Eleven naked people arrested. One police officer with 38 stitches. Four people arrested, two in rock-climbing harnesses, hanging a three-story-tall banner on the front of the Plaza Hotel.

So began yesterday what seems like may be a long week of clashes between police and protesters surrounding the Republican National Convention, which begins Monday at Madison Square Garden.

Yesterday’s activists were opening acts for a week expected to be filled with protests that will try to draw attention away from the convention and direct it to a set of widely varying messages. A Quinnipiac Poll of 822 New York City registered voters, released yesterday, said 11% of New Yorkers plan to participate in some form of protest next week.

“Together we will upstage the Republican National Convention with a powerful message of peace and justice,” the national coordinator for one of the largest protest groups, United for Peace and Justice, Leslie Cagan, said at a press conference yesterday.

The group of naked people with slogans painted all over their bodies broke the morning routine of commuters at Eighth Avenue and 33rd Street, near Madison Square Garden, while they chanted “Drop the Debt. Stop AIDS” and held up signs. Some of the protesters from AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power escaped arrest by donning clothing and slipping into the crowd, but police caught 11 of them, including two who stood on top of a truck. The group is trying to get additional funding for AIDS research.

Mayor Bloomberg, speaking to reporters at a press conference yesterday, made light of the incident with the AIDS activists.

“This is New York. Of course we had seven naked people on Eighth Avenue. What’s the question?” he said. Asked if the demonstration concerned him, he replied, “I did not see them so I can’t really answer that.”

On Central Park South, four men from “Operation Sybil,” an anti-Bush group, climbed up on the roof of the 18-story Plaza Hotel to unleash a 60-foot by three-story banner displaying the words “Bush” and Truth” and arrows beneath each pointing in opposite directions. The protesters are charged with felonious assault because a police officer on the roof trying to arrest them received a wound that required 38 stitches, police said. Protesters said they tried to warn the officer not to step on a skylight, because it was cracked, but the officer fell through. Police would not confirm how the officer received the injury.

Later in the day, the organizers of the United for Peace and Justice protest announced the route they agreed to with the Police Department. The march, scheduled for Sunday, was designed to give the protesters an opportunity to walk past the convention site at Madison Square Garden. Marchers will gather south of 23rd Street between Fifth and Ninth avenues at 10 a.m. They’ll march north on Seventh Avenue, past Madison Square Garden, east on 34th Street, south on Fifth Avenue, and then south on Broadway to an ending point in Union Square.

Though there will be a small sound stage at the finish point, organizers insist that there will be no rally, and that the sound equipment will largely be used to urge marchers to leave the area.

Organizers tried to give the march a positive spin, since they will be marching “through the heart of Manhattan,” though they are still disappointed with the city’s decision not to let them use Central Park. A state court put an end to that idea Wednesday when it rejected the coalition’s petition to get a permit for the Great Lawn and surrounding open spaces.

Several groups, including one United for Peace and Justice coalition member, Not in Our Name, have said they will use Central Park for rallies despite the judge’s decision. But Ms. Cagan asked groups planning to rally in the park not to conduct “breakaway marches” to the park, but instead to complete the march to Union Square and go to the park afterward if they wanted.

The National Council of Arab Americans, which will participate in Sunday’s march, announced at a press conference yesterday their plan to leaflet subway stops today and tomorrow. The flyers invite New Yorkers and tourists to come to Central Park on Saturday at 1 p.m. and express their outrage over the “assault on civil liberties,” as coordinator Brian Becker put it.

“We just want people to know, that if they come to the park with signs, they can’t be larger than 2 feet by 3 feet,” Mr. Becker said. “And if they happen to come with drums, they can’t bang them during the night hours between 10 a.m. and 8 a.m.”

NAKED PEOPLE ARRESTED

Public Lewdness: Paul Davis, 35; Tobenna Anekwe, 23; Nanette Kazaoka, 63; Diana Gonzalez, 20;Sharon Ann Lynch, 35; Daniel Murphy, 36; Claire Martin, 27; Sean Barry.

Disorderly Conduct: Kathern Riek, 20. Reckless Endangerment: Aaron Boyle, 27; Suzy Korn, 35.

BANNER HANGERS ARRESTED

Assault 1, Reckless Endangerment, Criminal Trespass, Unclassified Misdemeanor (unlawful street show), Unlawful Posting of an Advertisement, Admin. Code (A license is needed to hang a sign 75 feet or more): Terra Lawson-Remer, 26, of Manhattan; Rebecca Johnson, 25, of Oakland, Calif.; David Murphy, 31, of Brooklyn; Pablo-Cesar Maxit, 28, of Dallas, Texas.