Off here. Traffic is not being allowed. It has not been allowed to enter this, you know, fourblock radius of west florissant for the past, oh, id say, 14 hours or so now. Its been blocked off. Were told its blocked off because it is still being considered a crime scene. This is, of course, where last night gunshots rang out. There were a number of the stores were looted here. One, two, three four were set on fire as well. In fact, behind me, we just saw in the past ten minutes or so, we just saw some workers arrive to set up some fencing around whats left of that Public Storage facility. We are expecting more protests tonight. In fact, weve already seen a handful of organized protests so far today. There was one over in clayton. Nothing like what we saw last night. Largely peaceful. Much smaller as well. Again, expecting to see more of that over the course of the afternoon and evening. More than 80 people arrested. 15 buildings set on fire. Dozens more than that vandalized and looted. What we still do not know at this point what tonight is going to look like. Is it going to resemble what we saw last night or is it going to be calmer, which is what we heard from mike browns family earlier today, calling for calm. It is also what were likely going to hear from the mayor of ferguson, who set to speak in a few moments. Were also expecting, expecting being the operative word here, were expecting the mayor to speak on Darren Wilsons status. What that means, we dont know but we have been told the mayor of ferguson is going to talk about the 28yearold officer who was cleared yesterday by that grand jury. So, again, thats going to happen any moment now. I can also tell you, maybe a half mile or so from here, we have started to see more officers show up. Again, presumably these are the officers who are going from business to business with some of these Business Owners to try and take them in and salvage whats left. A number of these places, while they were not set on fire, the vandalism, the damage that was done, is certainly going to be into the thousands. Thats whats happening on the ground right now. Again, this is the warmest its been here in ferguson since ive been on the ground. The weather much nicer, but the streets, completely empty right here. Craig melvin, live in ferguson. Thank you so much. Appreciate your reporting. As we await comments from fergusons mayor James Knowles, lets turn to what has been seemingly lost in the chaos of last night, which is the reasoning behind the grand jurys decision not to criminally charge officer wilson, the Prosecutors Office late last night. Publicly released most of the evidence presented to the grand jury. To help us break down their decision, we bring in shawn henry, a former top member of the fbi. Weve also got karen desoto, criminal defense attorney. Thank you for being with us. Thanks. I wanted to talk a little to you first about the preparations for this decision. A lot of thought seemingly went into preparing the situation so we have the best chance of calm and peace following this decision. We know Governor Nixon activated the National Guard. He declared a state of emergency. Do you think those preparations were appropriate in terms of trying to maximize the chance for peace here . I think certainly in ferguson theyre looking for calm. They want to ensure what wed seen previously in august is not repeated. A number of great people in those communities. You want to protect those, et cetera. I think the Police Officers would have been well prepared. It appeared to me from some of the scenes that i saw on in the media yesterday, they were very deliberate in their actions, the way they were placed, strategically placed around the city and the officers seemed to respond in a good way. They prepared for, this as krystal was saying, for weeks, the governor called a state of emergency the week before. There were Ground TroopsNational Guard troops on the ground. Yet we seem to be debating why they decided to announce the decision after dark, after 8 p. M. At night. I mean, within minutes you saw fire on the streets. Why did they decide to do that . This seemed like a nobrainer to make this decision in the light of day. Who ultimately made that decision . Well, usually its the assignment judge who would make that decision. Obviously, the indictment is going to be handed up to a judge and theyre going to make a decision. Quite frankly, i think they were trying to make it as quickly as thanksgiving, so use thanksgiving as a buffer so if there was violence, people would go home and make their turkeys or have plans with family. It would possibly lessen the blow. I think they were trying to get it aas close to wednesday as they could. I think thats partially. Night is more dangerous. Do it during the morning, during commuter hours and hopefully it would die out by the nighttime but thats not what happened here. Another mistake was made. As were speaking, of course, were awaiting to hear this live press conference, the first time well hear from the mayor today on what has been described as an announcement regarding the status of darren wilson. We can see theyre setting up that poetd yum. Another announcement that will be of interest not only to members of this community but people around the country. Talk to us about what were about to see to some degree in the context of what you know, the risk that faces officers every day. The president spoke about it last night. Police go out when they go to work and they dont know if theyre going to come home that night. Thats a serious risk. Yet, in a situation like this, what you have is a community thats separate from a Legal Process that issued no true bill, no indictments. They said theyre not sure if this particular officer, separate from the law s someone they want working the streets. You had a grand jury that looked at this, looked at all the evidence. They introduced scores of witness, interviewed the evidence and came back with no true bill. The community is concerned but i think whats important for citizens arent the country to recognize is the state that officers face every single day, where they do fear for their life. They absolutely put their lives on the line. Whats going through the mayors mind here as he tries to talk to this community about the status of this officer . Or what should be going through his mind . I think he wants to look at what the impact is going to be across the board to the community and to the officer himself. I think a lot of people would agree that an officer going back into that environment on the heels of this incident and the subsequent incidents, that probably is not the best idea. Theyll probably look to talk about how they can diffuse whats happening with the community and where the officer will ultimately end up. Were waiting, as ari said, the mayor of ferguson, James Knowles, to come out and address the country. A question for you, and then, karen, i want toyour answer on e same question. We have the difficulty of being a Police Officer, never knowing for sure if you are actually going home that day. The vast majority of Police Officers do their job very well, admirably, honorably. In that context, its very, very rare for grand juries not to return an indictment, except when were talking about Police Officers, in which case it is very rare for grand juries to return an indictment for an onduty killing. Why is that . Police officers are out every day protecting the citizens. In the unlikely event they have to discharge their weapon and someone is injured or killed, the grand jury will look at the totality of the circumstances. In those cases, Police Officers are oftentimes defending themselves. We dont have Police Officers going around assassinating people. Theyre defending themselves. Their life is threatened. Ive been in those situations many times, going into a certain situation. You dont know whats around the next corner. Police officers are well trained. They work closely with the community oftentimes. When you dont get a true bill back, i think the grand jury in looking at the totality of the circumstances recognize officers exercising due course of their responsibility make splitsecond decisions and judgments in defense of their lives and the lives of others. Karen, same question to you. Are you comfortable with the fact in american Juris Prudence its xroertdly rare for grand juries to return indictments against Police Officers for these sorts of shootings . Its rare to have a grand jury against a Police Officer to begin with. This is a unique situation. Theres a lot of very specific things going on there. Youre talking to an attorney who is a civil rights attorney, married to a lieutenant. I can certainly see both sides. Ive been a prosecutor and defense attorney on both sides of this aisle. Grand juries do a great job. I will disagree with some of my colleagues who believe that a grand jury needs to be led. We have us attorneys say you can indict a ham sandwich and that isnt meant in a positive light. I dont think grand jurors are people who are stupid. I think they can absorb the information, the statutes and i think they can do a good job. So, the fact that theres a lot of controversy whether this grand jury should have been led or pointed in the right direction, i have a lot of faith in these particular jurors and jurors across the country that are able to make these hard decisions and put aside their lives to do it and to serve. Hang with us. I want to get craig melvin back in here. If you could speak to what has been a bit of an unusual process. And fact that it is, in fact, very rare for a Police Officer to be indicted, what is the communitys reactions been to that set of circumstances . Reporter before i get to that, i want to go back to something you were talking about a few minutes ago with regard to the behavior of the police. We were stationed in front of the Ferguson Police department for much of the night. We saw sort of from beginning to end, i mean, before the announcement was made, you had roughly 25, 30 officers at that point. They had formed a line in front of the police department. There was also a wrought iron fence separating them from the protesters. They werent in their riot gear. And then as word spread of the announcement and people began to hear that there was not, in fact, going to be an indictment, the crowd grew. The crowd became louder. And we heard and saw a number of threats leveled at the police. And 110 days ago, i saw i saw the police and the protesters and the interaction. And i saw occasionally a Quick Response on the part of Law Enforcement. Last night there were no Quick Responses. We saw more than, id say, 15, 20 bottles, pieces of fruit at one point, a mega phone, hurled at these officers. At that point, mind you, they were in full riot gear. They were wearing nir masks, shield and batons as well. And the officer stood there, even when the barricade that had been created after the announceme announcement, even when that barricade had been breached and a few folks came over the fence. They did not engage. The engagement started about an hour later when they asks folks in the street to disperse. Some marchers and demonstrators started marching on south florissant, and thats when you saw Police Cruiser overturned, another Police Vehicle set on fire as well. That is when we saw the flares come out and then the tear gas. It was interesting this morning, one of the one of the local politicians, they were very upset that police had not done more to protected business. So, youve got this very interesting juxtaposition here. On the one hand, you have folks upset police didnt do more and then, fof course, you know, in the wake of Michael Browns shooting, there were a lot of folks who were livid the police did so much. One thing we expect the mayor to talk about here in a few moments when the News Conference starts, we expect him to address another criticism thats been leveled. The National Guard was called up, you know, about a week ago, i believe. You did not see a lot of National Guard troops last night. And governor mixon has called up even more National Guard troops. So, i think were expecting to hear the mayor talk about exactly where those National Guard troops last night and what were they doing. Craig, what did the Community Think about that . We saw more press releases from Governor Nixon about the guard than actual showing of the guard itself. There was a press release put out after well after midnight local time, as he was saying the guard was not to be seen in most parts of town. We were talking to some folks in the wake of everything last night stuff had died down. That was the first question they wanted to know, wheres the guard . We dont know. Maybe well get light shed on precisely what they were supposed to be doing. What we were told the National Guard would be doing is essentially providing additional manpower to the Ferguson PoliceDepartment Last night. I saw the Ferguson Police department the Ferguson Police force last night. I did not see a number of National Guardsmen. We saw a number of vehicles but they appeared to be driven and operated by members of the Highway Patrol. Thats something thats that we know the mayors going to talk about here in just a few moments. You know, its going about what weve been talking about here the past week or so. There were expect takings because the guard was called up and the state of emergency had been declared. I think there were expectations that there were expectations there were going to be things in place that might have prevented what we saw last night unfolding. What we heard from ron johnson and two other Law Enforcement heads, what we saw last night was far worse than what we saw in the wake of Michael Browns death. There were fewer protesters. On that point there was a lot of discussion back in august about who exactly the protesters were and whether or not some of the people inciting violence were coming in from outside and what the different breakdowns of these groups were. Do we know anything about who the protesters were last night . Who were the ones who were violent, who were arrested, who were setting fires . Reporter its very interesting. You see a lot of the same people the protests. The ones who come up and talk to you, these are the socalled organizers, doing a lot of legwork with these protests. They will come up and say, we dont know who these folks are. These arent local folks folks they arent local protesters. Theyre not part of the we see mayor knowles coming out right now. Hes going to speak live. Lets go to mayor James Knowles of ferguson. Scoot on down. Thats quite a crowd. Good afternoon. Im James Knowles, mayor for the city of ferguson. Today i am joined by local clergy, ferguson Business Owners, federal government residents and members of the Ferguson City council. 24 hours ago st. Louis prosecutor Bob Mccullough announced the decision of the grand jury. Although we cannot speak concerning the decision of the grand jury, our thoughts and prayers are with the brown family. Words cannot express the grief that a parent is feeling with the loss of their loved one. Many of our residents, Business Owners and citizens are asking for prayers during this time of unrest. We truly understand that the world is watching, both the city of ferguson and the st. Louis region, as well as the state of missouri. I would like to make this statement perfectly clear. We would like to think the many Police Officers, firefighters and missouri Highway Patrol troopers for putting themselves in harms way to protect our citizens and our businesses. Unfortunately, as the unrest grew and further assistance was needed, the National Guard was not deployed in enough time to save all of our businesses. The decision to delay the deployment of the National Guard is deeply concerning. We are asking the governor make available and deploy all necessary resources to prevent the further destruction of property and the preservation of life in the city of ferguson. Many of our residents at this time are cleaning their businesses and wondering, what happens tonight . I want to convey to Business Owners and residents of ferguson that we will continue to work with the National Guard and local authorities, and we work hard to build a more diverse and stronger community. Ive asked to join me for the press Conference Today several clergy members and Business Owners. You will now hear from each of them briefly. Good afternoon. One Church Outreach ministry. Al