Bloomberg Defends City on Arrests

Mayor Bloomberg yesterday vigorously defended how New York City handled the arrests of protesters during the Republican National Convention, praising the police response to the demonstrations while proposing a tidy - if highly unlikely - resolution to protesters' grievances.

"They might as well just plead guilty and go on," Mr. Bloomberg told reporters. "The truth of the matter is the city did what it was supposed to do: It protected the streets."

The mayor spoke in Manhattan before the start of the Mexican Day Parade, amid cries of "Viva New York!" and "Viva Bloomberg!" He dismissed widespread criticism of the arrests.

Protesters have filed lawsuits against the city and have complained that they were held in poor conditions for well beyond the city's 24-hour legal limit. Some joined a small demonstration in Manhattan on Saturday to protest police conduct during the convention.

While acknowledging that "it would have been nice if we could have gotten them out faster," Mr. Bloomberg said the city had done its best to process protesters "given the vast bulk of people who came here to get arrested." He said everyone was treated "humanely."

The mayor noted again yesterday that the Manhattan district attorney's office had declined to prosecute only three of the estimated 1,800 people who were arrested during the convention. He said that many of the 1,800 protesters already had pleaded guilty because "they know they don't have a case - they broke the law."

Mr. Bloomberg's comments apparently referred to the more than 600 people who chose not to go to trial on charges such as disorderly conduct and instead took a provisional dismissal, or ACD.

Civil rights advocates said yesterday that the mayor had mistaken an ACD, which they described as a delayed dismissal, for an admission of guilt.

"It's disturbing," Simone Levine of the National Lawyers Guild said. "That's the reason we don't have Mayor Bloomberg on the judiciary.

The executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, Donna Lieberman, criticized the mayor's suggestion that protesters should cop a plea and move on.

"It's stunning that our mayor should propose to people to give up their right to have their day in court," she said.

Ms. Lieberman, who testified at a City Council hearing last week, said that Mr. Bloomberg has a "tin ear" has failed to distinguish between illegal activity and lawful protest. She also said that many of those arrested were innocent bystanders.

The city and police are facing questions that include why detainees were held beyond the legal limit - some for as long as 72 hours. The mayor yesterday denied suggestions that police used long detentions to squash protest.

"There is absolutely no evidence whatsoever ... that there was any intent by any law enforcement official to hold people any longer than was absolutely necessary to process them," he said. He said that the process of cataloging protesters' property had caused the delays.

"We wanted to make sure that we did everything exactly by the book," he said. Before he joined yesterday's parade, the mayor also shrugged off concerns about protesters' lawsuits.

"I'm sure there will be some suits," he said. "After all, this is New York City."