""We were smoking some kind of medicinal herb. I'm not sure exactly what it was."

You want the story? Okay, here's what happened. We were on a BMX road trip and we happened to be staying in Manhattan. I live in Queens, everybody else lives all over. And, we were staying in this girl's apartment...it's just a road trip where we bring a photographer and a video camera guy, and we all ride our bikes and do tricks in skate parks and on street spots and then we eventually make a video out of it and sell the DVD, you know? And basically we were at a party at this girl's house and we're all just hanging out, drinking and smoking and everything...we were smoking some kind of medicinal herb. I'm not sure exactly what it was. Purchased it from an African-American. And so then one of the girls is wasted and starts throwing beer bottles out the window, and all of a sudden we see flashlights flashing up into the window, and we're on the 15th floor, and the cops run up in there, and they search the place and they find marijuana and they ended up...they arrested all of us, we all went to jail, and this is our little thing. Basically, nothing's gonna happen 'cause none of us did anything. Is what it is. She's in there, looking like shit, so, it is what it is.

(L to R: Jeff, Keith [front center], Adam [rear center], Jake, Rory)

"Keep our public parks public. Amen."

I was accused of a violation, disorderly conduct. We were trying to interrupt rich people from having a dinner in Union Square. Yes the same rich people that are trying to turn Union Square into their own restaurant. Amen. The local business improvement district. They're called the Union Square Partnership, they're dominated by Mike Bloomberg appointees and buddies. Much as Bloomberg now is trying to steal his third term with his money. He's shopping for his third term as we say in the Church Of Stop Shopping. These wealthy folks Danny Meyer, the celebrity chef and others are trying to purchase, a great old park where the eight hour work day came from. Much of our progressive, our progressive history, labor history, peace history, civil liberties history comes from rallies and marches that took place on the north side of Union Square at the pavilion. The pavilion that old building on the north side of Union Square. Can you picture that, up near seventeenth street. The pavilion that they want to change into an upscale restaurant with fifteen dollar chardonnays, in a place that has the highest concentration of restaurants in New York City. But the pavilion was the reviewing stand for the first labor day parade in 1882 and it's a national historic landmark, because of its protest and so we protest and when we protest sometimes we are accused of disorderly conduct. Amen. You know I didn't get into the tent. It was this ritzy tent and you had to pay a couple of hundred bucks to get in. Right now they should be eating crow. They should back off from a public space that needs to remain public, keep the public parks public children. Keep our public parks public. Amen. Praise be. Save Union Square.

Reverend Billy

"They do bend the laws for certain people. And sometime a person like me get a little bent."

Hold it, let me stop smoking. You got a match? All right. You want me to hold your coffee, and drink it for you, too?

Due to the judicious system, I believe that...you gotta forgive my speech, my vocabulary. As I was saying, my vocabulary is very limited. And, I'm somewhat illiterate. But, I'm a very intelligent illiterate young man. Older man, I should say. Anyway, I do believe the judicial system abuse a lot of they privilege, what they issue out the people, and I'm one of them. They wanted to offer me 30 days for hopping a subway, which I didn't have a fare, and the location I hopped it at, I do live there on the sidewalk. It's a very unfortunate situation for me.

For the petit larceny crimes and whatnot I do commit, just to survive, and I choose them very well where I won't get much time, and it's like a choice. You need this, and this the only way you can get it at the time, and it really don't hurts nobody. But it's laws that need to be enforced, but sometime you can bend the laws, which they do in certain occasions, on high levels, they do bend the laws for certain people. And sometime a person like me get a little bent.

1500...maybe over a period of 30 years, yes. Maybe. I'm not positive. It could be a little less. That's more like summonses, not arrests. How many arrests? Numerous. Maybe a hundred times in 30 years. This is my third home. What's it like? Well, sometime...they beat me up last night. Some of the officers, the officers are very...it's a lot of...how should I say? A lot of...what's the word I'm searching for? Like I said earlier in the interview, my vocabulary is very limited due to my education. Lacking of education. Fifth grade. I didn't graduate, I dropped out in the fifth. I should say...I didn't get beat up, I say they were trying to. The Correction Officers.

My finger? This happened in prison, on Clinton Farm. See? This one. It still go to good use at certain times. I'm not gonna tell you what the uses are. Hello, lady.

Terry

"I'm too fabulous to go to jail."

I work as a stylist, and I got arrested, like, maybe a month or two ago...because I went out to eat at a very expensive restaurant in the Village, and I didn't pay, and so my friends ran away, and basically the Chinese people, like, grabbed me and, like, they tackled me down and they called the police, and the police came in and arrested me. Then they took my Louis Vuitton bag, and I was so upset. And, basically I am at court today, and I hope that I don't go to jail, because I'm too fabulous to go to jail.

I bought a brand new one, actually. I bought it just to come to court. Louis Vuitton bag, just in case anything happens. I can go down fabulously. The moral of this story is always bring cash when you're going out to eat, no matter who you're going out with. It was delicious, I just wish I had enough money to pay so I wouldn't have been here. Oh, we don't talk anymore. Friends don't do that to each other, they pay for you, and they pay for a new Louis Vuitton bag, too.

Devohn

"Because he was drunk he went through a big plate glass window..."

Well it's a criminal mischief charge. Well this drunk alcoholic bum attacked me while I was begging and in the process of defending myself because he was drunk he went through a big plate glass window and even though I was defending myself and I was in the right, the police even told me they didn't want to arrest me but because something was damaged that I had to go to jail. So I actually did go to court and then when I went to court they hand me a paper saying that the prosecutor hadn't investigated it or something and I don't know exactly what happened but then I talked to the owner and made a private deal to pay for half the window out of my begging proceeds. So I figured that was the end of it because he said he wasn't going to press charges, so I went up to Canada and then when I came across the border I was arrested and they told me I had a warrant out for me. But then New York said they weren't going to how do they say extradite so they let me go. But then the next day I got arrested by the state police and the same thing happened. So they suggested to me I take a Greyhound bus instead of hitching the rest of the way. So now I'm here and I have to go up to room five forty six and take care of this warrant.

Well I'm hoping that like, they'll see that I'm trying to take care of it and nothing will happen. What am I going to do tomorrow? Go back and try to make money... by begging yes. God lately I've been making about maybe fourteen or fifteen dollars a day. As opposed to what maybe twenty, twenty five last year and even during the economic like you know when everything was like really great and fantastic I was never making more than thirty dollars a day.

You know what people were never really that generous in this city to begin with. I'm not making much less. That's the reason why you know I've been like you can ask some of the people I've been predicting this economic meltdown for the last three to four years. I've been saying because of the greed or selfishness it's going to cause everything to collapse. I don't know if they were blind or had their head in the sand but it should have been obvious that it was coming anyway. Basically stop being so dam greedy. What's the purpose of having like twenty, thirty, forty, fifty million dollar a year salaries and like hundred million dollars a year bonuses. You know you don't need that much money to survive while you got people out there struggling to make it and they've got two minimum wage jobs you know they're living pretty much almost in the ghetto and they can still almost barely make it. I don't see how I can do much worse considering the situation.

Like you know like you know I remember like um when I met the one that I showed you the picture of she came up to me when I was sitting on the street one day and she uh, she goes are you hungry and she gave me half of her oatmeal. I was just so stunned by how beautiful she was I was like thinking, I was thinking what could I say to her. I was like you know, I did like the same stupid thing that all the college boys do, "like what are you majoring in?" and when she told me she was majoring in experimental psychology I said, "ok now you gotta sit and we gotta talk". So she sat and we talk for about three hours and I said, "hey would you like to go on a date and go dancing or something?" You know she said yes and we went out dancing and from that time on whenever she had time we hung out and spent so time together. We talked about like psychology and stuff like that and then I have other friends you know they're majoring in other things like you know like astronomy or physics. So I just sit around with them and read their books and we discuss things. Probably the brain. Yep. Though I did have that one girl the other night say that she thought I was cute. Oh yeah they're definitely beautiful and attractive. It's pretty much all platonic. Well the one's here at NYU are all platonic. Not really. I mean if the opportunity arises and I'm for it then we'll see what happens. But for the most part like I don't really care, I'm pretty much like more into the books. The books are fun. Right now I'm reading a book on physics astronomy. This one's about astronomy about how like galaxy formation, uh it evens goes in talks about dark matter and things like that, dark energy and the fact that actual matter only makes up four percent of the observable universe. Well I find it interesting. Yeah if it wasn't for matter you wouldn't be filming me right now. Matter matters.

Merritt

"Because I'm crazy! Because I have a compulsion."

I don't know, it's a confusing matter 'cause I got arrested like six or seven times for, basically I was running around the streets of New York writing "You=Love" on everything, and putting "You=Love" stickers everywhere, and harassing people and I was...went crazy and got caught a bunch of times and I kept having to go to court for, like, two years I went to court, like, every month, and finally it's over. Because I'm crazy! Because I have a compulsion. The compulsion is to...I like to write on things, and I like to write...I like to say...I like to remind people that they equal love. Every human equals love equally. Yeah. That's my point. Equal love, equal love. Equality. Yeah. Equal, it means that...that any...the sum total, if you add all the actions and generations of humans together, that the total equals love. I'll call you "equal love!" All humans are equal, and equal love equally. And the proof of that is in the fact that there is a growing population of humans. So, obviously, love works because that's how come there's so many of us.

When the towers went down, I was working on a project called "Boiled Down Sentences to Say More," I was trying to think of a way to communicate to a large group of people, like the human race, in the smallest amount of spaces. And in my quest to say the least amount of things, to say the most important message with the least amount words, I came up with the equation "You=Love." And ever since I came up with that, I've been transmitting it and propagating it and carrying it and writing it and spreading it around everywhere I possibly could. Whether...if someone's nice to me or mean to me, I still give them "You=Love" t-shirts, or stickers, or, it doesn't...like...'cause it's equal.

Mostly in the East Village. I was really...I did, one time, I spray painted "You=Love" with a stencil on hundreds of blocks of sidewalk corners. In the year 2003. In 2003 and 2004 and 2005, the East Village was covered in "You=Love." I mean, you might be slow...I'm slow, too. I'm slow, obviously. I don't even know what happened in there, I'm just so happy to be free. I'm free.

Tricia

"I'm tired of the general apathy of this country and the lack of voter turnout."

My name is Clark Clark. I go by Clark Clark. Sometimes I go by Clark Clarken but that's just because my girlfriends last name is Larken. You can call me Clark Clark or Clark Clarken or just Clark for short. Clark Clark is fine. I was trying to pick up some stuff that was confiscated by the police as evidence. Fourteen t-shirts that said vote and a backpack. They said they had to use it for an investigation. I was arrested for criminal vandalism. They said that I was spray painting the word vote on a trash can. That was on the lower eastside, 9th. precinct. I have no idea why they would think that. Well I have some suspicions. Probably because I had some spray paint and stencils. I was carrying some spray paint and stencils. Well I make signs with them. Signs that say "Vote". Well because I would like to see people vote. I'm tired of the general apathy of this country and the lack of voter turnout. Not just in presidential elections but in all elections.

Clark

"It didn't kinda register until he pulled out the BlackBerry that he was not a bum."

So, me and my friends, B and J—he's a Marine, so we call him by his last name—yeah, he's a Marine with 20 counts of, like, assaulting a police officer. Every time they put cuffs on him, he has to hit them. Anyway, we're sitting around, we're smoking pot, it was a bowl. Nice big glass bowl, and six undercovers come up and they slap the cuffs on B. But they know B personally by face because they've seen him so many damn times. So, they get a girl to come and handcuff him because by the time he turns around, he had his fist already cocked. He was about to punch the cop out. And, like, he realized it was a girl and he's like, he just drew back. Like, and, they come up to us, and they were like, they're searching me, they're telling me, like, "where is it? Where is it? Where is it?" And J is sitting with the pipe, right next to him and smoking, like, big thick cloud of smoke just came out of this pipe, and they can't find...six cops on three people can't find one bowl. So, we got arrested for less than a gram when they actually finally did. The way that we got busted, though, was there was this other black gentleman sitting on the bench over there, and we just thought he was a normal citizen, and everything, 'cause he didn't have his shield showing. And, so, he's over there on his BlackBerry just...you know, like, here's B, and here's the other two guys with him, and that's basically how we got arrested right there, the guy's sitting there reporting everything that we're doing on his BlackBerry. Yeah, and he's a cop, and we didn't know it. He didn't look anything like a cop, he looked just like a, he just basically looked like a bum, honestly. Yeah, it didn't kinda register until he pulled out the BlackBerry that he was not a bum. Like, 'cause he sat there for, like, 20 or 30 minutes and, like, just sat there and watched us smoke and drink and have fun. By that time, we'd already threw away all the cans, so he couldn't get us for open containers, or anything, so, that's pretty much my lovely story. I spent 22 hours in this jail right above you.

I travel everywhere. I went to Amsterdam last year. I'm always on the road, I hitchhike most of the time. I'm probably going to end up going back to L.A., right after this, to go and see my mother for a little while, probably stay with her for a couple months, and then start back out. Possibly go to, I was planning on going to Oregon very soon, because I like to sit out in the country in the fields, and everything, it's nice...and smoke.

Anthony