CNN's Jake Tapper on the Ground in Ferguson as Tear Gas and Stun Grenades Explode

CNN anchor Jake Tapper was on the ground Monday night in Ferguson, Missouri as stun grenades and tear gas exploded around him. The journalist had been covering the standoff between protesters and police when the situation became chaotic. [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Tapper and his cameraman had to make a hasty exit as the environment deteriorated. Later, CNN video captured a man on as he lay on the ground. "This is a photographer who got hit pretty bad by the tear gas." Earlier, an angry Tapper questioned the police presence: "Nobody is threatening anything. Nobody is doing anything. None of the stores here that I can see are being looted. There is no violence." 

A transcript of Tapper's August 18 comments: 

11:05

JAKE TAPPER:  I want to show you this. Okay? Let me just give you an idea of what's going on. The protesters, they've moved all the way down there. They're about half a block down. John, watch with me. They're all the way down there. Okay? Nobody is threatening anything. Nobody is doing anything. None of the stores here that I can see are being looted. There is no violence. Now, I want you to look at what is going on in Ferguson, Missouri, in downtown America, okay? These are armed police. 

With machine -- not machine guns, with semi-automatic rifles, with batons, with shields, many of them dressed for combat. Now why they're doing this, I don't know. Because there is no threat going on here, none, that merits this. There is none. Okay? Absolutely there have been looters, absolutely over the last nine days there's been violence but there is nothing going on on this street right now that merits this scene out of Bagram. Nothing. So, if people wonder why the people of Ferguson, Missouri are so upset, this is part of the reason. What is this? This doesn't make any sense.