Demonstrations Continue, but With Fewer Arrests So Far

emonstrations against the Bush administration and its policies continued into the third day of the Republican National Convention, with thousands of demonstrators forming a symbolic unemployment line in Manhattan and a small group of protesters infiltrating the convention floor despite heavy security at the Midtown venue.

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In contrast to Tuesday, when more than 1,000 protesters were arrested during a day of planned civil disobedience, today's demonstrations resulted in far fewer arrests and less violence by early evening, the police said.

Since last Thursday, more than 1,600 people have been taken into custody in convention-related arrests, mostly on misdemeanor charges, the authorities said. The police announced this afternoon that only six people had been arrested in street protests thus far today, on charges of trespassing, unlawfully hanging a banner and disorderly conduct.

Inside Madison Square Garden, on the convention floor, a dozen AIDS activists rose from amid the ranks of Republican youths this morning and blew whistles and chanted "Bush kills!" during remarks by the White House chief of staff, Andrew Card. A scuffle then broke out between the protesters and participants, and security officials removed the demonstrators, arresting 10 on charges that included assault and disorderly conduct, the police said. Officials said a camerman was injured, without offering further detail.

Away from the convention hall, thousands of demonstrators stood silently along the sidewalk in a column that stretched for miles to protest what they called the high rate of joblessness during the term of President Bush.

Holding up pink slips of paper symbolizing job terminations, the line of demonstrators went from Wall Street, in downtown Manhattan, north about three miles to the Midtown area where the Republican National Convention is being held in Madison Square Garden.

"The Next Pink Slip Might Be Yours!" the fliers read.

"I've been unemployed before," Gary Goff, 57, a data processor, told an Associated Press reporter. "I'm concerned that unemployment is going up so drastically under the Bush administration. I think Bush is a disaster for working people."

The demonstration was organized by People for the American Way, a liberal advocacy group based in Washington; the Imagine Festival of Arts, Issues & Ideas and the New York State AFL-CIO, a press statement said.

People for the American Way said in a statement today that 5,000 people had participated in what it called "The World's Longest Unemployment Line" representing "the 1.2 million jobs lost over all since March 2001 and the more than 8 million Americans who are currently unemployed."

The New York City Central Labor Council held a rally to protest Mr. Bush's "antiworker policies," and about 30 students from Stuyvesant High School held a march against what they called the convention's exploitation of the 9/11 attacks for political gain, according to a Web site that tracks convention-related protests, www.indymedia.org.

The students participating in the march, called We Were There, had to flee from the terror attacks on that day.

On Tuesday, a wave of confrontations — which included a brawl with the police at the New York Public Library, marauding crowds cursing at delegates in Midtown and the detention of hundreds of protesters near ground zero — sowed disorder in a convention week that included sustained protests against the Bush administration and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters and groups have converged on and organized themselves in New York City to bring their agendas to the doorstep of the Republican convention, which continues tonight with a speech by Vice President Dick Cheney and ends tomorrow with President Bush's appearance to accept nomination for a second term.

With most demonstrators unable to fulfill their goal of reaching the heavily patrolled Garden, the disturbances have seeped into other Manhattan neighborhoods used as staging grounds, like Lower Manhattan and Union Square.

Once arrested, the protesters are taken to a pier on the Hudson River on Manhattan's West Side that has been outfitted as a temporary detention center.

Today, demonstrators at the pier protested the conditions under which the detainees are held there, said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. "Unfortunately, we still have no satisfactory response from the city about the conditions at Pier 57," she said.

Protesters have complained about being held for as long as 30 hours in miserable conditions before being arraigned or receiving a desk appearance ticket. Several said they had contracted rashes from sleeping on the pier's floor, had gone hours without food and were given a Dixie cup to use to drink water. Some complain they have no access to their lawyers.

Det. Eric Crisafi said today that the police had no estimates for the number of people in the holding center at any one time. "We process everyone in a timely manner," he said. "Obviously, the system is overloaded."

Many fear that the intensity and frequency of the clashes may escalate, and have questioned police tactics.

"We have made oral complaints to the Police Department at the highest levels about indiscriminate arrests," Ms. Lieberman said. "Our hope is that notwithstanding the arrival of the vice president and then the president, that the Police Department will take a hard look at what it has been doing with regard to the unpermitted protests and focus on arresting only those people who are engaged in unlawful activities.

"I can't say that I am optimistic," Ms. Lieberman said.

But she made a distinction about illegal activity. "As with anything else, individuals who break the law should be treated accordingly," she said.

The police, in cars and vans or on bikes and scooters, have said their aggressive actions and arrests have pre-empted more widespread disruptions.

"Today a number of anti-R.N.C. activities failed to materialize, including a takeover of the lobby of the Warwick Hotel, perhaps because of the police presence there," Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday evening.

Randal C. Archibold, Michael Wilson, Mary Spicuzza, William K. Rashbaum and Colin Moynihan contributed reporting for this article.

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