protestors chanting: the whole world is watching! officer: get back on the sidewalk! do what i say or you'll get the nightstick. get on the sidewalk! [protestors chanting, shouting] officer: back up! back up! back up! back up! back up! [indistinct shouting] protestors chanting: we are the 99%! we are the 99%! woman: we've not sold out! protestors: we've not sold out! woman: we've not sold out! protestors: we've not sold out! man: we want democracy looks like! protestors: we want democracy

looks like! we want democracy looks like! we want democracy looks like! protestors chanting: all day, all week, occupy wall street! all day, all week, occupy wall street! jake: a level playing field. that's what we're here for. it's not that we're all against everything that america has to offer and we want to change everything that america has to offer. it's, we want it to be fair. nicole: what system we have is so far from true capitalism, it's amazing. it's not true capitalism at all. it's socialism for the banks. jose: what occupy wall street movement is all about, it's about people getting together, talking their grievances, and unifying to work together to come to the resolve. jake: equal opportunities is what we're looking for and what we're trying to achieve. and i hope that it happens because of us. we'll see. we'll see. [protestors chanting

indistinctly] narrator: on september 17, 2011, people arrived at zuccotti park to bring attention to the worst economic crisis the world has seen since the great depression. they decide to peacefully occupy the park and create a physical presence so that the world would hear what many already knew, that private money in politics has undermined democracy and transferred income from 99% of americans to multinational corporations and the wealthy. this is the story of how the 99% spark occupy wall street became a global movement. lillian: people here, the occupiers, are about the environment, about housing, about schools, about jobs.

and the overriding cause of those problems are corporate greed. and the people see it. russell: it's about fairness. it's about a country that allows access, not one that a few are in a position to continue to exploit the middle class and the poor--the shrinking middle class. ray: initially i came down here, i was inspired by the protestors to come down. when i was--when i went to that rally at wall street, i had no intention whatsoever of being arrested. jeffrey: if we have a proper government that is fair, that is insisting on responsibility by the rich and the powerful, that is investing in the poor and the working class, making sure that everybody has a chance for education, we're going to have a far fairer and more equal society. lillian: the first week you were here in liberty plaza, i was here walking, talking,

you know, i talked to everybody. jose: i didn't feel strongly as about becoming an activist yet. you know? it's almost like you're aware and you're like, man, that's messed up. but what can i do about it? i was in that point of time that, what can i seriously do about it. like, there's nothing i can do. i felt powerless. russell: and people feel helpless, but those who are inspired to change it are rising up. man with guitar: ♪ hold on hold on occupy, hold on ♪ [indistinct chatter] jose: i came the first day. i really didn't understand the movement and the sense of community until i actually lived here for a month. man with guitar: ♪ if i won't hold on ♪ everyone hold on. jake: i had a backpack with two days worth of clothes, a toothbrush, my cell phone, that's it. when i arrived, everybody came

and welcomed me. and so if you needed a sleeping bag, you went to comfort. if you needed medical attention, you went to the medic tent. if you were hungry, you went to the kitchen. sanitation walks around and cleans every inch of this park. so it took my breath away when i first got here. jose: i knew my neighbors. i spoke to my neighbors. and we all connected, and we felt like family, and we wanted to take care of one another, and we wanted to look out for one another. we wanted to share information. nicole: we're all people. we all should be able to relate to each other and empathize with each other and respect each other. jake: i learned that we may not all be rich. um, we don't have thousands and thousands of dollars. but everyone here is rich, 'cause everyone here treats others how they want to be treated. russell: the gift of giving is the driving force of occupy. it's the nucleus of its spirit. its spirit is about love and sharing.

lillian: this is the sanest acre on the planet. russell: and it's bringing dialogue about important subject matter to the forefront. stuff that has been swept under the rug and has been hidden. nicole: the 99% versus the 1%, inequality in america was never something that people talked about. it was the most on target kind of demonstration protest i've ever witnessed. [protestors chanting indistinctly] jeffrey: what occupy wall street is saying when they say "we are the 99%" and when they are pointing to the 1%, it's not envy. it's not saying, well, they're rich, that's bad. it's saying that people of wealth in this country have not taken on the responsibilities that they need to, especially the powerful corporate interests, especially wall street. jake: i would say corporations are in control of our democratic process. lillian: i've been visiting here, uh, several times a week because i want to show the young

people that there are older people who agree with them and who are really depending on them. jose: the movement is a rebirth of america's sense of community and sense of, ok, this is where we can come talk. tell me what's wrong. what's going on in your life? jake: why i came is, the first video i saw was of 3 innocent women being corralled with an orange net by police. standing there peacefully and then were maced. [woman screaming] jake: i'm not anti-police, i'm anti police brutality. i had to come here to not only protest the corruption of our government but also to protect the people from the police, because, i mean--i work cameras all the time. and that's your best defense against police, 'cause, a, it's peaceful. and b, you see how it is. officer: please... man in red shirt: i have done nothing wrong. jake: i just wanted to make it public that brutality is

happening in america. man in red shirt: i have done nothing wrong. i have done nothing wrong! [indistinct shouting] ohh! jeffrey: the occupy wall street movement is a--without question, channeling feelings that run through american society. this is not just a small group of young people who are out in the park. this is reflecting feelings of unhappiness, anxiety, anger, that permeate american society, and for good reason. narrator: the disparity of income and wealth in the united states is the widest it has been since the great depression. a large middle class foundation of a stable democracy has been shrinking at a rapid rate. russell: people are so greedy. you know? it's so--they're so greedy. and, you know, it doesn't have to be that all of

the 1% is greedy. it has to be that the people who are fighting for their--for every penny who have the most power and who are the most influential are moving the meter, and people are quiet. it's the silence that's deafening, of all those people who want a more fair system. and the way the money--the way the money is being taken away from the poor, out of their hands and put into the hands of the rich, is unbelievable. jeffrey: we got tax cuts for the rich, a dismantling of government for the working class and the poor, a tattering of the social safety net. russell: 400 people in this country have more money than 150 million. it's--it's--it's-- it's very hurtful to hear these kind of things. jeffrey: super wealth at the top and a tremendous amount of pain for a large part of american society, especially those suffering in the worst poverty at the bottom. jake: our financial system is,

uh, is kind of loopy. um, you got people that are making billions, hundreds of millions of dollars, and then you got people that don't even get a hot meal a day. and this is--it's unjust. russell: i saw a family that were homeless and were not part of occupy, that joined occupy. jeffrey: now in america nearly one out of two americans is in a low income setting now. it's extraordinary for a country that prides itself on being the middle class society. ray: now, what kind of system would allow that disparity? lillian: who can afford fruit? who can afford fresh vegetables? jeffrey: that higher line, twice the poverty level, is what we call the low income boundary. roughly 40,000 or so for a family of 4, then you're considered in the low income. you're struggling, yet maybe you can meet the basic needs, but with a lot of struggle and a lot of insecurity. ray: common sense tells you that there's something wrong with a system that allows that.

jeffrey: it means a tremendous amount of insecurity in this country. russell: wealth is not trickling down. poverty is gushing up. lillian: the problem is, who can afford the good food? i know i can't. jeffrey: roughly one in 6 americans right now, which is roughly 50 million out of our 310 million population, eat with the help of food stamps in america. it's stunning, uh, how americans now are so squeezed, so vulnerable. lillian: i don't have fruit in the house. [distant sirens] narrator: over the last 4 years, 30 major corporations paid no taxes, even though their combined u.s. profit was over $200 billion.

an overwhelming majority of americans believe that corporations and the wealthy should pay at least the same tax rate as the middle class. nicole: it would be incredible for there to be tax [indistinct] like unified front against these corporations. russell: it's not a redistribution of wealth. it's just a funny way of framing it. these guys are really geniuses at--at--of disempowering the poor, making people feel--and the middle class, and all of america feel that they've been selling their case so well. jeffrey: we have to revisit why we have that budge deficit, because the wealth has gone to the top, but so have the tax breaks. so have the loopholes. so has the privilege of companies to park their money in bermuda or in the cayman islands, even with the knowing acceptance of the irs. nicole: like, my family is from this tiny island. like, anguilla. it's like 3 miles by 7 miles. and this is where so

many of these corporations, like, set up fake offices so they can keep their money offshore and not be taxed for it. like, i've seen it. like my aunt worked in one of those offices. jeffrey: some of our biggest companies use transfer pricing and other mechanisms to book their profits in tax havens, and the irs says, no problem. that's fine. we agree to that. ray: it's just obvious that this system is totally, totally upside down. russell: i--i think that the tax system is unrealistic, unreasonable, and it's obviously paid for by those who have--virtually the have-nots. the fact that i pay less money than my secretary in certain instances, in taxes, and the way the bankers are paying less money than their secretaries, it's obviously out of whack. lillian: it's not easy, and it's getting harder. it's getting much, much harder to, uh-- if i don't have pensions, i have social security, and i have some other income. occasionally i

work. uh, but it's very, very difficult. jeffrey: the money that the rich and the companies ought to be paying right now but don't pay because of the loopholes and the tax cuts and these vast wealth accumulations, this gives us hundreds of billions of dollars more, not only to do the things we need to do to invest in our future, but to close the budget deficit. narrator: if the wealthy paid the same tax as the middle class... the united states represents 5% of the world's population but is responsible for 20% of the world's pollution.

it's estimated that 50,000 americans and more than two million people around the world die each year from pollution related diseases. nicole: the corporations are responsible. these corporations that like say, oh, no, let's just like not--not like participate in like the kyoto agreement. like, let's just not address anything having to do with the epa, are quite literally ruining the world for a huge number of its population and future generations. jose: we all need to wake up. we all need to know what's going on. we need to educate ourselves. we need to stand together, and we need to fight this. jake: that tree is money to me. the sun is money to me. and these guys are gonna soon realize that without trees, without sun, without water... you can't eat money. jeffrey: the u.s. as a society has been under-investing in our future for decades. households were borrowing rather than saving. the government was

slashing taxes for the rich and cutting public investments for all of society. cutting back on even maintaining our infrastructure--our roads, our dams, our waterways, our levees. cutting back on investing in renewable energy, for example, which is vital for our security in the future and for environmental security. nicole: we are making ourselves extinct right now. and the realities of that are not pervasive because we don't want to talk about it. narrator: education is the foundation of democracy and economic growth. lillian: my grandson will be getting out of high school in june, and he certainly won't be able to afford to go to a 4-year accredited college. nicole: i don't understand why we're putting monetary, um,

prohibitions on education. education should be something we want for everyone. we want an educated society. we all benefit from an educated population. jose: of course, like, we're told in school, you know, go get your education, go to college, so that you can get that dream job that you want. lillian: we had a wonderful city college, and that was free. nicole: i did have to take out loans to go to college, and i was also on very serious financial aid going to college. totally, $34,000, all my loans. which really isn't even that much, in the scheme of how much debt people do graduate from college with. but definitely it's something, and something that i'm not at all able to pay off right now. lillian: i would like to see a free public education system starting from early childhood through college and university. nicole: so there's two million jobs in america that we can't

even fill because our education system is so broken. jeffrey: we should have been investing more in education, one of the--perhaps the most vital investment that any society needs to make for the 21st century knowledge economy. lillian: i think it would lead toward a better world. jake: i've always been a little entrepreneurial. when i was 8, i sold firewood. when i was 9, i sold lemonade. at 10 i sold power rangers. i've always been trying to get up in the world, but it never seems to work. so i figured if i got a degree, i would have enough knowledge and tools to further myself in the business world. jose: my main reason for joining the marine corps was because i wanted to go to school, and i couldn't hold a job and afford school. jake: and it's still really expensive, and i'm in debt up to my chin. jose: so i had my plan, you know? military, school, dream job, live in peace, retire, you know?

jake: a huge question is war. jose: i thought marines were cool in general. they were the warriors of america that brought peace to americans, and, you know, i've always felt like being a patriot was something cool to do. and i saw what was going on there. we surrounded every large resource of oil. i'd began to question our government. trust me, a lot of veterans are awake to what's going on. that's why we have the veterans against the war. they know what's going on. you know? they know that it's for--for corporations to make money. for the control of the natural resources of these

countries. jake: we're the "world's police." look how--how hated we are in other countries. nicole: we go to war because there's profit in it. lillian: what is going on all over the world... in our military bases-- the young people are not fools. jose: if you look at where our military is at, we've surrounded every large resource of oil. jeffrey: first we have to cut wasteful spending. that starts with the military. we have wasteful wars that are costing us trillions of dollars, and we still have military bases defending against a soviet invasion in europe 20 years after the soviet union ended. so we could save at least a couple percentage points of national income by cuts of the military budget. ray: we could have free college education, we could have so much money if we just took a look at the military alone. russell: i went to city college.

i came from the hood. it was, again, the heroin capital of queens. the whole neighborhood was destroyed. i was very lucky. i escaped. my friends are dead and in jail. nicole: you're much less likely to end up in prison if you have a pre-school education. russell: early education will make all the difference in the world. so much cheaper than putting people in prison, making them productive members of society. and just this little lobby, this small amount of money corrupts our system in such a way that these people end up in their prison cell versus in our higher institutions of learning. lillian: all the questions we are still asking, but we know a lot more answers today. jeffrey: we collect 1% of national income. we're talking about $150 billion that can be mobilized to invest in children's education, pre-school, a safer natural environment, new energy systems, and the like. and when we talk about the fact that we could cut two percentage points of national income from wasteful

military spending, that's $300 billion a year that we can gain for real investments in our future that would really improve our national security. narrator: $300 billion a year would provide free pre-school through college education for all americans and rebuild the infrastructure with a green grid that would create between 2-4 million jobs. in many western countries, lives come before profit. nicole: presently i do have some kind of healthcare. and i'm this like independent contractor that has to live from paycheck to paycheck, and i have to pay $300 every time i want to go to like a dermatologist, you know, or like general physician.

lillian: unfortunately, public option on healthcare never even got to the table, which i think is a disgrace. whereas if people really understood what it meant, they would be for it. it means healthcare at affordable prices for everybody. if you had that in competition with the high-priced insurance companies, it certainly would send charges down. russell: public option was the only way to go. it saves tons of money for everybody involved and it saves lives, and it makes a more humane society. that's the right thing to do.

nicole: i was sick for about a month and a half after just getting a little cold, because i couldn't go to the doctor and just knock out this cold that i had to let stew in my body. much worse happens without healthcare. you know, that happens when people find out they have cancer in like full-on development. russell: it costs a fortune to us, the taxpayer, to take care of people because we didn't give them proper healthcare, preventative work, and reasonable access to healthcare. jake: but i disagree with a lot of the healthcare system also, even though my mom is a nurse. >> the healthcare industry is paying our politicians to keep healthcare from us. nicole: and if we can't make a profit, you're just gonna have to die. like, i apologize. it's morally bankrupt. lillian: they know it's corporate greed that overrides all of the problems. officer: get back on the sidewalk, please. russell: we spend way more money on healthcare than any other country, by far. we're not one of the top 30, even, countries regarding infant mortality. we are barely on the bottom of

the list of the free world. lillian: it has made, in certain areas, a third-world country out of us. jeffrey: if we went to the public option on healthcare, we could save one percentage point of national income. that's another 150 billion, and said we're not just turning everything over to the private health insurers and this incredibly expensive and wasteful system. doctor: we support health care for all in the united states. protestors: we support health care for all in the united states. doctor: as a human right. protestors: as a human right. doctor: we need to be insured from birth until death. protestors: we need to be insured from birth until death. doctor: like every other western country. protestors: like every other western country. narrator: the public option would be a not for profit federal insurance plan entirely funded by the people who wanted to be insured. this would allow greater access to healthcare

because the price of insurance would be lower. more than 40,000 americans die each year because they lack access to healthcare. nicole: there will be a general assembly... protestors: there will be a general assembly... nicole: at liberty plaza... protestors: at liberty plaza... nicole: aka... protestors: aka... nicole: zuccotti park. protestors: zuccotti park. nicole: at 7:30 tonight. protestors: at 7:30 tonight. nicole: you can go there... protestors: you can go there... nicole: after you finish with your other activities. protestors: after you finish with your other activities. nicole: all are invited. protestors: all are invited. nicole: bring your hearts. protestors: bring your hearts. nicole: there's a working group direct action that has been empowered by the general assembly to do direct actions on behalf of occupy wall street. the action's been organizing

with a new frame in which it brings in media and p.r. and legal and medical and all these groups that it needs. jose: i was--i was there for just about everything, just about every big march. nicole: it was a pretty big day to be right there, because i think there were something like 3,000 people on that march. protestors chanting: tax the rich that's why we're here, we've got to stay. end the war, tax the rich, that's why we're here, so we've got to stay, end the war, tax the rich, that's why we're here, so we've got to stay, end the war, tax the rich... [protestors shouting] [officers, indistinct] jose: there was children. there was elderly. and they were arrested. protestors chanting: the whole world is watching! the whole world is watching!

jose: but each new depiction of police dissipating our first amendment, the more people will join us. protestors chanting: the whole world is watching! the whole world is watching! man: the whole world is watching! protestors: the whole world is watching! [shouting, police whistle] choir: ♪ power to the people power to the people power to the people power to the people power to the people, right on ♪ protestors chanting: this revolution isn't done, take it up, get it down this revolution isn't done... speaker: our march will be leaving from here... protestors: our march will be leaving from here... speaker: marching to times

square... protestors: marching to times square... marching to times square. nicole: we all came together in, uh, washington square park, then we marched up from there to times square, and just took up the entire square. and there was like 20,000 people. it was huge, you know. protestors chanting: we are unstoppable, another world is possible. jake: it was bigger than my hometown what was in times square. and i saw kids, i saw face paint, i saw every aspect of life, all coming together. nicole: the 15th brought people together from all over the world. the 99%, in my mind, has never been an american thing. [drums beating] lillian: it's not just an american dream, that's a dream of the world. jake: global revolution goes worldwide. [indistinct chant] [chanting, whistles blowing] protestors chanting: we are 99%, you are the 1%.

[noisemakers] lillian: so it's really an international movement. it's not just the united states. it's great. russell: occupy wall street's all over the world. it's a great movement. it has lots of legs. nicole: if we talk about the 99% of the world, not just within america, you know, we're all suffering at the hand of these same institutions and systems. not just here, you know, but there. but in, you know, madrid, but in, uh, bangladesh. like all over the world. it's these same systems, the same concentration of power that is ruining lives, that is making people poor. lillian: you really have given me a reason for coming out every day, and either marching or doing something. jake: i walked more than 10 miles, from times square to zuccotti and back. you know, that's--it's a long distance. so i--i fell asleep. i needed my beauty sleep.

jose: that was a great march. it was...we owned the streets that day. it was incredible. [drums beating, indistinct chanting] nicole: the internet right now is the most dangerous threat to any kind of system that there is, because you could hear the voices quite clearly of someone across the world and say, oh, wow, yeah, i agree. you know? like totally, i'm on the same page as you. that's what makes a 99% like global uprising. jeffrey: throughout 2011, from tunis to cairo to tel aviv to santiago to zuccotti park to oakland to hundreds of cities around the united states to moscow at the end of the year, the call for true democratic representation, a true governance by the people and not by corrupt interests, not by the autocrats. this has been a

worldwide call, and it's a worldwide struggle. news commentator: half of them say they want to turn this into a socialist-communist party and have the country run like that. second commentator: pot-smoking, sex-addicted morons, you compare that... lillian: they weren't being fooled by all the slanderous things that were said about them. howard: there's a lot of filthy, dirty hippies hanging around who have no clue what's going on whatsoever in the world. jose: people, they're hooked on media that's owned by the 1%, and they're telling their side of the story. they're telling you what they want you to hear. they're telling you that we're a nuisance down here at zuccotti park. they're telling you that we piss all over the place and that we're just a bunch of hippies, and that we don't know what we're talking about. radio talk show host: they're actually calling for the violent overthrow of the united states government. ray: corporate media is trying to marginalize us, but when you see all these, quote, "regular

people," it's making their job really difficult. and that's one reason i came down in uniform. it's like, try to marginalize me as a weirdo. [indistinct chanting] [noisemakers, drums] protestors chanting: peace now! woman chanting: no matter what! protestors: no matter what! [drumming] jose: i speak to the cops and i tell them that since we were kids, we've been pledging allegiance to the flag of the united states of america, putting it on our hearts, to the republic for which it stands. jake: i've met a few cops that are on our side. nicole: the police themselves, we're all on the same side. jake: there's a lot of people in here trying to protect

policemen's pensions and other government supported pensions. nicole: and i--i mean whenever i'm with cops, i always try to ask them to like really delve into themselves and evaluate-- do you really feel happy about what you're doing right now? like, is this really the job you signed up for, to like--do i look like a threat? ray: minority officers, they're the ones that are showing me support. you know, the little nods of the head, a little wink. they can't come up and shake my hand, but they are showing me support. and i realize why that is. 'cause the minorities of the police department have suffered. they relate to suffering more so than the white officers. subsequently, they're more behind me because they realize this is all about injustice. jake: the police are people, too. they have families also. they're trying to pay their bills. [siren] and it think it's people above the police that are saying, listen, if you don't want to do this, if you don't want to arrest those kids, we'll find somebody else to fill your job.

i think they're scared to lose their jobs. nicole: you're pushing us off of the sidewalk, which we're allowed to walk on as pedestrians. for no reason, aside for the fact that we're protesting here. you're basically infringing upon our first amendment rights. there's really no other reason for you to do that. >> we're not perfect human beings. some of us are gonna lose our temper. but, that's where you need the supervision. and that's one of the things that amazed me when i saw all the pictures with all the white shirts actually being involved in the fighting. and when you're in the frontline fighting as a white shirt, who's supervising? now you have nobody supervising. that's when you have chaos. [shouting, whistles blowing] [indistinct shouting] [horns blowing, drums beating]

protestors chanting: this is what democracy's all about, tell me what democracy's all about, this is what democracy's all about... narrator: two months after occupy wall street began, mayors in cities across america executed coordinated police actions to end the occupy movement. jake: i was a block down that way when 1 a.m. happened. jose: i was just about to enter my tent, and, uh, these trucks came in with these big lights and they lit up the whole park. jake: then all of a sudden, 4 bright lights went on, on each corner of the park, lights i've never seen before, like... jose: they weren't here before. and we saw cops starting to organize by the masses with riot gear. officer, over loudspeaker: any left behind will be taken to the to the department of sanitation garage... jose: they got on the megaphone and started saying that we were evicted, calling us a fire hazard and that we needed to leave immediately. officer: leave the park. protestor: looks like it's going

down. jose: it's going down. it's going down. they're here. they're about to raid us. and like, wake up, wake up, everybody. and like getting everybody together. man: hey, guys! we forgive you. we love you! women: we love you! jake: i saw a line of photographers walk out 10 minutes before i did. a line of them. all of them left. photographer: i'm here filming. officer: out of the park. photographer: i'm filming. i have dcpd press passes. officer: let's go! photographer: relax, relax, relax, relax, relax. i was going. relax. officer: take care. photographer: relax, relax, relax, please. you don't have to put your hands on me. i'm just doing my job. i have dcpd press passes. officer: not anymore. supervisor: if you harm my officers again, you're getting arrested. out of the park. get out of the park. photographer: i'm more than legally-- jake: then they were threatened with arrest. and these guys were just trying to support their families and make a living and maybe spread truth, and they're being threatened with arrest for taking pictures? when they have press badges? officer: get in there! jake: i started running. by the

time i got back to the park, which was 10 seconds after these lights went on, it was already complete chaos. chaos. [shouting and screaming] uh, people had their lives in their tents, and they came in here with no regard for that. they were throwing tents like they were ragdolls. protestor: they won't defeat us. jake: they were using force on girls sitting there with their arms linked peacefully around the kitchen. [all shouting] jake: and these are the people that are supposed to be protecting us that are coming in this park and ripping us out of our homes, a peaceful protest. [indistinct chanting] jose: they were grabbing people and arresting them, throwing them out. they were treating us like ragdolls, picking us up, dragging us on the floor. jake: i saw a female, young,

she had to weigh 115 pounds max soaking wet, being dragged by her feet out of her tent, and her head was bouncing off the sidewalk, and she was bleeding everywhere, screaming, and they continued to drag her out. i saw people being pepper sprayed. this is not war. this is america. jose: i was getting jabbed in the stomach with their, uh, with their sticks, and people were getting hit who were like just holding hands, and they were just punching their hands. [all shouting] jake: and nobody even knows because it wasn't televised. the revolution will not be televised. you know? nicole: i was at the barricades. i got pushed back by riot cops, like pushed against walls, kind of crushed between plexiglas and stone. i was pepper sprayed a couple times. they eventually marched us from [indistinct] to greenwich village. and it wasn't like we were marching of our own volition. they got behind us and were pushing us for like

2 1/2 hours, at 2:00 in the morning. ray: i was just shocked at the way they did it. protestors: shame, shame, shame. jake: what i saw was enough to bring the average millionaire out of his house and down to these streets to protest with us. it was that bad. russell: if you don't fight equally for the rights of others, then you're not so honorable, if you want them for yourself. if you take anything for granted, then you should give it to others. and that's the only way to protect it. if you're selfish and small, you better get out there and fight for the poor, because your day of reckoning is coming, too. lillian: they are allowed to conduct themselves absolutely outrageously in a democracy. total disregard of the bill of rights. [shouting and screaming]

[explosion] man: what happened? what happened? protestor: he got shot! man: what's your name? what's your name? what's your name? jose: building criminal records on people, protestors, i was not aware of the system until i came out here to protest. he has a record. marking him as a criminal. but what's his record? peaceful protesting. jake: the law applies to everyone, not just the protestors or the poor. jose: why can corporations violate as many laws as they want and simply receive a fine? something's gotta give. jake: you got people getting away with murder if they have money. it's sad. jose: it's a business decision. if the fine isn't as much as the profits they'll receive from the operation that they're undertaking, then they'll just do it.

and that's ludicrous. that is unsustainable. you know? that is criminal. jeffrey: wall street, which through not only bad practices but financial fraud help to bring down the u.s. economy and the world economy and the financial collapse in 2008 and then got bailed out, with taxpayer money. and then after getting bailed out said, well, we deserve everything we get, of course. why are you complaining? we're gonna continue to take our bonuses. oh, yeah, even if we have to take them from taxpayer money. ray: sec, who supervises wall-- supposedly supervises wall street, but not one person got fired. there is no corporate accountability. jeffrey: even the companies that have been led by the ceos when the financial fraud was taking place continue in good standing, continue to be powerful

insiders in washington. those remain in place. and not only do they remain in place, they're the guests at the state dinners at the white house. this is what occupy is really all about. it's that sense of impunity at the top. the feeling that we can break the law, we can engage in financial fraud, we can demand the bailouts. so much for free markets. yeah, give us the money. give us those zero interest loans from the federal reserve, a trillion dollars-- why not? jose: the federal reserve controls the money supply. he who controls the money controls the world. and so i feel that the federal reserve is largely responsible for the corruption in corporations and in government. jeffrey: this system is rigged. this system is not working. this system is not the democracy that america needs, wants, expects of itself. we can do

better. lillian: you have the banks that have failed because of their policies and because of the lack of control, the lack of supervision, the lack of accountability, and the people who have been responsible for the conduct of the banks and the large corporations are running them again. jeffrey: what's more shocking than the bailout itself is how the banks then went on to say, leave us alone. why are you blaming us? why do you think we have any culpability or responsibility? how dare you say a word about our compensation packages. ray: of all the damage wall street has done, the--the absolute minimum, maybe two, three people have been arrested, perhaps. and we pay-- the taxpayers paid to bail them

out, and they're still getting their million-dollar bonuses. nicole: my mom went into real estate. when my mom was helping people find homes, she came across a lot of people that banks were offering adjustable rate mortgages to. she definitely noticed that the loans that they were getting didn't match up with a sustainable income that they were receiving. low income people were being forced into these mortgages. singer: ♪ they're pushin' the paper, but they don't know jack buyin' and sellin' it just like crack now we're gonna find out where it's at fishin' with the bait 'cause of the dream collapsed bank of america, how's it go? bought up maryland and... bill you for the office of the cpo... ♪ jeffrey: it was found out

afterwards that the goldman had teamed up with a hedge fund to sell toxic securities knowingly to one of goldman's own clients, leading to massive losses to german banks and others who bought bad securities that goldman was peddling so that its partner, a hedge fund, could bet against those securities and make a lot of money. this is american capitalism? this is what's called the free market? i think this is what's called financial fraud. lillian: i would certainly like to see them prosecuted. and i don't mean in the jails that are called country clubs. i would like to see them prosecuted. i would like to see them work for a living when they get out. really work. and mostly i would like to see

laws changed demanding accountability. jake: these corporations, they need to be held accountable for stealing from america. jeffrey: the justice department has been essentially sitting on its hands. we did need a special prosecutor from the beginning of this crisis to take it out of politics and to give the wherewithal to have a massive understanding and investigation of what really happened. because it wasn't just goldman sachs. we know that citigroup was involved in this. we know jp morgan. we know that most of the marquis companies of wall street knew in the later stages, at least, of this bubble, that things had turned seriously south and they stepped over the line. that's what the sec has said. jose: and that led to the great instability and the financial crisis that exists today. jeffrey: we need the justice

department to come in and take a real look at who broke the law, who didn't break the law, where there's responsibility, where were the boards of these companies? where is some accountability to get this right? glass-steagall, the banks, you couldn't have an investment bank and the regular checks and savings banks operating in the same business. jeffrey: serious and necessary regulation, including re-enacting the glass-steagall act, which forced the separation of the commercial banking from the casino. lillian: you wonder... how long will we accept this wildness, this--this... what do you call, living it up, at the expense of the 99%. narrator: over the last 30 years corporations' share of the

nation's tax revenue have declined about 30%, while spending on lobbyists and political campaigns have increased over 200%. in 2010, the u.s. supreme court declared that money is free speech, and that corporations can contribute unlimited amounts. this decision is known as citizens united. lillian: i wasn't so interested in campaign financing until citizens united. ray: yeah, the corporations now can contribute unlimited amounts, and they were very successful, by the way, in contributing before this. can you imagine how successful they're going to be to contribute unlimited amounts? lillian: corporations all of a sudden are human beings, individuals, and can spend

without limitation to support their candidates and their programs. this is very scary. narrator: since the privatizing of prisons began in 1980, prison population has increased more than 500%. and incarcerated drug offenders have increased more than 1,200%. russell: most of my friends, uh, went to jail at some point, over drugs. just as these people who are locked up, the prison- industrial complex pays the bills of the politicians, so much so that they either turn their head or they frame it that we're soft on crime if we don't lock these people up. we got to get the money out of politics. the prison-industrial complex, the gun lobby, will have less power, there's no reason to run around with automatic weapons in the hood.

the only way that's gonna happen is if we change the system. narrator: over the last decade, more than 100,000 americans have been killed by gun violence. the gun lobby has spent 10 times more money in campaign contributions than gun safety groups. jeffrey: we need to get money out of politics. money has absolutely overrun washington. it's through campaign contributions. it's through massive, billions of dollars of spending on lobbying. it's through the revolving door, it's through insider trading by politicians in washington who get insider information and trade on their personal accounts. shocking how straightforward the corruption is as well. russell: no one should pay a politician to make a choice. it should be illegal. legal bribery is ridiculous. jake: what's scary is the international corporations are being unaccountable to anyone.

they're able to buy politicians. they're able to buy freedom. i mean, they're able to buy anything they want, and why we're and what we're trying to do is have accountability. jeffrey: americans fought for more than two centuries ago and believe in, and i certainly believe in the power of democracy and the power of true representation where each person does have their vote and does have their say. and in order to get that, we have to move from the dollar vote to the people vote once again. jose: all they see is the money getting put in front of their faces by lobbyists. and that is the world that they live in. and those are the people that are financing them and those are the people that they're in cahoots with, and that is the world that they live in, and it's separate and apart from you and i. jeffrey: we need to get money

out of politics, but we have to understand that it's gonna be a hard struggle. these incumbents know what they're doing. many of them are getting quite rich, and they're turning to the wealthy to keep them in power. and the wealthy understand that they're getting a good deal by making those investments, because the rules of the game, the regulations, or the deregulations, as the case may be, are set to their benefit. so this is a big struggle ahead, to remove all of these sources of money that has its hold on power in america. and campaign finance reform would definitely be part of it, lobbying reform, stopping the unaccountability of anonymous corporate spending. russell: just like we have church separate from the state, we should have money separate from the state. and business and special interests should be separate from the political system. nicole: i want public financing of campaigns, absolutely. jake: i do agree with public campaign financing. nicole: that would solve much of what's going on. jake: i just want to make sure that the public knows exactly

where their money is going. i need it to be transparent. jeffrey: we're gonna have to elect progressive politicians who are themselves gonna say, i'm gonna run for office without anybody buying me and without myself selling my vote or anything else to any special interest. because the incumbents today aren't gonna do it on their own. this is gonna be a massive, massive social effort to get this done. protestors chanting: tell me what democracy looks like. this is what democracy looks like. jose: definitely we need multiple parties. this two-party system, it's--it doesn't work. protestors chanting: this is what democracy looks like. tell me what democracy looks like. this is what democracy looks like. jake: i actually missed my park, you know? that day that i didn't have it, i physically missed it. the sense of community, the sense of love, the sense of understanding and passion, it

was all here. everything was in this park. you can feel like an outsider two streets down, then you'd come back here and you'd be welcomed unconditionally. no matter what walk of life you were from, who you were, how old you were, what your race was, you were welcomed. and that's rare. a lot of people haven't ever seen that. nicole: i think we're soon gonna have more than one. we're gonna have a plentiful occupation. but this movement's already been moving onward. jose: we need to occupy everywhere, all over the united states. jake: even though we don't have a park to live in, we're still here. we're still around. this is phase two of the movement. [shouting and indistinct chanting] ray: they were being arrested for other--they were giving up their freedom for other people, for justice, for everybody else. and that so inspired me, at that moment i made the decision to be arrested. protestors chanting: peaceful protest, peaceful protest,

peaceful protest, peaceful protest... jake: peaceful protest, peaceful protest. everybody was chanting that. um, the cops still didn't listen. they still attacked this kid within the park itself, enough to make him need an ambulance ride on the way out. and i think it really fueled the intensity on the marches after that. [drums beating] protestors chanting: all day, all week, occupy wall street. all day, all week... nicole, on loudspeaker: all right. so the best tool we have here is our voices. so what we're gonna do right now is we're gonna practice the people's mike until the people all the way in the back can hear what we have to say. jose: there was over 32,000 people out here, especially after the eviction. i got emotional that day. i couldn't help it. nicole: that was amazing to see all those people in foley

square. it was really good energy that night, and it was really like a sign of relief, like a kind of beginning to heal from the trauma a little bit and realize, ok, actually everyone's behind you. jake: it was just great to see new faces out in the streets with us, chanting, "we are the 99%. whose streets? our streets. this is what democracy looks like." the foley square, we-- it was the first time that we realized that everyone is in this movement together. um, no matter what your walk of life, where you came from, where you live. join us in the streets and try to get your voice heard. that's all we're trying to do. ray: what i'm looking forward to in this movement is getting mainstream america, because they're suffering the same things. they're losing their homes, they're losing their pensions, they're losing their jobs, they're losing their-- they are all feeling the same way we're feeling here. but, they don't want--they can't quite relate, because the media is displaying the people here as

not one of them. so i'm hoping to get more and more people to realize, hey, that's--i'm like that person, i'm like that person, i'm like--'cause they share the same hardships. and once we get those people involved, that is going to be when the movement really takes off. jake: this movement is only going to get bigger. and obviously they're scared, 'cause you got police beating people up, you got the media gagging the movement. the facts aren't being shown. so they're scared. so what i have to say to the higher-ups, instead of using force and violence and thievery to win, why don't you try to change why we're protesting. lillian: i support so wholeheartedly the occupation movement. because the young people were able immediately to grasp what was important. jake: you can't kill an idea. that's what the occupy is.

it's an idea. with a lot of supporters. global supporters. nicole: you reach people, you engage people, and then they come back and they're on your side. jose: because only communities can fix america. it's not gonna be politicians. they're bought off by the lobbyists that work for the corporations that work for the banks, and we need to get the voice of the majority to rule this land again. protestors chanting: we are unstoppable, another world is possible! russell: i want to be part of a system that's just and fair and promotes more equality and opportunity. that's what occupy is about. jeffrey: if we have a proper government that is fair, that is insisting on responsibility by the rich and the powerful, that is investing in the poor and the working class, making sure that everybody has a chance for education, we're gonna have a far fairer and more equal society. but not a handout society. a society where everybody has the skills, the wherewithal to move forward on their own because they've been

helped, they've been backed by education, they've been backed by infrastructure, they've been backed by science and technology so that we can all be productive and we can all share once again in what really is the greatness of america, a middle-class society in which everybody can be prosperous, responsible, fair to their neighbors, and accountable and sustainable for the future. nicole: i think there's a very strong interpersonal element to occupy wall street, which is just kind of asking for compassion and empathy and understanding of your fellow human being, whether they're across the table or like across the world. jake: right now we... we love things and we use people. what we need to learn is to use things and love people. and when we understand that, we're onto something, let me tell you. lillian: i think the occupy wall street movement is just a breath of life. jose: we're told that once a mar