost impossible it was two days ago from an accusation, we went today of planning tonight for what tomorrows going to look like because i think minnesotans need to recognize, and we clearly recognize this, what you see tonight will replicate tomorrow unless we change something that were doing. The execution of plan and the quality of the First Responders who are out there. You have you have veterans of combat tours overseas. You have state patrol who are seasoned. You have local police and firefighters who have been doing this for decades, and are the best at what they do. Theyre just not used to doing it where you have wanton destruction. And the challenge that we face and the challenge that the mayor faces, we have to do it with ensuring the safety of those people. Ensuring that there are legitimate people who earlier want to try and express their grief. The folks who are out there right now want nothing more than entice into conflict. Entice something that sets us off even further. Entices our folks to get in a situation where we start to lose life. And so that adds the complexity to it. If it were as simple as just push them and move them back, that would be one thing. They cannot do that. So i want to just reiterate that minnesotans deserve a plan to try and get this. We need to assess that with all of the tools that we have, with the experience that weve seen in this. We are certainly in contact with our neighboring states in cooperations as well as the federal government. To think about the best way to do this. The situation tomorrow will be increasingly more difficult because this has spread to other cities in a serious way. Which makes the challenge of civil order even that much more difficult. But i do want to and just clarify to my friend and someone who has led in this and a mayor who should never be put in the position he was put in to try and respond. There are a limited number of resources that any city has. And this force out there right now bent on this is simply overwhelming what we have on the ground. So at this point it becomes more of a hold what we have and do the best we can. So i want to thank you, mayor frey. I want to thank you for basically being up for 72 hours and every minute picking up the phone and continuing to adapt to this situation. So, mayor . Thank you, governor, and thank you for the command and control today and the partnership. Minneapolis, i know you are reeling. Due to lack of sleep and heartbreak for seeing the events over the last couple of days, im reeling, too. We as a city are so much more than this. We as a city can be so much better than this. There is no honor in burning down your city. There is no pride in looting local businesses that have become institutions of a neighborhood. These are institutions that people are counting on. Especially during a time of pandemic. Theyre counting on Grocery Stores to get food. Theyre counting on pharmacies to get medicine. Theyre counting on their local bank to get cash. If you care about your community you got to put this to an end. It needs to stop. Youre not getting back at the Police Officer that tragically killed george floyd by looting a town. Youre not getting back at anybody. If you have a friend or a Family Member that is out right now, call them, tell them to come home. It is not safe. It is not right. If we care about our city, lets do the right thing now. We are doing absolutely everything we can. Our firefighters are hauling around the city putting out fires as quickly as they possibly can. Our Police Officers are doing everything to secure coordinators, to make sure that the looting stops. And to try to prevent these necessary precincts, which are so essential to safety. Right now chief arradondo and chief friedel are in minneapolis doing everything they possibly can. As i said in the beginning, i am reeling. And i know each and every one of you is, too. Lets do right by our city. Lets do right by our communities. And lets put ourselves in a position five and ten years from now where we look back at this day and we recognize that this was the point where we decided to make a change. I know in my heart that we can do it. Because i know in my heart that minneapolis is everything that we believe it to be. Thank you. Thank you, mayor. John . Commissioner John Harrington with the Minnesota Department of Public Safety. Yesterday we put together a unified command structure at a unified command, bringing together Minneapolis Police department, saint paul Police Department, Ramsey County sheriff departments, Minnesota State patrol, dnr and general jensens men and women of the minnesota National Guard. We created a plan that brought together one of the largest civil Police Forces that we have ever seen in the state of minnesota. Larger, frankly, than we had for the Republican National convention even. With well in excess of 2,500 officers total. Committed to the effort of keeping the peace. We had a very clear mission. The governor was Crystal Clear and the mayors have been Crystal Clear that our mission was to keep the peace, to maintain order and to stop lawless behavior. By 8 00 last night we began to see that we were going to have to operate on multiple different fronts of criminal behavior. With reports from saint pal tul that they were actively engaged. Reports that we had individuals that were breaching the minnesota freeways around 35w. That we had crowds of in excess of 2,000 in the lake street area east, crowds of hundreds in the area of lake street and crowds of thousand or more in downtown. We reassessed the assets that we had, personnel that we had, and redeployed to try to be at as many of those as we could be at, but we recognize that we simply did not even with the numbers that im talking about have enough officers and personnel to meet all of those missions safely and successfully. We picked missions based on our capacity. And those missions focused on downtown, nicolette and also focused on the fifth precinct area of nicolette and lake. We continue to hold our Critical Infrastructures around other places that we believed through good intel that were being targeted and would have been destroyed, and we have continued to hold those places of Critical Infrastructure even as we speak. At the nicolette and lake area, our field forces were able to rally around that area. They were able to disperse the crowd and make what im told is in the neighborhood of about 50 arrests. We have a mobile field force of in excess of 300 larger than the mobile field force that we utilized last night to clear the east lake street area. They have been actively engaged, but the level of resistance that we have seen tonight has increased exponentially. We have had officers shot add. We have had what looks to be improvised munitions targeted towards the officers. Weve had officers injured and we are continuing to push that crowd east of hiawatha, in an attempt to move them off the streets and restore order there. But we recognize that as we do that, continuing to hold the area at nicolette and lake and try and maintain order in do you want that we we need far more officers and far more National Guard than we currently have. We have created a request for the National Guard to substantially increase the number of National Guard officers that would be available. And we have reassessed our strategy in terms of our ability to mobilize mobile field forces that have been effective in moving against what is now an armed and more entrenched grouped of protesters, and what i would really operate and say more that they are an entrenched group of rioters. We have had officers that have been injured. None seriously at this point. But we have not given up our efforts to try and clear those streets. We will not give up our efforts to clear those streets. We are committed to restoring order in minneapolis, helping saint paul maintain order. And were getting ready for what will be one of the largest crowds that we have ever heard and recognize well be at the center of not just a statewide event, a national event, but what is looking to be an International Event tomorrow. In that same area that were holding right now in the area around nickolett and lake. Id ask john jensen, minnesota National Guard, to provide his comments. Good morning. Majorgeneral john jensen of the National Guard. Very quickly id like to cover some quick operations that we are involved in currently in minneapolis. We currently have escorted and are supporting three minnesota im sorry, minneapolis Fire Department teams on fires. Chicago and lake, lake and park and nicollet and 31st street. So we continued our support to the minneapolis Fire Department that we began yesterday. We also have over 100 soldiers currently at nicolett mall between hyatt hotel and grant street supporting Traffic Control points in support of our state highway patrol. This morning at approximately 12 30, i believe, in cooperation and in consultation with colonel matt langer, the commander of the Minnesota State patrol, the governor authorized the minnesota National Guard to increase our strength. The initial request was for 1,000 additional soldiers to support the department of Public Safety and our state highway patrol. Governor walz and i have looked at different ways that were going to mobilize this force, and currently what were going to use are units that who would normally report to their normal training this weekend. My belief is that we will exceed the 1,000 mark. As the governor mentioned, this will be the largest deployed inside the state of minnesota in history. At the conclusion of tomorrow, i believe that we will have over 1,700 soldiers in support of the department of Public Safety. The city of minneapolis and the city of saint paul. You may have you have may seen or heard that the that this evening the president directed the pentagon to put units of the United States army on alert to possible operation in minneapolis. While we were not consulted with as it relates to that, i do believe its a prudent move to provide other options available for the governor if the governor elects to use those resources. So at this time, governor, that completes my comments. Thank you. Thank you, general jensen. Thank you, commissioner. The situation now is is the movement, and i think minnesotans who maybe dont understand this, of the force structure we have. We some of this, of course, classified, but where minnesota soldiers are deployed overseas and in support of missions, and that is a limited force because the National Guard is what it is in states. And when we talk about calling up the National Guard, its not like pulling something off a shelf and its there. This is a human being citizen soldier who is out there working across the state and they get called in. They need to gather equipment and make their things, put their things in order, report to their armory, staff up and start understanding where their mission is. So it is it is not as easy as it might seem. These deployment levels are reaching deployment levels when we deploy overseas in Operation Enduring freedom and some of those types of operations. So the Mission Remains the same, to restore order, to protect life and property to the best we can. We are in close coordination other than this move by the white house to do that, and i agree with general jensen. As i spoke with President Trump the other night, i think it is prudent to have them ready, for us to exhaust all resources that we need. And, again, general millie was quite extensive and we spent quite some time thinking where those assets are. And they also have to now understand what our federal assets are into an everwidening situation when were losing Police Precincts in brooklyn and some of this unrest spreading in across the country. So what i would say, minnesotans, once again, an unprecedented threat to our state. A tragedy that was the catalyst for this. That as morphed into something much different. The challenges of protecting people who are wanton destruction is their goal, no regard to life or property, and so sense of civic pride of who we are. Thats what these folks are up against in a in a quite dangerous environment. So i would once again thank minnesotans who stayed home. Thanks for looking out for one another. Our goal is to do the everything that we can to start to restore order, and working with our partners on this. And as i said today once this became a unified command, starting last evening, thats the state of minnesota and with me. With that, tom . Governor, for the second night in a row, hundreds of thousands or maybe millions of minnesotans and americans are watching on television as fires burn. Yep. Buildings are looted. People in minneapolis in danger. And they dont see the National Guard. They dont see Law Enforcement. I know you say theyre out there, but people are not seeing them and theyre not hearing from their leaders, and it goes on for hours and hours and nobody knows what is going on. How can you tell me are people just missing it on television . Are we missing there is simply more of them than us, and the operation is so much broader. We are out there. I can assure you. They are in heated confrontations n confrontations that are putting folks at risk. We are prioritizing those critical assets. And i no way the heartbreak that brings to people when the business that you fought your life for to try to get burns down. That seems like a pretty damn critical asset to you. Were protecting the federal reserve. Were protecting those infrastructures downtown. Were protecting power stations and things like that. But theyre out there. And as i said, this is the largest single deployment in the states history. This is certainly not a group that slacks off. These are the best trained in the country. They are warhardened and they have been out there many times, as far as National Guard and the police that are out there and the firefighters, its simply that broad. And we have to prioritize. We have to triage. It is a horrible predicament. I can tell you this, tom, i want every one of those fires put out immediately. I wished it would not happen. Were trying to use all the tools that we had. Fact of the matter is on this, we asked people, we put a stayathome order in, and they dont give one damn about that. They are out there now to cause as much damage as they can. Our goal, our goal is to create the plan that stops that the best we can, to assess, and in this case, assess in bring on those troops. Were you surprised that people seem to completely ignore the 8 00 curfew . They did not for the most part yeah. People causing the destruction didnt give it a second thought. I dont know if surprised. Im deeply disappointed. I think when you do one of these things, the assessment was the folks who were truly grieving and the folks who then pent up and wanted to get outside. There was a sense of somewhat excitement about it when it wasnt there. Our thought is those folks there would not be casual observers on this. The number who are now here and are continuing to grow here is pretty staggering. So im deeply disappointed. Again, i dont know if surprised, but its pretty shocking to me, the number that that didnt do anything. And i think any time you do one of these things you have to be careful that thats not a catalyst in itself. Oh, im going to break the curfew because that gives me something to do with that. I talked about this this morning. The minute i put someone out there, these are folks that have made Credible Threats that the fbi is on of targeting a National Guard soldier and wanting to find glowery in killi glory in killing one of our citizen soldiers. Thats the type of person out there right now. Can you walk us through a timeline. So what was the plan plan initi can you address the reports that the National Guard has been pulled. That is not true. Was the guard redirected back out . Can you explain what happened . This is a battle plan of what goes. It would be great to execute it perfectly if the folks that you are going against did exactly what you wanted but the moment you do it, everything changes. With the here is numbers out there they have to make real time movements. The National Guard, they are fully engaged the entire time. It is so broad and