in uniform. >> these police officers were standing there. they were shot just because they were police officers. >> eyewitnesses recounting the scene. >> i heard one, then i heard two or three more. >> the police had said everybody down, down, get down, get down. >> those shots immediately strike two officers that are standing next to each other. these officers are also standing in a line of about at least 20 to 25 officers. >> those officers are now back home after surviving what the county police chief calls an ambush. >> i would have to imagine that these protesters were among the shooters that shot at the police officers. i'm not blaming anybody other than the individuals that took a shot at my officers. >> as the investigation picks up, police and community leaders look to cool tensions. >> get ahold of some of my community leaders out there and talk to those folks again. i think that's critically important. >> i don't think the violence that we saw last night is in any

way representative of the vast majority of people out there to peacefully protest. >> the wholesale change that everybody is asking for is unfolding right before our eyes and we need to give an opportunity to run its course. i'm abby huntsman. as we come on the air today, all eyes are again on ferguson missouri. two officers shot overnight after the police chief resigned amid that scathing doj review showing a long standing pattern of racial bias inside the department. police had been processing the scene throughout the day, and so far no suspects have been arrested, but s.w.a.t. teams did bring several people in for questioning. msnbc's amanda is on the scene in ferguson. what is the latest and how did this protest turn viabilityolent? >> just not long ago, we saw

police officers on foot canvassing the area. we are still in the midst of this manhunt. last night was supposed to be a celebration of sorts for the resignation of police chief tom jackson, ushering in the new interim chief. but for right now, we are still waiting for answers. in the interim, the city of ferguson has come forward to say that violence will not and cannot be tolerated. and they went on to say that they have made changes at the highest level from the administration to the police to the courts to allow the city time for a fresh start. and protesters here are really looking for that fresh start to begin. we should expect more protests later on today. for now, things are quiet outside the ferguson police department. >> all right amanda. and president obama, he tweeted this today. he said violence against police is unacceptable. our prayers are with the officers in missouri. the path to justice is one all of us must travel together. of course, a short time ago we heard from eric holder. what's the response on the ground from what both of these

men have just said? >> you know they're really looking for leadership but they're also wanting change. they want more dramatic change. though we are seeing many top officials leaving, we are seeing this mass exodus happen they're still pressing for more. though this is garnering the attention of national figures like the president and like the attorney general, they're still pressing for more on-the-ground change here. >> and as i said a short time ago, outgoing u.s. attorney general eric holder spoke at an event designed to improve trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve. >> i unequivocally condemn these repugnant attacks. seeing this attack last niekt really kind of turned my stomach because in the last week since the justice department released its pattern and practice report on ferguson i felt we'd begun to see really important signs of progress. they were good-faith steps being taken within the city's leadership to move in a new, more cooperative direction that i think is beneficial to law

enforcement and to community residents. but what happened last night was a pure ambush. what happened last night was a pure ambush. this was not someone trying to bring healing to ferguson. this was a damn punk, a punk who was trying to sew discord in an area that's trying to get its act together and trying to bring together a community that has been fractured for too long. this really disgusting and cowardly attack might have been intended to unravel any sense of progress that exists but i hope that that does not, in fact happen. >> and joining us now from ferguson is a staff writer with the local "river front times." thank you so much for being with us. you're there on the ground. we're beginning to see a little bit of progress here with the scathing new doj report. the police chief stepping down yesterday. how much harder does it make it for the folks that are going about this the right way, that

are protesting peacefully, when you have a few bad apples do something like this? >> well i think this is a process we've been seeing since august when we had the looting and the arson. this tension between the protesters who are out there saying why they're there, the communities they want to change the policies they want to change, and dealing with those who are around them the agitators, and are using the protest as cover or are using it in a way that isn't in the same vein as the other activists. >> the doj report danny, left a lot of the folks who have been protesting for all these months feeling, i imagine, vindicated. i imagine feeling like hey, the things we've been saying finally quantified by the government and the government is saying, hey, we're going to get involved and try to make a difference with this police force. have you noticed a different feeling, a different sentiment from the folks on the ground after that doj report? >> i have gotten a sense of

vindication, but i think there's a sense of bitterness in the sense that these are things people have been saying for months and months. now we have the government who are corroborating them. at the same time, i think a lot of people want to not only see these changes in their justice system but accountability for the officials and for the police chiefs and the court clerks who have been running this system for years. so the doj reports are definitely a positive sense for the protesters, but i think they're still waiting to see someone receive some kind of, you know, reaction that's not just losing their job and is not just them having to go to a different municipality to be a different prosecutor. i think they're looking for accountability. >> danny, many of the practices that are described in that doj report are not in fact unique to ferguson. talk to us about the mood in some of the surrounding municipalities. there are tensions running high there. is there a similar soul searching going on in the region as there is in ferguson? >> you know i think there's a lot of inward looking in these

municipalities. in my conversations with other judges a lot of them tend to say they're not like ferguson. that these problems are not as widespread as the report might suggest. that ferguson is a unique case. i think a lot of protesters and experts would contest that. i think we're seeing a resistance to this widespread region-wide change that a lot of people are waiting for. i think there's a lot of focus on ferguson, and i think there are municipalities that would prefer for that focus to stay there. >> danny, you talk about that scathing doj report and the desire on the part of protesters to get some sort of accountability for what was in that report. state senator eric schmidt has proposed a remedy to that. it would potentially cap the amount of money that cities could extract for their budgets from passenger stops and things of that nature. can you walk us through that bill and give us a sense of whether it's actually likely to pass. and if so, do you think it will help eradicate the problem? >> well the bill you mention has support actually of the st.

louis police officers union. i think police officers as well have gotten behind this movement because they don't want to be task collectors. they feel like it damages their rapport with the communities, it damages their recognition. i think also we're talking about removing parts of a jenga tower here in the sense that a municipality is built on these little cities these small little towns that get the money they need. as you remove one revenue source for them, they're going to try to find it swuomewhere else or the system could begin to collapse, which i think what some people are most afraid of. >> you reference the critical importance of the police having a good rapport with the community. folks around the country understand that community policing is essential to getting quality policing and having a good relationship with the community. eric holder out today saying that ferguson is going to try much more community policing. this is something that has worked in many cities in many jurisdictions. what do you think about this next chapter? >> you know the phrase community policing has been

brought up, you know, since august. at this point, it's really been a catch word that's been used by officials with discussing commissions and systemic changes. we have to see what this community policing will look like and what it will do. these regions have lived with this level of policing for a very, very long time. people are waiting to see what exactly this connection will look like. it's something that right now is still kind of set in the catch word territory. i think we're waiting to see where it goes. >> danny, what do you expect tonight? do you expect any sort of activity on the streets there, any sort of protesting? >> i expect there will be more protesting. that partly has to do with the reports and all the action but also the weather is now better. just bitter cold for the last few months. a lot of protesters have been waiting for it to be easier to get out here. i think we may see john belmar of the st. louis county police department bring out more armored vehicles which is something he spoke about at his press conference as well as in a conference last month that he

felt that these armored vehicles that he was criticized for helped protect police officers because it allowed them to have these large bullet proof shields that they could get behind in case of danger. last night we saw a case where they didn't have these vehicles and they were simply in a line in front of the police department and it made them tragically targets of whoever these shooters were. >> danny, the police chief has stepped down. i know a lot of folks there were happy about that. when you have an institutional problem as the doj report pointed out, having an individual step down doesn't actually change the institutional, systemic problem. are folks hopeful that getting a new person getting an outsider with the help of the doj and perhaps a federal monitor in the future that can actually make change or are folks still just very angry and bitter and thinking nothing is ever going to change? >> i think the bitterness comes from the sense that there's this suggestion that the system can be fixed if it's tweaked in one

way. if we change one revenue source get a new police chief. i think a lot of protesters and communities feel this entire system built from the ground up is built on these systemic problems. you know the entire police -- for instance, the entire ferguson police department has been suggested it just be incorporated into st. louis county. i think there are a lot of people that tinkering with the small details of this system is giving the system too much respect, more than it deserves. >> danny, thank you so much. >> thank you. and next, what the white house is saying at this hour about the latest secret service embarrassment involving top-level agents. plus, we continue to follow developments out in boston. the bomber trial today, dramatic testimony from the man carjacked by the tsarnaev brothers. remember that? and later, star quarterback jameis winston's accuser speaks out for the first time. florida state is responding, but perhaps not how you think. "the cycle" rolls on. it is thursday, march 12th.

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and another embarrassment in the halls of the secret service today. homeland security now investigating why two secret service agents crashed a government vehicle into a white house security gate last week. first reported by the"the washington post", there are reports the agents may have been drinking at a going away party for another agent before the crash. on-duty officers tried to conduct sobriety tests and arrest the agents but a supervisor said to let them go. one of the agents involved in the crash is the second in charge of the president's protective detail. president obama was immediately

notified and a senior white house official tells nbc news he fully supports the secret service director's decision to hand this investigation over to the dhs inspector general. joining us now to talk about this and the politics of the day is patricia murphy editor at "citizen jane politics" and contributor at "the daily beast." thank you so much for joining us. >> hey thanks for having me. >> you got it. let's talk about this big issue of the day. the secret service in trouble again. you know normally protection of the president is one of those rare consensus items in washington that seems to be shielded from partisan games. what's the mood on capitol hill today? what are you hearing in terms of how republicans and i suppose democrats will respond to this news? >> i'm hearing that republicans and democrats alike, there's a lot of unity on this. they are exhausted of the problems at the secret service. they have been looking into the secret service for more than a year now. the secret service knows that it is under investigation. and to have an event like this with two officers who are so close, so personally close to

the president, senior agents involved in this and the potential drinks they disrupted a crime scene. this was actually an active investigation of a suspicious package they drove into. then to have a senior agent say don't administer sobriety tests, don't detain these officers, that's the biggest problem we're hearing. they hoped it was getting better. this is evidence to them at least that nothing really has changed. >> when this story came out yesterday, i had to re-read the article several times. i just couldn't believe that this happened last week that they were such high level, that then a supervisor let them go. the details really even given what we've already learned about the secret service, are shocking when some of those other problems came to light, the president installed joe clancy to lead the agency.

clancy was a former member of the secret service an insider brought to clean things up. there were questions at the time whether an outsider should have been brought in to shake up the culture culture. are those questions coming back today? >> they are. there was an independent panel that dhs put together to look inside the secret service, interview agents at every level, and find out exactly what's going on in that agency. two-thirds of the recommendations that came back from that panel had to do with the culture and the leadership. the biggest piece they had to recommend was get an outsider with law enforcement experience to come in and hit the reset button. the problem with the culture they found is there was a feeling within the agency that discipline is not being administered fairly at every level. and if -- all you have to do is read that report and read the news report from yesterday, and you kind of can't quite believe that anybody at the secret service would let this happen after that report has already

been made public in a way. so really it's not even eye rolling. it's just total confusion. democrats and republicans both very worried. people really like joe clancy. i think they have a lot of respect for him. they respect the trust the president has in him. but they call this agency the agency that has zero failure mission. you cannot fail at the secret service. at every level we see these small failures happening again and again and again. and there is so much concern that because of their role in protecting the president and the first family when is there going to be a threat that happens to overlay one of these screw-ups? that's the concern here. so nobody is really interested in protecting anybody else at this point. they want to get to the bottom of what's going on and see some leadership and a change in cultural. >> let's turn to other politics news. the woman the secret service calls evergreen, hillary rodham clinton. you know about the e-mail scandal. you know wantabout the other scandals. you know about the other things we think will be scandals in the

near future. is she being held to a higher standard than other candidates? >> i feel like reading the press coverage of this scandal, we'll call it a scandal, it seems like there are a lot of reporters on this beat who are still angry with the clintons from the '90s. i just feel a lot of pent-up angst within the media about how they've been treated by the clintons almost at every turn even throughout the 2008 campaign. hillary clinton didn't answer a lot of questions. she was not available. it was really hard to get information out of that clinton campaign. and now you see this happening. talk about people who should be prepared for a campaign. you see the clinton campaign in waiting. where is the campaign? where is the response? people who wanted to support hillary clinton and defend her didn't have talking points to come forward. so i think there are a number of self-inflicted wounds here within the clinton camp. we can't call it a campaign. they didn't get out in front of this. they let it fester didn't

answer the questions. does this really rise to water? there's no grand jury. there's no crime. to me i think clinton is paying for a lot of sins of the past in what she's doing right now. she needs to be a lot better prepared for that. >> because we haven't talked enough about her, i feel sorry she's left out. i have another question about hillary clinton. i'm sure she ates all-- hates all this. but there's a piece in the "new york times" about how the democrats not only support her but they're desperate for her because there's no one else. there's one big democratic donor who's quoted saying there is no one else she's the whole plan. and then the governor of delaware added, any time you have all your eggs in one basket, it's a concern. although, if you're going to have them all in one, this basket is a good place to be. you could say whatever you want about this never-ending bench for the gop, but there are options there. there are some popular governors there. there are some young people

there. you look at democratic side. who do they have? other than hillary who is on their bench? they don't even have a bench. >> the very small bench they have nobody seems to want. joe biden wants to be president. i mean hello. there are people who want to be president and who are democrats. they don't want to go up against want clinton machine. and democrats kind of don't want those people. they want hillary clinton. they want to make history. they want her to be the candidate they always dreamed of. when you have this event, you start to hear quickly have democratic donors and high-level democratic supporters, we don't have a plan b. if hillary clinton is not the candidate that we all want her to be, if she doesn't have the capacity and the capability and the staff to be a successful campaign, what could we possibly do between now and 2016? they know there's almost nothing they can do. the concern of the last week this nine-day story that didn't need to be a nine-day story, the

concern was a little bit about the e-mails. there was a lot more hand wringing in democratic circles about why this was handled so poorly. the e-mails are one situation. but the way they responded to it is an entirely other situation. that's where you hear the anxiety among democrats, not, oh, you didn't have your e-mail on the right server, but where's your staff, why aren't you ready for this, are you a 2016 candidate with your i thinknstincts and capacity? >> i got a name for you guys. russ feingold. he'd be a good alternative. >> i like that. >> someone from the left. anyway patricia murphy thank you so much. up next, we go live to boston for the latest on day six of the marathon bombing trial and hear from the unsuspecting driver who came face to face with the bombers. od job. nice coating. and get this one next. whoa! what are you guys doing? making sure nothing sticks. otherwise, we gotta scrub all this stuff off. huh, what? nobody thought of this before? what's wrong with people?

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the harrowing hours after the attack as the tsarnaev brothers eluded police. nbc's ron mott is covering the trial for us from boston. ron? >> hey, there, abby. good day to you. they just wrapped court for the day. the jurors have a three-day weekend upcoming. some of the most riveting testimony thus far came this afternoon. a gentleman by the name of don main, the guy who was carjacked the night that m.i.t. police officer sean collier was ambushed and killed. he said he got off work about 10:30, was looking for a place to relax, drove along the charles river when he got a text. he pulls over to respond to the text. he says then a car sped up right behind him and a gentleman got out, came along the passenger side of his car, and knocked on the window asked him to roll down the window. he then reached into the car, got in and put a gun to his face. he said it turned out that this was tamerlan tsarnaev. so they started driving. he says the car from which he came followed them. they ended up in watertown. they got his atm card from him.

at some point, he said that dzhokhar tsarnaev got into the backseat. they switched so his brother started driving. this mr. main was in the passenger seat. he of course thought he was going to die. he says, tamerlan tsarnaev told him that the boston marathon bombing, he was the guy who did that and he had just killed this police officer. then he got a call in the car, was told not to answer it. he says if you speak in chinese, i will shoot you. so he let the call go. he then got a text, and it was his roommate calling him to tell him that things were dangerous out there. he should probably come home. it's a fascinating story. he said he was scared for his life. he ended up bailing out of the car and ran into a shell gas station. that's how this shootout ultimately pursued into watertown began. abby? >> very fascinating development there is. ron mott in boston for us. thanks so much. turning now to what could be the biggest victory against isis so far. iraqi forces have retaken most of the city of tikrit according to multiple reports. the strategically significant victory comes after a nine-day

offensive, but we should be cautious because we have seen victories against isis before only to see the terrorist group regain ground against iraqi forces. so how can we make this time different and defeat isis for the long run? let's ask this terrorism expert who wrote a book on how to do just that. it's called "isis: the state of terror." you wrote isis was born partly because of how america went about the war on terror in the first place. how should we rethink our strategy against isis to make sure these victories last? >> well isis is a complicated problem. it's not something we can easily dislodge from the iraqi landscape at this point. i think that the light footprint we're using is certainly preferable than a full-skag invasion that would create more instability in the region. the complex political problems in iraq and syria are not going to go away, and we probably don't have the power to directly influence it. >> you talk a lot in your book

about the role of technology and social media in terms of the ability of terrorists to recruit and so forth. take a listen to something that fbi director james comey just said today about this very topic. >> with the use of groups like isil and aqap of sophisticated technology and social media to spread their poison, to attract recruits to their so-called caliphate, and to try to motivate people who don't travel to do harm to innocent people in the united states, this poses an enormous challenge to us. >> so there you have the director of the fbi saying that social media and technology is very helpful to the terrorists but we also know that technology has helped us to track and potentially prevent and maybe even respond to these types of plots. in the grand scheme of these, as you weigh all these factors, have these technological advances been more helpful or hurtful for terrorists to succeed in their plots? >> i think technology works in favor of small-scale actors.

so technology empowers people in small groups or individuals to do things, in some ways much more quickly and much more robustly than it empowers a large organization like a state. i think that, you know, we're seeing a time of transition. social media has really exploded on to our social landscape, and we're still assimilating how to incorporate it into the way we live and the way we make decisions, the strategies we build. a small group like isis with very narrow and kind of targeted goal can really exploit that mechanic. >> your book on isis is very interesting, very important for anyone who really wants to understand what's going on with this group. one sentence that jumped out at me toward the end, in the conflict with isis messaging and image are half the battle and we do ourselves no favors when we refuse to discuss the negative consequences of our actions. what do you mean by our actions and what we're doing to

perpetuate the situation? >> thank you. and i think, you know, ultimately we've made some missteps. our initial invasion of iraq really greatly destabilized the region. obviously we took out somebody who's a brutal tickdictator, but some years on we're seeing a situation where the carnage is just staggering. you know, in cases like that certainly in cases which i think were specifically referring to the passage you quoted where the united states has used techniques like torture or enhanced interrogation, whatever you're calling it i think we need to acknowledge our missteps and be able to move past them because, you know, when we are unable to integrate the effects of our actions and really be honest and talk about it i think it's very difficult. you negotiation as we've read in the book we thought the torture report was a good step in that direction. you know the more we transparently approach our own

issues and if we're going to present ourselves as the morally superior force in the world, then we need to live up to that. >> speaking of presenting ourselves as the morally superior force, abc news is reporting that they've uncovered evidence that our allies there on the ground the iraqi army had been committing allegedly some of the very same atrocities and human rights abuses that we see from isis. how much do we trust our allies there on the ground and how much does that revelation if true, how much does that impact our ability to wage warfare on that ideological level? >> well, i certainly do believe that the report is true. i know the reporter who worked on it. he's really solid, and furthermore, i was talking to philip smith, who's an expert on shia militias operating in this environment. we were discussing the fact they're really very aggressive about posting atrocity videos that rival isis.

you know this is a very problematic situation. obviously, you know, with the fall of mosul, we already had a pretty good clue that our training program had not accomplished what we wanted it to. this kind of thing just further reinforces that. you know it's a very difficult dilemma. we're looking at a situation where there is some sort of government that we're trying to support, you know, to some extent it's the successor to the government we instituted there. we need to really examine their actions and stand against them when they make a mistake. >> you're right. this is such a difficult situation. thank you so much for your time. again, the book is "isis: the state of terror." we'll be talking with jm's co-author tomorrow. next, he's advised the campaigns of george w. bush and al gore. next, one of the great social thinkers of our time robert putnam, is here at the table.

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our next guest is one of bill clinton's favorite authors, harvard professor and award-winning writer robert putnam author of the great "bowling alone." his new book is "our kids: the american dream in crisis" about how our kids have less equality of opportunity because he says we don't care about each other's kids the way we once did. now, for me the sight of an adorable angel like this eating ice cream with his hands alone inspires deep love, but that's krystal's boy. can't help but love him. putnam suggests if we don't treat all kids like our kids then do we have a national community? it's an honor to welcome bob putnam to the table. >> thank you so much. great to be with you. >> in this book, you look at port clinton of the '50s and the people you grew up with and go back and look at folks there now. what did you learn in doing that

comparison study? >> well, back in the '50s, and this is based on real research almost all of the kids in my class did better than their parents. regardless of what their background was. they rose higher earned more money. it was the american dream. everybody had a fair chance a fair shot at the dream. but because of changes that have occurred in port clinton, and as it happens across america -- >> loss of manufacturing. >> loss of manufacturing, the growing gap, even a small town like port clinton, between rich kids and poor kids. you can drive down a kid and look to the left and you see dilapidated double wieds with a child poverty rate of 50% and look to the left on the same road and see a row of mansions along lake erie in which the kids are living completely different lives. and that means that we no longer have equality of opportunity in america. >> yeah it's such interesting research. what made me so sad is the

reality that we're actually moving backwards when we should be moving the opposite direction. and you talk about how it starts at such an early age, when you're growing up and having dinner with your family as a young child. you're being read books at night. talk to us about the differences between the poor and the rich really when it matters most when you are being cultivated by your family. >> we now know from recent brain science that at a very early age, the way the brain develops is through social interaction. a baby goes woo-woo, and some adult around says oh isn't that nice. that interaction, that ping-pong, so to speak, mental or verbal ping-pong, turns out really to generate powerful effects on the development of the brain at a very early age. 1, 2, 3, 4 years old. what we also know is the amount of verbal interaction between parents and their kids first of all, differs a lot between upper class and lower class families. secondly that, difference has been growing a lot. so now kids like my

grandchildren, who have well-educated parents, get about 45 minutes a day more verbal interaction with their parents. more, how was your day, and family dinners and so on. all of those various alternatives we see as a kind of a scissors grab things getting better and better for rich kids and worse and worse for poor kids. >> and education is another important piece of this puzzle. i got an opportunity on my web show to talk to the man who wrote the book on inequality about the issue of education. let's take a listen. >> if you look at who accesses universities, what you find is for people with better incomes, you have 20% of the generation going to higher education. it's almost perfectly prer dictatorshiped ed--

predict bid family -- predicted by family income. >> is our education system actually exacerbating inequality? >> yes, it is. it is not so much because of what the schools are doing to these kids. it's because schools are a site in which these differences get magnified. the reason they do is because our society has become more segregated in class terms. now rich kids live alongside rich kids and poor kids live alongside poor kids. when kids come to school the rich kids are bringing in their backpack support from family both moral support and encouragements and so on. the poor kids are bringing from their neighborhoods gang violence and depression and family disruption and so on. not that the kids themselves are responsible for it but that's in their backpack. so it affects all the kids. if you're lucky, you go to school with rich kids. if you're not so lucky, you go

to school with poor kids. that means the schools are like an echo chamber, and they're making the problem worse. >> and we see disparities also with higher education, of course. if you are born to a less-well-off family, you want to go to college, there's a good chance in modern era where you'll have massive student loans. it could be $30,000, $40,000 in debt as you begin adulthood. that means it's harder to save for a home harder to save for retirement. it also might mean it's harder for you to pay for your own children's education and the cycle continues. what's the answer there? >> well first of all, it's important to see how deep that problem is. one way of doing it is to see which better predicts who completes college, how smart they are in terms of test scores or how rich their parents are. the startling fact is that dumb rich kids if i can put it that way, are more likely to finish college than smart, poor kids. that violates the fundamental american dream. >> that's it right there. >> that shows you if you work hard, that's not enough in modern america.

book is "our kids." it is fantastic. bob putnam thank you so much for being here with us. still ahead, abby's take on this and the major impact it's having on millennials. but next just weeks before the nfl draft, star qb jameis winston's accuser is speaking out for the first time. >> i kind of just want to know like, why me? >> what she told the makers of a powerful new documentary about campus sex. that's next. rive. go for it. okay. wow... woohoo! i'm dreaming... pinch me. no, not while you're driving. and, right now, you can get a one-thousand-dollar volkswagen credit bonus on jetta models. seriously, pinch me. it's not a dream. ow! it's the volkswagen stop dreaming, start driving event. stop dreaming, and test-drive one today. hurry in and you can get 0% apr plus a $1000 volkswagen credit bonus on 2015 jetta and passat models.

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this is florida state quarterback jameis winston. next month he'll probably be the number one pick in the nfl draft. this week a federal judge was asked to throw out a lawsuit by a fellow student accusing him a rape. the woman filed a lawsuit in january saying that official had knowledge of her alleged assault and this created a hostile educational environment for her. now she has spoken out for the first time in a powerful new documentary "the hunting ground." it shows the sexual assault epidemic across the country on college campuses. >> i went to see my victim's advocate. in that meeting, we were just talking. she was like, we just want to let you know like there's another victim from him. i kind of just want to know like why me?

>> this is just one part of a film that also profiles survivors of sexual assault and follows two activists across the country helping them to file title nine complaints against their colleges. joining us now is the oscar-nominated producer of "the hunting ground." amy, so glad to have you with us. >> thanks for having me. >> i want to start with erica's case here. she's going after the university board of trustees. why take the legal fight to the university versus directly to the accuser? the alleged rapist rather. >> because as we show in the film students have to have a way of complaining to their universities when they're the victims of violent crimes. universities can't be out of that cycle. they have to provide a safe environment for their students. that's part of title nine. an environment that free from any kind of gender violence. so that was a natural thing for erica to do to inform her university that this crime happened, it happened there, and they have to know that so they can protect all their students better. >> there's so much that i learned from watching your film

and really everyone needs to see it to really understand what's going on on our college campuses. what should, though, parents and students know before they show up at college campuses this fall? >> what was they show up at college campuses this fall? >> what was shocking for me as a mom was to learn this was going on at this level on the college campuses. i think it's important to get the information that they need to have that they are not getting elsewhere. that's why we're so happy we were able to make this. everyone can be better informed. what you need to know is "a", these crimes happen. these colleges and dorms provide perfect opportunities for the crimes to happen in whey that cannot be properly investigated and adjudicated. if they're not expelled, they'll keep committing the crimes. >> it's extraordinary film. it is engrossing. it is very moving as you said. it's something that everyone should see, and to that idea of the perfect storm, you talk about how colleges are

incentivized to silence rape survivors. explain why that is? >> intuitively you would think a college would be there to protect the students. i thought that too, before i started making the film. what we found is they don't want to have anything come out that would sort of appear negative on their reputation. so a violent crime, they would rather turn a blind eye to or cover up than report or be transparent about. it's counterintuitive. >> you talk about how it affects endowment, enrollment. they're not protecting half of the students on the campus. >> right, and it's so important that you guys are shining a light on this. why has it become such a passion of yours? you mentioned being a mother and thinking of what happens to young women. but why have you taken this on as really a top priority for you? >> it came to me. i didn't come to it. i just started hearing stories. you can't not have them break your heart. when you also understand that this could be solved. you figure i had to do

something. i had to "a", tell the story, and "b" provide solutions to better protect all of our children. >> amy, there's a positive element of this film as well. you do profile who activists who are making incredible progress in terms of highlighting the problems and trying to get some solutions. talk to us about the progress that's being made. >> well there's an incredible student movement that we follow in the film. and finally thanks to social media, survivors can network. they can plan these sort of activist activities and the media has been covering them. that's really optimist you can and gives us hope that finally this is not -- people are talking out and it's not being hidden and covered up. >> such an important film. thank you for being with us. thank you for making the film. we're back with more "cycle" after this. oh boy, this always happens to your father. you're clean. you got that right! bam! just gotta check your bag.

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here's some good news for you. so far this year we are cruising into 2015 a burst of fresh economic momentum. we are now adding jobs at the fastest pace since the boom of the late '90s. lifting unemployment and wages for millions of americans. compared to a year ago, we have every reason to celebrate. but here's the thing, every time i read an article about how much better the economy is or listen to talking heads rant and rave about how good things are now, i can't help but think about the millions of young people well educated and motivated still sitting at home. and that's if they're lucky enough to live with their parents, waiting for a

meaningful, purposeful start to their life. take al sand ya roberts. she's a 23-year-old recent graduate from the university of nevada with a degree in political science. her dream after graduating was to work on political campaigns. after months of struggling to get anything she realized she had to adjust and expand her job search to include pretty much anything. a human resources position any kind of office management role she said. i applied for the jobs and the opportunity is just not there. i have a bachelor's degree that doesn't get you anywhere. she's one of 5.8 million young people who as of six months ago were either not in school or working at all. that's about 15% of millennials in the very beginning stages of figuring out what they want to do with their lives and who they want to be. and here's the most tragic part of all of this. if you are young and unemployed for a long period of time it can have a serious psychological impact on your personality. making you less agreeable, less

open and less attentive, which is the last thing you want when you're trying to seek out a new job. who wants to hire the angry person that doesn't appear as motivated. and yet to blame them. millennials should be angry. they got the worst economy in decades dumped on them as they were entering the workforce. i graduated in 2008 probably the worst time to try to get a job, but i have been lucky. some of my closest friends are still searching for a job or they're jumping from job to job trying to find one that actually makes them happy. and over time i've watched the process eat away at their confidence. they question themselves. am i even any good? why does no one want to hire me? how are they supposed to live the american dream if they can't get started with their own life? these are the real conversations. these are the questions so many young people are asking themselves every single day. and when they finally get the job offer, many will take whatever they can get. which in most cases means lower pay doing a job they done want to do anyway. for these young people the american dream is far from a reality.

and a psychological impact over time is crushing. as we talk about the new and improved economy, let's not forget the big picture, the next generation, the future of this country. if there's one thing i know about millennials it's that we want to make an impact. our american dream is having a purpose. that does it for this cycle. have a great day. "now" with alex wagner starts right now. some republican senators are now regretting their letter to iran and are blaming instead a snowstorm. there is a new embarrassing scandal for the secret service involving a crashed car on the white house, property and ted cruz wants to fund nasa for space exploration, just not science research. first, gunshots ring out in ferguson once again, putting the city on edge. it's thursday, march 12th and this is "now." we are following the latest developments out of ferguson missouri, where two police officers have now been released from a local hospital after

being shot in quote, an ambush during protests overnight. >> what happened last night was a pure ambush. this was not someone trying to bring healing to ferguson. this was a damn punk. a punk who was trying to sew discord in an area that is trying to get its act together in trying to bring together a community that has been fractured for too long. >> hours ago a team of officers dressed in s.w.a.t. gear, sur surrounded a home in ferguson but no arrests have been made. the shooting happened amid peaceful demonstrations outside the city's police department just hours after police chief thomas jackson announced he would step down. according to law enforcement, police heard three to four shots ring out and muzzle flashes from a firearm were seen 125 yards away.