OLBERMANN: As we've been telling you, a class-action suit by five of the protesters arrested Saturday at the Brooklyn Bridge part of Occupy Wall Street has been filed. They speak unspecified -- or seek, rather -- unspecified damages. Ironically, this is being reported by Bloomberg News and the -- the person against whom the suit has been filed is Mayor Bloomberg of New York.
To quote the news organization's report, "Five of the protesters seeking to represent about 700 people arrested in the march filed a civil-rights complaint in federal court in Manhattan today, protesters claiming officers from the New York City police department lured them onto the bridge's roadway to trap and arrest them from the street after escorting and leading a group of demonstrators and others well out of the Brooklyn Bridge roadway. The NYPD suddenly -- and without warning -- curtailed further forward movement, blocked the ability of persons to leave the bridge from the rear and arrested hundreds of protesters in the absence of probable cause."
There's no response from the city of New York.
Continuing the fourth story -- unsurprisingly, one major group that has taken a negative tilt against the protesters on Wall Street -- Fox News, sending correspondents asking leading questions in a vain attempt to paint the protesters as ignorant and naïve children, until the protesters hit back and instead showed the correspondent for the right-wing hack that he happened to be. But if all else fails, cut to the studio, and play the Hitler card.
(Excerpt from video clip) COULTER: All of those quotes could have been said in 1789 France before the French Revolution, or the Russian Revolution. Or -- with only slight modification -- when the Nazis were coming to power. In Cuba under Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. This is always the beginning of totalitarianism.
OLBERMANN: Before you dismiss that, it has spread to CNN -- which last night had its newest anchor dismiss the entire movement because one protestor did not know that the government actually earned interest on the bank bailouts. Then, the woman brought on a right-wing analyst -- who they continued to permit to portray himself as a neutral observer -- who stated that all liberal protests alienate real Americans, and that the Occupy Wall Street crowd would probably get violent at some point in the near future.
Meantime, a CNN business reporter named Alison Kosik has today tweeted, then deleted, as an answer to somebody's question about the purpose of Occupy Wall Street in 140 characters or less -- "Purpose in 140 or less. Bang on the bongos, smoke weed!"
Joining me now, as promised, is none of the above. Actor, activist and "Countdown" contributor Mark Ruffalo -- good to see you again, sir.
MARK RUFFALO: Great to be back, thank you.
OLBERMANN: Back from the New York protests. Any of that represent what you saw?
RUFFALO: I didn't see any of that, I didn't smell any weed and --
OLBERMANN: How about the bongos?
RUFFALO: I did hear some bongos.
OLBERMANN: Okay, so guilty as charged then.
RUFFALO: Yes, yes, terribly so. Those terrible bongos that are making the world a lousy place to live in.
OLBERMANN: All right, so, but -- what are people not seeing that they should know about it?
RUFFALO: You know, this is a -- is a movement that started with the idea that -- what I saw down there is a celebration of democracy. I saw the celebration of justice, freedom, freedom of speech and -- and the rule of law over all men. And -- and I saw -- there's a real sweetness there, a real kindness. And all kinds of different people -- I saw moms, single moms with their kids, I saw single dads with their kids. I saw old grannies, I saw young people, I saw -- I saw -- people out of work, kids out of work. Kids graduated from college with degrees who can't find work, because our work's been taken overseas. And it was a -- to me, a -- just a beautiful celebration of democracy.
OLBERMANN: What do you get out of the idea that they're being portrayed nationally -- in reputable, supposedly neutral news organizations, not what we just saw there -- but as ineffective, meriting the juvenile simplifications on CNN one moment, then portrayed as likely to become violent, and when all else fails -- "That's right, they're Hitler and the French Revolution" --
RUFFALO: They forgot the 1776 -- the American Revolution.
OLBERMANN: Okay, good point.
RUFFALO: And that was a -- that was a turning point, that created this democracy that we live under today. And, it was based on the same principles that are guiding us here. There was -- people were being oppressed by a ruling class. There was no justice. There was no -- there was no sense of law. It was a lawless land. The noblemen had all of the cards, and the common man was just made nothing more than a slave. We came to America for these principles. These principles have been -- over the course of time have not been promised. They've been promised but not delivered upon. And, what we're seeing is -- right now -- is Americans waking up. What I -- what I really love about what I'm seeing is this is -- this is a movement that's transcending political ideologies. It's a movement that's touching people all over the United States. And, you know, like all great democratic movements, it takes time to ferment.
OLBERMANN: Right.
RUFFALO: You come forth with your grievances first. It takes time if it’s a true democracy. You don't hand the democracy over to a leader, okay? We happen to live in a time where we can have a leaderless revolution. We see it happening all over the world, where actually people's voices from disparate parts of the world -- disparate parts of the country are able to speak out.
In a true democracy, those voices are heard. The marginal voices are heard, the center voices are heard, the left, the right, everyone is heard. And so, yes, you might say "Well, why don’t they have their demands?"
OLBERMANN: Exactly.
RUFFALO: "What are these people not doing with demands?" Well, you know what, when you're creating a new world, when you're creating a better place when you're actually honoring the promises of democracy -- it takes time to hear those voices. But we're hearing them. And the things that we're hearing is that they want justice. They want -- the people who are losing their homes to -- you know, robot bank signings, robo-mortgage signings. They want justice. People who are losing their jobs because corporate America is sending them overseas and then making record profits -- they want justice. You know, people are being left out in the streets. They can't pay their health care. This is not the America that we were promised, that certainly my generation and the generation before that was promised. With this great, burgeoning middle class that had a growing income, that had a life that was livable, that was enjoyable, that -- where they could pursue happiness. And this is what -- this is what's striking a tone for people.
OLBERMANN: Has it struck you to the people who want to be involved where they're in no position to come to Zuccotti Park or to even one of the Occupy -- Fill in the Blank -- Your City Here --
RUFFALO: Yes.
OLBERMANN: -- events around the country. What can you do from home?
RUFFALO: People have been going to -- you know, what's wonderful about this is people have a voice now from sitting at home. They can engage in a conversation through their social media, reach out to their family and friends, touch people, create another kind of movement. When you see the twitter feeds on this thing, it's amazing. On my twitter, I was asking people -- the 99 percenters. The -- someone said who -- what's a 99 percenter? And I said the 99 percenters are the people who are doing worse since the economic downturn in America. That's the 99 percent. If you’re doing better since the economic down point in America, then you're one percent.
The rest of us -- our moms, our dads, our grandmothers, out grandfathers -- they are the 99 percenters. I don't care what your political beliefs are. And so, I was asking people for 99ers stories. And I was getting streams of people -- "My mother is living -- buys all of her food at a dollar store." You know, "she can’t live" -- you know, "My parents lost their home." I mean on and on and on. Hundreds of them, hundreds of them. And I think sharing those stories -- seeing that this is -- we're Americans.
OLBERMANN: Right. And this is universal.
RUFFALO: This is universal.
OLBERMANN: This is not 20,000 people somewhere who have a complaint.
RUFFALO: No.
OLBERMANN: This is 200 million people who have complaints.
RUFFALO: No, this is a deep dissatisfaction and a loss. And what I'm saying is -- if you have your dignity intact, if you have your decency, if you are able to still muster that up and remember what it is to be a human being, and know that you have a place in the world, that you have a voice, that you're important in this world -- then stand up and use that voice. Because now is the time. We are the change that we're waiting for. We have put President Obama into the office because we wanted change. That's why he overwhelmingly went into office. That change didn't happen to come about for many, many different reasons.
OLBERMANN: Uh-huh.
RUFFALO: But the spirit of change, the idea of change, the promise of change is more alive in people today than it was four years ago.
OLBERMANN: I think you are right. All right, conveniently there is a second huge story breaking that is in your wheel house, the Keystone XL Pipeline. So let me take a break. Then, there's a huge scandal developing over the buddy-buddy system that could get this thing approved by the State Department, and thus by the White House. And we'll return with that next.
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