i'm erin burnett. outfront tonight, the brooklyn bridge is occupied. occupy wall street's day culminating at one of new york's most iconic locations. you can see it now. people walking across. this is the pedestrian area which is important to emphasize. obviously, doesn't look like there's any disruption of traffic at this time. it all started at 7:00 this morning when protesters descended on the new york stock exchange in an attempt to shut down wall street. in zuccotti park, demonstrators clashed with police. they pulled down barricades that were there to block them from entering the area. hundreds prove testers have been arrested. nypd saying 177 to us just a moment ago. at least seven officers have been injured, according to the police. mayor bloomberg talked about those injuries earlier today at a press conference. >> someone in the crowd through a star-shaped glass object at the officer. another officer -- another protester through a liquid, possibly vinegar in the face of another officer. >> well, the mayor did note that most point -- most demonstrations have been peaceful. let's go to the brooklyn bridge now. mary snow is there. mary, we just showed everyone a live picture of people looking like they are in the pedestrian area and staying there as opposed to disrupting traffic. what can you tell us that you are seeing right now? >> erin, it's been fairly peaceful. we're at the foot of the brooklyn bridge. i apologize for my voice. it's been a long day out here covering the protests. for about the past 45 minutes or so prorks testers have been streaming on to the bridge. police have been telling them to stay on the pedestrian walkway, and as long as they stay on the pedestrian walkway, then they are being told they will not be arrested. now before this march started, it was a symbolic 99 people arrested. this for the 99%. it was a civil disobedience. we saw a number of people arrested. it was very calm. and it's hard to say just how many people have shown out here tonight. but, clearly it appears to be in the thousands. and this is the biggest march of this action all day today. there have been a number of protests throughout the day. >> all right. mary, thank you very much. i tong emphasize to all of you out there with mary losing her voice, it has been a crazy day. it may seem calm from some of the aerial shots. it's been a crazy day. she's had to yell to be heard for much of the day. let's turn to howard safer. good to have you with us. we appreciate you taking the time. what's your sense of how things have gone so far today? it was an important day. the two-month anniversary of the occupy wall street movement. that's why they had planned to do this. what would be your takeaway for how it's been handled? >> i think the nypd handled it as well as could be expected. the fact that seven police officers were injured is regrettable, but you always have some people in these protests who do not obey the law, who want to make trouble. and i think based on the numbers, i say it was a pretty good day for the nypd. >> what do you think will happen tonight? obviously, there's a key thing just to explain to everyone out here. we're going to talk about the legality of it in a moment. as to whether they stay in the pedestrian area versus trying to stop traffic. two very different things when it comes to first amendment rights, mr. safir. what's your sense? if they stay on the pedestrian pathway, i would presume you would think this would remain peaceful? >> i would think so. the first amendment gives you the right to protest and say anything you want to say, but it does not give you the right to impinge on other people's rights. so as long as they stay in the pedestrian walkway and do not block traffic, i think it's going to be fine. >> and what's your sense? the nypd, the biggest police force in the nation, and you have taken a look at how other cities around the country have handled the occupy wall street and compared to the nypd, who has got ten right? who has got ten wrong? >> i think, clearly, i'm not going to criticize other police departments but clearly chicago got it right. gary mccarthy who i know for a long time, made sure that the protesters did not camp in the park. i think the nypd did a good job. i personally would have liked to have seen the tents evicted a little earlier. i think oakland, unfortunately, got it wrong. >> all right. thank you very much, sir. we appreciate your taking the time and joining us tonight. howard safir was the commissioner for the new york police department from 1996 until the year 2000. let's bring in jeffrey toobin and john avalon, cnn contributor. john avalon, let me start with you first. you live near the original encampment. no longer an encampment, but near zuccotti park. what are you seeing? >> the day of the eviction, and they really had hunkered down with an organized tent city and the next day taken out. it's become a park again nepcourt order said they aren't allowed to bring back tents and sleeping bags. and that's really a challenge for the occupy movement in new york to is ask themselves what's next. are they going to evolve and become a constructive political force or a destructive political force which will lead to their declining poll numbers. the fact they are using the brooklyn bridge, that's a positive step as opposed to blocking traffic to get a short-term headline. >> what are their rights? where does it come -- where is there a line if there is legally, where you are allowed to protest and exercise your first amendment rights, and then you aren't allowed to because you are disrupting commerce? earlier today, obviously there was some pride from some protesters about disrupting traffic, disrupting buses and shutting down entrances to businesses. >> right. as so often in the law, it's not a very clear line. but the general outlines of the rules have been established for many, many years. the government is allowed to make what are called time, place and manner restrictions on exercises of first amendment rights. they can say, you know, this has to end at 1:00 in the morning. it says you can't go in the street. you can't go in somebody's lawn. you can't have a bullhorn in a residential neighborhood. those are all well established restrictions. but you can't have so many restrictions that it amounts to preventing people from exercising their first amendment rights. and it sounds like, you know, the bridge protest is an example of one where everybody is on good ground. you have people protesting by the thousands, but they are not disrupting people's train rides home or car rides home. it seems to be a pretty good day in terms of how it unfolded. >> it absolutely does. interesting how -- bullhorns. nobl this case, people talked about the drum circles which you can chuckle at but have been a significant part of this and noise disruption in the neighborhood. john avlon, you've been down there and seen some of their brochures and things. what's the takeaway from this? >> if you read occupy the machine or any of the basic anarchist guides you get a sense of the professional protester element in this. they have an agenda way beyond income inequality. some of the lines talk about 500 years of genocide characterizing all we've done in this country. >> taking land from the american indians. >> that's not a useful argument to make if you want to play a constructive role in our politics. here's where the tea party did take a populist political movement and quickly turned into a political force. that's been one of the interesting challenges going forward for occupy. as they mature, as even liberal allies like portland mayor sam adams say, i sympathize with your goals but you have to evolve to be a constructive force. talk about income equality. great. what they're going to do about it? are you going to talk about crony capital snimp great. what specific plans do you want to put forward? then you can determine the debate going forward. that would be a constructive movement. >> laws you want to change. there are very specific things that you can put on the table. >> exactly. things in the news. take on crony capitalism. lobbyist reform. glass/steagall. there are specific rules that you can say, here some are specific areas. agitate and influence the debate and get those passed into law. >> thanks very much to both of you. >> the numbers coming in, the nypd now saying there have been 276 protesters arrested. earlier we told you 177. so takes them awhile to get those numbers and aggregate them. we'll continue to keep you updated on that and exactly how this protest goes on. "outfront" next. a lot of people have picked mitt romney as the inevitable front-runner. but the latest poll out in iowa has four candidates in a dead heat. the man who allegedly shot at the white house. he's charged today with trying to assassinate the president and those bullets, why did hit the white house. then san diego, california. investigators seizing $30 million in pot. after discovering a smuggling tunnel between mexico and the united states. we've got the story. we're america's natural gas and here's what we did today: supported nearly 3 million steady jobs across our country... ... scientists, technicians, engineers, machinists... ... adding nearly 400 billion dollars to our economy... we're at work providing power to almost a quarter of our homes and businesses... ... and giving us cleaner rides to work and school... and tomorrow, we could do even more. cleaner, domestic, abundant and creating jobs now. we're america's natural gas. the smarter power, today. learn more at anga.us. ♪ my hair is gone ♪ cheap cologne ♪ motor home ♪ i'm the rocket man! 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okay. in politics, speaking of nasty things, let's talk about politics. we're going to focus in on iowa. with seven weeks to go, the gop field is in chaos. take a look at the latest state poll. four candidates in a statistical dead heat. the man almost everyone thinks is the inevitable nominee, mitt romney, hasn't even decided if he should seriously contest the state. iowa's influential governor, terry branstat, is criticizing romney for slighting his state saying, quote, i think he's making a big mistake. quote, iowans don't like being ignored. so why isn't mitt romney fighting for iowa? doug is a former rnc spokesman. maria cardona is a cnn contributor and democratic strategist. doug, mitt romney's strategy has been to play down iowa, win big in new hampshire. he's in a four-way dead heat. and iowa's upset at him. if he went in and gave a little bit of love, couldn't he lock it up if he just decided to go and spend the time now? >> i think he'll do really well. he has a lot of finance, obviously and also key supporters and real organization where other campaigns don't. in iowa, obviously, it's a caucus state and in primaries people vote to make their voices heard. in caucuses, people show up to make their presence felt. that's where organization can come in play. mitt romney doesn't have to necessarily decide to do all or nothing at all, but even if he plays just a little bit, he can possibly win but certainly come in second place. >> doesn't he need to come in at least in second place to really solidify his role as the nominee, if that's what he's going to be? >> yeah, i absolutely think that's the case. i think that terry branstad is absolutely right if he comes in fourth. even if he comes in third, it's going to be detrimental to his campaign and the momentum he wants to build at the very beginning. i think the problem with romney in iowa is the problem that has dogged romney from the very beginning with conservative voters because everybody knows that in iowa, it's conservative, mostly evangelical voters who have a real say in who the nominee is. clearly, no love lost between romney and evangelical conservative voters. they are looking for the anti-romney, and i think that is something that romney has to come to terms with, and it's why he's not going to put all of his eggs in the iowa basket right now. >> you know what would be neat is if we changed it up so every year, every election year a different state got to go first. so iowa didn't always get to be -- that would be really neat. that's for another day. >> erin. >> yeah. >> with iowa, if we're having this conversation four years ago today, we're talking about hillary clinton is the inevitable nominee and whether or not john edwards or barack obama can do anything. it's always up in the air in politics. that's why we don't count votes before they're made. >> fair point. want to turn to the president. he's in asia now. a hot topic for republican candidates this week has been the president's remarks in hawaii during a business summit. here's what he said. >> we've been a little bit lazy i think over the last couple of decades. >> okay. so now some republicans wasted no time pouncing on that. they put some ads together calling the president's words an insult. take a look at perry. we'll show you the perry ad. >> that's what our president thinks wrong with america, that americans are lazy? that's pathetic. >> okay, now let me just -- let's get some facts in here. the president wasn't really talking about american workers. he was talking about, well, that we haven't worked hard enough to sell america as a great place to invest. here's the full sound bite of what the president said. >> a lot of things that make foreign investors see the u.s. as a great opportunity are stability, our openness, our innovative free market culture. but, you know, we've been a little bit lazy i think over the last couple of decades. we've kind of taken for granted, well, people will want to come here. and we aren't out there hungry, selling america. >> it's a little bit different, isn't it, maria? >> it's very different. i think what you're seeing is that these are two candidates who are being very disingenuous on a comment clearly taken out of context. many news organizations have already said this is not -- this is not fair what they're doing, but then again, you know, what can you expect from two candidates. one who can't even remember the three cabinet departments that he was going to eliminate, and another one who's done a 180 flip-flop on every major issue facing american politics today. and if you look at the truth of it, the president is the one who says, time and again, over and over, that in america, we have the most productive and hard-working workforce in the world. >> okay. doug, he has said before, though, that -- this summer at one point i recall him saying america can be number one again. even though we already are. >> which presupposes that we're not number one anymore. that's really the problem with the president is we've heard this kind of rhetoric before. in politics what matters most isn't what you say, it's what people hear. we know obama is obviously such a skilled person at rhetoric, but he often thinks out loud. republicans should stop making fun of him for staying on the teleprompter and hope he stays on the telefrompter. when he thinks out loud, he gets in trouble. obviously, the bitter clinging gods and guns comments. we've seen all this before. >> all right. well, thanks very much to both of you. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> thanks, erin. >> we know the barbs will continue on both sides. that's an election for you. an idaho man accused of shooting at the white house was charged today with trying to assassinate the president. they say ortega fired shots from an assault rifle at the white house. one bullet hit bulletproof glass near the first family's residence. it's a shocking story. athena jones has been following it for us and described what allegedly the assassinator said about the president. >> reporter: the suspect had quite a bit to say about president obama according to three witnesses that investigators spoke with. those witnesses say over the past year, ortega-hernandez has become increasingly agitated about the federal government. believing the government was conspiring against him and that president obama himself was part of the problem. they say he, quote, wanted to hurt obama, that he called him the anti-christ, called him the devil, said he needed to be taken care of and, quote, that he needed to kill him. so those are some of the details coming out of the criminal complaint today. >> all right, ortega-hernandez faces up to life in prison if convicted. there are new developments in the penn state rape scandal. more victims coming forward. and andrew weil comes out front to tell us how we can all be happier. he's got a prescription for you. speaking of doctors, president obama might have come down with bieber fever, seriously. nalyst ratings and 24/7 help from award-winning customer support to take control of my finances and my life. i tap into the power of revolutionary mobile apps. to trade wherever. whenever. life isn't fully experienced sitting idly by. neither is investing. 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