[Ana Cabrera, Cnn Anchor:] Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. This is a country under a state of dire emergency right now for more than one reason. Police officials in several cities facing more, sometimes explosive, public protest this weekend and all of it happening at the same time as the deadly Coronavirus pandemic. On the East and the West Coast and in so many cities in between, community leaders are urging protesters this weekend to express their frustration and their pain and their fear and all of that emotion over the death of George Floyd. But they are making it clear that violence and destruction won't be tolerated. The governor of Minnesota today promising to, quote, "fully mobilize the National Guard," to watch over protests he says had nothing to do with a senseless death and everything to do with creating fear and disruption. And all of this as the cloud of Coronavirus has not gone away at all. Health officials are begging people to avoid clustering together, especially groups of strangers. But you can see, that's hard to do. This is Los Angeles today. Social distancing is, apparently, out the window. CNN correspondents and crews are all over the country. We will be checking in with those other correspondents after we talk with Omar Jimenez, who is live in Minneapolis for us this afternoon. What are you seeing? What are you hearing? What are the dynamics on the ground there today, Omar?
[Omar Jimenez, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, Ana, so far, the dynamics have been largely peaceful protesting over the death of George Floyd and how it's been handled since. We are right outside the Fifth Police Precinct here in Minneapolis. And you can see the crowds that have gathered here with signs up. They, over the course of the day, have been chanting. There have been performances, even a little song as well. Again, this is part of what officials want to see, the peaceful side of allowing people's voices to be heard. What they haven't seen, in many cases, is when it comes down to nightfall. And, over the course of the past three days, the Governor Tim Walz here actually described yesterday what he had seen as 48 hours of anarchy. So, yesterday, when he came up, they added more state resources along with local law enforcement, as well on top of it instituting a curfew, to try and curb some of the rioting, looting, and the buildings being set on fire that we had seen night in and night out. Yesterday or last night, it proved that those efforts were not enough. So, we heard from them again today. And what we are learning is that they are deploying more National Guard members here in the state than they ever have in their more than 140-year history on top of the curfew they have. And what we are hearing from state officials is that a lot or based on the data they're looking at, a lot of the people that have been coming in have been coming in from out of the state. So, that is a factor that they are continuing to look at, as they try to get a handle on the contrast of what we see during the day, like what we're seeing now, and what we've seen at night Ana.
[Cabrera:] And, Omar, I know you've been there, obviously, for days now. What does it feel like today, at this time compared to what it felt like yesterday at this time?
[Jimenez:] Well, we're kind of in unprecedented territory, timing-wise, because this is the first weekend we have had since this actually happened. But I can tell you, around this time every single day, Wednesday through Friday, there always have been demonstrations. Either at the site where George Floyd was arrested, and where we saw that cell phone video unfold, or they have largely been outside the Third Police Precinct for Minneapolis police. But that one went up in flames two nights ago. So, this is the first time we have seen a steady collection of people building over the course of today. I can tell you, in this neighborhood that was affected by a lot of buildings burned, a lot of people were already out sweeping and cleaning up their community, trying to get things back to normal. But, again, I can't emphasize enough the contrast of what we have seen during the daytime hours versus the night. And Tim Walz, the governor here, has laid out what a path to restoration is going to look like for Minneapolis and for the state. He says it starts with regaining control. And that, again, is a process we have seen them struggle with this week. He then says it's going to come down to getting swift justice. And while we have seen one officer, one of the four arrested and charged, protesters and the family want to see all four. And then, he says, and this might be the most important one, regaining trust. Trust that he says was frayed not just over this the course of this past week, but trust that has been frayed over the course of generations Ana.
[Cabrera:] And it's good to see people wearing masks. It looks like people are being very calm and protesting productively today, at least, at this point. Omar Jimenez, we'll check back with you. Thank you for that reporting. Let's go from the heart of the country, and perhaps the heart of the emotion over all of this, to the West Coast now in Los Angeles, where leaders are urging calm right now, as that city braces for more demonstrations. And you can see quite a large crowd is gathering there. These are live pictures right now. Huge crowds already coming together. This is around the Fairfax district of Los Angeles. It has been largely peaceful so far. But, remember, last night, it was as chaotic and destructive there as anywhere. These protests, you can see, became violent and there's a lot of vandalism and there were officers injured and there were hundreds of protesters arrested. Let's go live to CNN's Paul Vercammen, joining us live in Los Angeles. Paul, what is happening there right now?
[Paul Vercammen, Cnn Correspondent:] A dramatic unfolding situation. I'm at the corner of Fairfax and Third. These are two main arteries that you take on surface streets through Los Angeles. And the demonstrators, well over 1,000 of them, have completely taken over this intersection. Cars are stopped in front of me. You can see people have jumped on top of a city bus. You can also see throughout, people have got on top of traffic light poles. And the chant is in unison. It's Black Lives Matter. They want their message heard and they've done some something here by sealing off this intersection. You can see there are people in these cars. We've been talking to people about what it meant to them to come down here. And we're going to talk to Marilyn London in just a second here. Marilyn, come on in. I know for you, that image of that officer's neck on Floyd's that officer's knee on Floyd's neck was just absolutely disturbing. Describe for me what your emotions were when you saw that.
[Marilyn London:] It was terrible. And when I seen that, I couldn't I couldn't go to sleep for two days. So, it was just embedded in my head. And I think we need reform justice in the police department.
[Asap. Vercammen:] And how do you feel about this scene that's now playing out before us, with this intersection sealed off. People on these traffic light poles, et cetera?
[London:] I think it's good. We're making a big statement.
[Vercammen:] I thank you for your sentiments. If you look around here, across the way, they've jumped on the roof of a neighboring business. And, as I said, you can see all of this completely sealed off. This started as a very peaceful demonstration. And we have not seen any acts of violence. It started in Pan Pacific Park. And then, it went down this street. And is it now sealed over. And we're looking behind us, as people are trying to get their cars out of here. Obviously, they've been stuck in this intersection for quite a while. I'm going to toss it back to you now, Ana. And we'll be sure to let you know if anything dramatic happens here. Dramatic enough that so many people came out with such loud voices in protest of what happened to Mr. Floyd in Minneapolis.
[Cabrera:] Paul, obviously, it's only 2:00 in the afternoon there in Los Angeles. And nighttime, when that sun falls, has been when problems have popped up across the country in the last couple of nights. Do you have a sense of what the plan is? What are protesters telling you their plan is?
[Vercammen:] They, basically, said that they want to hold a peaceful demonstration. They wanted to make a statement. So, this is a protest organized by Black Lives Matter and many cohorts, many like-minded groups. They have not said anything about going downtown. This is in the Fairfax district, by the way. They have not said anything about, you know, wanting this to turn violent. But, as you pointed out, and we've seen this in the past, when the sun's gone down, we have had incidents of violence. You may know, there were more than 500 arrests in Los Angeles last night and six officers hurt. But, so far, we have to compliment them. Despite sealing off this intersection, we've only seen decorum. And we have not seen anybody throwing anything, any acts of violence. And the police, by the way, as you can tell, are extremely hands off. In fact, since we've been in this intersection, we have not seen a single police officer. So, that might be a deliberate strategy. We'll just have to wait and see Ana.
[Cabrera:] OK. Paul Vercammen in Los Angeles for us. We'll check back. Thank you. CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro joins us now in New York and among the protesters there. We can see Evan. Where are you? And describe for us what you're experiencing there.
[Evan Mcmorris-santoro, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, hey, Ana, I'm in the West Village neighborhood of New York on Perry Street, just across Bleecker Street. If you want to know what kind of neighborhood this is, this street that I'm standing on is like the fictional home of Carrie Bradshaw from "Sex In The City". So, a nice neighborhood. This crowd that I'm on, they started marching from Union Square earlier today, where they had a rally, and then they've moved.
[Mcmorris-santoro:] They've, sort of, marched around Manhattan and are now marching here into the West Village. So far, and with no indication of otherwise, an extremely peaceful protest. There's been a lot of passion. A lot of, sort of, anger. But really just been very, very peaceful overall. We've seen even indications of you know, there's a police presence here. And we've seen some protesters yelling epithets at police and getting right in their face. And the police, sort of, not reacting and the police being able to cross through the crowd. So, this is a safe but angry protest. Obviously, the concern here in New York, it's a concern that we've had every else in the country which is that the nighttime tends to be a little bit more dangerous. Last night in New York, there were incidences of violence and protests in Brooklyn and other places that the mayor, Mayor Bill De Blasio, a Democrat, said today that, you know, he didn't want to see that happening and he didn't want to see another night in New York like he saw last night. But during the day today, where I am right now, we see no indication of that happening. But, of course, the sun's up and we haven't seen the you know, the crowd change yet Ana.
[Cabrera:] And who's in that crowd with you, Evan? What type of people are turning out? It looks like there's a lot of diversity among you.
[Mcmorris-santoro:] Yes, it's a very large crowd, a few hundred people, and very diverse. And it started out today pretty diverse and it got more and more diverse as the day went on, to be perfectly frank. This is a good mix of New Yorkers. This is a lot of what New York looks like. And people have come together, and they're marching together. You know, we've seen a lot of people from all over the all different ages and different colors and everything else, and that's not a surprise. The most amazing thing has been, as they march along, sometimes they run into traffic and the people in traffic. Rather than be annoyed that there's this crowd marching through them, end up honking their support, which has led to a lot of pretty interesting moments here Ana.
[Cabrera:] OK, we'll check back. As always, thank you. Evan McMorris- Santoro, again, in New York City. Let's go to Chicago now, where we know there was some intensity there already today. Ryan Young is joining us live. Ryan, it looks like things are relatively calm right now. What can you tell us?
[Ryan Young, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, absolutely. That's because the crowd is on the move. You can see this guy waving the flag, basically, in the officers' faces. But there was something that was a rallying cry. Because, up until now, there really hasn't been any organization. But I'm going to start walking down the street, because this is where everybody's headed. Ana, the entire crowd started walking this direction, and I'll tell you what got them all ready to go. Someone said, let's go to Trump Tower. And, at that point, the crowd said, yes. And now, they're marching toward Trump Tower, which is, of course, one of the tallest buildings here in Chicago. Look, this city's really a tale of two cities. On one side, there's not a lot of violence. On the other side of town, they've been ravaged by violence and there's people who are upset about the mistreatment from police officers in the city, not only what's going on in Minneapolis. But one of the things that we've noticed is this crowd is super diverse. There are people who are locked into this traffic ring throughout the city. They've been stuck here for over an hour, trying to get their voices heard. It's like a caravan. But they can't move because the protesters are shutting the streets down block by block. Now, the officers have been trying to do the best they can to make sure that they don't stop all the traffic. In fact, they've brought some buses in to sort of block some of the protesters, at one point. But then, what we started noticing was something different. Every time a group of officers showed up, the protesters would surge around the officers and start screaming at them. And this city's had a long history with protests, especially after the shooting of Laquan McDonald, and that's something that people have been talking about. So, as we walk toward Trump Tower now, this is what people have been saying. They want systematic change. Now, the mayor, for her part, has said she understands the anger in this city and why people are upset. But she wants to make sure they do it peacefully. Last night, for the most part, it was peaceful. Then, all of a sudden, people started rushing out and breaking windows. There's graffiti on some of the businesses here in town. I talked to one business owner today who said he was devastated because of the fact they've been closed for two months because, don't forget, COVID has hit this area hard. This is one of the few intersections that we've come across where traffic's actually working. But, at the same time, you think about it. COVID has hit Chicago hard, especially in the black and brown neighborhoods. So, you have that, combined with the idea that they're upset their voices are not being heard. If you put all that together, Ana, and you have people who are hitting the streets. And let's not forget last night, things didn't take a turn until after 2:00 a.m.
[Cabrera:] Right. And, already,
[Young:] 108 arrests were made.
[Cabrera:] Ryan, we are getting reports that, in broad daylight today, police vehicles are being vandalized already. So, it sounds like confrontations are already happening there. Do police have a plan? How are they going to prevent protests from getting out of control today?
[Young:] Well, Chicago actually does a pretty good job of handling large crowds. In fact, they handled the G-7 years ago. And even during the Laquan McDonald situation, they handled property damage OK. What we've seen so far is the officers haven't done anything to antagonize the crowd. What you see in some other places. The crowd, for its part, will surround the officers. They will yell. But, then, everybody seems to move on. So, there hasn't been a lot of those flashpoints. But what we did see is last night, after everybody went away, that's when another group came out and started throwing rocks into windows. So, that's the genesis of this worry about what could happen later. As you see now, people want their voices heard. And that's what the push is. And, again, we are probably about a half a mile away from Trump Tower. That has become the flashpoint for so many protests in this city. When people want their voices heard, they go outside Trump Tower. They start yelling and screaming and having choice words toward that building. So, you can understand that ground swelling of people who are moving this direction, at this point. The officers, for their part, most of them are back this way. Another group on bicycles went around this area to make sure that they are not seen as they're moving in position near Trump Tower.
[Cabrera:] OK, Ryan Young in Chicago for us. Thank you. I want to bring in civil rights icon, Jesse Jackson, joining us from Chicago as well. You have been fighting for equality for over six decades. You were with the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the day he died, April 4, 1968, in Memphis. You've been arrested in sit- ins. You've marched in Selma back in 1965. Reverend, you called George Floyd's death a lynching in broad daylight. When you see some of the images of unrest in America right now, I mean, in what we've seen the last 24 hours, so horrible, and yet so familiar, what is your reaction?
[Rev. Jesse Jackson, Politician:] Well, the streaks of violence is unfortunate. It distracts from the agenda. The reality is the real violence is that a police officer with 18 citations still on the force. He killed a man. Three police looked on and nothing happened. All four of them should be charged with manslaughter. Eighteen citations. And now, the focus of the police in they're not leaving the city. The violence is unacceptable.
[Cabrera:] Civil rights leader, Andrew Young, reacted to the violent protests that we've been seeing, tweeting, we have to round up the reasonable young people that are part of their group and let them know they have made their point and now they hurt their cause. Reverend, when you see looting, buildings set on fire, an officer in Oakland killed, is this even about George Floyd anymore?
[Jackson:] The people's cup runneth over. I really do not encourage the violence, to the contrary. But think about the killing of Trayvon Martin. The police walked away.
[Cabrera:] If there are protesters or police listening right now, what do you want to tell them?
[Jackson:] First of all, while you folks on code blue, police behavior, don't
[Cabrera:] You know, it's been decades, as we mentioned, that you have been fighting for equality, for justice. The Reverend King said, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what and what is it that America has failed to hear? And I just wonder, what do you think? What is America not hearing?
[Jackson:] In Minnesota, there have been 11 cases of blacks shot by police and killed. Never an indictment. Be heard. We saw them we saw George Floyd suffocate to death on the and by the way, he knew Floyd. They had some relationship. I don't know what his motive was. He the police looked on and he walked away, not in handcuffs, walked away. Without these protests, he could be walking free today. The protests are why he's in jail. Without the camera to expose it, without the protests to further amplify it, all four would be walking the streets today. Just another day at the job. Eighteen citations, one guy, still has his job.
[Cabrera:] Reverend Jesse Jackson, I really appreciate you taking the time and offering your thoughts. I know so many people look up to you and are listening closely. Thank you for being with us.
[Jackson:] And the one thing for the people who are marching is please, if you march, you deal with the death of Corona, on the one hand. The death by police on the other. Do not mistake and contract Corona while fighting this fight. You have two death warrants at the same time and both of them matter very much.
[Cabrera:] Absolutely. You're absolutely right. This confluence of crises is happening in our country right now, and they're both very important stories and related, obviously, as well. Thank you for being here with us. We have much more on our live coverage. Protests across America from Minneapolis to Los Angeles this hour. I want to take you live to Baltimore right now. These are live images there. This, as the president is threatening the direct use of force on protesters at the White House.