Former federal prosecutor and law professor. Mr. Butler, listening to the prosecutor, we learned nothing that we had not already learned from leaks from the grand jury process a month ago. At that time there were some who suspected those leaks were in preparation for what happened tonight, absolutely no charges. The leaks were in preparation, the declaration of the state of emergency, the calling out the National Guard. It all sounds like this was a foregone conclusion. When i listen to that press conference, i wasnt sure whether the suspect was officer wilson or Michael Brown. Its almost like Michael Brown was the one on trial. We are, at the moment seeing in our live cameras from missouri some activity on the street, there was just a crowd rocking what looks like a police car. That has calmed down a little bit, but it is not a situation that looks under control at this moment. Theres a lot of pushing and shoving in the crowd there. Now we have a closer shot of people kicking or kind of attacking that police vehicle. That is right outside the Ferguson Police station. Theres no intervention yet, that we can see on camera, by Police Officers trying to intervene and stop, i think we just saw the back window broken. Now were seeing riot gear police entering the scene where this Police Vehicles being attacked. They did that just after the back window of this police car was broken, which you can see in that shot when its a little bit wider, and you see the back window there. That just happened seconds ago, the broken window. The riot police have immediately gotten control of the vehicle. Theres no more movement on the vehicle. The police are moving carefully. They are heavily equipped but moving carefully and slowly in through the crowd at this point. To simply get the crowd away from that car. They all, that we can see on camera, have their firearms, their rifles aimed down, aimed down toward the street. They are not aiming weapons, as far as we can tell from this camera angle at the crowd, as we saw in august and even situations like this. We, we have, we have msnbcs craig melvin by phone whos right there in the thick of that, craig, what are you seeing . Craig melvin, its lawrence odonnell, can you hear me on your phone . Craig . Craig melvin . Reporter yeah. Its lawrence odonnell. Youre on the air with us, what are you seeing in the crowd there . Reporter we actually left the crowd. Me and my team. Before that, let me catch my breath. Before that, there were, maybe 30, 45 minutes, there were maybe a dozen or so bottles tossed at officers, these were officers in front of the Ferguson Police department. Roughly 20, 25 of them. Shields, helmets. They never actually engaged the protesters until after the action was made, approached the barricade. At one point they breached the barricade, screaming at officers. And the officers had not engaged. And at one point, maybe about five minutes ago we heard what sounded like a gunfire, three shots. The crowd had started to grow. We left, moved farther down the street. And then we just heard more gunshots, and the crowd began to scatter. So what was roughly a crowd of 500 or 600 has quickly broken up. Meanwhile, as another crowd, the crowd that broke up, we went north, a few hundred folks were marching south, here on south florissant, again, all of this going down in front of the Ferguson Police department. But, again, right now from a distance, i can tell you the police line in front of the, in front of the Police Department is still holding. It has not advanced. The order to disburse was given, maybe about five minutes ago. And folks still hanging out in front of the Police Station. Yeah, craig, the camera angle we have is from behind the police line. Were seeing the backs of the Police Officers, and they do seem to be holding in a very disciplined position. The protesters do seem to have created a little buffer margin between the protesters and the Police Officers. It doesnt look like there is direct physical confrontation going on from the angle that we have here now. It did get awfully rough around that police car with the crowd attacking the car, craig, including breaking the back window of the police car with a couple of very loud bangs that broke that window. And im wondering, craig, when you mentioned hearing shots feared, is there any doubt about that . Is there a possibility that those noises could have been Something Else . Reporter weve, weve got s some guys with us making sure were okay who heard gunfire. And theyre pretty certain thats what they heard. But, again, were all fine. Weve moved. Were nowhere near that scene right now. I can also tell you while we were there we did see, the bottles were being hurled at these officers, we did see one officer, he got hit with what appeared to be a glass bottle. He fell to his knees. He was taken away. He appeared to be okay. But he was taken away from the, from the front of the police line there. Right now, as im talking to you, you might see me here on the corner, corner of adams and south florissant here, in front of the city of fergusons fire station. The fire stations right next door to the Police Department. But it appears as if the crowd that had assembled in front of the Police Station is breaking you. Its very interesting, one of the things that struck me about all of this is at one point we were talking to a, at one point we were talking to a guy and his, maybe 2yearold son, about why hes out here, and he started throwing bottles, and i said to the guy, are you concerned at all about having your 2yearold out here in this situation . And he said, no. No. Im not concerned at all. At that point, i think it worsened a bit. And he did move as well. But what are you seeing from your Vantage Point . I dont have the benefit of a monitor or anything. The tension seems to have been reduced in that area. We now see the police line holding the crowd. Behaving, not threatening to the police. You know, some shouting, that kind of thing. But we do not see any direct confrontations going on now. And it also seems like a fairly thin crowd there around the Police Station and near that area. That had briefly gotten out of control. Theres a lot of movement there now. But its definitely a changed situation from really just five minutes ago, and craig, we do have the st. Louis police indicating that they believe shots were fired too. And so your information is getting backup from the police on that. But this is a very different thing that were watching, craig. The president is about to speak. Were going to that. You know, a few minutes ago the grand jury deliberating the death of Michael Brown delivered its decision. Its now come that either way it was going to be subject of intense disagreement. Not only in ferguson but across america. So i just want to say a few words suggesting how we might move forward. First and foremost, we are a nation built on the rule of law. And so we need to accept that this decision was the grand jurys to make. There are americans who agree with it, and there are americans who are deeply disappointed, even angry. Its an understandable reaction. But i join michaels parents in asking anyone who protests this decision to do so peacefully. Let me repeat michaels fathers words. Hurting others or destroying property is not the answer. No matter what the grand jury decides, i do not want my sons death to be in vain. I want to lead to incredible change, positive change. Change that makes the st. Louis region better for everyone. Now Michael Browns parents have lost more than anyone. We should be honoring their wishes. I also appeal to the Law Enforcement officials in ferguson and the region to maintain restraint in peaceful protests that may occur. Understand our Police Officers put themselves on the line every day. They have a tough job to do to maintain Public Safety and hold accountable those who break the law. As they do their jobs in the coming days, they need to work with the community, not against the community, to distinguish the handful of people who may use the grand jurys decision as an excuse for violence. Distinguish them from the vast majority who just want their voices heard around legitimate issues in terms of how communities and Law Enforcement interact. Finally, we need to recognize that the situation in ferguson speaks to broader challenges that we still face as a nation. The fact is, in too many parts of this country, a deep distrust exists between Law Enforcement and communities of color. Some of this is the result of the legacy of Racial Discrimination in this country, and this is tragic, because nobody needs good policing more than poor communities with higher crime rates. The good news is, we know there are things we can do to help. And ive instructed attorney general holder to work with cities across the country to help build better relations between communities and Law Enforcement. That means working with Law Enforcement officials to make sure their ranks are representative of the communities they serve. We know that makes a difference. That means working to train officials so that Law Enforcement conducts itself in a way that is fair to everybody. That means enlisting the community actively on what should be everybodys goal, and that is to prevent crime. And there are good people on all sides of this debate as well as in both republican and democratic parties that are interested in not only lifting up best practices with because we know there are kmucommunitie who have been able to deal with this in an effective way, but also who are interested in working with this administration and local and state officials to start muchneeded criminal justice reform. So those are the lessons we should draw from these tragic events. We need to recognize that this is not just an issue for ferguson. This is an issue for america. We have made enormous progress in Race Relations over the course of the past several decades. I have witnessed that in my own life. And to deny that progress, i think, is to deny americas capacity for change. But what is also true is that there are still problems and communities of color arent just making these problems up. Separating that from this particular decision, there are issues in which the law, too often, feels as if it is being applied in a discriminatory fashion. I dont think thats the norm. I dont think thats true for the majority of communities or the vast majority of Law Enforcement officials. But these are real issues, and we have to lick them up and not deny them or try to tamp them down. What we need to do is understand them and figure out how do we make more progress. And that can be done. That wont be done by throwing bottles. That wont be done by smashing car windows. That wont be done by using this as an excuse to vandalize property, and it certainly wont be done by hurting anybody. So to those in ferguson, there are ways of channeling your concerns constructively, and there are ways of channeling your concerns destructively. Michael browns parents understand what it means to be constructive. The vast majority of peaceful protesters, they understand it as well. Those of you who are watching tonight understand that theres never an excuse for violence particularly when there are a lot of people in goodwill who are willing to wish on those earn use. On the other hand, those who are only focused on the violence and just want the problem to go away need to realize that we do have work to do here, and we shouldnt try to paper it over. Whenever we do that, the anger may momentarily subside, but over time it builds up and america isnt everything that it could be. And i am confident that if we focus our attention on the problem, and we look at what has happened in communities around the country effectively, then we can make progress in ferguson and in other cities and communities around the country. When things settle down there . Lets take a look and see how things are going. Eric holders been there. Weve had a whole team from the Justice Department there, and i think they have done some very good work. As i said the vast majority of the community has been working very hard to try to make sure that this becomes an opportunity for us to seize the moment and turn this into a positive situation. But i think that we have to make sure that we focus at least as much attention on all those positive activities that are taking place as we do on a handful of folks who end up using this as an excuse to misbehave or to break the law or engage in violence. I think its going to be very important, and i think the medias going to have a responsibility as well, to make sure that we focus on Michael Browns parents and the clergy and the Community Leaders and the civil rights leaders and the activists and Law Enforcement officials who have been working very hard to try to find better solutions, longterm solutions to this issue. There is inevitably going to be some negative reaction and it will make for good tv. But what we want to do is make sure that were also focusing on those who can offer the kind of Real Progress that we know is possible. That the vast majority of people in ferguson, the st. Louis region, in missouri and around the country are looking for. And you want to be partners with those folks, and we need to lift up that kind of constructive dialog thats taking place, all right . Federal charges . Joined now by Rachel Maddow and joy reed. Theres the president at an impromptu address, while this disorder, it seems to be a small amount of it compared to what weve seen in ferguson in the paths. While that disorder is under way and may be calming down, may be getting contained. It looks like there have been some acute confrontations that we have seen. Its hard to get a sense even from the air of the overall scale of how large the demonstrations are and how large the Police Presence is and whether or not those are proportional things. One of the things thats been so difficult in the wake of the initial response to the Michael Brown shooting was to judge whether or not Police Departments were escalating the situation themselves, simply by choosing to use a show of force and militarized processes. We know theyve been through a lot of training and command changes since then. Knowing whether these protests are going to be allowed within the bounds of the law is an open question. Its really hard to see people in danger again. And with this much anger. We are joined now by benjamin crump, attorney for Michael Browns family. Whats your reaction to tonights announcement . Very disappointed, pro foundly disappointed, lawrence. Attorney graham, attorney parks and i are going to have to spend the night talking to Michael Browns parents why they got no justice, and its going to be difficult. What about the civil remedies that are available to you, either through state court or federal court, a wrongful death and or federal civil rights complaint . Thats certainly, we plan on exploring all the legal avenues available to them, to get they will some sense of justice, but they wanted the killer of their unarmed son to be held accountable, lawrence, as any parents would have wanted. Also they want to have positive change. They dont want people in ferguson and communities around america just mabking noise. We want to make a difference. We dont want to see this continue to happen to our children. And it seems now that the leaks that started over a month ago from the grand jury, which people then, many analysts at that time suggested were preparing the public for no charges being filed turned out to be exact, that looks like the accurate view of what that was about, along with some of the other things weve seen happening over the last couple wee weeks. Well, lawrence, you covered this case many times on your show, and you correctly pointed out that the leaks were done for ulterior motives, and that have been confirmed tonight, but it doesnt make it right, because this whole grand jury proceeding, when a police kills a young person of color is just wrong. We need to have, not a local prosecutor who has a sim bee onic relationship with the local Police Department and the local Police Officer sit in judgment of that police, what we really need is a special prosecutor. We need transparency. People have to have faith that they can get equal justice too, when things happen to them, or they quit believing. And thats what we have in ferguson. So we have to dig deep to try to find something positive out of all of this to make a better way for our children. Benjamin crump, what would your clients, the parents of Michael Brown, like to say to these protesters who are out on the street right now . Thank you, lawrence. They would like to say to them, lets not just make noise. Lets make a difference. Lets remember, as dr. King said many years ago, we have to be not only dignifiedignified. But we have to be disciplined. We have to contain our emotions to have a very serious conversation about what positive changes we can make, like the Michael Brown law, the notion that all Police Officers in every American City<