Transcripts For MSNBCW MSNBC Live 20200529

The streets to a place where we can restore the justice so that those that are expressing rage and anger and demanding justice are heard. So i want to just call out very, very clearly. As we put our presence on the treat to restore order, it is to open that space, to seek justice and heal what happened. Joining us with the latest on the ground in minneapolis, nbc News Reporter Shaquille Brewster and shaq, perhaps one of the best ways to quell some of these demonstrations is some action from prosecutors. Where are we on that . Reporter still no action, chuck. We heard right now the investigation is in the hand of both faib and state investigators and we heard from them a little bit yesterday. There is no action, no decision has been made yet. When you listen to protesters thats what they want to hear. Thats what they are awaiting for, arrests of the officers. Within the past two hours we heard from the governor of minnesota and one thing he said is that he pleaded for folks to restore order here in minneapolis. He said we need to restore order in order to be able to focus and shift attention back on getting justice for mr. Floyd. If you talk to protester, if you talk to even some of the citizens and people in this community, people who are out right now, were in front of 3rd Police District and this is where you saw a lot of clash, a lot of buildings being burned. People out now, who are assessing what has become of their community, you talk to them they say the biggest that can ease the tension in this neighborhood is arresting officers involved. Arresting the officer especially the one who had his knee on mr. Floyds neck for several minutes at a time until he became unresponsive and pulseless. Thats when you continue to hear from protesters. One thing that you see much differently and this is apparent even in daylight is the Police Presence. These are state patrolmen. They have come out. We heard from the governor that they began this mission to clear this area. 3rd Police District is back there. As you go further back, there was that big parking lot where we saw the target being looted, the Grocery Store being looted. They cleared out that area overnight. That order is established. This is something we havent seen in several days. I was telling andrea in the last hour that i was there on wednesday evening when we saw the looting beginning. Saw the protest initially peaceful by day, a pattern that weve been seeing. Then we saw the looting beginning. That continued through thursday until about 3 00 a. M. This morning. Our crew came. We tried to do a live shot this morning and still in control of people who were going in and out of the stores, setting fire to buildings. We decided to leave the setting because it wasnt in order yet. Thats what youre seeing. They are making it very clear, very clear show of force they are taking it seriously. You heard from the governor warning people there wont be a lack of leadership this time around. They have their mission and try to keep the streets safe because he says there needs be order restored if they want the focus to shift back to justice the for mr. George floyd. We see those officers lined up behind you. There are a number of people out. Can you describe to us what it feels like there right now. How tense is it . Are you getting a sense from the people that are there today that they are going to continue to stay there through the evening, that they will return . Whats your sense of what the overnight hours might look like in minneapolis . Reporter im going walk around a little bit and surprise our photographer real quickly. I want to show the people over here. These are people mostly in the community who have come out the see what was going on, what is the result of the businesses that have been burned down. Its very light. Very few people. Some people up against the police line yelling at officers or have signs up doing a silent protest. But its very calm right now. The thing is we saw this exact scene yesterday. There were more people. If you go down this way that again is where the 3rd Police District was. Thats what burned down yesterday. Thats been the site of the majority of clashes that weve seen in minneapolis. Yesterday around this time up until about 5 00 p. M. As i was here, there was music playing. There were people coming around with garbage cans cleaning up the mess from the night before. It was a very light effort. People were speaking, giving speeches. There whether or not even that many tents at officers manning the station there. What you see over and over again night after night is a quick escalation in violence. Of course it starts peaceful in the daytime. You see some clashes in the evening. Then by night fall thats when things change. Thats what the governor keeps referencing. He believes and it seems he was signalling theres some organized effort here. Organized group of people who have been going from business to business, setting fire to businesses. Thats what he wants to get control of. Thats what you have the state, the reinforcement from the state. You have 500 National Guardsmen that have been activated. They are very clear from city officials to state officials they want protesters to be able to protest. Were still in this coronavirus pandemic. Thats why you see many people still with masks on. People feel strongly enough about this to come out amid a pandemic. They want those people to be able to protest but they want them to do it safely and they want them to do it without the scenes weve been seeing the past few nights. Shaquille brewster on the ground there. Tremendous on site report. Shaq, stay safe out there yourself. Thank you, sir, and well continue to check in. Katy over to you on the investigation. The county attorney clarified comments he made yesterday about why there were still no charges brought against the officer who knelt on George Floyds neck as he died. That video is graphic and horrific and terrible and no person should do that. But my job in the end is to prove that he violated a incriminate false statute and there is other evidence that does not support a criminal charge. After that press conference in a new statement, he walked those comments back saying quote it is critical to review all the evidence because at the time of trial invariably all that information will be used. Joining us now with more on this investigation is nbc news justice correspondent tom winter. Tom, help sort through this for us. What would, if state charges are brought, what could be on the table . Reporter sure. A couple of different things, katy and im just pulling directly from the documents on the county attorneys website. Free mapp, as you just read his statements. They range from Second Degree manslaughter up to different degrees of murder. The murder charges are more difficult initially to prosecute and require presumably a longer investigation because it goes to intent of what the officer intended to do when he used that use of force that, obviously, resulted in the death of george floyd. There is a lesser charge and thats one i mentioned before, which is manslaughter in the Second Degree. In that ill just read the the law. The person in this case, the officer creates an unreasonable risk and consciously takes chances of causing death or great bodily harm to another. An important part of this here is, and i understand the comparisons between this case and say sean bell, eric gardner or michael brown, but from a legal standpoint, from a purely legal standpoint this case is radically different and thats because george floyd is already in handcuffs. Thats going to change the way that this is looked at and the decision to use force and eventually deadly force in this situation and the type of technique that the officer used there is technically allowed by the Minneapolis Police department according to their use of force manual. Hes allowed to put that knee on his neck. But the only way that you can do that according to the manual is if somebody is actively resisting arrest. You look at this video and ive talked to a lot of folks in Law Enforcement in the last day or so and they say under no way of watching this or looking at it or circumstance does the force thats used here, it all meets the standards that would apply for the Minneapolis Police department really in any Police Department. Thats going a key thing that prosecutors can look at and perhaps more quickly make a determination on whether to charge or not. Another thing thats going to be key theyre, katy is the medical examine. We dont know if this is the case but if george floyd had any sort of underlying medical condition or anything else that may have contributed to his death i think what they are going look at here from the medical examiner is whether or not the officers actions and boy they sure appear to have led to the point where george floyd died and i think once we get that determination its going very difficult for that local prosecutor not to move forward with some sort of a charge here. Again most likely the manslaughter in the seconddegree if not other charges. Tom winter, tom thank you for that report. Chuck tougher with some of the evidence that tom was just talking about. So new video shows a different angle at the moment george floyd was restrained by Minneapolis Police. Cell phone videos and Police Reports to piece together these moments much about floyds death. Take a look. Its just after 8 00 p. M. On may 25th and the security cameras of this local restaurant are rolling. The indicated time is about 20 minutes fast. A blue mercedes has been parked curb side on east 38th street for several minutes. We do not have footage showing when it arrived. George floyd is in the drivers seat. A police car pulls up in front of this local Convenience Store and two officers walk in. Minneapolis police said in a statement their officer responded to a report of a forgery in progress. Meaning someone was trying to use counterfeit money in a store. A few minutes later the officers cross the street and approach the vehicle. The police said they found the suspect in his car. The first officer approaches the driver while his partner walks around to the passenger side. The interaction between the officer and floyd cant clearly be seen from this angle but the driver of this black vehicle filmed part of it on his phone. The officer struggles to get floyd out of his car. His colleague walks over to help him put the handcuffs on. The black car drives off. Floyd falls briefly to the ground, the officer helps him back up before leading him towards the sidewalk where he directs floyd to sit on the ground. A parked police car shows up to the scene. Redacted body cam footage from that new officer was released by the park police chief. The officer exits the car to see his two colleagues questioning floyd and two people who were justin car. A few minutes later the officer helps floyd up off the ground. The video has no sound so we dont know what was said between the two officer and floyd in this moment. They walk him across the street back towards their squad car. Floyd falls to the ground once more. Police originally said they noticed floyd going into medical distress and called an ambulance to the scene. Another police car pulls up. Obstructing our view from this angle. Its hard to clearly see what unfolded in the next four minutes. Behind the vehicles open back door we can make out what may have been a struggle. Whatever was happening between floyd and tofrsers at that very moment caught the attention of this passerby who stops to watch. Two minutes later a witness standing on chicago avenue captures part of the scene unfolding behind the squad car. One officer looks over as three of his colleagues restrain floyd who is lying face down on the ground in handcuffs. We dont know how floyd ended up on the ground. One officer is pressing his knee into floyds neck which we see clearly in this video taken only seconds later by another witness standing in front of the restaurant. She captured the next the ten minutes of his deadly arrest up until hes and the away in an ambulance. Joining us former u. S. Attorney for the Eastern District of new york. He was also the lead prosecutor in the conviction of nypd officers that were found guilty of torturing and killing another man. I hope you had a chance to see all of the video that were able to piece together there. And you heard what the county attorney said yesterday about evidence and all of this. So do you think this would be a difficult prosecution . At the state level, no. At the federal level somewhat harder but certainly a prosecutable case. The standard that the state and federal prosecutors would have to show is different. As tom winter just explained under state law theres different types of either murder or manslaughter and some of those charges particularly the manslaughter charge does not require the prosecutors to prove that the officer intended to kill mr. Floyd if they can show whats called culpable negligence. Under federal law its different to prove what you call a civil rights murder, the federal prosecutors would have to show that the officers deliberately used Excessive Force against mr. Floyd. Not just that they were sloppy or unreasonable or negligent. That said, you know, the video that you pieced together that i watched from various angles certainly provide a lot of evidence that mr. Floyd did not resist arrest and that the force that was used on him particularly at the time you can see by the arrows on the street was clearly excessive. What might the county attorney be waiting for . What evidence is he looking at right now that would cause a delay in potential charges coming snout this has been many days now. So what hes hopefully trying to do is expeditiously as he possibly can is collect as much evidence as there is, including videos from every angle. In fact, a new video surfaces thad adds additional perspective on what happened particularly as to the role of the other three officers. Witnesses of whom there were many during this ten minute or more episode. Hes going to want to speak to the medical examiner. Hes probably going to want to speak to use of force expert because the officers are charged and defend themselves in a trial you can be sure they will find an expert to say the force they used was reasonal. So in a case like this he wants to gather as much of that evidence as he possibly can. Do as thorough a job as he possibly can. Recognizing expeditious work is plainly called for here. Not a rush to judgment but working as quickly and thoroughly as they can to bring charges and charges that are warranted. From what youve seen so far are the other officers, do they stand to be charged . I mean, maybe. It presents a more challenging case for the prosecutors. Either state or federal. Because typically, you know, people, Police Officers are charged for what they do, the actions they actually take. So for, you know, three of the officers for a certain period of time they are basically standing around. But this new video which, again, reinforces the the desirant of gathering as much evidence as they can this new video shows one of the other officers appears to be physically restraining mr. Floyd on the ground as well with a third officer very close by. So there seems to be the makings of a case by at least one if not two or all three officers from what we would call either aiding and abetting, assisting the officer in whatters doing or arguably conspiring, tacitly agreeing that they were basically going to use Excessive Force against this handcuffed an seemingly defenseless man. So thats the area where frankly the prosecutors are probably or should be spending more of their time analyzing whether or not all four of the officers can be arrested. Very quickly, the fact that they called an ambulance, because they thought he was having a medical issue, is that almost is that more damning for these Police Officers that they were being so physical with them if they were calling for medical back up . We see that. Unfortunately we see that in a number of cases, exactly what happened in the eric gardner case. So, i mean, the explanations could vary. Prosecutor would argue thats incriminating they knew they were doing serious physical harm to this man. They saw he was he bleeding, that he may have been in distress, wanted to make sure he wasnt having a heart attack or some other breathing problem. Who knows what they could come up for justification of that. Yes, its relevant but more to the point whats relevant is what were seeing right now. Thats the core of the case. The prosecutors will try to be thorough and build up evidence were looking the at the core of the case right now. Alan, who has been on this end of things having prosecuted Police Officers and did so successfully, thank you for coming on and sharing your expertise with us. Katy, a lot of news to get to. Coming up, obama just issued a statement on the death of george floyd saying this should not be normal in america in 2020. Youre watching msnbc. 2020 youre watching msnbc. Lumbia, m. We do consulting, but we also write. [szasz] we take care of ourselves constantly; its important. We walk three to five times a week, a couple miles at a time. Weve both been taking prevagen for a little more than 11 years now. After about 30 days of taking it, we noticed clarity that we didnt notice before. Its still helping me. I still notice a difference. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. Thats why usaa is giving Payment Relief options to eligible members so they can pay for things like groceries before they worry about their insurance or credit card bills. Discover all the ways were helping members today. 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Then we added an edgetoedge stainless steel bottom, so its truly dishwashersafe. Most importantly, we made it for you. Anolon. The ultimate nonstick. Get yours at anolon. Com hennepin. And this just in according to our affiliate kare, katy in minneapolis, kare 11 there, the officers the whouns knee was on george floyd has been taken into custody. They have not said what they are charging him with yet. We know theres not a charge decision. Thats the conversation that we just had. But the there had been, as you know, we had multiple Police Chiefs on here yesterday. The mayor, multiple people trying comprehend why there wasnt probable cause to bring this officer into custody. Now hes been brought into custody. We are awaiting more information thats just happened in the last, appears in the last 10 or 15 minutes. Obviously the big question is does this answer at least temporarily the protesters calls that at least quells some of the, of the outrage that weve seen in the last couple of days . Doesnt calm down, calm their anger down. We dont have any word, as you said, chuck on the specific charges. One quick note the news was announced according to tom winter by the safety commissioner. If you were watching that News Conference with the governor you would have recognized john harrington. He said he would call it murder. Thats what it looked like to him. He doesnt want to prejudice this from a criminal perspective he was just calling what i see at that point. So hes called it murder. Hes the one who has made the announcement that kare 11 our affiliate reported. Again, you know, these protesters have been calling for his arrest for him to be taken into custody for many days now. The family now of george floyd said it shouldnt just be the officer with the knee on the neck it should be the other officers involved as well. Certainly with that new video that was able to be uncovered for nbc news the other two officers also kneeling on him, that does raise questions about their involvement. As we just had mr. Vinegraft ago it might factor into more charges. Potentially that third officer just standing around. We have to wait and see from all the reporting thats out there those other three officers have not been taken into custody but, again, there the officer there with the knee on George Floyds neck is nine custody. Katy, you know i understand why they are going to be some people really distressed and only one has been arrested believing if the roles were reversed, and, you know, there were three other people next to somebody and they just happened to be private citizens that they would be swept up in Something Like this. So i understand why people are looking at this and wondering are these Police Officers continuing to get special treatment, delaying this two days is a continuation that somehow they get more benefit of the doubt or more special treatment in how this is dealt with. So lets see what more we learned, just because this is the only arrest now doesnt mean it will be the only arrest, katy. I think one of the factors when youre considering, chuck, the other officers, and certain ly the fact that george floyd was saying he couldnt breathe over and over again, audible enough for a persons smartphone video camera to pick it up, going back to the pain that this country went through after what happened in Staten Island and the i cant breathe from eric gardner, you would think that, that phrase alone would be a trigger point to make sure that what happened to eric gardner does not happen again and it wasnt a trigger point here and i think that is what is so infuriating to so Many Americans out there. Certainly the black community that it happens over and over again. Same words used. This man begging to be allowed to breathe. He cant breathe. Heard on video. By stanners walking by, telling the officers he cant breathe. And what they did was continued with the knee on the neck. They continued holding him down. That officer just looked at the people walking by and didnt go over to check the guys pulse, to make sure he was okay. I think that, that right there is one of the things in that video, there are many but one of the thing thats just so infuriating and so confounding. Back with us is tom winter with more on this breaking news. Chuck lets bring in tom. Tom, what do you have . Reporter were still awaiting to get any sort of charging documents. We dont have those at this point. I was just logging into that as you were coming to me. I check them before coming on air with you. Theres nothing yet. We do know the head county attorney, the local prosecutor who is going to bring state charges in this case, katy, has schedule ad 2 00 p. M. Press conference to discuss a new development in the case, presumably thats this arrest that has been announced. So theyve announced an arrest. I was on with you i dont know maybe 20 minutes ago detailing some initial charges that could be brought in this case and obviously this is a state case thats different from the federal case. The federal case that could potentially be brought here would require a significant amount of investigation, investigation that would go to the officers mindset, which would take more witness statements presumably, interviews with the other Police Officers that were involved, should they be inclined to speak about what happened. They have their own legal jeopardy. But from a state prosecutorial standpoint the path forward perhaps with a manslaughter in the seconddegree charge or another similar charge, at least to make an arrest here, there was a much easier path to go down and we dont yet have a public release yet. I just checked my phone on an autopsy report, but presumably before we would get it the Law Enforcement officials in minneapolis and Hennepin County which is the county where minneapolis is, would have that information. So they would have the necessary ingredients for lack of a better phrase to be able to bring charges in this case. Were waiting to get those charging documents, waiting for that press conference thats coming up to be able to get more specific details as far as what is charged here but i think the path forward given that the officer who has been named is the person who was arrested, hes the officer who had his knee on George Floyds neck, that doing that while he was in custody was really the kind of a marker there, from a legal standpoint where there could be charges. So i think thats the officer youre seeing on screen, thats the one we understand has been arrested. Well just have to wait and see here where authorities go with this. Of course as we saw from the other video that nbc news first showed you last night here on msnbc, there were three other officers and there you go. Three other officers that were involved, their participation in this is something that will undoubtedly be looked at by local authorities as well. Perhaps by federal authorities. We have no word that any of those other officers have been arrested so well have to keep watching out for that. Katy and chuck . Tom, im curious here, how relevant it is in the prosecution that essentially these Police Officers, they were investigating a nonviolent crime. A forgery. Not armed robbery. How relevant is it that they basically used Excessive Force on a nonviolent investigation . Is that relevant . Reporter its a great question and potentially quite relevant. When you go to and ive actually got the authorized use of force law here in the state of minnesota. One of the thing thats important that they ask somebody to be assessed and in the Minneapolis Police department use of force manual is the type of crime that somebody may have committed and particularly whether or not that crime that youre using the use of force to either make an arrest or keep somebody in custody, if that person is a threat to others or a threat to the officer, its very difficult and this is about active duty people that are part of major Police Departments up and down the east coast is they said this all came out of a stop for forgery. As you said, chuck. This is not a violent crime. They were not pulling him over because there was a bank robbery or not pulling them over because of an assault or something worse than that. How do we get to the point where you have somebody and you look at the video on screen right now in total control. In custody. Sitting down. Appears to be compliant to a situation where you got a knee on somebodys neck and why wasnt that person put into a police car, not that specific police car but another Minneapolis Police car and transported directly from there. From an officer safety standpoint it doesnt make any sense. It doesnt make any sense with respect to just trying to continue the judicial process. I think its something that could definitely be an ingredient. Well have to see what the specific charges are that are filed. Thats an important issue here. Tom, bizarre. You put him in handcuffs. Not sure what youre going to the to do. Not putting him in the back seat of a squad car. Thats an odd decision. Reporter police 101. Yeah, something the prosecutors would assume are combing through there. Tom winter, thank you for the latest on that and youll go back and work some sources. More reaction on the ground. Joining us from minneapolis is morgan cheskey. Word is circulating the officer has been arrested. Are your seeing any acknowledgment of that . Reporter i can tell you right now that if the news is so fresh has yet to sink into this scene here but were seeing Significant Police presence which is what we did not see last night when we were standing a new yards away from the 3rd precinct where the fires were that were offered, including the officer who was taken into custody. We dont know where he was taken. Formal charges have be filed but the crowd significantly more peaceful than what weve seen in the past several days. That said there are individuals who approached police, shouting at them, trying to spread whatever message they want to send today. Meanwhile Police Holding their lines in that riot gear as you see behind me and if we push in a little bit you can get a bit of a peek at the damage that was left behind. Ten square blocks were impacted from wednesday night into thursday morning. And were still waiting the true toll of what happened from thursday morning or thursday night into friday morning. We know that numerous buildings were burned, and fire trucks still on the scene, trying to put out southeast hot spots that linger in some of these Historic Buildings that stood for decades and that no longer do today simply because of this anger that boiled over last night that lasted throughout the entire night into the Morning Hours and today with the news of the officer being taken into custody, uneasy watch and wait to see how this crowd reacts to that. Well scene it back to you. Morgan, its katy. How are the police reacting today . Have there been sydney interactions between those on the street right now that youve witnessed . Reporter katy, interactions weve seen have been strictly one side coming from the protesters side approaching the police. Again, shouting at them. Meanwhile police are remaining in formation at this point in time. The big difference from what im seeing from yesterday to today is the presence of the sheer numbers of officers. We know that officers responded yesterday closer to the precinct in kind of an isolated manner. If there was an incident cruisers would roll up, officers would get out, spread the crowd back, address the issue and then retreat away from the crowd. Today were seeing state police out in full force maintaining a very strong perimeter which is what we did not see yesterday night when those hundred of protesters helped each other to basically break inside of that 3rd precinct building. Im sorry to interrupt you. We have other breaking news. Former Vice President joe biden is speaking on the death of george floyd and the situation unfolding in medicine. We heard the heard and they heard them, i cant breathe. An act of brutality so elemental, it did more than deny one more black man in america his civil rights and human rights. It denied him of his very humanity. Denied him of his life. Depriving george floyd as it deprived eric gardner. One of the things every human being must be able to do, breathe. So simple. So basic. So brutal. Same thing happened with aubrey, same think with breonna taylor, some think with george floyd. We spoke their names out loud. We bring them into longsuffering hearts. The latest edition of endless stolen potential wiped out unnecessarily. You know its a list that dates back more than 400 years. Black men, black women, black children, original sin of this country still stains our nation today and sometimes we manage to overlook it. We just push forward with a thousands of other tasks in our daily life but its always the there. Weeks like this we see it plainly, that were a country with an open wound. None of us can turn away. None of us can be silent. None of us can any longer can we hear the words i cant breathe and do nothing. We cant fail victims like, you know, Martin Luther king called the appalling silence of good people. Every day africanamericans go about their lives with constant anxiety and wondering who will be next . Imagine if every time your husband or son, wife or daughter left the house, you feared for their safety from bad actors and bad police. Imagine if you had to have that talk with your child about not asserting your rights, taking abuse handed out to them so, just so they can make it home. Imagine having police call on you just for sitting in starbucks or running an airbnb or watching birds. You know, this is the norm black people in this country deal with. They dont have to imagine it. The anger and frustration and the exhaustion, its undeniable. But thats not america. Its longtime we made the promise in this nation real for all people. This. Time f no time for tweets. This is a National Crisis and we need real leadership, leadership that will bring everyone to the table so we can take measures. Its time for us to take a hard look at the uncomfortable truths. Its time for us to face that deep open wound we have in this nation. We he need justice for george floyd. We need real police reform. Hold cops to a higher standard that so many meet. That hold bad cops accountable and repairs relationship between Law Enforcement and the community, they are sworn to protect. We need to stand up as a nation with the black community, with all minority communities and come together as one america. Thats the challenge we face. You know, its going to require those of us who sit in some position of influence to finally deal with the abuse of power. The pain is too immense for one community to bear alone. I believe its the duty of every american to fwrgrapple with and grapple with now. With our complacency and silence were complicit in perpetuating these cycles of violence. Nothing will be easy or comfortable. If we allow this wound to scab over once more without treating underlying injury, well never truly heal. The very soul of america is at stake. We must commit as a nation to pursue justice without, with every and every ounce of being. We have to pursue it with real urgency. Got to make real the promise, america. Which will not fully grasp that all men and women are equal not only in creation but throughout their lives. Again, to georges family, thanks for taking the the time to talk to me. I promise you, i promise you, well do everything in our power to see to it that justice is had. Your brother, your cousins case. God love you all and folks we got to stand up, got to move. Got to change. That was joe biden making that statement to public on that front, also essentially letting us know hes spoken privately with the family of george floyd. The Vice President , the form are Vice President will be speaking with craig melvin oneonone today at 5 00 p. M. And well bring that interview to you live. Lets bring in Gabe Gutierrez who is also live on the ground in minneapolis. We dont have gabe right now. Katy, we see there the former Vice President , again, informing us, hes talked with family members of george floyd. That is significant. Made the statement that de. Be very interesting to hear how the president addresses this in about 20 minutes at some point. And well let others notice the contrast. Yeah. And he said the original sin of this country still stains our nation today. He said that if we stand by and rehanes silent we are complicit. I thought it was really interesting that he brought in the starbucks situation. That he brought in the bird watching situation from justice the other day where black men were just trying to exist and had the cops called on them through no fault of their own. Lets bring in nbc news correspondent tremendoaine. This story has overtaken everything, its overtaken the pandemic. Its on muchs minds. Its on everyones lips. From your perspective, from the conversations that youve been having, what can you tell us . Reporter to hear Vice President joe biden articulate at any time way he did and contrast that with Donald Trumps tweets, when the looting starts the shooting starts. We saw the outrage last night in minnesota. But i think at the root of it is we have never known a time when Police Officers went into White Communities and vigilants shot down white sons and brothers. Weve never known a time when black Police Officers and white officers have gone into peoples homes and shot them dead in their beds. Weve never known a time when Police Officers went into White Communities and put their knees on the necks of sons and fathers and brothers and saw the life seep out of them. Thats routine in black america. Weve never not known that kind of policing in our country. So when you see the rage and you see the anger and you see the burning buildings and theres concern about those buildings, theres concern about the bodies, the broken bodies. And we tell our children this is america. Theres an inference there. Are we less than if they can kill us in the treat. Are we less than if they can do it on camera and look up as people are saying he cant breathe. People are left with very little choice. As we sit through another morning in america and sift through the mess of america that we never cleaned up, this is what you get. So when you see young people, theres an old saying that if the village done embrace a child, the child will burn the village down to feel its warmth. Black america is needing to feel some warmth and when you see the young who are you know they are caught up in emotion and out there and doing things possibly in an irresponsible man per. Thats their voice. We had this image from minneapolis on top of one of the buildings can you hear us now. This is what took our cameras into the face of this. When the Campaign Cycle was going on in 2014 and 2015 after freddie gray we went to politics. Black people were still being killed by police. Black people were still being killed every day in america. Because of covid19 and had a chance to sit back we once again shifted that camera, shifted the lens to whats happening to black people every single day in america. This time as we know we covered from Trayvon Martin and freddie gray, this time is different because we started off with Ahmaud Arbery being killed in georgia about by two vigilantes in america. Then a call for allies for anyone who loves america and wants to see america to live up to the ideals of what america is you shown be able to breathe either. Talking to folks even those of us who are journalists, this just feels like a waeight that were struggling to get from under. Stick with us here. I want to bring in Gabe Gutierrez who is live on the ground in minneapolis. At this point i would assume a lot more smartphones have gone off and the news of the officers arrest has got to be starting to make its way around. Are you noticing any change or any reaction to this news . Reporter so far not yet. Right now people are still gathering around here looking around. Again this is the scene where all or some of that violence happened overnight. Multiple buildings were on fire here. I can tell you, chuck, what we have noticed theres more and more anger after that News Conference a short time ago where state authorities essentially the governor and the state authorities lobbed some criticism at the local authorities, criticized the mayor here for not calling in the National Guard sooner. I found it very interesting. It was quite remarkable to me to hear the governor openly criticize local leaders here in minneapolis and st. Paul that didnt move on it sooner. Again, if i can show you more of the scene here. You can see these are state patrol right here that have really, after midnight, actually several others later around 5 00 a. M. Local time is when we were here they set up this perimeter. Several buildings in this area were on fire and what many residents here were asking, we spoke with them throughout the morning, some were so emotional, chuck, telling us that they could not understand why there was not more of a Police Presence earlier in the night when that Police Precinct started burning. When the protesters in some pockets started rioting and really started to move around with impunity. It wasnt until much later in the morning that these authorities started to come in and try to restore some order. So, again, several questions remain right now as we await that announcement from state authorities and possible charges against this officer, hearing that hes been and the into custody. A lot of questions right now within this community here. Number one, is he potentially the officer charged . With that new video that came up yesterday, we saw two of the other officers on the ground side by side with officer chauvin. What charges might they face . A lot of unanswered questions. The word is starting to trickle out around this crowd that one of the officers has been taken into custody. Again, theyre waiting to see details. Theyre really just trying to process this scene, chuck. Katy, when you look around, this you know, we heard it over and over again throughout the morning that people in this community feel like this is a war zone. They do not want this violence to escalate. They were begging state and local authorities for some answers. They were begging for these officers to be charged. And they could not understand why the police, where firefighters had to leave this area yesterday essentially allow so many of this community to be burned down. But again, the governor criticizing local officials just a short time ago. We have yet to hear the mayors response. So that should be interesting throughout this afternoon. Were waiting to hear, again, from the president as well and the state authorities on these possible charges against this officer, chuck. So thats where we are right here. You can still feel the haze from what happened this morning. And theres a lot of questions here whether whatever charges may come, will that be enough to quell the tension here and perhaps deescalate the violence that we have been seeing for the last two nights, chuck. Gain, not to be cynical here, but are there those in the crowds that youve been talking to who have felt like this was a story that would have gone away too quickly if they didnt take to the streets if, this violence wasnt there if, they didnt force this to the front pages and on to 24hour cable news . Do they feel like this was what was necessary in order to make it heard that this sort of thing, killing a man who was in custody, not armed, while its being filmed in broad daylight is not acceptable. Or is there a con sense why what happened last night was too much, too far and did more harm than good . Certainly, katy, that is a very complex question. Most of the people here are were peaceful protesters. And they are frustrated with the amount of violence that happened last night. However, there are some that if they dont condone it, they understand it. They understand that frustration and what drove some of the protesters here to get violent and to riot in some parts of this community. We heard from the Minnesota Attorney general a short time ago and he says this is perhaps what it took for some in the crowd to be heard. And again, while it is not something to be condoned, it is something to be understood. I will point out its been very emotional to speak to the residents here. You see that building that is being doused with water over there in the distance . The roof just collapsed in that building a couple hours ago. I was speaking with a woman here who lived here for more than a decade. She said that was a nativeamerican nonprofit that had had been here for decades, almost 40 years. Just down the street from that, there was an Indian Restaurant that was destroyed. These were peoples livelihoods in the middle of a pandemic, these businesses were destroyed. And theres a frustration that note just george floyd, the tragic death of george floyd but now this community is bearing the brunt of this inaction on the part of government officials. And theres a lot of questions on why that was allowed to happen when they knew that after that News Conference yesterday from the fbi and from those state officials not announcing any charges, why did it take so many hours for this state patrol and for these state authorities to crack down and to restore order here . This is not a surprise, katy. The violence that happened last night, there are buildings that burned down just over there. The Police Precinct is over there. For local authorities not to understand that the frustration, that the anger, that the outrage in this community wasnt expected to boil over last night, fra night, frankly, i dont understand it. This is a powder keg that was really waiting to explode last night. And thats exactly what happened. Katy . Gave gutierrez on the ground there, gabe, thank you. Katy, were awaiting we have two News Conference weerzs wer expecting in the next hour. We have those from state officials in minnesota and also expected to hear from the president and it appears it was initially about hong kong, no doubt, you would assume the president will have something to say about the events that have taken place at least in this last hour with the arrest of one officer in the death of george floyd. Lets sneak in a quick commercial break here and when we come back, again, were awaiting both of those News Conferences. Both of tseho News Conferences. Killer attitude. Or hydration. Neutrogena® hydro boost. The 1 hyaluronic acid moisturizer delivers 2x the hydration for supple, bouncy skin. Neutrogena®. You should be mad at tech that makes things worse. But youre not, because you have e trade whose tech makes life easier by automatically adding technical patterns on charts and helping you understand what they mean. Dont get mad, get e trade. Good afternoon. Im chuck todd alongside katy tur. Its 11 00 a. M. Out west and 2 00 p. M. In the east. Were awaiting for two News Conference this is hour. One out of the white house where the president could face some questions about the unrest in minnesota. The other in minneapolis where we expect to hear from the county attorney. On the development this afternoon that former officer Derek Chauvin seen here in the video of George Floyds detainment and death is now been taken into custody. The officer who has been identified as Derek Chauvin in if the death of mr. Floyd has been taken into custody by the bca. Protests sparked by floyds death turned fiery last night as thousands of demonstrators expressed rage. Today buildings are smoldering across the twin cities and the National Guard and local Police Forces are patrolling the streets. Lets go to minneapolis now where our nbc news correspondent is standing by. So, morgan, news of this arrest its now been about a half hour. You have spoken to anybody there . Have they gotten the news . Is there a feeling that this arrest is going to calm things down . I spoke to two men that drove in from st. Paul today to try to clean up the mess themselves and see the aftermath left behind as a result of the protests. And when i told them that Derek Chauvin had been taken into custody, they didnt know. I said does that change anything how can you feel today . They said they can hope so but far too soon that they believe its a step in the right direction and that people will be held accountability in the death of george floyd. It is too early to see what will play out. Charges have yet filed. Right now were a quarter mile from the target that was looted yesterday and then caught fire. The state police behind me, a significant presence here that we did not see yesterday. And just beyond that, you can see that firetruck doing mopup duty. Trying to put out the hot spots that are still burning at this hour. That building that they were putting out recently collapsed within the last few minutes. And this is one of countless examples of the destruction that we saw last night, katy, chuck. We do know that fire crews had to come out today because there were instances last night that due to the crowd size firefighters simply couldnt get in and be able to do their job. Meanwhile, crowds were left to kind of roam unchecked throughout this part of southern minneapolis. And its a bleak morning for so many people as they see just how much pain is continuing to be felt in this neighborhood and in this entire city. Katy . Chuck . Morgan, thank you for that. And, chuck, this story just not going anywhere. No, it wont. It wont, thats for sure. Does it seem as if ill tell you, there are different points where this thing went bate off the rails with officials in minnesota. One of the points is yesterday evening when they said we expect to announce something and they did nothing. And one wonders if today looks like cleanup on the minnesota officials part and if it will lack some credibility with some in the community on this front. I think that is something that is were testing that premise, i think, today. Meanwhile, the governor of minnesota accused President Trump of fanning the protests. Only for that tweet to be flagged as well. Lets bring in nbcs ha ins nickals from the white house. I dont want to talk about the ridiculous twitter feed at this point. What is the white house reaction to what were seeing in minnesota . And is there any regret that reposting on the white house twitter page means he has no regret about threatening protesters on twitter . . No public regret and, chuck, i think you covered this place long enough to understand that President Trump even when he thinks he might have made a mistake is very unlikely to admit it. I agree with you not lets get into twitter. But it does give you a sense of the president s frame of mind. He is likely to escalate now the stated purpose of this press conference is to talk about actions on china. We can expect the president to top off the remarks on thafrment but everyone inside the west wing knows that minnesota and the president s reaction and what he did last night is going to be front and center. You mentioned what the governors said criticizing the president. They actually spoke. Lets have a listen to that in full and talk on the back end. Its not helpful. I did speak to the president last evening. At that point in time it was in the process of where i said we were going to assume control of this. That it was unnecessary. I did not know he was going to tweet. He certainly can. Its just not helpful. Its not helpful. In the moment where were at, in a moment that is so volatile, anything we do to add fuel to that fire is really, really challenging. So note that he spoke to the president before the president issued that tweet. Hes now criticizing him. Well see if the president returns fire there and returns that criticism. What officials are saying a version of what the president is going to say and im just going to sort of couch this as carefully as kishgs chui can, c president meant to suggest that any time you have looting, that leads to violence. Thats going to be the argument. Lets see how the president says it. Lets see how he pressed on it. And lets see what other surprises the white house has for us. They typically, and we know this from president donald trump, they like to distract and come up with new subjects for us to discuss. Guys . Hans, give us the Historical Context for once there is looting there will be shooting. It was Peter Alexander was reporting from very early on this morning, it comes from a mayor in florida during the riots and i believe 67. It was meant and taken as a clear warning to the looters and to the community to people that there could be harmful state sanctioned consequences, namely by the gun. So the extent to which the president tries to walk away from that and use language that is perhaps a little softer and suggesting that and again this is what we expect him to do. How credible this argument is not for me to say. But we xbeexpect the president say what he meant to say is simply because because theres looting, there will be violence. Thats the argument theyre going it try to push. There will be a host of other things that the president is going to weigh in at. Its a little bit late. The president was supposed to start at 2 00. I suspect were in for a long back and forth with the president from his twitter feed is in a combative frame of mind. Right. Hans, very quickly, lets talk about the intentional news that i guess the secretary of state is being brought with the president on here. What are we leveling on hong kong and china . Theres a range of options that theyve been thinking about. Ranging from the extreme or rather stringent on what to do in terms of sanctions, on maybe capital controls. If hong kong is basically loses autonomy, all the off shore, access to cap hall markets i have to interrupt you. We have a conference. Minnesota won. Theyre first. Im mike freeman. Im here to announce that former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin is in custody. Former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin has been charged by the county Attorneys Office with murder and with manslaughter. Questions . Yes, what charge of murder . He had been charged with third degree murder. We are in the process of continuing to review the evidence. There may be subsequent charges later. I fauld iled to share with you. A detailed complaint will be made available to you this afternoon. I didnt want to wait any longer to share the news that hes in custody and has been charged with murder. What about the other three officers involved . The other the investigation is on going. We felt it appropriate to focus on the most dangerous perpetrator. I must say that this case has moved with extraordinary speed. This conduct this criminal action took place on monday evening, may 25th, memorial day. Im speaking to you at 1 00 on friday, may 29th. Thats less than four days. Thats extraordinary. We have never charged a case in that kind of time frame. And we can only charge a case when we have sufficient admissible evidence to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. As of right now, we have that. Give her a followup. Many people including the mayor have said that any or citizen with the Video Evidence available would have been arrested and held while awaiting charges earlier. Why didnt that happen in this case . We have charged this case as quickly as sufficient admissible evidence to charge it has been investigated and presented to us. You said yesterday it is going to take time. What changed between yesterday and this morning . Now were seeing murder charges against Derek Chauvin . Fair question. We have now been able to put together the evidence that we need. Even as late as yesterday afternoon, we didnt have all that we needed. We have now found it and we felt a responsibility to charge this as soon as possible. Paul . Mike, what was the final piece . Folks, im not going to talk specifically about this piece of evident or that piece of evidence. You will see, you all are veterans, i can only talk about what is in the complaint. You will see in the complaint the evidence and put it all together. We needed to have it all. Now, let me just quickly say that we have evidence. We have the citizens cameras, video, horrible thing weve seen over and over again. We have the officers body worn camera. We have statements from some witnesses. We have a preliminary report from the medical examiner. The we have discussions with an expert. All of that has come together so we felt in our professional judgement it was time to charge and we have so done. Based on the other officers role in the video, what criminal statutes two apply to those officers . Im not going to speculate today on the other officers. Theyre under investigation. I anticipate charges. But im not going to get into that. Today were talking about former officer Derek Chauvin which we believe has met the standards to be charged and thats what we have done. Whoa. Whoa. How closely did you look at the Second Degree statutes . Intentional or unintentional on the surfacing this videotape evide evidence we have all seen . We have looked very closely at all statutes. This is what we charged now. Investigation is on going. We have more discussions to do with our experts. This is the same charges that we made when we charged former Minneapolis Police officer Mohammed Noor. The same manslaughter charge. Ive seen you charge things faster. Ive seen you charge cases faster than four days. Are you saying this is the fastest you ever charged a Police Officer . This is by far the fastest we ever charged a Police Officer. Normally the cases can take nine months to a year. Beswre to char we have to charge the case vs vy difficult because we have a difficult burden of proof. Let me Say Something about that. We entrust our Police Officers to use certain amounts of force to do their job, to protect us. They commit kraa criminal act i they use this force unreasonably. With v we have to prove that beyond a reasonable doubt. This is one of the few prosecuted offices in this country to successfully prosecute a Police Officer for murder. And we did that on behalf of justine damon. Thats unusual. We know how to do this. We have a very veteran prosecutor group aided by a very veteran Investigative Group at the bca. On top of that, weve had great cooperation from the fbi and from United States attorney general erica mcdonald. She may have things to share with you soon. But she does that on her own timetable. I want to say to you that im very pleased about that level of cooperation. Which, frankly, ill say to you, doesnt necessarily happen in other jurisdictions according to my friends in the national prosecutors. One last one. The investigation took months, close to a year. This takes days. Did public outrage play a role in the speed of this investigation . I am not insensitive to what has happened in the streets. My own home is picketed regularly. My job is to do it only when we have sufficient evidence. We have it today. Mohammed nur was a very difficult case. We didnt have the kind of videotape we need. And we didnt and there was all sorts of other evident. It took us a long time. We do our level best to charge each case when we have the evidence to do it. But we cannot and i will not allow us to charge a case until its ready. This case is now ready and we have charged it. You want to make clear that the complaint has not yet been signed. S in process. When its done, when its ready, well get it you to. Good. Thank you. Let me say so you have it. The complaint has been completed and it is being processed now. And the signed copy will be made available to you today. Okay. You have given a statement to investigators about the other three . Thank you, everybody. There you heard it. That is the county attorney mike freeman who 24 hours ago said they didnt have the evidence and now says they do. The charges are this third degree murder charge and a manslaughter charge against the former Police Officer Derek Chauvin. He says the he anticipates some charges on the other three officers. That was he seemed to hint at that. And, katy, i thought it was it would have been probably disingenuous if he didnt say that in the speed of making these charges as he said he was not insensitive to the mood in the public on that front. So it is interesting to me that he wanted to make the case of how fast he moved. And obviously, that has to do with what was the uncomfortable statement he made yesterday which was hinting that there was somehow evidence that was that might have been accusing. And then here we are. So i did note a tone of defensiveness there on the speed with which these charges were brought. Yeah. He refused to say what evidence came to light in the last 24 hours that made it able for them to bring charges. He did underscore the speed with which they brought the charges. He said it was four days. Normally to charge a Police Officer, kit tait can take nines or more. He underscored the same charges brought against Mohammed Noor who was charged with killing a woman named justine laymanned back in 2017. Noor, i believe got sentenced to 12 1 2 years in prison. That was a very different case. There wasnt the amount of video that were seeing. There was some video in that story. Lets bring in paul butler, professor at Georgetown School of law and former federal prosecutor. He is the author of choke hold policing black men. He is also an msnbc legal analyst. Can you just explain what the charge of third degree murder means . In minnesota, third degree murder is a depraved act with indifference to human life. Like putting your knee on the neck of someone who is in handcuffs. So the charge seems appropriate to what we know about the case. The maximum sentence is 25 years in prison. Voluntary manslaughter is Something Else that prosecutors suggested. Thats going to be on the table. There the maximum penalty is 15 years. And so the interest of justice, this is a necessary first step but its not sufficient. Were still a long way away from criminal conviction and punishment. Paul, was it is it better for the prosecution to there was a question in there, why didnt you go for Second Degree . Is there an argument to be made of, you know, make sure charge him with what you know with what you think he can get a conviction with and then let me ask you this. What evidence would be necessary in your mind to then have them amp up the charge to a seconddegree murder . So for seconddegree murder, there has to be more evidence of an intent to kill or extreme recklessness. Intent to kill i think is difficult in a case like this. Youd have to prove that the officer knew that what he was doing was dangerous, extremely dangerous to mr. Floyds life. Now i might be able to prove that if i were the prosecutor. Its a tough thing to prove. Murder itself certainly shows some significance. The fact that if this officer is convicted, he will be called a murderer means something. I dont think people will focus as much on whether hes a Second Degree murderer or a third degree murderer. Again, the really difficult thing is going to be to get the conviction. I find that video that were playing so inkridbcredibly diff to watch and incredibly difficult to watch the other officers stand by as its happening. You just heard mr. Freeman say that he expects there to be charges against those three men that theyre currently still under investigation. He didnt speculate what the charges might be. The can you give us an idea according to minnesota statute what would be the in range of things . So they could be charged with being aiders and abetters to this former Police Officer. So accessory to murder. They could also be charged with lesser offenses, reckless endangerment, negligent homicide which carries a significantly lower sentence. And so it will be very interesting to see what these other officers are charged with and why is that taking so long . What we know from the charges that were announced to day is that there isnt anything in the videos that we have not seen. So not all of the Police Dash Cam videos have been released. But certainly the police and prosecutors have seen those videos and upon viewing those videos they decided on day one to fire those officers and now three or four days later to charge one of the officers with murder. So whatever is on the video that we havent seen sounds like its extremely incriminating. Paul butler, again, a former prosecutor on this front. Paul butler at Georgetown University now, author of the book choke hold, thank you for coming on and sharing your expertise. I have a feeling well be checking in quite a bit. So thank you. Nc joining me now is msnbc weekend afrpgzor thnchor that c protests all night long. Ali, im going to ask you what im asking everybody on the streets right now, has word trickled out that Derek Chauvins been charged with third degree murder . So its trickling out. Theres a small crowd here which is what has happened in the last few days during the day. So last night when we left there were active fires burning. Im about three blocks away from the Police Station as you know the Police Station was burning. There was a block next it to on fire. What we see is the fire engines being able to come in and put out fires. There are several more than we were able to see. You can see a state presence behind me. National guard presence here and jersey barriers that are being put in. So yesterday when i got here, there were fewer of these types of barriers. Now they put these solid barriers in to try to stop people from coming into the area. However, as word of this trick ams out, there are protests developing in different parts of the city. There are different focus uses focuses of attention. And then this is the sort of the attentionst peop attention of the people that are most frustrated with the police. So i will say this. There is the moment seems to be as big Law Enforcement presence as there is a protester presence. But thats the nature of the day. Of as it gets later and later, were likely to see more protesters out here. I that i there was a fear that if an arrest was not forthcoming by tonight that the tension level would be higher than it was last night. And one thing that we pointed out last night was that there was no presence of authority anywhere around here. There were no firefighters. There were no National Guard or state police or local police. The obviously that, changed. The Police Presence, National Guard presence is heavy and strong. Were yet to see how that develops throughout the course of the day. There is a strategic decision not to engage with the protesters last night. Is this the only place that police are out in such force in this area . Or are there other areas . Are they worried about potential neighborhoods or location thats could become hot spots tonight . Yeah. And this is the hottest of this spot. Its not one particular place. About three blocks over there is a Police Station. That intersection in front of the third Police Station which was taken over by protesters last night was the focus of attention. Theres a precinct, there is a parking lot with a shopping mall. Thats where everybody was gathering. That seemed to be the hot spot. I want to point out, were three wlo blocks away. This is a residential neighborhood. There is a lot of industry and buildings. But there is a fear if the fires are let to run their course and you cant get firefighters in here that, could cause a danger. I think what theyre trying to do is get a handle on the idea if things get hot again tonight, we dont know if they will and they may not with the announcement of the arrest. I think they want to figure out how to protect these areas. The mayor said even though we dont have the third precinct, we still have the ability to ensure safety and security for the people of the third. And i certainly tell you having been here on the streets last night, when i heard that, i said that doesnt make sense. There was no way to enforce the law last night on these streets. Clearly there is a different message out here right now. But it does appear that these Police Officers are not you know, i think they made a strategic decision last night not to engage with protesters. Now they staked out this ground largely before the protesters arrived. Well have to see how this pans out and what that official announcement the official release of the charges against Derek Chauvin look like and what the response to that is going to be. Ali in minneapolis. Stay safe. Joining us is former Baltimore Mayor. She led the city at the time of freddy grays death. Madam mayor, thank you very much for being with us today. I just want to get your reaction to the charges im pleased that the states attorney saw the errors of the way yesterday and made those charges. We watched on video a man being murdered by the police. So i dont think he could avoid much longer making those charges. Do you think that this is going to be enough to calm the tensions in that city . I think thats hard to say. Unlike in baltimore, we, you know, i was i am africanamerican woman. Wez have we have an africanamerican police chief, africanamerican prosecutor, africanamerican president of the city council. We elected federal leaders, state leaders all from the community that joined with Community Leaders and faith leaders to work with the community to say that we wanted justice. Wez would fig we would fight for justice but we have to protect the city and neighborhoods. Thats why we were able to keep the unrest the riots to one evening. And thats also why i was very intentional about the use of force. I took a lot of heat at the time. But i did not, you know, the police did not shoot one rubber bullet. Not one can of tear gas was used. That was intentional. I knew what would happen if things escalated. And were watching it happen right now in minneapolis. Stephanie, im curious, i heard in a previous interview you talked about the struggles that how complicated it is to bring when youre bringing charges against either current or former Police Officer and take us behind the scenes of freddy gray and give us a sense of that tension that is inevitable when a Community Wants to see action fast. Youre trying to be methodical with the evidence. You had to walk that line. It is a very careful line that you have to walk. But it is important to get it right. The challenge in baltimore unlike in minneapolis where it is on video, we did not have a full video. So there had to be very thorough investigation and in baltimore unlike in minneapolis. I think all but one of the officers made statements. They did not plead the fifth you take every step and being careful and making sure youre doing everything can you to ensure that justice is served. Im curious. Youre watching this. You learned lessons. Give some advice to mayor jacob frye right now. Im pained when i hear him speak. I hear the pain in his heart. I would advise him to lean on his community. When you talk to the people on the street, they dont want their stores destroyed. They dont want their community destroyed. They want justice. But you have to walk arm in arm with them to ensure that happened. And thats what i did. I leaned very heavily, like i said, on our faith leaders of every denomination from every corner of the city with Community Leaders that stood with me to say that we will make sure that this investigation happens. We will make sure but like in baltimore, that meaningful reform is put in place. You know, we you have to you have to walk arm in arm with the community. You have to respect the anger that these people that these Community Members feel. You have to use policing in response to that. That protects lives. And what im seeing is very dangerous in minneapolis right now. Yeah. We have to remember its generational anger. This isnt just anger in the moment. This is built in. This is deepseated. Former Baltimore Mayor stephanie rawlingsbla rawlingsblake, we appreciate you. Stay safe. Thank you. Thank you. Katy, wait until you see this one. President trump just tweet aid few minutes ago. And i want to read you the tweets. Its sort of a walk back or at least not a walk back for the president but youll see. Heres what he tweeted. Looting leads to shooting. And thats why a man was shot and killed in minneapolis on wednesday night. Or look at what just happened in louisville with seven people shot. I dont want this to happen. And thats what the expression put out last night means. It was spoken as a fact not as a statement. Its very simple. Nobody should have any problem with this other than the haters and those looking to cause trouble on social media on to the memory of george floyd. Katy, he never wants to regret anything and we know he doesnt ever want to apologize for anything. I guess this is the closest you can come to him realizing his words his choice of words were bad. And hes trying to figure out how to deescalate them. You know, i was just look teg clock. Its 2. 306789 2 30 in the afternoon. It was given a warning by twitter, it glorifies violence. He retweeted the same thing on the official white house twitter account even after that warning. Even after the outcry, even after it was pointed out the history of that phrase which ill tell you right now, i had never heard. Looting leads to shooting. I wonder where the president heard that phrase. And then i guess i cant do the math, but multiple hours later, well into the mid afternoon, as im presuming its being talked about a lot on cable news and a lot on social media, the president is now tweeting this. I wonder by the way, katy . Its worth noting he was supposed to start a press conference at 2 00 on hong kong. Yeah. These tweets are time stamped at 2 20. So this is obviously its almost like hes trying to anticipate question one and then so now for the reporters out there, hell say okay, we know you said x. So he is clearly trying to at least shape what is going to be a contentious back and forth. Well, check, were still waiting on that News Conference. We have it down on the screen below us. Were watching out for the president. Hes going to be in the rose garden at any minute. Were going to take a very quick break. Dont go anywhere. Break. Dont go anywhere. Its velveeta shells cheese versus the other guys. Clearly, velveeta melts creamier. Ibut youre not alone. Apart for a bit, were automatically refunding our customers a portion of their personal auto premiums. Learn more at libertymutual. Com covid19. [ piano playing ] now every bath fitter bathbath fis installed quickly, safely, and beautifully, with a lifetime warranty. Go from old to new. From worn to wow. The beautiful bath youve always wanted, done right, installed by one expert technician, all in one day. Weve been creating moments like these for 35 years, and were here to help you get started. Book your free virtual or inhome Design Consultation today. And were still waiting on that News Conference from president donald trump. He is scheduled to speak in the rose garden at the white house right now. Last hour, former president barack obama released a statement on the death of george floyd. The president wrote in part, it is natural to wish for life to just get back to normal as a pandemic and economic crisis up end everything around us. But we have to remember that for millions of americans, being treated differently on account of race is tragically painfully maddingly normal. Chuck . Yeah. I mean, its look, we have two viruses, one is an original virus that we have yet to get rid of in this country. Joining us now is msnbcs joshua johnson. I want to start off with something that someone was wrote about yesterday and its really the dilemma has ive been wrestling with it. Im curious with you and he clearly is wrestling with it. And that is these videos. Its important that White America see the videos. Its posh that yimportant that videos because justice has an opportunity to be done in minnesota. And, yet, hearing George Floyds friend Stephen Jackson former nba player just lose it when he realized that George Floyds daughter has to see that forever. Its always there. Its torture for black america to see this constantly like this. Where is your head on this, joshua . I get it. I totally get it. I see what hes talking about. Part of what had been hoped as result of this the proliferation of these is that by seeing more of these incidents more or less closer to real time, sooner from the moment that they actually happen that we would have more of a sense of agency to do something about them and that Law Enforcement officers would feel a little bit more put upon to think before they acted. There is historical precedent for that. We think about, you know, emmitt till killed down in mississippi for whistling at a white woman. And one of the most gruesome pictures youll environment sear is the picture of his mutilated body manning willed beyond all recognition on the cover of jet magazine and inside in a twofold article to make sure the nation could see what happened. Things do change as a result of video and visual evidence. The emmitt till murder sensitized the nation in a different way. The commemoration on the bridge in whiches in footage made the way around the country helped spur action that helped lead to the Civil Rights Act in 1965. These thing dozen make a difference. I think what has people frustrated in part is, a, that they dont make a better difference faster. And, b, that Law Enforcement is still very hard to hold accountable in situations like this. Its very difficult to get a Police Officer convicted of murder or manslaughter or anything environment that ilk and has been for decades. You will remember mcduffy killed by four Police Officers. They ran over the motorcycle and made it look like he skidded off the road. Cracked his skull. The medical examiner said this man didnt die of a crash. He was killed. This is a homicide. They stood trial. The officers and some cases were granted immunity. It took an all white jury a matter of hours to convict all of them and then black parts of miami began to burn. That was 40 years ago this month. The mcduffy riots. Im so glad you brought that up. Because i cant tell you how much ive been rethinking about that. You know, i think im a little older than you. But we had three of these in miami in the 08s. The first what youre describing with mcduffy is the first one. It was a big one. And i just thought about all of these riots that cities or all of the protest thats ended up getting violent, excuse me on some of the words. And it just now we have videotape to prove. Ive just thought about like if only we did have video then. Part of it is if only we had had video. The other part is the storytellers. When the mcduffy murder happened, there were people that were turning away white reporters. You had some that were able to get into the neighborhoods and tell the story because they were black. The community trusted them to tell the story. Thats another issue as whether or not we are good stewards of the stories of people in communities that are affected. Once you have the video, its a matter of what the prosecutors say. We just heard the attorney talk about the impact of video on this case compared to the noor case. He said in the career he had never seen a case move so fast. So this might be a turning point. We remember there was video in cases of eric garner and any number of other cases. Tamir rice shot by a cleveland Police Officer that was charged. It ended in a mistrial. So clearly the evidence is not enough. Black people have been getting written out of the story since before we were a nation. Think about the boston massacre. There were a group of patriots throwing snow balls at british soldiers. They opened fire and who was killed first . A black man. Who was drawn out of one the early version whafz happens of in the bass ton massacre. He was later drawn back in. Just because there is evidence of what happens does not mean that the legal infrastructure around that evidence or the case law that leads up to the prosecution is geared to allow for the officers to be convicted. Part of this is public sentment. Part is the law. Part is case law. Part of it is the nature of the charges. You hear the degrees of murder. There is also a manslaughter charge. Im interested to hear what kind of manslaughter . First degree manslaughter in minnesota is kind of like a crime of passion. You know, a person comes home and sees their spouse in bed with someone, kills them both. First degree manslaughter. Second degree manslaughter is more involuntary. Two hunters out. One hunters gun goes out and kills the other, Second Degree manslaughter. Which was this . First or second . Its third degree murder which is not intent. Its not a premedicated intentional murder. Its unintentional but with a depraved perspective towards human life. So how do you define what were looking at right now . If i have my knee on your neck and im intending to restrain you, what does the law say about whether or not i have made peace with the idea of killing you . How does your race factor into that . Thats a really open question still in the eyes of the law. I dont know if this case will move us any closer to an answer. Josh, let me ask you about this. This was a number that took both me and my husband back last night as we were discussing what was going on. One in 1,000, there is a one in 1,000 chance in recent years for a black man or boy to die at the hands of a Police Officer. Thats better odds than a lot of scratch tickets. And ski this question of a couple of police chief and a sheriff yesterday. I asked why does this continue to happen to black men . I got round about answers from both of them. Why does this continue to happen to black men, especially when you look at statistics in a one in 1,000 chance of dying at the hand of a cap . The difference is not that it happens, its the response. Its that more people think to record it. Its that more people think to take to the streets and protest. Even if the protests in minneapolis went down in violence which is not excusable. Even the fact that people of all races decided that that was an action worth taking, thats the change . If were honest with ourselves, this nation has never fully decided to value the lives of people who look like me equally to lives of people who look like you. We see it in any number of ways, including the fight against covid19. Take a look at the parts of the pandemic. Especially in brooklyn and the bronx. Governor cuomo said those are among the hot spots that hell be focusing on. I think its less a matter of why we know now what the numbers are. It is more reckoning with the fact that this is the same thing that we have dealt with since before we were a nation, since we were a british colony. It is the exact fight for independence and for freedom and to build a more perfect union. This is that one thing that we just cant quite bring ourselves to get past. Part of it has to do with culture. Part of it thooz do with policing and part of it thooz do with Law Enforcement. Im not clear on where the imperative for Police Officers is not bring them back alive. If you bring them back alive, they can meet justice. If you dont, you become justice. Why hasnt that changed . I dont know why. I just know that this is not new. And im sorry to say that if something happened to me on my way home and what happened to george floyd, i know that my mother and my father would be heart broken. But they would not be surprised. You know, i want to hope we can be better. And you this i that after eric garner and after just the phrase i cant breathe that that phrase would be enough to trigger somebody to stop and think oh, my god, what am i doing . But thats not the case. So when you say your parents wouldnt be surprised, that is exactly why. Because this stuff happens and it happens over and over again. Joshua johnson, thanks very much for joining us. Its really good to see you. At any moment now the president is going to speak at the white house. Were still waiting for him. But as we do wait, we want to introduce you to the man who was George Floyds employer, his landlord and his friend. And how he wants the man to be remembered. Gabe gutierrezs interview is next. Nterview is next that makes things worse. But youre not, because you have e trade whose tech makes life easier by automatically adding technical patterns on charts and helping you understand what they mean. Dont get mad, get e trade. Stand up to moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis. And take. It. On. With rinvoq. And the president is about to begin his press conference. Again, this is intentional news is about hong kong and china. Well see what he thohas to say about minnesota. Im here to talk about our relationship with china and several new measures to protect American Security and prosperity. Chinas pattern of misconduct is well known. The for decades theyve ripped off the United States like no one has ever done before. Hundreds of billions of dollars a year were lost dealing with china. Especially over the years during the prior administration. China raided our factories, off shored our jobs, gutted our industries, stole our intellectual property and violated commitments under the world trade organization. To make matters worse, theyre considered a developing nation, getting all sorts of benefits that others including the United States are not entitled to. But i have never solely blamed china for this. They were able to get away with the theft like no one was able to get away with before because of past politicians and, frankly, past president s. But unlike those that came before, my administration negotiated and fought for for what it is right. Its called fair and reciprocal treatment. China has unlawfully claimed territory in the pacific ocean, threatening International Trade and they broke their word to the world on assuring the autonomy of hong kong. The United States wants an open and constructive relationship with china but achieving that relationship requires us to vigorously defend our national interests. The china government has violated its promises to us and so many other nations, these plan facts cant be overlooked or swept aside. The world is now suffering as a result of the malfeasence. A Global Pandemic that has cost more than 100,000 american lives and over a million lives worldwide. Chinese officials ignored their reporting obligations to the World Health Organization and pressured the World Health Organization to mislead the world when the virus was first discovered by chinese authorities. Countless lives have been taken and profound Economic Hardship has been inflicted all around the globe. They strongly recommended against me doing the early ban from china. But i did it anyway, was proven to be 100 correct. China has total control over the World Health Organization, despite only paying 40 million per year compared to what the United States has been paying which is approximately 450 million a year. We have detailed the reforms that it must make and engage with them directly but theyve refused to act. Because they have failed to make the requested and greatly needed reform, well be today terminating our relationship with the World Health Organization and redirecting those funds to other worldwide Urgent Public Health needs. The world needs answers from china on the virus. We must have transparency. Why is that china shut off infected people from wuhan to all parts of china . It went nowhere else. It didnt go to beijing. It went nowhere else. They allowed them to freely travel throughout the world including europe and the United States. The death and destruction caused by this is incall kubl. We must have answers for us and the rest of the world. This pandemic has underscored the crucial importance of building up americas economic independence, protecting american scientific and technological advances. For years, the government of china has stole our industry secrets of which there are many. Today, ill issue a proclamation to better secure our Vital University research and suspend the enter of foreign nationals from china as we have identified as potential security risks. Im taking action to protect the americas Financial System by far the best in the world, im instructing my president ial working group on Financial Markets to study the differing practices of Chinese Companies listed on the u. S. Financial markets with the goal of protecting american investors. Investment firms should not be subjected their clients to undue ricks with financing Chinese Companies that dont play by the same rules. Americans are entitled to fairness and transparency. Several of the most significant actions were taken pertained to deeply troubling situations unfolding in hong kong. This week, china unilaterally imposed control over hong kongs security. This was a plain violation of beijings treaty obligations with the United Kingdom in the declaration of 1984, and explicit provisions of hong kongs basic law, it has 27 years to go. The chinese governments move against hong kong is the latest in the series thats diminishing its status. This is tragedy for the people of hong kong and china and indeed the people of world. China claims its protecting national security. But the truth is, hong kong was secure and prosperous as a free society, beijings decision reverses all of that. It extends the reach of chinas invasive state Security Apparatus that was formerly a bastion of security. It makes clear that hong kong is no longer sufficiently autonomous to warrant the special treatment that we have afforded the territory since the handover. China has replaced its promise of one country, two systems, with one country, one system. Therefore im directing my administration to begin the process of eliminating policy exemptions that give hong kong different and special treatment. My announcement today will affect the full range of agreements that we have with hong kong from our extradition treaty to our export controls on dual use of technologies and more with few exceptions. Well be revising the state Department Travel advisory to hong kong to increase the increase danger of surveillance. Well take action to revoke hong kongs preferential treatment as a separate territory from the rest of china. The United States will also take necessary steps to sanction prc and hong kong officials directly or indirectly involved in eroding hong kongs autonomy. If you take a look, smothering, absolutely smothering hong kongs freedom. Our actions will be strong, our actions will be meaningful. More than two decades ago, on a rainy night in 1997, british soldiers lowered the union flag and chinese soldiers raised the chinese flag in hong kong. The hong kong people felt proud of their chinese heritage and their unique hong kong identity. The people of hong kong hope that in the years and decades to come, china would increasingly come to resemble its most dynamic city, the rest of the world was electrified by a sense of optimism that hong kong was a glimpse into chinas future, not that hong kong would grow into a reflection of chinas past. In every decision, i will continue to proudly defend and protect the workers families and citizens of the United States of america. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, President Trump with a not taking questions at all. Deciding with his announcement on the various ways hes going to attempt to punish china over their decision to essentially erase the treaty they originally agreed to with hong kong. Look, its not lost on a lot of people, he had nothing else to say. He went right to that. Stuck to teleprompter and walked right out. Also the news that we cut our relationship with the World Health Organization. But i think youre right there, theres a city thats smoldering right now, there are people across this country, the black community is in pain. Theres a pandemic. And the president tried to clear it all up, or at least clear his part in partially inflaming those tensions with a tweet earlier today. Didnt want to take any questions from reporters. I think the i got to ask, is the president afraid to lead right now . He just seems thats to not engage at all, i just that seemed like he was afraid of this. He doesnt know what to say and were struggling as a country right now and thats no matter what you think the president of the United States cant bring himself to say anything about a mid western city thats smolder zmrg the country is hungry for leadership. Hungry for it. They want clarity. They want clarity when it comes to this pandemic. What should i do . Should i wear a mask . What rules do i need to follow . Theres an entire community of people that have been hurting for who 0 years in this country and they want a president to acknowledge that and to, if they cant understand it, then to say, yes, i cant understand it but i hear you and i will right that wrong, or at least ill try. Yeah, yeah. Well, in some ways maybe they decided he wouldnt be credible as a spokesperson on some of this stuff either. Some people would end up hoping for that type of nonresponse anyway. Thats all for katy and i for this week. Thank you for tuning in. Brian williams picks things up right now. Thank you, chuck. Thank you, katy. Good afternoon, Brian Williams here for you, filling in today for Nicolle Wallace for this next hour of coverage. Weve been watching President Trump in the rose garden. No mention of minneapolis. Were just after 3 00 p. M. In the east coast. 2 00 p. M. Notably in minneapolis, after a long nights journey into today. Calls for justice for george floyd, the unarmed africanamerican man to died at the hands of a white Police Officer, appeared to have been heard at long last. A short time ago, Derek Chauvin, the officer seen in the video with his knee to the neck of mr. Floyd during that stop on monday night was arrested and charged with thirddegree murder and manslaughter. The other three officers involved in floyds death are still under investigation. The announcement by Hennepin County attorney mike freeman came one day after he sparked a lot of anger by urging people to be patient while his Office Investigating the case. He talked about what changed between yesterday afternoon and this afternoon. We have now been able to put together the evidence that we need. Even as late as yesterday afternoon we didnt have all that we needed. We have now found it and we felt a responsibility to charge this as soon as possible. Theres document coming out which should go a long way to answer the question a lot of people in minneapolis want answered what didnt you know, what couldnt you see from the video of this case . All of this comes one day after peaceful protests on the streets of minneapolis, once again, gave way to violence. A group of protesters torched the Police Precinct, the third precinct where all of the officers involved in floyds death were assigned. Notably, a decision was made by the mayor of minneapolis to abandon the post, the police did not engage. There was no attempt to extinguish the fires that were set and burned all night. The precinct just one of the many fires that were set in the area last night and overnight. Theres now a large presence of police, most of them state troopers in assault gear and minnesota National Guard at their post in minneapolis, again, they didnt take up defensive positions last night and after watching with everyone else last evening, today the governor of minnesota, tim walz warned that officials wouldnt tolerate any violence this evening. As we put our presence on the street to restore order its to open that space, to seek justice and heal what happened. I will not in any way not acknowledge that theres going to be that pain, but my first and foremost responsibility to the state of minnesota is the safety and security of all citizens. We cannot have the looting and the recklessness that went on. A lot to get to in this hour, we begin with ali velshi in minneapolis. We last talked to you in the thick of last night, we worried about your safety and a lot of people. We talked about what it would look like when Law Enforcement took their positions, i see it right behind you, before we get too far into this, we cant emphasize this enough today from the mayor on down, there was a decision to not engage, there was a decision to abandon and pull back from the 3rd Precinct Police headquarters. Police officers did not engage. And it just should be noted as we go through our coverage. Yes, and thats a very different situation that was last night. First of all, you see state troopers and other police behind me. You have National Guards behind me. A block away from here was that fire that morgan was reporting on when you talked about last night. There blocks from me is where the Police Station is. What youve seen is these jersey barriers have been installed at different perimeters. There are not that many protesters right now, they created a perimeter around the areas that were the heart of the action last night. But right now, they have pushed the perimeter out. I want to show you, last night, you heard the mayor and others say, the 3rd precinct can still protect the people of this neighborhood even if the Police Station isnt if in possession of the officers. This is one block of the precinct is housing. We focused on the autozone and the buildings and the factories that were burnt down. This is also a residential area. There was no authority anywhere in the area. Now there has. Firefighters putting out many more fires than i thought last night. There were fires all over the place. They finally have put those fires out. And they established these jersey barriers as opposed to the metal barriers. On top of these jersey barriers at the Police Station was a fence that was toppled about 9 45 last night. The officers are here. The strategic decision not to engage with protesters still seems to be in place. We dont have a lot of protest activity here. At the moment, no active protest activity, no gatherings of that sort right now, there are reports of organized protests in parts of the city and in st. Paul. For the moment, everything is much, much, much calmer than it was last night. And ali, as you mentioned, finally today, at long last the Minneapolis Fire Department is able to get and extinguish hot spots, after you and i got off the air last night, i was listening to Minneapolis Police and fire on the scanner and the Fire Department was getting calls and telling their commanders about new addresses, a mcdonalds with a fire in the back, sounded like they had a drone in the air, they were doing drivebys to see if it was safe to fight fires like that, that went on all night long. Youre right. There were farmer fires than we thought but there wasnt any way to deal with it. I have been seeing fire trucks around the neighborhood this morning and theyre fighting these fires with no resistance from anybody whatsoever. They were smolderings, because these were entire structures that built down. When you this far away from this center of gravity, difficult to do what they did yesterday. People gathered hundreds of people gathered in that square, the intersection right in front of the 3rd precinct and the people were on the barriers at the 3rd precinct and that smoke shop we were covering last night. It does seem like the effort right now is not to do that. I cant see far enough down there to the Police Station and i dont see any choppers up in the air to give us some shots. At this point, theres nobody but Law Enforcement and National Guard behind these jersey barriers. The police are in position to take that 3rd precinct back. The mayor of minneapolis got on air and announced and he seemed very frustrated about it, he made the announcement it was his decision to evacuate that precinct and turn it over to protesters, i dont know why that announcement that came. We were showing the pressure on the precinct and the people who had first gotten in there. We were discussing thats a very big deal in 2020 for a Police Station in america to be taken over by protesters. It seems like the police are taking the place station back now. It was indeed a wild News Conference last night after 1 00 a. M. East coast 250i78, a reporter stood up and said to the mayor, whats the plan and the mayors response, far phrasing was, regarding what . It went from there. Ali velshi at the police lines, thank you very much. Well be checking in with you all afternoon and evening. Were joined now by former prosecut prosecutor. Also with uls, jolani cobb, for fes so at columbia university. Thank you both for being with us. We need both of your voices at this hour. Maya, starting with the law. Talk about what thirddegree murder is, talk about the standard of depraved indifference to human life as opposed to setting out with the intent to take a human life . Brian, you just summarized it beautifully actually. When we every state has their own statute delineating whats firstdegree murder, what is seconddegree murder, what is thirddegree murder. Basically the distinction is, someone was killed and the question is, how much did the person who did the killing intend the outcome, the death . So, obviously, in the most serious firstdegree murder, you know, prosecutors bring those cases because they feel they can prove that this was premeditated. That the person said, im going to kill that person and that sets about doing it. As we go down the ladder on those different scales of what people have in mind that prosecutors think they can prove, what essentially were hearing is, well, we cant we dont think we can prove that officer chauvin sat and thought about, gee, how can i kill this guy . But this depraved standard, i think, really speaks to what we were seeing on this video which is, the absolute inability to see the humanity and the threat to life that the cries and the pleas, both from george floyd himself, but also from the bystanders who were standing around and watching, it was really an indication that he should have known that his actions could result in this death, and he didnt care, thats essentially in laymans terms what were talking about here. I think the other point to make, you made the point, brian, about things being much calmer tonight, still the question about the other officers who were bystanders who were watching this, not intervening, not suggesting additional ways to make sure that they were protecting Public Safety including the safety of mr. Floyd, because when you have someone in custody, which they essentially did he was under their control physically its their responsibility to keep him safe as well. On youtube, as a practical manner, if you want to see a video that involves the loss of life you often reach a firewall, youre asked to sign in to state your age because of societal standards, this is quite different, and this video to me, for this moment in time, is the closest thing we have as horrendous as it is to watch, to mandatory viewing in this country right now, and theres an aspect of it that hasnt been spoken about in regularity the casualness about which the officer goes about cutting off mr. Floyds wind pipe. At one point you can even see him try to improve his position on him, hes kind of shifting his body weight to make sure hes pushing the most downward pressure he can possibly get. It e its gruesome. But it sure does explain the conversation were having and last night that conversation was in the form of fires in the streets and violence in the streets and an absolute explosion of anger. Yes, sure, absolutely. The results of what we saw in the streets of minneapolis, you know last night, were p predictable, if you see that kind of disregard for human life, people have seen that video. Its on social media. The other thing i think about the kind of horrific reality, but people who become accustomed to seeing shooting deaths specifically of africanamericans, we have seen the Philando Castille in minneapolis, and we have seen these things before, but i think its also different that this video is seven or nine minutes long and its just the entire agonizing process. The point at which anyone has more than efficient time to deliberate, perhaps i should adjust myself so i dont hold this guy in place. That doesnt seem to happen. Just rolls on for minute after minute after minute after minute, until the terrible culmination that we see mr. Floyds life has been extinguished. Its a horrific thing to witness. Im very much divided about how accessible this video should be, i think its traumatizes experience to see it. I dont think most people were able to count this idea could go on for that long with no reflection of i should stop because this person is going to die. Maya, this county attorney, mr. Freeman seems so intent on emphasizing process, reminding us just how fast this has been, reminding us just how tough a job this has been, i know were not on the inside of that county prosecutors office, but using your extraordinary legal intellect, can you imagine what the evidence is that they didnt have tuesday, that they didnt have yesterday, that they came into possession of, perhaps overnight, while the city burned, resulted in charges pressed today. What more were they waiting for . Well, brian, like you, i will be looking for that report to try to see and understand whether there were any legitimate reasons that i cant fathom right now. I cant fathom there. They had as was publicly reported the day they fired the officers, the police had information that they said was concerning enough, not only did they fire those officers, they called in for federal investigation, federal investigation, that tells you that they felt they had quite a bit and, again, we talked about this video. But as far as i can tell, and im not a lawyer in the state of minnesota, but as far as i can tell from my brief review of the law, i dont see any defense to support based on that video. You know, theres a difference between that arrest and deciding all of the various counts you might be able to bring, which ones you think are stronger, which ones are weaker, how you understand athe defenses that will come. In this particular case, this is reminiscent of eric garner here in new york city, down the i cant breathe. The defense of the officer in the eric garner case was, this was my training. I put him in that chokehold and thats what i was trained to do, as you have pointed out, that very, very, very long video, just the sheer length of that video makes it very hard to imagine that anybody sitting in the Police Department would say, yes, we trained them that once you have the person under control, handcuffed, youre surrounded by backup, you can absolutely choke off the air if windpipe in the person you have subdued. Thats your training and its consistent with your training. I cant imagine that coming out of the mouth of anybody whos an expert on police training. I certainly havent seen it happen yet and its very hard to see it. On eric garner, there was no training defense. Well put that question to a former chief of police later in this hour. One last question, im old enough to remember the predictions that when we all walk around with a camera in our pocket or in our hand it was going to improve Human Behavior so much for that. So much for that. That was a questionable proposition at the time. If you remember, this entire era was inaugurated with the beating, violent beating of rodney king in 1992. And despite what we saw, you know the officers kicking him and striking him with batons and holding him down with their feet and, you know, abusing him, the jury thought they had nothing wrong, so its by far, its far from, you know, apparent that having these incidences captured on video will automatically render summary proximation of justice. The kind of macabe outcome we now have a new genre, spectacle of black death thats consumable, people can see this on the internet, they can go to youtube and see, you know, visions of these peoples last moments on earth and its done very little to assure there will be justice. Yeah, the saddest part of that is, any other way to look at the video. Thank you both for spending time with us. During our conversation just now, the family of george floyd has put out a statement in response to news of the arrest of former Police Officer Derek Chauvin. And it reads in part, the arrest of former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin for the brutal killing of george floyd is a welcome but overdue step on the road to justice. We expect a firstdegree murder charge. We want a firstdegree murder charge. And we want to see the other officers arrested. We call on authorities to revise the charges to reflect the true culpability of this officer. The pain that the black Community Feels over this murder and what it reflects about the treatment of black people in america is raw and is spilling out onto streets across america. Thats the statement just released by the floyd family. A break in our coverage now. When we come back a conversation with the president of the naacp, about race, our society, Law Enforcement and leadership in our country. And some very tense hours ahead in minneapolis. The question at this hour, how will the arrest of a former Police Officer in connection with this death change the raw emotions we saw there last night. And the president of the United States lets not forget lashing out on twitter, fanning the flames of unrest last night in minneapolis. So is the accusation. Here we go. Lift and push and push there. Its up there. Oh, boy. Hey joshie. Wrinkles send the wrong message. Help prevent them before they start with downy wrinkleguard. Hey bud. Hey, pop pop so you wont get caught with wrinkles again. [woman laughs] truly transformative sleep. So, no more tossing and turning. Because only tempurpedic adapts and responds to your body. So you get deep, uninterrupted sleep. During the tempurpedic summer of sleep, all tempurpedic mattresses are on sale during the tempurpedic summer of sleep, were pretty different. Somos muy diferentes. 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Pick an order, print everything you need, slap the label onto the box, and its ready to go. Our costs for shipping were cut in half. Just like that. Shipstation. The 1 choice of online sellers. Go to shipstation. Com try and get 2 months free. We should emphasize we saw violence in a number of American Cities last night and right now, a black lives matter rally is under way in houston, texas, in the wake of the death of 47yearold george floyd in minneapolis. Demonstrators gathering at a downtown park, peacefully, to honor floyd who grew up in the greater houston area. Were happy to have with us at this hour, the president and ceo of the naacp, derek johnson. Mr. Johnson, thank you on this emotional day for spending some of your time with us. In your view, sir, what should happen now if you had a National Megaphone as day gives way tonight in the city streets all across this country, what would your advice, what would your plea to people be . Well, now, were in the midst of making sure that justice is carried outs not only in minneapolis but in louisville, kentucky, and new york city, and all across the country. Wh absent the video tape, theres a level of Police Violence against our community that must be addressed and the message to africanamericans across the country elections matter. District attorneys are elected and the only way for us to hold Police Department s accountable is if we elect district attorneys that are accountable to our communities. What about the violence the destruction of property, the destruction of neighborhoods as we just saw at the top of this hour, last nights flames came painfully close to a residential area, people who were barricaded inside their own homes and apartments, very, very worried that this explosion of violence was going to come their way. Peaceful protests is something that naacp is something we always advocated for as a tool when the system denied our community justice. We never advocate for violent protests and riots. But what you get is when the Justice System is broken and theres no hope and the naacp in december of last year, we did an economic study of the city of the twin cities, both minneapolis and st. Paul, we gave the warning in that report if something is not done with the lack of opportunities for africanamericans that city, those cities are like a powder keg and its