Michael brown. Who did they kill . Michael brown. There were no molotov cocktails tonight, no fires, no shootings. We did not see a single handgun. There were no confrontations. Who do you serve . Who do you protect . I know in the end, this is going to make us better, it is going to bring us peace and its going to make us better men and women and make our kids better, its going to make our nation better and i look forward to that. For the second straight night, relative calm, relative quiet here in ferguson, missouri. Good morning to you. It is thursday, august 21st, 2014. This is the daily rundown. Im craig melvin in for chuck todd. A smaller crowd marched past a dwindling Police Presence on the 12th night of protests since a Police Officer shot and killed unarmed teenager Michael Brown nearly two weeks ago now. Live pictures here at the Justice Department. Attorney general eric holder spent wednesday here in ferguson using his personal story to reassure residents that the Justice Department is serious about a federal investigation into the shooting. Any moment now holder is expected to announce a major settlement against bank of america, but hes also likely to take some questions about that visit to missouri yesterday. If he does that, we will of course bring it to you live here on msnbc. Justice Department Officials are considering whether to open a broader pattern and practice. Thats what its called, a pattern and practice, civil rights investigation, of the Ferguson Police department. I need to be here, you know. I was a little disturbed to see certain people questioning why i was here. My answer to that would be why would i be any place other than right here and right now. Meeting with Community Members and students, holder said that he related to this communitys skepticism of police saying in part, quote, i understand that mistrust. I am the attorney general of the United States, but im also a black man. I can remember being stopped on the new jersey turnpike on two occasions and accused of speeding, pulled over, let me search your car. He told the story how he was humiliated that they searched his car. We told him some people were targeted. We told him that we felt not only race were targeted, we felt people with low income were targeted. The attorney general also met with Michael Browns parents pledging a fair and independent inquiry into their sons death. He was also briefed by fbi officials and federal prosecutors on the federal investigation. Our investigation is different from that which the state is doing. We are looking for violations of federal criminal civil rights statutes. That hopefully will have a calming influence on the area, if people know that a federal, thorough investigation is being done. Holders visit wednesday came as the Ferguson Police department was hit with two new federal lawsuits over the wrongful death of a man named jason moore. Moore was tasered by police in ferguson in 2011, according to court documents. Moores sister was among those who met with holder yesterday. A future for ferguson right now is just blurry. So we just need some answers to questions and changes. We need some inspiration. By him being here now, thats given us inspiration. We wont no longer be profiled. Meanwhile another ferguson Police Officer suspended indefinitely after pointing an Assault Rifle at a protesters face and screaming threats tuesday night. Another officer stepped in to help diffuse the situation and walked that officer away from the crowd. Here with me now, Huffington Post ryan reilly and Carrie Johnson also standing by in d. C. Good to have both of you with us. Ryan, i know you traveled yesterday with attorney general holder. How was he received . Whats the community expecting from him . He was really well received. I think people really appreciated him being out here and hearing their stories. I think one interesting moment was when we had a woman at the restaurant essentially come up to the attorney general and say that the nation was sort of afraid to have a conversation about race and some of the issues here. Whats interesting, of course, is that holder sort of famously got in a lot of trouble early in 2009, early in the obama presidency, for calling the country a nation of cowards on the issue of race. I think she was sort of making the same point that he was. He was seen yesterday to be speaking from a deep low personal place. Certainly. This is something hes spoken about before. Criminal Justice Reform has been something that hes made a priority, especially since last august. So this is something that i think is very important to him and something that hes focusing on going forward. Carrie, whats next in the federal investigation . Whats the next step . So fbi investigators and civil rights prosecutors have interviewed over 200 witnesses so far, craig. My sense is this is going to take a long while. In order to build a criminal case, if indeed there is one against officer Darren Wilson, theyre going to have to find evidence that he intended, specifically intended to violate the civil rights of Michael Brown. Theyre going to have to not just talk to eyewitnesses, but also try to build a record of what was in this officers mind in the moments before the shooting. Also worth noting, craig, that they are they are contemplating whether to open a broader civil investigation into policing tactics and crowd control in ferguson and the areas beyond it. My sense is that is likely to happen. It could be a little while before its publicly announced, however. You know, we heard that yesterday, the talk of the broader look at the Police Department here in ferguson on a federal level. What might that investigation look like as well, carrie, and how far back could they go . They could go quite a long while because whats at issue in those cases is building a record, looking into past incidents between the community and police, trying to figure out whether theres something about Police Tactics that has gone badly wrong. Ultimately, craig, generally ends with a lengthy series of public findings against the police, something the Justice Department will try to get on the record and try to change moving forward with civil rights groups, community leaders, and of course Law Enforcement in that city and in st. Louis itself. I want to talk about this other shocking piece of video that surfaced yesterday. A Police Officer, we should note that this Police Officer is actually not a Police Officer here in ferguson, its a Police Officer from a neighboring jurisdiction who was on patrol, caught on camera pointing a semiautomatic rifle at a protester and threatening to kill that protester using some language that we cant use here in the day on the cable television. Ryan, i understand that you actually interviewed a cameraman who was threatened by that Police Officer, is that right . Yeah. And i saw the exchange myself. You saw it . I did. I saw the initial exchange and followed the officer and tried to record him additionally, at which point i was told to get that fing camera out of his face as the other officer was walking away. So it was a very Tense Exchange and obviously its a good thing that hes now been sort of taken off the streets. Suspended indefinitely. Ryan, thank you so much. Carrie in d. C. , thanks to you as well. Do appreciate your time. I want to turn to missouri democratic congressman emmanuel cleaver. He met with attorney general holder yesterday during his visit. Congressman, its always good to see you. Good to be with you. What was the attorney generals message to you yesterday . Well, the attorney general met with the governor, senators blunt and mccass kkacaskill and congressman for ferguson, lacy clay and myself. And what he did was explained to us what the Justice Department will be looking for and their role in this entire investigation. He and the governor talked about issues im not sure ill lay them out on television, but i think it was a very good meeting and it reassured congressman, lay out some of it, if you can, because i think thats very interesting. A lot of folks watching and listening would be very interested in that. I think that the attorney general wanted to make sure that we knew what the Justice Department was doing, and that is they are running a parallel investigation. There are a lot of people on the ground. There are some components of that meeting which i absolutely cannot go into. But i think that he gave us and i can share, as i think others will, the method by which they are going to conduct the investigation. And it really provided comfort for all of us because i knew from the very beginning that if the attorney general came to ferguson, that just his presence would, i think, give people the sense that, hey, its going to be okay. Things have changed. Ferguson is a city that has grown old but it has not grown up. And it came across to the attorney general that there were problems there. And i dont think thats any kind of news break, but he did acknowledge that he heard a lot of things from a lot of people, some of them troubled him. Earlier this week you said that ferguson with the militarystyle weapons that weve seen on the streets, earlier this week you said that it looks a lot like fallujah. Your meeting with secretary of defense chuck hagel, i understand, today about the pentagons 1033 program which transfers dod weapons to state and local Police Departments. Whats going to be your message to the defense secretary about that program . Well, first of all, i think secretary hagel should be aware of the fact that this is not a partisan issue, that republicans, democrats, independents, people from all stripes across the country became alarmed at the militarystyle response given by the Ferguson Police department, a city of 21,000 people. And it looked like fallujah, not ferguson. It looked like what would go on in Tiananmen Square in beijing. I think people looked at that around the country and said this wont work. We dont want this in the United States of america. Rand paul i think really hit the nail on the head and talked about how it created the picture that we were an occupied land. So we want the secretary to reevaluate this program. Not discontinue it, but there have got to be parameters. And i dont think either isis or al qaeda are planning some kind of attack on the mcdonalds in ferguson. Really quickly here, congressman. As you probably know, last night the crowd considerably smaller and six arrests versus 70 monday into tuesday. Are you concerned at all the fact that the protests are considerably smaller than they have been, that that might be some sort of indication that interest in this community, interest in this city has already started to wane . No. I think one of the things that im thrilled about, and i think others are pleased to see and that is some of the bad guys are going home. The people of ferguson are still concerned. They realize that until their leaders, you know, face their sins, they will not be able to get them behind them. So i think youre going to see now the real work done in reconciliation and rebuilding a community. The bad folk, many of them are leaving. People have been coming there from all over the world to wreak havoc and come out of the darkness at night to do devilish things, which they did. So i dont think i mean ill be back in ferguson next week dealing with meeting with a group of ministers to deal with problem. Theyre not going to go away. Congressman emanuel cleaver, always appreciate your perspective, sir, thank you. Sure. Good to be with you. And again, some live pictures right now of attorney general eric holder. Again, he is set to speak to reporters about a major settlement against bank of america, but we are also expecting that he will take a few questions about the situation here in ferguson. If he does that, we will, of course, bring it to you live here on msnbc. Well be right back. Theres a gap out there. Thats keeping you from the healthcare you deserve. At humana, we believe the gap will close when healthcare gets simpler. When frustration and paperwork decrease. 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Comcast business. Built for business. Police come through and then they would either harass you or if you were driving, theyd pull you over and give some bogus reason. Its the same thing. Its county, its the local pds. Its wild. And theres no theres no theres no one checking them. You know, theres no accountability. The accountability factor is just gone. Wheres the backup, wheres your humanity outside of your own and outside of your own people. You know, where are you serving and protecting this community. That was wes suber and jordan martin talking about the constant tension that they feel between themselves and the police here in ferguson. The question, of course, is how much of that type of tension contributed to an officer shooting and killing Michael Brown saturday before last. I want to bring in anthony gray, an attorney for Michael Browns family. Its good to see you. Good to see you. I know you spent some time walking the main drag as well last night here in ferguson. Yes. Ive seen you the past few nights. Last nights crowd considerably smaller, a lot quieter than what weve seen. To what do you attribute that . The size of the crowd i just attribute to individuals having perhaps other things to do in addition to showing their support for the family. So the size would be attributed to that. The style of policing that took place yesterday was much, much different than what youve seen in the past. I think the approach that Law Enforcement is taking right now is very appropriate for the situation. How was it different last night compared to what youve seen in nights past . The only way i can describe it is in nights past you almost had like a berlin wall situation where the police were lined up on one side and you had supporters on the other side and it was almost like a faceoff. Now you see them intermingled and interspersed in the crowd, almost like a patrolling and protecting and serving type of mode. So the crowd was calmer because the police were calmer . Certainly attribute it to the style of policing that they are experiencing right now, yes, sir. And again, for our audience watching and listening while we have this conversation here, we continue to wait for attorney general aceric holder, if he tas about the Ongoing Investigation here in ferguson, we will bring that to you live. 12 days now, its been 12 days since Michael Brown was shot and killed. What do you think happened . What does the family think happened that day . Well, i can just put it like this. At the end of the event, there are some things, some steps that happened at the very end that the family concludes that amounts to an execution of their child. The beginning parts apparently there are different accounts of what took place and how that transpired, but they think at the end of the day when officer wilson fired those fatal shots at their child, that he did so in a way that was reckless and murderous. Can you elaboratetll, you kn the dome of the head, the shot to the face, there has been no version of events that would account for that. And because of the absence of any explanation for that, they believe that those fatal shots are the ones that should land him in a position that hes in right now. What did the attorney general say to the browns yesterday . That information is confidential. It was a private conversation. I wasnt privy to the conversation. So im not able to speak on that. Have you been surprised at all by the reaction to whats happened here . Have you been taken aback at all by the reaction . Not just in this country, but around the world, the reaction to the shooting and killing of Michael Brown . No, i have not. Its almost as though this was a situation that i wont say well overdue, but when you have this type of situation on the heels of multiple other incidents, youve got to know, common sense will tell you if you have a situation thats this serious that youre going to have the kind of reaction that youre having. So im in no way surprised by the reaction that youre seeing from individuals in the street. All right, thank you for your time. Appreciate it, as always. Thank you. I want to bring in matt miller. Matt miller is a former spokesman for attorney general eric holder. Matt, thank you so much for being with me again. We are awaiting the attorn