Its the top of the hour. Steve, if you could, please stand by. We want to reset for our viewers here in the United States and around the world. The situation we continue to monitor in ferguson, missouri. Youre looking at live pictures there of police in position. They have used smoke, we understand, just a few minutes ago, and it seems they are continuing to do that. To disperse the crowds. Heres the timeline. Just about an hour ago this curfew went into effect. We have live pictures from many different angles and it seemed for the time that things remained peaceful. Then about 20, 25 minutes into the curfew our reporter Steve Kastenbaum, who remains on the phone with us, steve told us that there was a confrontation between a group of protesters, maybe 100, 200 protesters and police. We saw from our live pictures police started to advance. Then they started to use smoke to disperse the crowds, donning their masks. We have seen from affiliate video that even some protesters had gas masks, possibly prepared for Something Like this. Steve kastenbaum joins us now live by phone. Steve, if you could tell us the very latest as what youre seeing right now. Reporter not Much Movement in front of us here. Theres a line of police in riot gear, helmets, shields, vests, some of them wearing full body armor. We did see Police OfficersHolding Assault rifles, and they are standing behind the five or six Armored Vehicles. Weve seen these Armored Vehicles out here in the past during this week. Last night they were involved in a standoff with protesters. And the police slowly and in unison started moving towards the demonstrators who were advancing in this direction. Throughout the night theyve been blasting through loudspeakers, messages telling them that there is a curfew in effect, that they were violating that curfew and that if they did not clear the streets they were risking arrest. For a while there was just a pretty uneventful standoff. Hold on just one second. Listening to an announcement again. The officer on the loudspeaker saying you must clear the streets immediately, if you do not you will be subject to arrest. The protesters, were told about 150 to 200 of them, were defying the order, were saying they had the constitutional right to protest peacefully. Then we saw these vehicles moving toward the demonstrators and were at a standoff right now here in ferguson. This has been the avenue where all of the demonstrations have been taking place this week since the Michael Brown shooting happened. Just a few blocks from here, actually. And were trying to look through the Police Officers on our two live shots we have for you now to see if people are still in the street. I cant see them. We could see them earlier. And many people putting their arms up, which has become the symbol for people upset about the shooting of this unarmed teenager. Michael brown puttingar their arms up and saying dont shoot. Earlier today when this curfew was announced the reaction from some in the community was theres going to be no quiet in the streets, no ones going to sleep until there is justice. Others saying 12 00 midnight is a problem on any day, this is a saturday night after a week of emotions and volatility after what has happened. But its actually pretty remarkable, isnt it, steve, that so many people have been out in the streets before and on this night most are not there. We want to say. Just 150 to 200 people that want to defy this curfew. But most have heeded the encouragement from the community and stayed away. And it looks even like the rain is subsiding now and that earlier you were saying hopefully that is whats also keeping people home. Reporter yeah. And if i could interject here, theres a line of police in Armored Vehicles have advanced much further down the avenue right now towards the demonstrators. Its very difficult to tell from our Vantage Point whether there are demonstrators still out there at that distance or if theyve backed off. We did hear what sounded like some sort of highpitched tone or audible tone at a very high pitch being blasted in that direction. We do know these type of crowd control Armored Vehicles do have an array of tactics they can deploy. Some of them being very sometimes painful audible highpitched tone that theyll blast and that might have been that. Were hearing again the message on the loudspeakers being blasted toward the protesters, they must clear the streets. If they do not theyre risking arrest. I dont see any more smoke canisters being fired in their direction. Again we were told by Police Officials they were not using tear gas, that the canisters we saw flying through the air were just smoke. Were seeing a secondary line of Police Officers in riot gear being strung out across west fluorescent avenue here in ferguson right now. Taking up a defensive position it looks like from one side of the street to the other. While their colleagues are much further ahead of them now, more than a football fields length ahead of them. Here advancing down the avenue through this community. Its hard to say whats going on beyond the lines here now. We really cant see the demonstrators from this Vantage Point now. We cant either. We can see the Armored Vehicle there moving in. And you said earlier, did you not, steve, that you believe that there were different Police Officers representing different forces supporting this curfew. Did you say that . Yeah. The Police Officers we saw here tonight in fact, we saw for the first time Police Officers from st. Louis metropolitan Police Department in their light blue shirts. Were taking part here. But weve seen Police Officers from multiple jurisdictions, state Highway Patrol, the county, other surrounding communities. What they call this is a mutual aid situation, which means that the local Police Department needs help from other police jurisdictions. And excuse me. As weve been reporting throughout this, the governor gave control of the situation to the state Highway Patrol. So thats the organization at the top here and organizing this, controlling what takes place. And throughout the week we saw a variety of tactics being employed. A wide variety of tactics. At some stage here, on some days we didnt see any Police Officers out here at all. And the community was selfpolicing. But last night was definitely a turning point. 24 hours ago we were watching looting taking place here while a large number of demonstrators were involved in a standoff with this same line of riot police the night before. So i think a lot of people have said enough is enough, this has got to stop, this cant keep going on night after night into the latenight hours. It sounds like off in the distance were hearing smoke canisters being fired again. Not seeing the smoke clouds, but definitely hearing what sounds like the same sound we heard when the smoke canisters were fired earlier. And steve, just to point this out, a slight discrepancy that im seeing on social media, that people are saying its tear gas. But according to our confirmed information from you on the ground it is smoke thats being dispersed. Just to make sure that our viewers understand what theyre seeing there. Smoke canisters that are being thrown and smoke to clear the protesters there from the streets. Steve, can you talk to us just about the neighborhoods down fluorescent . The people who have homes, the people who have businesses near this street. Whats it like for them night after night after night, this unrest . Youve got to imagine theyre hoping for some peace, a peaceful night at some point. Reporter for several nights in a row many of the people who were out in the streets demonstrating were those same people who live on these streets. This is their community and theyre very upset over this shooting. And the way that the information was released subsequently. So they were out here night after night with their families. By the way, again hearing some more of those burst thats we heard earlier when the smoke canisters were fired. They were out here, and they were angry and they wanted answers and they wanted justice, they said. And they were out here last night as well. But tonight there werent as many of them here. Almost none of the Community Members who live in this area were out here tonight. It was mostly young people, high school age, teenagers, and people in their young 20s. I saw very few of the faces that i had been seeing on the previous nights and wed gotten to know some of these Community Members. They werent out here in large numbers tonight. ll and after last nights looting, the previous looting that took place 24 hours ago or a little bit more, they were very upset. They were not happy to see what was happening to their community. And they were saying to us enough is enough, this cant go on like this, people have to respect their community. They definitely were still angry. They still wanted answers. They wanted to protest and demonstrate. They werent happy with how this investigation was being handled. But at the same time they were not happy with the way and very angry, quite frankly, with the way a small nuv agitators were disrespecting their community and looting the businesses here. So i dont know if the fact they didnt show up here tonight, the local residents didnt show up here tonight, was because of the rain or because they felt theyd had enough, but there were not a large number of local area residents out here at a late hour tonight because we had gotten to know the faces of the people who live here and i just didnt see them here tonight. Glad you pointed that out because that means from your Vantage Point that many of the local people did as they were asked to do, stay home. And who knows where these young people that you say you talked with earlier, came from different regions or different areas of the city, to just make a stand or if theyre from that neighborhood. But either way, there are up to 200 people that were defying this curfew in the past hour. Were over an hour now. And it looks, steve, as if some of the Police Officers when we see the camera just panning around or Standing Firm and looking down the street, others seem to be milling about. Kind of nonchalant. Not looking as though theyre seeing any possible danger. What are you seeing . Now youre farther away. What would you say about that as far as the tension or not tension. I think were in a lull right now, quite honestly. I havent heard the announcement coming over the bullhorns lately in the last couple of minutes. And from this distance it would be difficult for us to heart protesters as well. I cant say with any certainty how many still remain. But they have pushed their line much further down west florissant avenue toward a more residential part of this avenue before it picks up with businesses again. In fact, they are down right in front of the qt gas station and Convenience Store where we have been broadcasting from for several days. Thats the gas station that on the first night of disturbances was looted and was very much destroyed. You probably are familiar with the images we were seeing during our protests through the last couple of days. And it looks from our Vantage Point that thats where this battle line is right now. Its really difficult from where we are now to get a good check of whats going on up in front of us. Well, hopefully it is as you say, a lull. Maybe because the people are backing down. We havent seen them from this Vantage Point, and we were, about 45 minutes ago. Clearly we could ko see them when this curfew started taking effect. There were definitely people out there. And just appearing to be defiant from their gestures not backing off when the police were firing the smoke, Still Standing there. We just cant see them but that doesnt confirm our camera man is motioning to me looking at our picture it seems like were getting some images of people that have been arrested. Were very fortunate to have a long lens on our camera here that can see way off in the distance, and its looking were seeing it now. Some people have been arrested, at least one we saw going to a van here and appeared to be in handcuffs. So we can say theres definitely been at least one arrest but possibly more. Are you seeing this image . We are seeing it now. You are seeing this now. In that van we did see at least one person, possibly more going in in handcuffs. So were seeing the police are now making arrests. Cant tell you how many. We are now seeing some smoke off to the right side of where this confrontation is taking place. And you can see that now. Its rising from about the vicinity of where the qt gas station and Convenience Store is situated. I have no way of knowing where that smoke is coming from precisely and where it is, why we are seeing smoke. But we are seeing smoke rising in the area there now. Again, were at such a distance its really hard to say what that smoke is coming from, whether its fire, whether its from smoke canisters or another source. We did see some arrests being effected here. Not seeing a lot of police activity. Not hearing much on the announcement of the loudspeakers at this point. We did see a man and a woman from the best we can tell being put into vans that have handcuffs on. From what we can tell from the Vantage Point this camera has a lens thats able to see at great distances, we did see at least one person, possibly more, going into a van. A police van. Were trying to get an idea of whats going on here. If you can give me a second here. Steve, we can. Why dont you take a moment, just stay on the phone with us. But if you need to take a moment, well do a reset here for our viewers. Just stay on the line with us. Well come to you in a moment. But for our viewers here in the United States and around the world, we want you to know that we are looking at live pictures in ferguson, missouri right now. Just about an hour 16 minutes ago a curfew went into effect. Central time there. A curfew went into effect in ferguson to make sure people basically cleared the streets. Youll remember theres been night after night after night of unrest. The hope tonight was that things would remain calm. About 20 minutes into that curfew we saw Police Officers start to advance. We understand from our reporter that there was a confrontation between police and protesters. About 200, natalie, protesters, correct . Yeah. 150 to 200. And it seems that police started to advance. Then we noticed smoke canisters, according to our reporter, being thrown into the crowds to disperse the crowds. Things seem to have calmed down since. Remember the officials in charge said they would not use tear gas. And again, our reporter saying instead they used smoke. Smoke to disperse the crowds. The rain still coming down there. Initially people thought, you know, that that might be a deterrent. There was a big crowd out there tonight. It seems at this point that things are calming down. And according to Steve Kastenbaum, there have been arrests. Seeing this man whos walking here. A camera is on him. Not sure. Cant remember who he is. But hes been interviewed i think before. Cant confirm that. Trying to appeal for peace. We dont know. He was just walking. It seemed like all the cameras were trained on him for a moment. We havent heard from any local officials since this curfew began. ll police are in charge of this right now. And were trying to line up some an interview or get some informi information from local officials. But lets bring our reporter Steve Kastenbaum back with us by phone there on the ground in ferguson. Steve, if you could tell us what youre seeing at this point and any new information you could update us on. As this thing has worked the rain is coming down very heavily again. So that could impact whats going on down the road from us. Its unclear. There may are been an incident in front of us. We did see some legal observers running down the avenue in their direction. We were trying to ask what happened. Its not really clear. We dont have any official information from Police Officials but the legal observers as they were running by us and again, we do not have this confirmed from authorities so we do have to check on this but there is a report of somebody possibly being shot. We dont know if that had to do anything had anything to do with this standoff. It could have been a separate incident. Whatever happened, we did see some commotion here. Legal observers running in a direction. So we do have to check on that and we have to be very clear about this, that we do not have that information confirmed. So its something that we want to check on. Again, though, we do know that there were arrests that had been taking place. We were able to see this through our camera. Some people, at least one, possibly more being put in the back of a van in handcuffs. And the rain now coming down even heavier here in ferguson. So thats clearly going to have an impact on whats going on a significant distance away from us now. The police lines been pushed much more forward. Just heard a loud bang just now. Very loud bang. And a flash. Not clear what that was. But we had seen smoke rising down to the side of where this conversation is taking place. The rain is just really coming down right now. We can see it. Reporter its a very confusing moment for us here because its hard to tell exactly whats taking place further up. Clearly the rain is going to be an issue for both the police and the protesters who are defy