ST. PAUL, Minn. — A heavy police presence, with many officers in full riot gear, stood ready yesterday as some 2,000 people protested poverty and homelessness near the Republican convention arena.

A day after nearly 300 people were arrested for scattered acts of violence near the arena, protesters rallied at a park before marching to the Xcel Energy Center about nine blocks away, where they planned to serve Republicans with a “citizens’ arrest” for crimes against humanity.

Monday’s violence unfolded after a largely peaceful anti-war march by some 10,000 people. Afterward, police blamed a splinter group of about 200 for harassing delegates, smashing windows, puncturing car tires, throwing bottles, and starting at least one fire.

The RNC Welcoming Committee, a self-described anarchist group that has worked for months planning convention disruptions, claimed success in e-mails to its members and press. “The spectacle has been crashed!” read one.

The group, which wasn’t officially connected to the organizers of either Monday or yesterday’s march, hinted at more trouble.

“We are excited about what the next few days may bring now that the illusion of business as usual has been shattered,” a spokeswoman for the group, Rose DaBarr, said at a news conference yesterday.

Yesterday’s march was organized by the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign.

A spokeswoman, Cheri Honkala, said the march would deviate from the permitted path to go by the county jail, where some of those arrested Monday remained. Ms. Honkala said marchers wanted the event to be nonviolent.