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Don Lemon Tonight

Protesters Launch Objects As Police Release Tear Gas In Minneapolis; Fury, Frustration In American Cities On Fifth Night Of Protests; Protests Underway In Minneapolis As Unrest Continues; Curfew In Effect For Minneapolis-Saint Paul; Protests Erupt Across U.S. Following Death Of George Floyd; Streets Of LA Witness Clashes Between Police, Protesters. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired May 30, 2020 - 22:00   ET

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

[22:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOICE OF OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The images that would come out of first night, you have to think would inspire others to potentially do more of the same the next one. And Governor Tim Walz weighed out basically a 3-step process, a long 3-step process that he says, they are going to have to undergo to get back to some sense of normalcy.

And the first one is trying to restore order in the city when we have seen images of buildings on fire, when we have seen images of buildings being broken into and looted, when we have seen a devolvement of what they wanted to see, peaceful protests over the death of George Floyd and how that death was subsequently handled.

You see they're getting hit from behind as well, looks like as they are now scattering to our right here. I'm trying to see if there's another unit advancing from behind them, it may be that they're trying to squeeze them out of here.

I can't quite see it but again, you do see there, rather than running back and continuing to retreat back in one direction like they have, they are now moving to the right and that picture, that image of state police there, very stilling, they're not moving.

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Omar, give me a second. I want to reset and bring you back in two second.

JIMENEZ: Yes, go for it Don.

LEMON: Top of the hour, this is Don Lemon. You're watching CNN. We are seeing state police officers who have been brought in really from - from every area of the state of Minnesota here, every state, every part of the area, I should say, area of the state to help protect the peace in Minneapolis.

Any other day these offices would be out in patrol cars patrolling the highways and tonight they are in riot gear. It is a major escalation of force here. The governor himself said that overwhelming force will be used to restore order and we're seeing that take place.

We're watching these are perhaps the most intense images that you were seeing in the country this evening but there - they are playing out similar images, not as intense in every major city throughout this country. I'm being told that there are - there's chaos in the city of Los Angeles tonight. There is a curfew in Atlanta.

And there's Atlanta, New York City, Washington D.C., they're gathering at the White House. Philadelphia, Miami, so on and so forth and we will take you to all of those cities but right now we're keeping a close eye on Minneapolis and our Omar Jimenez whose reporting this from the ground with a very close vantage point.

Omar is been retreating from police officers from state police and you can hear him now from state police and also from the National Guard. And. And he has had to move for several minutes now. And Omar, we're not sure, we've been talking about it, we're not sure what the game plan is but you believe that it is, the major part of the game plan was to get these protesters away from this police precinct.

JIMENEZ: That's correct Don. At this point this is where, that was where the central aspect of the law enforcement push came where all - all - there were hundreds of protesters I should say in that intersection, right outside the fifth police precinct in Minneapolis and then all of a sudden, this law enforcement group of state patrol and some national guardsmen came around, methodically moved up the street firing tear gas and using other methods to disperse the crowd.

My photographer was hit with a rubber bullet in his - in his thigh there, I don't know if you can see that. Our producer was hit in the back with a rubber bullet as we were - as we were moving - moving away from there as well. And you see this is what the protest looks like right now. People hiding in cover around the corner.

I'm trying to see - you see the line - you see the line of you see the line of police officers right in that Kmart over there, just pass this Office Depot. It may seem smoky in the air here and that's because there's so much gas that has gone up as a result of what they had used to disperse the crowd.

You saw that protester who was leaned up against the wall there, trying to use it as cover but also keep an eye on that line of police while another one, another good one is just looking over at them right now in front of a graffitied Office depot as one person seems to be walking in unabated towards the line of police officers.

But look Don, as we were talking about what, the governor, this is what leadership here in the city of Minneapolis in some ways wanted the law enforcement presence to be, to stem some of that rioting, the looting, the violence and destruction that had seemed to come every single night alongside and after the peaceful protest we have seen during the day.

Specifically Governor Tim Walz has used the phrasing 48:00 hours of anarchy to describe what he had seen over the course of two straight nights and then said it wouldn't happen. Then it happened the third night and here we are on another night where he said the law enforcement presence would be triple in the city of Minneapolis and I think we're seeing the manifestation of some of those methods and that mentality right now Don.

[22:05:00]

LEMON: All right Omar, I need you to stand by and I also want you to be safe. We're going to get back to you. This is a critical situation happening - happening in Minneapolis. Also here similar scenes are playing out in Los Angeles and Philadelphia as well. We will get to those cities sadly.

But I want to get to Congresswoman -- Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, she - this is her district. Representative, thank you so much. We will continue on with these pictures as we speak with you but this is your district. Reaction to what is happening right now.

REP. ILHAN OMAR (D-MN): It's completely disheartening you know, earlier we had a press conference right on Lake Street. You know I've talked about how there have been people who are exploiting our pain and anger and grief and litting our city on fire and if people truly cared about black lives, they wouldn't be setting fires, risking black lives.

And you know the Governor has called enforcement to make sure that lives are protected and we urged people to really prioritize, saving lives and - and keeping our city from being burned down.

LEMON: Well, it appears that it is being burned down right now. There is - there is a curfew that is in place. It is over an hour now past that curfew and you can look at these images coming in. I mean this has to be disturbing for you because the message should be what is happening within inequality and with police brutality and with injustice and - and so on and so forth.

But this clearly takes the focus off of that. That has to be concerning for you, Congresswoman.

OMAR: It certainly does. It's really heartbreaking because for many of us, we've seen the life choked out of George Ford and all we - George Floyd - and all we want to do is to make sure we are centering justice for him in this conversation.

We wanted protests just to take place so that people can continue to call for that justice and now all of that is being overshadowed by our city being set ablaze and people really need to understand that this is our grief being exploited and if we really want to make sure we're getting police reform, that we are setting the course for action in regards to achieving justice for George Floyd, we have to come together.

We have to prioritize our safety and protect one another.

LEMON: Congresswoman. I don't know if you can see the images that are on the screen. We showed images of broken windows and in Los Angeles and now you're looking at a police car in Union Square in New York City that is set ablaze. It is not just in your community of Minnesota of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

This is happening all across the country. Something that took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the death of a man that was captured on videotape has now sparked rioting quite frankly all across this country.

OMAR: Yes, we are seeing unrest throughout the country, not just in Minneapolis and Minnesota. It truly, I think it speaks to some of the underlying issues that exist within our communities when we talk about the kind of police brutality that we've seen time and time again.

So many lives being taken. The social and economic injustices that we need to address and you know this is really kind of speaks to the fact that when you are dealing with situations like this, aggression begets aggression and violence begets violence.

And we just need to put an end to this and get in the process of restoring hope in in people and - and working and trying to get the kind of reforms that are long overdue.

LEMON: Yes, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, we appreciate you joining us. Stay safe. That is - your community man literally is just in chaos as are other cities around the country. Thank you for joining us. So listen, we're going to get to -

OMAR: Thank you.

LEMON: -- some of the other scenes happening around the country. What you're looking at now is New York City. This is a - I'm told an NYPD cruiser that is on fire. Is this in Times Square? Do we know exactly where it is? It is in Union Square. This is Union Square. I want to get now to - what you're hearing is our correspondent Shimon Prokupez who is on the scene in New York City.

[22:10:00]

Shimon, take us there. What - what's happening.

VOICE OF SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME & JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so as you know, people being gathered here protesting all day and into the night here now. We were over here, coming over to a bank. There's a bank that's behind our shot here. Windows were destroyed broken out and as that was going on, we looked over to this side and there you see, that's actually a police van, a police van that is on fire and there are no fire trucks.

A fire truck did drive through but it was going to another scene. We don't know how this happened but protesters are being gathered all around here all night now and how this van caught on fire, we don't know.

There's another fire burning behind us so there's smoke really all around us from the fire and you can see the flames just growing here. We've been hearing popping sound coming from the van but that's what's happening here and as you can see, this situation here has escalated. Police are just standing back, most of the people here are spending

back. People are chanting. Everyone and just watching as this policeman burns, Don.

LEMON: OK Shimon, I want you to stand by. I want to run through if we can through some of these cities. This is New York City that we're looking at. Again this is Union Square and you can see there's a police cruiser on fire there. So I mean clearly obviously New York City police did not want this to happen.

Let's get -- can we get pictures now. Let's look at Los Angeles. What's happening in Los Angeles because I am getting messages from people who are telling me that Los Angeles is on fire and there is proof of that. So you're looking at Los Angeles here.

Paul, stand by. I just want to get a look at some of the images there. Do we have any other images in Los Angeles? Do we have any aerials from our affiliates but again, this is what's happened - this is Los Angeles and let's put the aerials up from our affiliate. Firefighters are on the scene of a fire in Los Angeles.

I believe we had a shot of Miami where we saw a car that was burned out in Miami. Again, another major city in the United States where we are seeing chaos. Also in Washington DC, we saw protesters that were close to the White House. There is DC where that got out of control last night.

We saw protesters who were fighting with secret service there. Also the city of Atlanta out of control. This is Salt Lake City, we'll take you there. We'll put those images from Salt Lake City, Utah. Look at that. Look at the streets of Salt Lake City and as I said, Atlanta Georgia out of control last night.

It is unbelievable to see what is happening in almost every single major city in this country and still heads up, heads up, we're hearing from Salt Lake and still, I am waiting for a call for calm, something to come from the leadership in this country. Where is it? There is Atlanta. This is what's happening on the streets of Atlanta right now.

Where's the call for calm? Where is the leadership? So far, nothing. As all of this plays out, as many cities in America are burning. CNN's Paul Vercammen takes us now to the streets of Los Angeles. Take us there Paul. What are you seeing?

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, we walked inside the grow. We talked about this upscale shopping mall and right over here, they call this the police Co-van or a booth. That was on fire. They just put that out but then as Chris comes in pants to the left, look what happened here.

It was apocalyptic. There was no one in here and they jumped inside and they began looting this Nordstrom. Go ahead, walk over here and - and take a look inside so we saw these looters leading some of them with plastic bags, full of clothes or shoes or whatever and they got inside while the protest was going on, on the other side of the street. And then some of them skipped on over, if you look over to the left,

and they looted this Ray Ban store. And for a moment there as I said to you, it was apocalyptic. It was just us walking through here with just our crew. We're going to - we ran into a Police Chief Michel Moore of the LAPD. The first thing I want to ask you is, have you ever seen anything like this and how are you dealing with it?

[22:15:00]

MICHEL MOORE, CHIEF, LOS ANGELES POLICE: Yes, we've seen it and it's one of our darkest days when I saw it last and - and it's repeating and - and it's - it's a very - it bothers me a great deal.

VERCAMMEN: If you look to your right, you saw that police booth on fire, what went through your mind?

MOORE: Well that - to the extent that that was targeted because it has our name on it, I'm less concerned than I'm seeing just the destruction across businesses across this entire city. Business owners who've been through this pandemic, not even through this pandemic that are suffering such economically and in such life - losses of livelihood and - and now have been target through these last now four nights of this ordeal.

So - I'm - I'm thankful that - I'm thankful that our officers while they're valiantly going out there, their injuries to this point and across the city has not involved a death but - but I'm troubled that the level of this escalation. The first, second night was isolated events. Last night certainly was not and the amount of attacks on our officers was extraordinary.

It goes back generations to find a similar time and tonight unfortunately today is as is matching that and so you know, the steps that we're taking our extreme but we're going to start every moment, we're going to start every day as we did this morning with the - with the sun coming up with this hope. There's a hope that we can work through this, that we can as we - this stuff as people are suffering and that's people feel injustices that they've experienced and they've experienced at the hand of law enforcement.

We hear them, we see them, we recognized it and we acknowledge it and we're part of it but this is not the solution. What we're doing to control this and what I want to show LA because we haven't given up. We haven't given up on LA and LA should not give up on itself.

We can pull around this. What we need to do is come to terms with understanding people are hurting, they're going through great grief and anger and frustration and we need to find a narrative that finds an opportunity to have progress but this is not progress.

And so I'm signaling to people that we will not fix this. Policing doesn't fix these type of societal ills and - and so I need - I need all of Los Angeles to step forward, to be a part of the solution.

VERCAMMEN: Do you have any idea how many arrests you've made or what the level is of alluding. MOORE: It's extensive. We will continue to make arrests as a last consequence as a result of attacks on our personnel, on events of looting, of vandalism. We're trying to avoid arrests for simply refusing to leave the closed area but in those instances once an area becomes embroiled with such violence and such dangers, dangerous circumstances and such damage if you will, to the economy and the very livelihood of a community, it's an unsafe area. It's an unsafe circumstance.

And whether a person is there with the most righteous grievance in the world, just as every other disaster, they've got to leave. Not only for their own safety but for the safety of the community and that's why I'm asking tonight again as many people who are hurting and want to be heard and want to be seen, I want to know that we're listening.

But the way to achieve that is not through violence. It's not to setting fires. It's not through attacking police officers. It's not through jeopardizing life and we are doing that. Now LAPD are public safety agencies. We're leading in and we're - and - and we're going to do everything we can to counter that those forces that are - that are seizing this moment and taking advantage of it.

But - but with that, I need a lot - we need a lot of help.

VERCAMMEN: Thank you so much for taking time out. I appreciate it. Chief Moore. That was the Chief of the LAPD, Don in this moment were there was looting, a fire and this protest that started so peacefully but somehow wound up in so much violence. Back to you Don.

LEMON: I think the last time I saw anything like this, I don't know if it's the same scale Paul Vercammen but I think it was for during Rodney King. We will see how this plays out. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. Paul Vercammen, we'll get back to you. Scenes that are playing out in Los Angeles.

Brian Todd is in Philadelphia for us this evening where protests have turned violent. People - crowds setting fires there and there's also state police are trying to tear down we're told, they're trying to turn on the statue of a former mayor. What is going on?

BRIAN TODD, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right Don, the city really devolved into chaos over the past few hours. I'm going to show you where we are in city hall right now. The police have done like a massive sweeping of this area, clearing up this area.

This is a car that was vandalized earlier. There's a car that was burned out. You can see the extent of the damage to that car. Totally burned out earlier. This car heavily vandalized. Our photojournalist Andrew Smith and I are going to walk you over here.

We do have some pictures from earlier today of this area here. You've got some burned out cars being removed over here and so several fires were set here near city hall. Fires were set all around this area and multiple structures were set on fire. We have been moved to this area by the police because they're doing a sweeping operations at Chestnut at 18 street roughly around there. [22:20:00]

Where there was massive looting going on. I mean that, couple of hours ago, that place was completely chaotic. We were pushed from that general area back over to this area when police moved in to start to arrest some of the hard core looters. I'll take you down here, again, we move down this street right next to city hall. There's a statue over here of Former Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo, that was a real target early on in these protests.

And then the violence here, Andrew, if we can just kind of do a pan over here, you can see the statue of former Mayor Rizzo there heavily vandalized. There was a fire set near here. There were several fires set near here as protesters converged near city hall, tried to breach city hall. Unclear how far they got.

So we did get some information as well earlier from the Commissioner of Police of Philadelphia, Danielle Outlaw and the Mayor Jim Kenney. What they've said is at least a dozen more than a dozen police officers were injured today during all of this as they tried to move in, tried to stop some of the looting, tried to stop some of the vandalism.

Thirteen -- at least 13 police officers were injured they said by people throwing objects at them. People throwing urine things that - chemicals inside canisters, things like that so the police have had casualties here. Some civilians have been injured but Commission Outlaw did not have exact numbers on how many civilians have been injured here in Philadelphia today.

So real scenes of chaos and destruction here. Heavy violence here Don. We don't know really if it's calmed down because our team was moved a few blocks over this way. Again, 18th in Chestnut kind of back into this area over here. We were - we were down there a little bit earlier. We were pushed over here by police. We're told that they moved in to try to arrest some of the hard core looters.

What the - what the Mayor Jim Kenney has said is that of course the vast majority of protesters were here earlier today in this area and in the area of the Philadelphia Museum of Art were peaceful. They were of course very passionate. They were angry but they were peaceful and then in the Mayor's words, he used this phrase.

He said a rag-tag group of people then started to commit most of the violence and most of the looting. Now and I did hear the Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw say that many outside agitators have come in to start trouble. That's of course a refrain Don, you know we've heard in Minneapolis, we've heard in Los Angeles and Atlanta and other places that it's a lot of this chaos and violence is caused by outside agitators.

That is according to many of the city officials and that's the same refrain that we're hearing here in Philadelphia, Don. So we're going to try to get around some of these areas to show maybe some of the arrests being made. We don't know how close we're going to be able to get as the police now are acting very sternly, very aggressively to try to push some of the media people back into this area of city hall. Don.

LEMON: If you want to continue to walk, I'll talk a little bit. I know that city very well, Brian. Right now where you are Market and Broad Street, if you're right across from City hall. What happens is if you go. Market and broad street, right? And so the - the street opens up, goes right around City hall.

City hall - you're actually right in the center of Center City and that's where everything needs right there in the middle and so and government buildings are all there. Go head. What are you trying to point out. Yes. Yep.

TODD: Sorry Don. This is another area. This is again where the statue if Mayor Rizzo is. You can see a lot of the debris here and the police have set up a cordon around this municipal service building here. You know that you of course you're familiar. That's - that's a key building here in downtown Philadelphia. City Hall's right over here.

We're going to go to 15 street over here in this corner. See what we can see as police have set up parameters all through this area. We had to walk through several cordons of police just to get here and we're going to try to get to some of the areas where they're making arrests now but I don't know honestly, how close we're going to able to get.

The police have been pretty stern in moving us around. Here is a presence of -

LEMON: Where are you? Is this - is this 15th street?

TODD: Don, we're - It's 15th street and John F. Kennedy drive. 15 St. John F. Kennedy drive so I know that 18 and Chestnut, Don is what we were told were - there were some really horrible scenes of looting, some real chaos going on, 18th and Chestnut, a few blocks from here.

Our team was down -

LEMON: So Brian, let me - let me tell you why that - let me tell you why that is. That - that is - that's where all the shops are and as you get - that is sort of the Rodeo drive if you will, of Philadelphia where all of the shops and as you get closer to sort of the wealthier area of Center City, it would be Rittenhouse Square.

So if the rest are probably there because if there's looting going on, they're probably trying to get to those stores but Brian, go ahead and - and try to get to that. I'm going to try to sneak in a break here and we're going to continue to follow what's happening all across America tonight. We had Brian Todd reporting from Philadelphia.

[22:25:00]

This is Seattle, Washington and this is from our affiliate KIRO. Let's listen a little bit.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I think these flash bangs. Oh shoot.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEMON: There is desperation tonight in America. An, America that is

barely recognizable. Cities smoldering, tear gas canisters flying and no end in sight. There is a disease that has taken the lives of 102,000 of us.

[22:30:00]

There are tens of millions of us out of work, until numbers of Americans genuinely fearful about what comes next. That was all before this painful week when a police officer ended the life of George Floyd and started what is now entering a fifth night of chaos in our country.

Scenes like these you see right now in New York and Seattle. They're all playing out all across this country tonight and we want to get to one of the hot spots, really the epicenter for all of this and that's Minneapolis, where protests are unfolding on the streets again tonight.

CNN's Miguel Marquez is on the ground for us. Miguel, what is going on where you are? What are you seeing?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So we're at the Lake Street Mitchell bridge. Pete, just look down here. Let me just jump over this barricade. What you're seeing right now are protesters who are trying to get to the state capital six miles away in Saint Paul.

You can see the amounts of tear gas that police are firing on the other side of the bridge. A few hundred protesters, mostly young people who started off about two or three miles from here. They walked by the third precinct. They stopped there. They were peaceful. They wanted to make their point. They wanted to move to the capital. They knew the risks though.

They talked about it along the way. As they got to the far side of the bridge, completely kettled in there, police were there in very big numbers and before they could even get close to the police, the tear gas started to come. There was a barricade set up here so that for construction. They've now taken those barricades and they're trying to protect themselves from the police coming any closer to them.

There are police officers in very heavily clad police on the other side of the bridge that are moving in this direction. What I'm surprised at is that there are no police coming up behind us which is often the way these things work.

They try to kettle them in and then straight start making arrests. I'm going to talk to this young man. Patrick Smith come here sir. OK, this is -

PATRICK SMITH, PROTESTER: Everybody back up and let us build a barricade.

MARQUEZ: Patrick. This is live on CNN. How old are you?

SMITH: 24 man. MARQUEZ: 24. You're from Minneapolis?

SMITH: No, I'm an immigrant and then I came here.

MARQUEZ: From where?

SMITH: From Liberia, West Africa.

MARQUEZ: Why are you -

SMITH: I'm from the original place where when America got rid of slaves, they sent them to Liberia. Liberia, home of American slaves, that's where I was born and to think that I got to come here and I got to deal with this stuff at 24.

MARQUEZ: Liberia was the country that the Americans tried make into an African colony back in Africa to deport African-Americans back to Africa. You guys walked up to - how close did you get to the police and what happened?

SMITH: It was very - almost across the bridge and I don't know. They just decided it. We're nearly at the end peacefully together, holding hands, locked in. Imagine that. Different colors, you know, different genders.

MARQUEZ: And why so important - why so important to show your strength to this?

SMITH: Because everybody in our generation needs to understand. We are the bridge gap from our father's generation to our younger generation. We are the bridge gap. If we want change, our generation has to step up right now and demand that change. If we do not demand the change and create the platform for change to exist, we are screwed and our next generation would never be to be able to achieve that and what we're trying to do right now is peacefully protest, peacefully protest.

By peace, we mean unity, locked in, everybody with the same mental aspect. But they don't want because they understand.

MARQUEZ: What do you say to people who are destroying cities right now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is what I will say. This is what I will say. They've been riding and looting for way less reasons. White people have done this since the beginning of time from the Boston tea party, These police officers are not non-violent. Look at what they're doing to us. We have hand up, water bottle and everything. We are not here to be violent so stop creating that message that we're here to do that.

MARQUEZ: What is your name?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, Protester: I'm Jay Marlgarin. We got to go. You guys do your job.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And just for the record, we are not here to cause a disruption but we are here to call disturbance.

MARQUEZ: What do you say to the people who are making ?

SMITH: This is what - this is what I got to say to the people who are destroying things. If you really feel like you have to take an opportunity, like if you're going to be an opportunistic, something is wrong with you. If you cannot stand up and fight the good fight and you want to be a cheater and go ahead and take what we're trying to do, something is wrong with you.

Because what we're trying to do is stand up for the basic rights of humanity and that's what we're trying to do and we're trying to do in a peaceful way. We do not want to go through this anymore, OK? I want to be able to go in a white neighborhood and feel safe.

I want to be able, when a cop is driving behind me, I don't have to clinch and be tense, OK? I want to be able just to be free and not have to think about every step I take because at the end of the day being black is a crime.

[22:35:00]

At the end of the day, being born black is a crime to them and I don't understand why because we're all humans and that's sickening. I got to go.

MARQUEZ: One moment. That may have been the best summation that I have heard in the time that we have been covering this. Very quickly give me your name and give me your thoughts.

LINDA MORRIS, PROTESTER: OK, my name is Linda Morris and I want to say in every group, there's always going to be those riffraffs that cause chaos but it's always a distraction. The very first person - the very first person -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go.

MORRIS: Yo, yo, we got to go. We got to go.

MARQUEZ: All right, there may be police coming on this side of the bridge now to clear them out as well so we're going to keep moving and try to figure out where this goes. They wanted to get to the state capital, to make their voices heard. They were very concerned about this - the national guard being called in.

They are very aware that there are three times the amount of national guards.

SMITH: Why does a National Guard have to have to have assault rifles with suppressors on them to come to a peaceful protest? Are we at war? Is this a war country? None of us have arms but yet the National Guard has assault rifles with freaking suppressors.

Do you know what a suppressor does? A suppressor silences a shot so they're to kill us with silence but we are not going to die. We are going to fight because our generation is sick and tired, OK? We want change and we demand it right now.

MARQUEZ: So they've retreated to this side -

SMITH: Everybody, if you're from this generation, you all step up. You have a duty as a human to step up and fight for every neighbor and every person around the world or they will try to silence us and we will never be silenced man. This generation is here to stay and we will get our [BLEEP] change.

MARQUEZ: He is as well-spoken as I have heard this entire time. They are incredibly angry. They've now gathered on this side of the bridge. It was - it was emotional to listen to him and the sense of purpose and injustice that is clearly so deeply ingrained and Phil, it is not clear what they're going to do now.

The hope was is to get to the state capital and make their voices heard there. That's six miles away in Saint Paul. They wanted to walk down the freeway. The police for now are staying on that side of the bridge. It's not clear where they're going but we're going to follow along Don and see what happens. I know if they cracked down on the other location and we will see what happens with the protesters here, Don.

LEMON: Miguel, if I may commend you because that is the difference between rioters and protesters and many people want to lump rioters and protesters in the same group or the same basket and they're not all the same. Of course the cameras and the attention - we're going to turn the cameras and the attention on the - the - what makes for the best pictures, right?

But most of the people are out there because they're upset and angry but of course when people are destroying property and setting things on fire, we must cover it but I'm so glad that you talked to those young people because again, that's the difference between rioters and protesters.

But what we actually - I have to be honest, what we're seeing playing out in many cities tonight are real riots. Thank you Miguel, again, thank you.

MARQUEZ: It's not helping their cause. You got it.

LEMON: Go on Miguel. Go on. Finish your thought.

MARQUEZ: It's all that violence here and that we're seeing around the country sparked by this place, they get it. It is not helping their cause. It is very frustrating to them and you know, the tension just gets greater here. I mean, I truly expected it to go down. The temperature keeps rising.

The sense that the Governor, that the mayor, that the county attorney of Hennepin County -Oh, here we go on this side now. They're now kittling them in. They just have the sense that they have been lied to too many times, been - had too many promises and this is the only way and I'm not sure where it is going to go at this point, Don. LEMON: All right, stand by. We'll get back to Miguel in Minneapolis. I

want to get now to Shimon Prokupecz who is joining us from New York City, Union Square to be specific. We hear some chanting and there appears to be a standoff with police. Go head Shimon. Please take it away.

PROKUPECZ: Yes, that's right Don. There is a standoff from police. Behind this line officers with their bikes there is a person being placed under arrest. What has happened is from where we were before on 13th street and you see how they move their bikes. This is what they're doing. This is their tactic here. They are using these bikes to push protesters back.

[22:40:00]

We were moments ago, last time we spoke, see a bottle was just thrown at police. We were - we're now on 12th street and Broadway. We're at 13th street and there was a police van on fire and then another police car cruiser caught fire and police then moved into the area. We saw the police officers on bikes, police officers in helmets with their sticks out, running up the block, clearing out the street.

We also saw pepper spray being used. Here few people who were kneeling washing their eyes out but this is how it's been pretty much throughout the day. There have been peaceful protests and then there are pockets of confrontation where police encounter protesters who either are refusing to leave or in this case set fires.

Also a bank, they vandalized the bank. Windows were broken out. So this is kind of how it's been now through the night, Don. Of course you know we're hearing chants through the night. You know Black Lives Matter and people here are angry, understandable and for the most part, when they are peaceful and they are chanting and they want to express their views and feelings, they are allowed to do so.

Then an escalation occurs and then this is when we see the police start to move in and become aggressive as they try to clear the streets and the sidewalks. They are now dealing with the two fires, vandalized bank. Another police car in this same area has been vandalized and now we're seeing just police here lined up again just trying to keep people from moving forward and what they're going to do is they're now going to move again here, Don.

They're moving us back again. And here - and here you can see. I'd let you listen to this if you want Don but this is how they've been doing it. And there you go, as they start to move, bottles get thrown at them. So these are the officers on the bike.

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LEMON: We have lost Shimon's signal there but we're live tonight in New York City. We're live in Chicago. We're live in Minneapolis. We're live in Atlanta. We're live in Seattle. We're live in Los Angeles. We're live in Washington DC. We're live in Philadelphia. We're live in Salt Lake City where you're looking at pictures now. We're live in Miami and look at the streets of Salt Lake City. This is what's happening in cities all across this country. No one

knows what is going to happen. America in chaos tonight. We'll take a quick break. Our breaking news coverage continues on the other side.

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[22:45:00]

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LEMON: We're going to take you to some of the cities in the United states that we're covering. This is Los Angeles and you can see there is a fire burning in the middle of the street. Our correspondents have been out in Los Angeles all day. These pictures are courtesy of our affiliate KCAL/KCBS and we certainly appreciate them for this.

But this started off peacefully according to our correspondent Paul Vercammen and then all of a sudden escalated into something that was - that became violent. Let's take you to the city of Las Vegas now where there is usually a throng of people out gambling on the strip but now there's a throng of people who are now - who have taken to the streets and who are protesting now. 7:48 PM Pacific time in Las Vegas, Nevada.

So far in Las Vegas, no reports of anything getting out of control. KTNV, thank you for those pictures.

Salt Lake City, Utah, we want to take it to the streets here where we see a protester refuse to be taken into custody, being taken into custody if not arrested. We saw several instances of bottle throwing, objects being thrown, standoffs with police officers and as you can see police there in riot gear and you see members of the National Guard of some at least military unit out on the streets there.

In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania tonight we find our Brian Todd who has been covering the streets of Center City at least so far. We have been seeing people trying to turn over vehicles and so forth and Brian Todd is there with a phalanx of police officers and Brian, if you look - looks like you're on 17th street somewhere in Center City, what's going on?

TODD: Yes Don, you'll know this area. 17, Walnut street in Philadelphia. I'm going to try to get our photojournalist Andrew Smith to get as close as we can. We're not being allowed past this intersection. This gentleman, this policeman here is telling us no further.

That's a multiple alarm fire in that building. You can see the hoses going into it. It's at least three storeys high. Again, this area of Philadelphia was the scene of real carnage earlier as far as looting, fires, just really extensive damage to property. You can see all the firefighters down here still trying to battle this blaze. We can't get a great shot of the flames but you can see clearly, Don.

This was some major damage right in the heart of downtown Philadelphia. I'm going to take you back over here. Again, we not being allowed past this little cordon of police.

[22:50:00]

And we got a little - a little TV news crew that we're going to navigate back here. Sorry guys. OK, we're going to show you some of the damage down here along Walnut street. We were allowed by police to come here after showing our credentials but no one else is really allowed in here except for journalist and police although we did see some people being chased from this area just a few minutes ago.

The police were really being forceful in removing them. Take a look. This is the scene of just incredibly extensive damage. This is an Urban Outfitters store here in Philadelphia. They got through the windows here. Just took out obviously a lot of the items and just threw them all over the street. There's just more damage down here on Walnut and police, just - just a few moments ago Don, really aggressively chased out some people and we thought there was going to be a confrontation right in front of us.

We did see one man being taken into a squad car. Here's a police officer coming out of the Urban Outfitters store. He was just checking this out. Just we - in this whole area Don, you told me earlier when we were on the air with you about this area, you know kind of an upscale shopping area so we made our way down here. We heard there was a fire down here. We found it.

But you know, we came through several blocks where there was - was just huge damage to these businesses. They really targeted this area, the businesses around here. Many, many scenes like this store front over here and the police are trying to clear citizens from this area as much as they can, again very aggressively just a few minutes ago chasing away some people right in front of us.

The mayor Jim Kenney, the police chief Danielle Outlaw. This is the information we're getting from them. At least 13 police officers have been injured tonight. A number of civilians have been injured here in Philadelphia during this violence. We don't know exactly, they have not given a count of the number of civilians.

There were thousands of demonstrators doing what most demonstrators do very well, earlier today at the Philadelphia Museum of Arts and in this area, area of City hall not too far away. They were demonstrating peacefully. They were chanting, singing, doing what they do and then according to the - to the to the Mayor Jim Kenney, "a rag tag group of people" started doing what you see here.

But if it's a minority of people and it has to be a very distinct minority of people doing this, Don. You've seen these things before in other cities. Look at what a minority of people can do. They can - they can inflict this kind of damage in the downtown area. I mean this - again, we'll show you back over here again. This is like a war zone.

By the way, there's smoke and other gases you know all around us here. We have to be a little bit careful. There could be some power lines, some gas lines that are compromised around here because there have been several fires in this area. Again, we had to move through several cordons of police officers.

They are manning every corner of this area now. Again, sweeping this area of downtown Philadelphia. 18th, Chestnut street is not far from here was the scene of very heavy looting, obviously some looting has gone on around here as well and they did do a sweep around here just a few minutes ago, Don arresting several people.

The Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw did say that she believed a lot of outside agitators were responsible for this. Now again, we have heard that refrain in many, many cities. Obviously, there is - that is a correct assessment of what's going on but you never quite know how many people are the outside agitators doing things like this but regardless of who they were, this is - this is the damage they can inflict in the downtown city.

We also were told that I think the latest figures, 14 arrests were made. Don, that figure has got to be low and it's got to be growing almost exponentially as we speak here because again, police are just sweeping this entire area of Philadelphia, making arrests, chasing people out, limiting us where we can go and again, here's another look at that fire if you can see, they're still trying to hose it down.

So you know this area is still trying to recover from this but it's not over here by any means yet in Philadelphia.

LEMON: Yes. Brian Todd reporting to us from Philadelphia this evening. It is sad. Philadelphia a very beautiful city. A city, near and dear to my heart and this is one of the most - probably one of the most upscale areas of urban areas of the city, I should say and as you get higher, if you continue to go up that street, it gets even more expensive and exquisite and beautiful and tree lined and so if you continue to go up, you'll probably see more looting unfortunately.

Brian Todd reporting to us from Philadelphia and as you can see which city are we looking at now? Is this Philadelphia from earlier? This is Philadelphia from earlier. So sad things like this unfortunately playing out in many cities, major cities across the country tonight. This is New York City.

[22:55:00]

As you can see, police are trying to keep a hold on protesters there. Keep them in line. And we want to get to Los Angeles and Kyung Lah where we have seen some looting going on there. There's some chaos on the streets. Kyung Lah is reporting from those streets for us and she takes away now. Kyung Lah what do you have?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What you're seeing Don is a line of police that's forming on this street and all around the street are people, put their hands. But just a minute ago and I'm going to have you spin this way with me. This store, the glass was broken in through this way. Excuse me.

People were stealing things all through this shopping district and I'm going to again have you take a look down this way. This looks like a war zone because these streets have been broken into. The stores have been broken into. All of these exterior barricades have been lifted and people are breaking through the glass and stealing all of these items.

And so what the police have now done is they're moving street to street. You're looking at a line of police officers there as they try to clear out the street. Something else that's happening is that protesters are setting fires in the middle of the street, just setting trash on fire and you can see one of the smoldering fires there and this is happening all up and down the Fairfax district.

And to give you a little idea of what the Fairfax district is normally like, this is an area of a coffee shops, really nice clothes, designer boutiques and tonight this looks unrecognizable, absolutely unrecognizable. So you're looking at the LAPD lining the streets in their blue uniforms. We're also seeing the LA sheriff's department circling this area also trying to disperse crowds.

We got to figure out where to go. And you can see the line of police advancing this way. We're going to duck into this store. So there are police to the left of us, a line of police to the left of us and there's a line of police to the right of us.

So it appears that they're going to try to squeeze the protesters who'd been standing here. Hold on. That's somebody on a bullhorn saying everybody go home. Everybody go home. You see that man in that silver car in that silver SUV. He now holds a bullhorn and he's saying everybody go home. It's been surprisingly quite organized. It appears to be led by people yelling into bullhorns, telling protesters where to assemble next and now he's saying everyone go home.

And they don't really have much of a choice because they're being squeezed in by two lines of police. One to the north and a line to the right and you're saying the officers now advance in. And take a listen. You're seeing people with their hands up. And you can see that the protesters are being pushed down further south by the police and their hands are up.

Something else I want to mention you know as we were watching some of this looting happening just before the police arrived, there were some of the protesters yelling at them, please stop. What are you gaining? What are you gaining?

And this lady actually in the denim blue shirt. She was one of the people urging the looters to please stop. She was screaming, crying, saying, what are you gaining? And now what is she saying? She's yelling at people to go home, to go home.

I believe that's fire crackers. Those are fire crackers being set by people, the protesters in this area and this is - this is very different than what we saw last night, Don. I just want to give you a little geography here in Los Angeles. This is a single story businesses, maybe two story businesses. Last night, it was a downtown protest where there were - it was much more compressed.

Here it is a sprawl of alleys, a sprawl of stores and so when police controlled one block, they have to move because the protesters will move through the alleys, reform at another area and then there could be looting in--

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