Tension thick in Ferguson: 'We are not your enemy. We just want justice'

Editor's note: Are you there? Please share photos, videos and thoughts with CNN iReport if you can do so safely.

Ferguson, Missouri (CNN) -- [Breaking news update 11:15 p.m. ET]

Missouri state police in riot gear used pepper spray to disperse crowds, ushering them into one area after they torched a police car outside city hall in Ferguson.

[Last update: 11:02 p.m. ET]

As midnight approaches, the tension here gets thicker. Everyone fears that just like Monday, things could turn violent at any moment.

Outside the City Hall, crowds flip a police cruiser on its side briefly, broke out its windows, then set it on fire. Police move in quickly to put it out.

"Let's go," some in the crowd shout as they disperse.

National Guardsmen in full riot gear stand in a line at the Ferguson Police Department. In front of them, a row of police officers, also in riot gear. Just one lane of road separates them from hundreds of protesters.

"We are not your enemy," they chanted. "We just want justice."

Despite the building tension, people say they are not afraid to come out and "stand up against injustice."

"I feel people have every right to get violent. It's a form of retaliation," said Shannon White, 20. "People are tired of being treated this way by the system."

Veronica Wintersheidt, 29, and her husband braved cold temperatures to show their solidarity.

"We live in a world of white privilege," she said. "So it's difficult for us to judge."

Cars pass the protesters honking their horns. Every few minutes, the crowd eruptsin chants of "Mike Brown."

At one point, protest organizers attempted to call for four and a half minutes of silence to honor Brown -- his body lay on the street for four and half hours after he was shot . But the crowd was too restless, too worked up to remain quiet.

Earlier in the">Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon ordered additional National Guardsmen to the area, boosting their numbers from 700 to 2,200.

"We are bringing more resources to Ferguson and other parts of the region to prevent a repetition of the lawlessness experienced overnight," the governor said. "We must do better and we will."

Nationwide protests

Demonstrations devolved into chaos late Monday after it was announced that the grand jury had decided not to indict Darren Wilson in the shooting death of 18-year-old Brown. Wilson, a white police officer, shot and killed Brown, a black teenager, on August 9.

In Ferguson, buildings were burned. Stores were looted and shots were fired. Activists also took to streets across the country, with dozens and dozens of protests in several states.

"They have given us no justice! We will give them no peace," protesters chanted as they massed in front of the Underground Atlanta shopping district in Atlanta.

In the New York area, they briefly blocked one of the entrances to the Lincoln Tunnel.

"We are on the side of Michael Brown to fight for what is right," the Rev. Al Sharpton said in front of Brown's family, earlier Tuesday. ".... "We may have lost round one, but the fight is not over."

The vast majority of protests in the weeks after Brown's death have been peaceful. And authorities hope to keep it that way.

"All agree that the violence we saw in the areas of Ferguson last night cannot be repeated," Nixon said