Today and will be speaking at a News Conference in just under two hours. He wanted me to thank those leaders who are leading with vigor but with peace. Were demanding answers but respecting others who understand and know that these transitionary moments, these difficult moments sometimes define us and he wanted us to be defined as a better, for Peaceful Society in the long run. With nightfall just hours away, heres where we are right now. The Justice Department is urging authorities in missouri to demilitarize the crowd control in ferguson. Police have not released the name of the officer involved in the shooting. Meanwhile, the body of 18yearold Michael Brown has been released to his family and will undergo a second autopsy. As a result of ongoing unrest, the first day of school has been canceled. Kristen welker is joining us from marthas vineyard. What went into the decision from the president to come out and speak about ferguson today . I think there was an immense amount of pressure on the president to come out and speak about this, particularly in the wake of last night, joy, when it really seemed as though the situation escalated. We saw those images of police and riot gear and tear gas and as weve been reporting to journalists they were arrested. The message that now is a time for healing, you heard him call for an open investigation and hes directed the doj as well as the fbi to conduct independent yeses and the other headline, president obama had Strong Language for the protesters and the police that theres never an excuse for violence by the police and never excuse for excessive force. The latest developments are that the department of justice, the attorney general has reached out to authorities in in missouri and urged them to demilitarize their response and the d ocoj h offered technical advice, how to deal with these types of large crowds. Obviously there will be a lot of eyes on the response tonight to see if, in fact, we do see a demilitarization, a deescalation in missouri. Of course, in ferguson, you have a community that is predominantly africanamerican and then a police force that is predominantly white. There have been tensions in the past and, of course, in the wake of the tragic death of Michael Brown, weve seen those tensions escalate. Not unusual for president obama to come out, joy, and speak about issues of race and Law Enforcement. Of course, we saw this in the wake of Trayvon Martin when he said we need to do a better job of training at the state and local levels of Getting Police trained on the best methods for Community Policing. He referenced that today in terms of the need for the community and police to have better relationships. I anticipate well hear more about that in coming days. The president is continuing to get updates where, of course, he continues his vacation. Joy . Kristen welker, thank you. Joining me now is congressman emanuel cleaver. The conflict in your home state has been surreal for a lot of people to watch. What is your initial reaction to what the president had to say today, calling out not just any protesters who were engaged in abei but also calling out the police . I think what the president did and said today is important. Its also important for us to understand that in these kinds of situations the people who would create disturbances are not watching nbc or msnbc or cnn or anything else. But i think it was important for the president to make that statement. The chief of police is asking for calm and i agree with him but i think the police ought to calm down first. Because i think that what they are doing is unintentionally inciting the people. When you look, ferguson is a very small town. I mean, very small. Its compact. All of the people live in a little area together. And when they see tanks rolling down the street like they would see in baghdad or in some other troubled spot in the middle east, its like what in the world is happening here . So even the good people have become irritated and are irritated. I think we have a good chance right now to have another crisis if the crowds keep coming and the Police Continue to act the way they have, well keep talking in a day or two or in a few days from now about another tragedy. Theres a tragedy in waiting with the escalation the way it is and the police are part of it. The crowds are doing some things they shouldnt do but the police are trained or should be to react in situations like this. And conference man, you were in support my understanding is of a letter sent by the members of the Congressional Black Caucus asking the fbi to get involved in what is going on in ferguson. The president did not say that there would be a natural guard callout, intervention to take over the policing of ferguson. Would you have wanted to see that . Well, i would like to see the governor perhaps call out the national guard. Only to the extent that the national guard, based on things that have happened domestically, are generally trained to deal with situations like this. The Ferguson Police clearly are not. Because if they dont realize what the signal, the message they are sending with somebody sitting on top an armed vehicle with some kind of machine gun on top, then they dont need to be in a situation by themselves. Africanamericans tend to trust the federal bureau of investigations and the Justice Department much more than they would in the local police in ferguson. So im hoping that if the crowds continue to assemble, that the governor will, in fact, call out the national guard. And sir, lets go to the investigation very briefly. Do you believe that the federal bureau of investigations should take over the investigation into the killing of Michael Brown . Well, i think they should stand in the background waiting to see if there is a pure and undistilled, untampered with investigation going on. And, if so, they should stand in the background. If we continue to receive reports that the police are not even interviewing the eyewitnesss, then we cant allow that to stand. I think thats what the president was talking about. We cannot allow the public to continue to hurt over the fact that they dont think justice is taking place. And when you have somebody standing up, going on every network on the planet earth saying, i was there, i know what happened, and then three days after the event, no Law Enforcement agency has even spoken to this young person, something is wrong and i hope people of goodwill around the country can see something is not right in ferguson. Yes, indeed. Emanuel cleaver, thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. Covering last nights protest on the street, police started firing tear gas. I can barely breathe. My nose is burned, my eyes are burning. You cant escape it. The further back you go, down the streets clouds of tear gas. Chief jackson, in his News Conference said that the Police Response, this response was because protesters were throwing rocks at the police and people were attacking the police and thats what provoked the response. When that happened, we played yourself being caught up in a cloud of tear gas, did you see protesters attacking police before that began . Reporter joy, not at all. We talk about the things lost in the fog of war. Some facts may be mixed up. I was standing just about 35 feet away from the Armored Vehicles when they first fired off the canisters of tear gas. Somebody threw a bottle or something off one of the trucks but i didnt see any rocks being thrown. The police said, this is no longer a peaceful protest and within 15 seconds, they started firing the tear gas. Is it your sense that the decisions being made by officers are being made just tactically on the ground or do you get the sense that they are taking direction from some authority higher than, lets say, a local commander . Reporter im not getting a sense either way. The sense im getting is someone is not handling the implementation of this process properly at all and what is happening i just talked to a few people down at the local supermarket who said initially when there was rioting, where was the police . Where was the tear gas . Now when they were told that they can peacefully protest during the day, thats when you decided to fire off gas canisters . What is happening here, they are creating adversaries that they wouldnt normally have in the beginning because most people agree that violence is not the answer. Torturing your local quick stop is not the answer. But now that these young people are standing up and are voicing how they feel about this process, about all of the facts that are still lost about the killing of this young man and, again, we have to come back to the reason why were here. A young man was killed by the police in an inexplicable manner. The family of Michael Brown will hold a National Rally in support of justice for Michael Brown in ferguson. Are you expecting tonight more protests on the street . Reporter oh, certainly were expecting people to protest. Even right now, and it seems early by standards of this community for protesting, they are out here already. Even when the president a little while ago said its a time for healing and for peace, nightfall would determine how deeply that penetrated. When people gather and nightfalls. Thank you. We have continuing coverage of the unrest in ferguson. And allegations that the journalists were violated last night on the streets of ferguson. Well talk to two of those journalists who are in ferguson, one of whom was arrested by police. Ugh. Heartburn. Did someone say burn . Try alka seltzer reliefchews. They work just as fast and taste better than tums smoothies assorted fruit. Mmm. Amazing. Yeah, i get that a lot. Alka seltzer heartburn reliefchews. Enjoy the relief. Nineteen years ago, we thought, wow, how is there no way to tell the good from the bad . So we gave people the power of the review. And now angies list is revolutionizing local service again. You can easily buy and Schedule Services from toprated providers. Conveniently stay up to date on progress. And effortlessly turn your photos into finished projects with our snapfix app. Visit angieslist. Com today. Of swedish experience in insidperfecting the rich,ars never bitter taste of gevalia. We do it all for this very experience. [woman] thats good. I know right . Bulldog ibut my friends i are learning skillsnt that can change a life. Thats why mattress discounters good deed dogs is raising money to help train dogs like suzie to engage students in schools and special education classes. While ginger visits folks in the hospital offering quiet comfort. With your help, we can do even more make a donation at mattressdiscountersdogs. Com or any mattress discounters. Mattress discounters good deed dogs helping dogs help people. So my own feeling is right now, is that president obama should use the authority of his office to declare martial law, federalize the Missouri National guard as they protest. That was civil rights icon georgia congressman john lewis. Missouris democratic senator Claire Mccaskill says the situation must be demilitarized. As more critics against protesters against ferguson, they are calling for a federal civil rights organization, similar to the one opened regarding the shooting of Michael Brown. Joining me is Pete Williams. What can you tell us about what the Justice Department actually plans to do . Well, in fact, senator mccaskill and the attorney general have now talked. He also talked to other members of the congressional delegation. First of all, in terms of the investigation itself, the Justice Department on monday opened a civil rights investigation that is led by the u. S. Attorney out there and the fbi. And normally in situations like this, you see the fbi open these investigations, keep a close eye on what the local police are doing but not be too aggressive on their own at this stage. But this situation in ferguson is different, were told, that the fbi has already been doing interviews with witnesses. One official says the fbi has interviewed the young man who says he was with Michael Brown at the time of the shooting. So you see a little more forwardleaning response by the fbi in this situation. Now, the fbi cant, quote unquote take over the investigation because there is no federal murder statute that would cover Something Like this. The only hook is the course that it is taking. Thats onetrack, the investigation. In terms of the Police Response, the Justice Department says that its been urging authorities to use the same phrase senator mccaskill did, to demilitarize the situation there in dealing with the protests and Officials Say that there is every reason to think that the police now agree with that and that they will try to back off of that. The Justice Department has offered Technical Assistance from its Community Policing office in how to do this, how to control crowds in a less confrontational way and members of the Justice Departments Community Relations service has been there as well on the ground to try to help diffuse the situation. Nbcs Pete Williams, thank you. You bet. National and local papers offer a chilling glimpse at the nights chaos. It calls ferguson a city on edge. The Huffington Post labels it as baghdad usa. A fourth night of furor. Huffington post reporting ryan riley was covering the story last night and was inside a mcdonalds when he says he took this photo and then the police asked him for i. D. He refused and then police started to clear the restaurant and he was arrested as was a second reporter. Ryan, thanks for joining me. Your twitter account last night was fascinating for what you said didnt happen. One of the things that didnt happen when you were arrested, which was your miranda rights being read to you. Is the situation that you found yourself in analogous to anything that youve seen before as a reporter . Reporter yeah. I mean, i wasnt questioned on anything so its a question of whether they have to necessarily read me my miranda rights but it was a bizarre situation and an unnecessary escalation of this entire situation. I mean, i think one of the things that the context is very important here. This is at the time this took praise, essentially it was daylight hours. It was a peaceful protest and there were over 70plus fully armed s. W. A. T. Members in the community. That seemed to antagonize the crowd, the idea of this huge massacre of people in the area. Its important to point out, other people have experienced far worst things than i have last night. I mean, my head was slammed into the window on the way out but people got hit with tear gas, my colleague got hit with tear gas last night. I just think it was such an over reaction and at least with the officers that dealt directly with me in the way they were handling the situation. Id much prefer to reporting not on myself. Its not as much fun to be on this side of things, despite what some people might think. Its you know, id much rather be out there reporting on what is happening to other people than sitting here talking about what happened to myself. Indeed. And the restrictions on a reporters ability to actually report the story has actually become part of the story. I want to ask you the same question i asked to someone earlier. The police chief, chief jackson, has said that the militarized response, the response that you saw, was because rocks and mc molotov cocktails were being thrown at the police. Where you were, did you see protesters attacking police . Absolutely not. I was arrested i think i was the first arrest to arrive at the jail. They came through and were closing down the street. The mcdonalds was tranquil before. It looked like any other mcdonalds and we were not able to pack up our stuff quickly enough and some people who were playing dressup decided to lock us up. It was a situation that was completely unnecessary. I actually did ask because originally before this sort of distraction happened, i was trying to do something on the idea of all of the militarized vehicles and the equipment that has been brought in, i asked the police chief about this yesterday before all of this took place and he came up with, oh, people use bombs nowadays t was a preexisting idea that he had in his head even before the alleged molotov cocktails were launched, that in theory somebody could be using bombs and thats why we need these vehicles to deal with it. Ryan, stay with me. I want to bring in matt pierce, a reporter with the Los Angeles Times. Matt, you spoke with the Ferguson Police chief right after ryans arrest. What did he tell you . Thats right. I was actually not near where ryan was at. I stepped into my car to charge my phone and i was looking at twitter and i saw that they had been arrested. So i couldnt quite believe that because i had just seen them earlier in the day conducting interviews so i called the Ferguson Police chief tom jackson and i told him what i had heard. He just told me, oh, god. And so he said he was going to make some phone calls. So i talked to him again about ten minutes later and he said that he called over to the st. Louis county police who were running last nights crowd control and he said, ive told them to release them and said that they had proba