Wall Street Protests Spread; Will Wall Street Protestors Be New Political Party
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Live from Studio 7, I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Want to get you up to speed for Wednesday, October 5th. Protesters in lower Manhattan will get reinforcements this afternoon. Three labor unions are calling on members to skip work and join demonstrators in New York's financial district. Occupy Wall Street is an organization made up of mostly 20-somethings. They're angry about fat Wall Street paychecks, Washington's political bottleneck, war, the environment, you name it. The protests have been going on for three weeks now and have now have spread to other cities. Well, Americans absolutely fed up with Congress. New numbers leave no doubt. A "Washington Post"/ABC News poll found that just 14 percent of the public approves of the job that Congress is doing. That's Congress's lowest rating ever in any "Washington Post"/ABC News poll. Amanda Knox says right now, she just wants time with her family. Knox is home in Seattle today for the first time in four years. She went to Italy for college studies but ended up in prison for murder.</s>AMANDA KNOX, MURDER CONVICTION OVERTURNED: They're reminding me to speak in English because I'm having problems with that. I'm really overwhelmed right now. I was looking down from the airplane, and it seemed like everything wasn't real.</s>MALVEAUX: Knox was serving a 26-year sentence for killing her roommate. An appeals court overturned that murder conviction on Monday. Well, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice is calling it an outrage. She walked out of the U.N. after China and Russia blocked a measure targeting Syria. Rice says that China and Russia would rather sell weapons to the Syrian regime than stand with the people who want freedom. You're seeing pictures there of a brutal crackdown on the protesters. The U.N. resolution condemned Syria's crackdown on those protesters and opened the door to sanctions. Well, the U.N. said that 2,600 Syrians have been killed since March in those protests. Well, as unreal as this sounds, a wildfire once again threatening people and property in Bastrop County, Texas. About 1,000 acres are burning today. Fires forced 30 families to leave their homes. It was just last month when a huge firestorm destroyed 1,500 homes in that county. A New York congresswoman says it's time to look at limits on helicopter traffic over Manhattan. Now, you're looking at this scene here. A crash on Tuesday killed an Australian tourist who was celebrating her 40th birthday. Three other passengers and the pilot survived, and witnesses say the helicopter belly-flopped right into the East River right after takeoff.</s>ROBERT DRESS, WITNESS: This thing just went up and it went down. I thought I was going to see people bobbing up and down in the water. There was no one. It was just those two struts pointing towards Queens, and then they popped up. And I honestly think they went down to try to, like, rescues the others and came back up, and they were like, look, they're dead (ph).</s>MALVEAUX: Since 2005, five helicopters have crashed into the Hudson or East River surrounding Manhattan, killing 10 people. Unbelievable. Would you believe that explosion did not hurt the firefighters? They were going inside a burning restaurant -- that's in Franklin, Ohio -- and then, boom. A backdraft ripped out the windows and the doors. You can see it there. That is when fire suddenly got a burst of oxygen, typically when someone opens a door or a window. So here's your chance to "Talk Back" on one of the big stories of the day. The question today: Could Occupy Wall Street become a new political party? Carol Costello, she has got more from New York. And Carol, I guess what we heard about the Tea Party at first is that they didn't have an organized leadership, they weren't really sure who was speaking for their organization. And people are talking about this protest movement becoming somewhat in the model of the Tea Party. Yes?</s>CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. I mean, the Tea Party was a grassroots movement. Some say that the Wall Street protesters, grassroots movement. And Suzanne, ever since the dawn of the Tea Party, liberal activists have yearned for a revolution of their own. Example, Michael Moore, who's hungry for a mass movement. How better to get than railing against Wall Street.</s>MICHAEL MOORE, FILMMAKER: This is the end result of these bankers overplaying their hand. They were already filthy rich, but filthy rich wasn't enough.</s>COSTELLO: Moore is lending his celebrity to the movement and paying to help protesters expand the use of social media. With the help of Twitter and Facebook, the movement has spread to other cities. Hundreds of people have been arrested. Though we see some protesters dressed like zombies, and with often confusing messages, those protesters are also attracting some powerful allies, including a half-dozen unions who will march on New York's City Hall today. So, when you combine clout, money, and anger at the powers that be, it kind of sort of sounds like the start of something. Although protesters don't consider themselves political animals.</s>TYLER COMBELIC, OCCUPY WALL STREET: We don't want to be, you know, a left political group. We don't want to be a political group at all. We want to be a group that calls for activism. Ideally, you know, if this continues to grow, if more people get involved, suddenly, people will have the same power that lobbyists have.</s>COSTELLO: Heads up, Wall Street. Even FoxNews.com says this could be more than just another loony protest movement from the left. So, the "Talk Back" question today: Could Occupy Wall Street become a new political party? Facebook.com/CarolCNN. I'll read your responses later this hour.</s>MALVEAUX: Yes, Carol, you do it all. You start really early in the morning, and you go through the rest of the day. That's OK. That's all right.</s>COSTELLO: Thank you. I appreciate it.</s>MALVEAUX: We know you're on all the time. Thanks, Carol.</s>COSTELLO: Sure.