RNC Protest arrests top 1,700 and counting..

NEW YORK (CNN) -- More than 1,100 people were arrested Tuesday in protests across New York, including about 200 demonstrators near Ground Zero, police officials said.

Police said that 1,187 people were arrested Tuesday in protests surrounding the Republican National Convention. Many were part of a demonstration by the War Resisters League near Ground Zero, where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood.

There was a melee outside the New York Public Library when cops stopped two women from unfurling a banner over one of the lions. Scores of protesters were netted near Ground Zero and more were bottled up in Union Square.

But cops' biggest confrontation came when dozens opposed to President Bush and the Iraq war defiantly stepped off the curb in Herald Square around dusk and staged a "die-in," blocks from the GOP fest at Madison Square Garden.

Cops on mountain bikes swooped down on the demonstrators there and farther south, at Broadway and 28th St., where more protesters staged yet a second die-in.

Some of the rebels chained themselves together in Herald Square and chanted, "Whose streets? Our streets!"

Cops ordered the surging crowd back while thugs set garbage fires. "The NYPD needs to learn the First Amendment," Mike Johns, 26, of Brooklyn, yelled when a cop shoved him.

"Shut up!" the cop barked.

A Republican delegate wearing a Stars-and-Stripes top hat emerged from Macy's with horror etched on her face. "Omigod, how do I get to the Garden?" she asked an officer.

"Good luck, lady," he replied.

The hapless woman fled as demonstrators jeered, "Go back to Kansas!"

Nearby, a hooded protester tried to rush onto the outdoor stage used by MSNBC while Chris Matthews hosted "Hardball." But cops tackled him and the show went on.

Meanwhile, cops chased the fleeing hooligans and herded them into side streets along Fifth and Sixth Aves., where they were captured by other officers.

Police also liberated a busload of Louisiana delegates, whose path to the Garden was blocked by demonstrators.

"You break the law, you're going to find yourself arrested," warned Mayor Bloomberg, who closely monitored the mayhem.

For much of yesterday, a coalition of groups called A31 - for Aug. 31 - played cat and mouse with cops, using text messages to plot their next move.

They weren't aiming for a massive show of protest, like Sunday's peaceful march. They were aiming to cause havoc.

Downtown, 500 protesters set off from north of Ground Zero to stage a die-in by the Garden. But cops stopped them just as they got started.

"You're all under arrest!" a lieutenant yelled as cops used plastic orange netting to snare confused protesters.

"Let us disperse!" the protesters cried. When that didn't work, two women took off their tops and began chanting, "Cops deserve a raise!"

That did not sway police.

At the Fox News Channel studios in midtown, police penned 1,000 demonstrators staging a "shut-up-athon" against the network. "Fox lies, people die," they chanted.

It was all a little too much for Wisconsin delegate Karen Church, who was confronted by demonstrators demanding, "Who would Jesus bomb?"

Outside the Sotheby's auction house, 100 black-clad demonstrators picketed the Tennessee delegation, members of which were bidding on the Johnny Cash estate.

"It's totally wrong for the Republicans to use Johnny Cash for their little party," said Brandon Jourdan, 25, of Manhattan. "I grew up in North Carolina and listened to his songs for the poor and beaten-down. The Republicans are the ones doing the beating down."

The demonstrations grew demonic at the Republican National Convention yesterday as protesters set fire to a traffic light, tipped over a fruit cart, tossed around garbage cans, attacked a journalist and spit on Republican conventioneers in a wave of mayhem across Manhattan.

Police said more 1000 people had been arrested by 11 p.m., but that number continued growing as the NYPD rounded up activists gathering at the New York Public Library, Herald Square, Union Square, Madison Avenue and elsewhere.

At least 16 arrests involved assaults on cops, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

The huge number of arrests did not humble those behind the anti-Bush outbursts.

Nearly 1,000 people were arrested in New York City on Tuesday for taking part in protests against President Bush, the Republican National Convention and even FOX News.

Police said more than 970 people were arrested on the convention's second day, triple the amount of people busted on Sunday when more than 120,000 people staged a march through midtown Manhattan. Since the weekend, about 1,300 people have been taken into custody in convention-related protest activity.

One of those arrested late Tuesday at a demonstration was a 19-year-old man who was seen on a videotape assaulting a detective a day earlier, police said.

On Tuesday, protests took part throughout the day and into the evening around the city and at Madison Square Garden

While protesters at the Democratic National Convention (search) in Boston were largely complimentary of the police, the story was much more mixed in New York. Both sides were wary of one another, and police and protesters videotaped the rallies, capturing protesters' faces and cops' faces and badge numbers.

Spark was very critical of the police, saying that they had been extremely aggressive at other demonstrations, riding motorcycles through the crowd, being unnecessarily physical and even assaulting the protesters. He displayed a bruise on his arm that he said was a wound from an earlier protest. On his arm was scrawled the number of a legal aid group in case of arrest.

NEW YORK — After the oppressive humidity and snail-paced crowds of Sunday's massive anti-Bush demonstrations, hundreds of protesters bounced back on Tuesday for a "side project" — a Midtown protest outside the offices of FOX News Channel.

Cops clad in riot gear worked to keep the demonstrators from blocking traffic or entering FNC's headquarters near Rockefeller Center, but navigating the crowd that filled the sidewalk and a barricaded strip of street was tricky.

Among those present were members of United for Peace and Justice (search), an umbrella organization for hundreds of anti-Iraq war groups that also helmed Sunday's march in New York City. Code Pink (search), a group comprised mostly of women, also sponsored the rally.

The animal-rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (search) even sent as its representative a walking root vegetable named Chris P. Carrot. Mr. Carrot's campaign manager assured FOXNews.com that he was there only to encourage the protesters to stop eating meat.

Other humorous costumes were on hand, but the event was no candlelight vigil. Demonstrators displayed a fondness for graphic wordplay on the company's name and for shooting their middle fingers in the air.

The protesters screamed in unison "FOX News lies" and held up signs that read "The more you watch the less you know." A FOX News spokeswoman responded: "This country is built on free speech — they're entitled to protest."

Dubbed the "Shut-Up-A-Thon," the protest was an homage of sorts to FOX News host Bill O'Reilly, who has been accused of being quick to tell guests to "shut up."

Jeremy Glick (search), the son of Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack victim Barry Glick, a Port Authority Treasury risk manager, is probably the most famous recipient of O'Reilly's request. But Glick, a member of United for Peace and Justice, was one of the least belligerent protesters to speak to FOXNews.com.

Glick said he considers FOX News "an annex of the Republican Party," but he conceded that the disrespect he perceived as a guest on "The O'Reilly Factor" was far from widespread on the network.

He also said that his complaints about FOX News applied to other TV news networks.

"Corporate media has to be overhauled and decentralized and made accountable to local communities," Glick said, before calling FOX News "particularly reprehensible."

Asked why he and his fellow protesters didn't take the party up the street to other nearby networks' headquarters, he laughed, "Sure! I'm all about spreading the love."

The anti-FOX News protest lasted for about 90 minutes before most of the participants headed downtown toward Madison Square Garden, site of the Republican National Convention.

Post-action Check-in: Sept 1 @ 12am St. Mark's Church in the Bowery (NW corner of 2nd Ave & 10th St)

Next Steps for anti-RNC activity: Sept 1 @ 12pm Spoke House (directions)

Post-convention Debrief & Next Steps: Sept 3 @ 12pm--St. Mark's Church in the Bowery (NW corner of 2nd Ave & 10th St)

Total number of protest-related arrests so far this week: One.

A federal judge yesterday refused to order the city to tear down a caged zone for anti-DNC protesters, citing radicals known to attack using urine-filled squirt guns and slingshots.
U.S. District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock called the barbed-wire pen ``an affront to free expression'' and ``irrefutably sad'' but necessary because of protesters' antics in New York and Los Angeles.
The judge met behind closed doors yesterday with Secret Service agents about threats to DNC delegates at the FleetCenter.
``The federal government does have some specific information about incidents that may occur,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney George Henderson told the court.
The government refused to describe the threats publicly.
Members of an umbrella protester group called the Black Tea Society, who sued the city over the ``Free Speech Zone,'' vowed to boycott the space and protest in small groups around the FleetCenter.
``You walk into the zone, you might as well be going into a jail,'' said organizer Tonya Vamont of Boston.
``I'm a Democrat, not a terrorist,'' said one woman who plans to protest her party's policies.

The unemployment rate for the New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island
Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area1 dropped to 5.5 percent in June,
down 0.7 percentage point from a year ago, and not much different from the
5.8 percent rate for the nation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S.
Department of Labor reported today. (See table 1.)

Originally posted by jrsdls
p1, Thanks for the info. What a difference. I know that Republicans are just as adament in thier dis-like of Kerry, but yet only 194 arrests. I guess this just illustrated my point.

I'd like to be on a nice mardi gras float when they arrest me. Wearing a Dick Cheney mask and Santa Claus suit, riding a giant pink pig named Halliburton tossing pennies ot the crowd yelling here's your tax breaks idiots and flipping off the protesters in true Cheney FU compassion.

Originally posted by RANT
Yes, a statement by the LAPD YESTERDAY definitely illustrates your point, but not reality about the NYC arrests.

If you turn on C-SPAN you can watch 194 or more being arrested at once.

Originally posted by RANT
Re-reading it. I think you posted the LAPD link thinking it was about Boston, I read it as something yesterday about NY, but in reality it was about LA in 2000.

Man.

I'm way off my game.