Protesters who promise to behave themselves at the Republican National Convention will be offered discounts on hotels, Broadway shows, and meals, city officials said yesterday.

“There is no reason we shouldn’t welcome them in the same way we are welcoming the delegates and the press,” Mayor Bloomberg told reporters in Midtown. “Most times people try to keep protesters from coming, and they certainly don’t go out of their way to accommodate them.”

Mr. Bloomberg said New York would be different. Whether hooded anarchist or peaceful demonstrator, anyone who wears the baby blue button “Welcome Peaceful Political Activists” button on their lapel or downloads the special coupons off the city’s Web site will be entitled to many of the same perks as convention delegates. “It is no fun to protest on empty stomachs,” the mayor said, flanked by two of his predecessors, Ed Koch and David Dinkins.

After a hard day of chanting and marching, protesters can go to La Prima Donna on West 47th Street and get a complimentary glass of wine with their meal, or free dessert, or 20% off their entrees.

They can also enjoy $5 off the price of admission at the Museum of Sex.

The more practical among them can pop into Kroll Office Products on East 54th Street to take advantage of a special 10% discount on all merchandise (poster board for signs included). For all purchases over $10, the store even throws in a free Magic Marker.

What the mayor didn’t say was that the protester discount program could provide him with important political cover should demonstrations become a confrontation between police and protesters. If police are accused of being rough or heavy-handed, Mr. Bloomberg can rightfully claim that the city bent over backward to make the pro testers feel welcome.

“This is where their scare tactics have come back to bite them in the blank,” the national organizer for one protest group, Not in Our Name, Tanya Mayo, told the Associated Press. “They probably realize now that you’re going to see more demonstrators than convention delegates and they better cater to them, too.”

Technically, the discounts are only supposed to go to those protesters who are making their voices heard in city sanctioned and permitted demonstrations. The city has printed 25,000 buttons and plans to pass them out to demonstration organizers who have been given permission to march. They would then pass them out to their rank-and-file.

The idea is to prevent those who aren’t towing the city’s line from taking advantage of the savings, though Mr. Bloomberg allowed that some renegade protesters could get their hands on the buttons. He was quick to add that their money was as good in New York as that of the visiting delegates. He has been telling New Yorkers that the convention will be a boon to the city’s economy. Now he is hoping even protesters will help make that happen.

“We can’t stop an anarchist from getting a button,” the mayor said. “I don’t know how many anarchists will want to wear this button. Everyone will get the discounts, even if they are an anarchist.”

Just as Mr. Bloomberg was unveiling protester-friendly discounts a very different scene was playing itself out across the street on the ninth floor of the Sheraton Hotel. Four women from Codepink: Women for Peace unfurled a 14-foot banner that read: “You say Welcome, We say where. Central Park. August 29, 2004.”

The sign had barely made its statement when New York City police burst into the hotel room and arrested the protesters inside. Arrested were activists Andrea Buffa, 37, of Oakdale, Calif., Colleen Galbraith, 25, of San Francisco, Claire Droney,24,of Los Angeles, and Danielle Ferris, 24, of New York. Ms. Buffa and Ms. Ferris face charges of reckless endangerment, unlawful posting of advertisement, and disorderly conduct.

“This just shows the hypocrisy of the mayor’s press conference,” said Jodi Evans, co-founder of Codepink: Women for Peace, an international activist group that claims 30,000 members across the country. “The idea was to welcome protesters to New York.” The arrests “did just that, and in all the wrong ways.”

Ms. Evans, 50, said the group plans to stage one protest each day until the convention starts – as long as group members aren’t locked up.

Presumably, yesterday’s four protesters didn’t get discount coupons or baby blue buttons.