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Philadelphia Mayor Denounces What He Calls Anarchists for Looting; White House Staff Told to Avoid Coming into Work Due to Protests; Heavy Police Response in Minnesota Following Violent Protests; National Guard Deployed to Los Angeles After Violence, Looting; Aired 4-5p ET

Aired May 31, 2020 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[16:00:18]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.

We want to bring you a live look right now of what's happening right now in Philadelphia. At this hour, you can see police cars are being vandalized. And we're looking at these aerial images provided by our affiliate, W or KYW, I should say. You can see the protesters or in this case vandals are out and about already this afternoon.

Today, we are witnessing a country in crisis. A nation that was already hurting because of a pandemic and historic unemployment is now the site of seemingly apocalyptic scenes. Protests from coast to coast, triggering states of emergency. At least 25 cities across 16 states have imposed curfews because of scenes like this, as well as fires being set, businesses looted, cars flipped, officers hurt, crowds teargassed. And now even Chicago's main business district has been shut down.

There are just hardly any words to describe the toxic combination of the things that are all happening at once. These protests originally focused on George Floyd, remember? The unarmed black man who died under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer. That officer is now in custody and charged with third degree murder.

And while George Floyd's family wants justice, they have pleaded for protests to be peaceful, saying images of violence, images like these would devastate him.

Let's go now to Philadelphia, where a short time ago, in what appears to be continuing, we've been seeing looting, vandalizing.

Brian Todd is there on the ground. What can you tell us, Brian?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ana, this area of northeastern Philadelphia was the scene of some heavy looting just a short time ago. We're at a Walmart in the Port Richmond neighborhood here. We're going to walk you over to a door where some looters apparently got in or out. You can see just items strewn all over the floor, a cart that was overturned over here. The alarm still going off inside there. We're going to walk you back here, Ana. We came upon the scene when

the police were still here apprehending people. We saw them apprehending three people and putting them into squad cars. And I asked a police officer, you know, exactly what they came upon when they pulled up to this area. He said there were several looters rushing out the front area there. He didn't really have an exact count, but there were several people rushing out.

He said they caught some of them here, they caught some of them in the back, and he said one of them was carrying this pretty large TV and just dropped it and took off. So this is the kind of scene that we've been kind of coming upon in this area of northeastern Philadelphia, Aramingo Avenue is right there and that was the scene of some very heavy looting at a Foreman Mills store earlier today and an AT&T store.

So some looting events going on here in the northeastern Philadelphia are. The Center City area of Philadelphia where all the trouble happened last night, the fires and the looting, that has been -- the access has been shut down to that. Only residents and businesses -- business owners are allowed to go into that Center City area and we're going to see if any trouble starts there later on today.

But this area of northeastern Philadelphia, Ana, has been the scene of the heaviest looting today. The police have told us that about six arrests have been made since noon Eastern Time today. Most of them very likely were happening in this area and a total of 200 -- excuse me, more than 200 arrests took place since noon yesterday. And that included, of course, the fires being set, the looting in the Center City area of Philadelphia --

CABRERA: In fact, Brian --

TODD: -- that was so horrible. Yes.

CABRERA: In fact, Brian, we are seeing a police car right now on fire. I don't know if you can see any smoke from where you are or how far away it is from where you are there in Philadelphia, but currently there is a police car on fire right now and we had shown some aerial images just before we got to you, in which we saw a number of people who appeared to be vandalizing and pulling things out of other police cars in the vicinity.

So do you know where this police car is on fire in relationship to where you are or where there was the looting in that location that you're at?

TODD: We don't know exactly, Ana. We cannot see the smoke, but we'll certainly check that out. There is a very large police presence in this general area, again Aramingo Avenue, which is just kind of behind us here. The police -- there was heavy looting there earlier today. The police were streaming back and forth with tactical vehicles and other vehicles. And they are coming around this entire area. So it could be in this area. We'll check out to see where that vehicle fire was. It could also be possibly downtown somewhere. But that area is a little bit more secure than this area right now. CABRERA: And Brian, I actually heard that Philadelphia police office

was injured last night while trying to pursue a looter.

[16:05:04]

What do you know?

TODD: We do know that that officer was struck by a vehicle. Apparently the officer came upon some looting, tried to stop it, and was run over by a vehicle trying to escape. That officer apparently suffered at least a broken arm and possibly some other injuries. We were told that one officer, possibly that same officer, is still hospitalized. A total of 13 Philadelphia police officers or state police officers were injured overnight. And we're told that civilians were also injured in that just chaotic scene, really, throughout the Center City area of Philadelphia last night.

CABRERA: Brian, are you actually seeing protests today or are these isolated incidents of people causing trouble?

TODD: Ana, we've seen both, pretty much. We did see a protest, a very peaceful one by city hall before we got deployed over to this northeastern Philadelphia section. Probably 200 people in front of city hall. They were reading the names of young African-Americans who have died in recent years at the hands of police. They were giving speeches and it was very peaceful.

We don't have any word of what happened there after we left. We assume that everything was fine. But this area here was really where most of the trouble has been today. It's about six miles from there in the northeastern area of the city.

CABRERA: OK, and we did see the fire department move in and appear to put out the fire that was the one vehicle burning and it appears, perhaps, another vehicle has been set on fire, as well.

Brian Todd, we will let you go so you can track down some more information.

Again, these live images coming to us out of Philadelphia right now. But we have protests happening coast-to-coast, and we have our reporters that we also want to check in.

In Washington, we know White House staffers were told to avoid coming into work today due to the ongoing demonstrations there. And our Miguel Marquez -- excuse me, our Alex Marquardt is on location there.

What's happening where you are, Alex?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Ana. Well, you're right. This is in front of the White House. This is Lafayette Park. A park that is well known to people who have visited Washington, D.C. And what you're seeing here is a Black Lives Matter protest. It is a demonstration that has been an entirely peaceful demonstration. In stark contrast to many of the other protests that we have seen

across the country and really in stark contrast to what we saw overnight. For the past two nights here in Washington, there has been a significant amount of violence that protests that have given way to violence and unrest between protesters and the police.

This is a protest that started about two and a half miles away at Howard University, which, of course, is one of the most famously historically black universities in the country. They marched down here over the past hour and a half, gathering steam, gathering supporters, emphasizing that this needs to be a peaceful protest. In fact, we saw organizers of this demonstration coordinating, in fact, with members of the Metropolitan Police Department to make sure that it went accordingly, went peacefully.

We have seen people kneeling in silence, remembering African-American men and women who have died at the hands of the police over the past few years. We have heard the name George Floyd chanted over and over, which, of course, goes -- is contrary to what we have heard the president say about these protests having little to do with the memory of George Floyd.

Ana, this is a heavily African-American city, almost half of it, 46 percent is African-American. It's also a unique city in this country because it is the seat of the federal government. It is the home right there of the president of the United States of America and what is clear right now, being out here with these demonstrators, is that they have not heard what they want from the president of the United States.

In fact, just yesterday, early in the morning, he started tweeting about, if demonstrators got too close to the White House, that they would be met with vicious dogs and ominous weapons. Obviously, those references conjuring up all sorts of images from the Civil Rights era. And that was met with fierce criticism from the mayor of Washington, D.C., who has said that the president is causing division, that -- here you can hear chants of "Donald Trump has got to go."

But Mayor Mueller Bowser has all but accused the president of the United States of inciting violence. So, Ana, these protests very much peaceful for now. There is a lot of anger, a lot of frustration. And on the side of law enforcement, there are fears that later on today, this could give way again to more violence, Ana.

CABRERA: And we can see them using their voices, lifting up their signs and making their voices heard at this hour.

Alex Marquardt in Washington, D.C. Thank you.

Let's go to Minneapolis. The epicenter of the outrage where George Floyd was killed. CNN's Omar Jimenez is following all the unrest there.

Omar, Minnesota public safety officials say officers actually had to take some AR-15s off of some people last night. Give us the latest from the scene today.

[16:10:09]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there were a lot of arrests last night, to begin with. As part of what the governor described as an unprecedented response from law enforcement to try and stop what had been three nights h a row of anarchy, as state officials had described it, to prevent it from going into a fourth. So they had tripled the law enforcement size that would be responding out in the field that night.

But they have the largest deployment of National Guard for the state of Minnesota in its history. They cut off major highways into the city, as there were concerns that people were coming from the outside to cause some of the major damage that maybe people here were not a fan of and the people here were doing peaceful protests.

So there were a lot of factors that came together to again try and prevent scenes like what you see behind me right here to continue into another night. And by all means, it seems that they were successful in that. I mean, they prioritized high -- to use their words, high-value targets in places that would see a high probability of being central locations for protests. So in this particular neighborhood where we're standing, that would be the 5th Police Precinct for the Minneapolis Police Department.

As we have seen, the Third Police Precinct get lit on fire just a few nights prior. And over the course of the day yesterday, our crews were here as there were peaceful protests outside that precinct and then the curfew hit, that was put in place by the state government here. And there was a bit of a weird quiet space, where even people we were speaking to says it's eerily quiet.

Then about 50 minutes into that curfew, as people were still outside, we saw a swift reaction by law enforcement, as all of a sudden National Guard, state patrol, descended on that location, and without hesitation pushed these protesters back by spraying out disbursing tear gas, flash grenades, and it literally, after being here over the course of a week, was the most methodical and the most forceful response we have seen so far.

And again, the governor's office and more have been a fan of the peaceful protests we have seen, but they say they draw the line when we see damage and destruction, some of which like what you see behind me -- Ana.

CABRERA: Yes. It's just so awful to see those images behind you. Omar Jimenez, thank you for your reporting.

Hundreds of National Guard troops are also in Los Angeles today and a state of emergency for all of L.A. County is in effect. Governor Gavin Newsom moving to deploy the National Guard after getting asked to do so by L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti.

Scores of businesses have sustained damage or have been destroyed in this weekend's unrest. Cars set on fire. Stores looted. Los Angeles Police arresting nearly 400 people on Saturday and our Paul Vercammen is on scene in Los Angeles. Paul, it looks, you know, horrible behind you. So many people are

struggling already and to see, you know, the signs of destruction behind you, now we're getting reports that an LAPD officer was struck be with a brick in the head, has a fractured skull. What more can you tell us about the scene today and what you've learned?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, where some of the worst of the fires and the looting, and you see those are building and safety inspectors. They've come through here and they're tagging these businesses. And this is a cluster right here on Melrose Avenue. Many of these business owners tracing their roots to the Middle East. They run mom and pop family shops. And they have been not only burned out, but they've been looted.

I want to bring in Ebbi here. He sells high-quality jackets and Doc Martens and he owns a store right behind us.

EBBI HAROONIAN, BUSINESS OWNER: Yes, my dad owns the store. He's an 81-year-old man that has his whole livelihood in the store and they looted it and they burned everything down. He has no other income. There's -- we don't know what to do for him now. We have to maybe open some fund for him because that was the only source of income he had.

My mom passed away about three years ago and all my mom's jewelry and her old clothes that my dad had connection to it was in the store. Everything is gone. Everything is stolen. I don't know. They looted it, then they burned it down. It's horrible. I don't know what to do with my dad. My dad is in a horrible situation right now.

VERCAMMEN: We wish him the best and I hope that works out. I think you said to me, you think you've lost about $500,000 worth of merchandise. You saw something that broke your heart. You think that you have evidence, a video, of someone breaking your window with a crowbar.

HAROONIAN: Yes, I do. It's actually on YouTube. And yes, we lost very close to 500,000, because we have been on Melrose only since 1989. We have had stores big and small and we have inventory from years and years and years and it was a good business. My dad was making a living. He was not becoming a millionaire, he was making a living. But now everything is gone. Everything is up in smoke.

[16:15:05]

VERCAMMEN: Well, we hope somehow you can recover from this. I wish you the very best.

This is the scene here on Melrose with all these mom and pop shops, Ana. They really got hammered by that twin devil, if you will, of the fires and the looting.

Back to you.

CABRERA: That's just a shame. Thank you very much, Paul Vercammen.

And as they work to clean up there in Los Angeles, we're seeing businesses being gutted by looters right now live in Philadelphia, as we continue to look at these images provided by KYW, our affiliate there on the ground. And we can see, obviously, police cars are set up in one part of the city, but people are still getting in and causing destruction in different parts of the city, as we heard in Brian Todd's report.

We are going to continue to monitor the protests, we're going to continue to monitor violence and looting that's happening today in this country. It is the sixth straight day of protests and rage, frankly, following the killing of George Floyd.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:20:10]

CABRERA: Welcome back. These are live images now again of Philadelphia, as we've been seeing violence already today, looting, vandalism. You can see police cars right there lined up. We saw a number of police cars already vandalized. Some police vehicles burning and we have seen local shops there being looted.

I want to bring in former Boston police commissioner, Ed Davis, as well as Gloria Browne-Marshall, a constitutional law professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She is the author of "The Voting Rights War: The NAACP and the Ongoing Struggle for Justice."

Commissioner Davis, when you look at these images, I mean, again, several days now where we have seen what appears to be a situation spiraling out of control across the country in many places. What are your thoughts?

ED DAVIS, FORMER BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: Good afternoon, Ana. It's a terrible thing to watch our country go through this convulsion of violence. And I -- one of my biggest worries is that it does not seem to be an easy way out of this. There's the political leadership and the things that usually kick in when this happens don't appear to be kicking in at this point in time.

So it's up to local and state officials to do the best that they can at their level and to really guarantee equal justice in this particular case. So I think things can be done in Minnesota that move more quickly. And then, just city by city, we need to be careful and do the least amount of physical force necessary. But also draw a line at violence and destruction that we're seeing occurring right now. We have to stop that.

CABRERA: And what would your advice be then to the people who are in these cities, trying to maintain order?

DAVIS: Have a plan that's based on intelligence. We have to understand how these things are unfolding. And then have enough resources in play to intervene when it has to happen. I've been at a number of riots. These things all have the same kind of a cadence. They start with an assembly. Then everybody starts to get rowdy. And then at some point in time, some actors in that group start to light fires and break things. There need to be teams to go in to take people who do that into

custody and then start to disperse people. If they're able to do that with the least amount of force possible, they'll stop this from happening.

CABRERA: And we are looking at live pictures now from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. And we can see, this is apparently what appears to be a peaceful protest as we have marchers coming down the street there and a sign in front saying defund the -- I can't see the rest of the word, but clearly they're trying to make their voices heard in a productive way and make sure that their message gets across. Close the jail, defund the cops, I see, as part of that poster in the front.

Gloria, what are your thoughts as you watch these images and have soaked in what has happened in the past few days?

GLORIA BROWNE-MARSHALL, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR, JOHN KAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE: I think it's very sad that it takes this in order to get law enforcement to pay attention. We have a broken criminal -- we have a corrupted prosecutorial system. And there needs to be deep reform.

For generations the police have been able to create havoc in the black community and kill with impunity because the prosecutors do not prosecute them. And the same prosecutors who know very well how to get indictments when there's civilian-on-civilian crimes seem inept or for some reason because these neutral parties when it comes to a police officer as a defendant when they do in a handful of cases decide to bring any action.

And so generations of this have resulted in this type of action. And it's just sad that it takes people being this self-destructive in order for this country to pay attention to what they know is wrong.

CABRERA: But when you talk about people being self-destructive, I mean, doesn't that undermine the message? Doesn't that harm the movement? And by the way, before you answer, I do want to just point out what we're looking at, I'm told, right now, are protesters trying to climb barriers that are put up at Lafayette Park in Washington, D.C. Again, this appears to be a big group of protesters that are on the move right now in Washington, D.C. We're going to continue to keep an eye on what's happening there.

But what are your thoughts about what has devolved from protests into in many cases rioting and other types of violence?

[16:25:02]

BROWNE-MARSHALL: It's -- as I said, it's sad and it's unfortunate that people have to turn to this level of protest. I'm a great believer of protests. I teach about protests, I've been a part of protests, I've led protests. What also needs to happen, as my co-guest has said, that the people begin to disperse because they've had people come within the crowd to disperse them. There is also dispersant that's based on leaders that come forward that the crowd will listen to. Right now this is a mob. And white, black, or other, a mob doesn't

really listen to any leadership. But there are times when we had leaders within the black community who had a moral voice, who had a voice of real leadership, that looked at what was happening in our community and spoke out about it. There are very few of those voices now. Too many of the black middle class have decided they want to just hold on to their jobs and not think about the rest of the community.

And many of our other leaders are older, they are elderly, they have given their time, and -- but on the other hand, they didn't bring up another generation of leaders to help in situations like this. So where there's a void, it's going to be filled. And at this point, it's filled by a mob mentality.

And if you don't mind one last thing, a lot of this violence is not coming from the African-American community, so to speak. It's coming from whites who have infiltrated it and some of these anarchists and other people who have their own anti-police agenda, and they're being, you know, the catalyst for these violence, fires, et cetera, arsonists and the African-American community is going to be blamed for and that's sad as well.

CABRERA: All right. Gloria, thank you very much, as well as Davis, my appreciation to both of you for being important voices as we continue to follow this story.

Our live coverage of protests happening across the country continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:31:26]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: OK. Welcome back for our breaking news. We're following the protests happening around the country at this hour following the death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minnesota.

And you can see these two images; one on your left from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, a march taking place in the streets, and on the right, near the White House in Washington, D.C., you can see police set up as we also have been watching the protests taking place there. Both of these protests that we've witnessed have been peaceful. Let's listen for just a moment to see if we can hear what they're chanting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that's right. You know, you guys were talking about --

CABRERA: It's obviously difficult to hear what they are saying, but I still think it's important to just take a moment to pause and to listen and to take in the moment and be with those protesters who were on the street.

And joining us right now on the phone is CNN's Don Lemon, who will be hosting a CNN special tonight, "I Can't Breathe: Black Men Living and Dying in America". And you know, Don, we've heard over the last several days from so many African-American members of our crew, of, you know, our friends and colleagues who've been describing what it's like to be a black man in America and how, you know, what we're seeing right now expressed around the country really resonates on a very personal level. I image that that's how you feel right now.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR, CNN TONIGHT: It's really heart wrenching. It's heartbreaking and heart wrenching for everyone -- I mean, it's for all Americans. You know, I speak to people I love, people I know of all different backgrounds who's American, this is heartbreaking. But it is -- obviously, especially personal for people of color and especially for black men, which is one of the reasons why I'm doing the special tonight.

But, yes, this is -- to watch these images, to see the young people who are standing up -- and as you see, they're kneeling in the park as we're watching as this has been going on live in Boston, and people who are peacefully protesting. And then, you see other people taking advantage of the situation and rioting and looting and setting cars on fire, it's heart wrenching to watch.

But you know, Ana, we live in -- America is broken right now. And as dire and as sad as that sounds, I am choosing, in this moment, to look on -- at least to have a glass half full mentality about this and to have a hopeful mentality about this, otherwise, I can't -- I couldn't move on. I can't have it any other way.

I think that -- this America needs to be broken in order to be fixed. This is a critical moment in the history of this country. We're in a leadership vacuum right now. And the question is, who is going to step into this void, this absence of leadership and lead this country. And in the absence of leadership, I think many people who are in power and those who are very visible and those who have celebrity and those who have wealth and those who can -- who have a voice have to step up and help the kinds of people that we are watching from Boston right now, those kids, those young people who are standing at the abyss, who are saying, help us. We're sick of this. We're tired of this. We want change. And these are young people of all different ethnicities. And let me tell you, the person who can speak to these young people, who can motivate these young people that you see there to go to the polls in November, that person will be the next president of the United States.

[16:35:29]

CABRERA: As we look at these images out of Minneapolis, where we have a peaceful protest with protesters sitting down, and what appears to be some kind of moment of silence, perhaps, or are listening to speakers there in a very unified, dignified, and peaceful way, it is a soothing image after so much violence that we've witnessed in the last several nights.

LEMON: It is a soothing image. But we have to remember -- I mean, we don't want the message to get lost of Mr. Floyd -- of George Floyd's death -- the terrible killing that we saw on videotape. We all witnessed it. We all saw it. It's cringing. I mean, it's hard to watch. I can't -- it's tough for me as a journalist to watch the whole thing, and I've seen some pretty horrific things.

So, we want to keep that in mind. That is the crux of this. But we also all have to remember that in every -- in Minneapolis, in Philadelphia, in Chicago, in Washington, D.C., in Phoenix, Arizona, in every single city in this country, there is a George Floyd story, and people who can tell you similar stories.

CABRERA: And unfortunately, more than one probably in many cases.

LEMON: And I am in -- more than one. And I want to make this very clear. I am not condoning violence and rioting of any sort, but -- of any sort. But this is America right now. And this is the country that collectively we have created. This didn't happen in a vacuum. This didn't happen in a bubble. This happened over years and years of oppression, of people being ignored, and neglected, their needs and their voices being ignored and neglected.

People took a knee and tried to peacefully protest, and no one wanted to listen to them. And said, OK, I don't -- I want to be able to watch a football game and I don't want my football game interrupted. And so, I don't, you know, I don't want to hear what you have to say to some other way. And so, when -- what other way would you have people do it? So, let's think about the history how this country was started when you think about slavery in this country --

CABRERA: OK, Don, thank you.

LEMON: -- and then you move forward to Jim Crow. And then --

CABRERA: Thank you.

LEMON: -- hang on, Ana. Please let me finish. I know you have to get to breaking news. And I see that you have it on your screen. But this is very important. And these scenes are going to play out. And you're going to have many of these scenes play out. And you're going to talk about breaking news and I'm going to talk about it. And then -- and all of these things are going to play out across parks and venues all across the country.

So, just give me one minute and let me finish this thought and you can get back to the breaking news. We're going to in breaking news for weeks on this.

Dr. King, we started with none -- with peaceful nonviolence. They killed Dr. King for peaceful nonviolence. And then, we went into people not having -- going into -- trying to get jobs. And they talked about, well, this person is a hire -- a minority hire, and so on and so forth.

And so, people realized that sometimes in order to get things, you have to become angry, and that, again, that doesn't mean that you have to tear up property and that you have to break things. But think about it, what else would you have people do when they are upset and when they're angry and when they try to do things peacefully and try to be nonviolent and you still are not listening to them and you are being ignored and you're still being killed? Maybe the answer is not in violence. But tell me and tell them what the answer is when you are being ignored. And whoever can figure that out in this moment will be the person who can solve this particular issue. That's all I'm saying. So, sorry to take up your time, but there you go.

CABRERA: Your message is so important. And I look forward to hearing your conversations tonight and lifting up those important voices so we can all understand. I want to understand.

Join CNN's Don Lemon this evening for an important conversation, "I Can't Breathe: Black Men Living and Dying in America". That's tonight at 8:00 eastern here on CNN. We'll have much more coverage of the protests across the country including those right outside the White House, where we could hear protesters chanting George Floyd's name. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:44:04]

CABRERA: We want to turn now to Chicago and CNN's Ryan Young. And Ryan, quiet on the streets behind you right now, because there are some very strict rules in place there today.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely some strict rules. You can see the bridge behind me that's separating sort of the city. This is the famous Michigan Avenue. You can't just drive across the bridge here. In fact, they've limited access into the downtown business district after what happened yesterday.

Look, it was a very violent time. You're talking about six people got shot, one person died in all of this. And so, they wanted to make sure they shut down the streets. That's stopping a lot of some of the protesters from getting back into the city at this point.

There's been a big conversation, as they start ramping up more officers. And I want to show you this. You can see some of the preparation. The Apple store is in this direction. They're literally boarding that up as we speak. And that's going on all the way down Michigan Avenue to make sure there's not all this property damage that happened last night.

But for protesters who were sort of upset about what's going on and social justice, we had a talk already. This is William Calloway. He was instrumental in bringing Laquan McDonald, who was a teenager who was shot here in Chicago. A lot of people -- they're watching last night -- you are angered by what you saw in terms of what happened on the streets of Chicago yesterday.

[16:45:19]

WILLIAM CALLOWAY, CHICAGO: I was. I was disappointed by the reaction of our city. But, listen. What we've been seeing, not only here in Chicago, but across the country, is just -- is the fatigue and the fact that we, as African-Americans, are tired and frustrated of the treatment of white police officers in this country.

YOUNG: We also talked about, we saw some people coming here to town that we hadn't seen before. You heard the mayor talk about, there are people pulling up in u-haul trucks. What have you noticed in terms of some of these protesters?

CALLOWAY: Well, personally, I haven't seen that. I haven't seen that. What I have seen is I have seen people who have been tired since the death of Rekia Boyd, the death of Paul O'Neal, the death of the Laquan McDonald, and what we've seen yesterday was the manifestation of that.

And I applaud every peaceful protesters. We will always applaud every peaceful protesters. You've been following us for years since the Laquan McDonald story broke. We've always been peaceful. And I think if the history of Chicago Police Department is they've always been an aggressor. But I'm not here to point fingers. I'm here to unite our city behind this common -- by this common theme of that we deserve justice, not just for what happened to Mr. Floyd in Minneapolis, but what's happening to black men and women all across this country and that's been happening.

YOUNG: When you hear that someone got shot and you see that six other people were shot as well, you saw what happened to Chicago.

CALLOWAY: Yes.

CABRERA: How did that hit you waking up this morning?

CALLOWAY: It's traumatic. But what people fully realize in Chicago that we live in a state of trauma especially if you live in a black community. We have to deal with that every day. And for some reason, when they talk about police violence, like, we don't care about black, quote/unquote, black on black violence. We care about all violence.

But when you're talking about structural racism, that's a different conversation and that's what these white officers have been doing. They've been perpetrating that for the longest and we're tired of it. And I applaud every peaceful protester for stepping up and making their voices heard all across the country.

YOUNG: Perfect. I really appreciate you coming down here. Look, there are more protests are expected tonight. We are also hearing the National Guard should be in place within the next 20 minutes. Ana?

CABRERA: OK. Ryan Young in Chicago for us. Thank you for your reporting. And we are continuing to cover protests and unrest across the country today, including these live pictures from Miami, where you can see protests in the street right now. It is 4:47 Eastern Time. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:52:09]

CABRERA: Live images out of Minneapolis right now and a protest happening there. Let's listen for a moment. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With everyone's help here, Mr. Freeman, listen up, because we're talking to you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're talking to you!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will be the change. Third-degree assault, this is what it means and this is why it's an insult. Third-degree assault -- murder, I'm sorry -- third-degree murder is simply what they're saying a depraved heart.

And what that means by a depraved heart is that the actions were just so out of bounds that he wasn't thinking and it was an accident. That's what that means. This was not an accident. This was an intentional infliction of pain backed by a history of maltreatment of people of color.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is why you don't do drugs while killing him!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is my reflection of the facts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: So again, that's what's happening in Minneapolis right now. And you can hear the emotion; this river of pain, of frustration flooding the country this weekend is not new, but arose to a new painful level again with the death, nearly a week ago now, of George Floyd, on the ground, in police handcuffs, unarmed. It happened in Minneapolis just a few blocks from where CNN senior legal analyst, Laura Coates, used to call home.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

LAURA COATES, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: I'm from here. Seeing this in person is almost disorienting. Seeing the police precinct burn down, seeing the Target that I used to shop at, the grocery store I used to go to. I am looking at the train station that I used to go before I would go downtown to my law firm when I graduated from law school here.

I'm looking down the street from the apartment I have, down the street from the first home that I ever had a chance to own. And it's disorienting to see this here so close to home. It's disorienting, because it doesn't even look like a place in the United States, let alone in my hometown.

But what I do recognize is the community coming out to clean up, to protect one another, and to ask, what's happening? But it's not a place I recognize right now.

What began as a protest, seeking justice not only for George Floyd, but for what his killing represents, has devolved into violent chaos that some are blaming on opportunists, violent looters, not those seeking justice in George Floyd's name.

[16:55:04]

CAROL BECKER, MINNEAPOLIS RESIDENT: This isn't what we should see in Minneapolis and it's just -- this is not us and it wasn't our people. And it wasn't the people who live here who did that. And it wasn't the protesters. And I know that because I literally stood right here two nights in a row and I talked to them.

COATES: Arrest records suggest that many of the initial arrests were from Minnesota, but some are refusing to let their message get hijacked.

JOSEPH KETTER, MINNEAPOLIS RESIDENT: This was not all about black or white or any color. This was about humanity. We didn't come out to destroy. We came out on the street to protest and that's why we woke up from bed this morning just to come out and clean our city.

COATES: But not everyone felt the same responsibility to a community they no longer recognize or feel a part of.

YAVONNE DAWSON, MINNEAPOLIS RESIDENT: We grew up here. We have ties here. We're loyal here, you know. That's the reason why it does hurt us. But at the same time, I mean, look around. I mean, do you see anymore black people? I mean, this is not our city.

COATES: Across the city, we saw peaceful protests, community members trying to support one another, and even cleaning up the extensive damage from the night before. At a makeshift memorial where George Floyd and bystanders begged for his life, protesters tried to make sure his memory and their cause doesn't disappear.

I can't believe that this is the street that I used to live on. And it's only four blocks away from where George Floyd was killed. This neighborhood usually has children playing and dogs being walked. And today, a Black Hawk helicopter went overhead. And a few blocks away, the National Guard has been mobilized. Is this really my hometown? And how many others in this country are like this right now?

(END OF VIDEO TAPE)

CABRERA: Laura Coates is with us now live from Minneapolis. Laura, such powerful, personal look at your hometown through your eyes. My sister, my brother-in-law, my nieces and nephew also live in St. Paul and are clearly devastated and emotional in this moment as well. What's your sense of what will help turn the corner to the unrest there and what is needed then after that moving forward?

COATES: You know, there's so much symbolism here right now and what this all represents, Ana, because, you know, people here are looking in disbelief, not only about what the current state of affairs is, about the destruction, about the National Guard's presence, but about the string of officer-involved shootings, the last one, the most recent one being of Mr. George Floyd. And we've all seen the tragic videotape of what happened at the end of his life, begging for air, bystanders looking as well. And it appeared that the officers who are even on scene turned a complete blind eye and deaf ear upon it. One of the things I saw there at the actual makeshift memorial was at that the place where George Floyd's body was on the ground, we're all seeing, somebody had placed a book by Ralph Ellison, the "Invisible Man". And I want to read just a part of what -- of one of the quotes from that because it's so poignant to talk about what I think people are feeling. And it really captures that particular moment when it says, "I am an invisible man," he says, in the prologue. "When they approach me, they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination -- indeed, everything and anything except me."

And what you're seeing right now all across the country, particularly here in Minneapolis and the twin cities, generally, are people who are fighting to be heard, to be seen, and for the cause, involving not only reform, but what happened to Mr. George Floyd not to be lost.

And you have people, right now, who are looking and the trying to react, trying to clean up, trying to make sure that their messages are not being hijacked, that the ideological protest is somehow not taken away. And then we're saying the name of George Floyd, they're actually saying his name and remembering what happened.

People, right here in the parking lot, have been cleaning up all day. But what you're seeing here is largely a reaction to even when an arrest is made, and you heard the sound before my piece, even when the arrest has been made, you see people who are reacting to an absence of faith in the criminal justice system, questioning the charges for third-degree murder, questioning whether somebody who intentionally kneeled on somebody's neck for more than two and a half minutes, almost nine minutes, two and a half while he was no longer responsive, how that could not be intentional. And there are so many questions surrounding it and an opportunity.

And I talked to legislators, who are here today, walking at the area and surrounding the actual area. And there are a couple of things that are already in the works. One of them, Ana, is trying to legislatively codify having there be a duty to intervene, a duty by officers who see excessive force. Right now, Ana, that's in the manual for the police. But actually having to codify that and make sure they are accountable and responsive, there's a lot to be done and the people here are starting from the ground up. The next is criminal prosecution and possibly more.

CABRERA: Yes. But you are speaking of solutions and steps forward and things that can be done and that's so important. Laura Coates, thank you for being there. Thank you for being with us.