NEW YORK, Sept 2 (AFP) - Protesters were gearing up for one final chance to make some noise in New York, with demonstrations expected citywide to mark Thursday's appearance by President George W. Bush at the Republican convention.
A candlelight vigil was planned for Union Square, while residents of this staunchly Democratic city have been asked to scream "No!" in unison when Bush begins his address to accept the party nomination for president.
The actions will wind up a busy week for anti-Bush protests, including a mass rally of at least 100,000 people on the eve of the convention last Sunday.
Organisers have hailed the rallies and other acts of civil disobedience as a success.
"We managed to pierce the bubble of the convention and get close to the delegates. That was a real victory," said Eric Laursen from the A31 coalition, a protest group.
"The convention was a media extravaganza, a big part of (the Republicans') PR campaign, and they didn't want anything to mar that -- but they failed," Laursen said.
Some protesters even managed to get around the intense security scrutiny surrounding the Madison Square Garden site of the Republican National Convention (RNC).
A university student came within three metres (10 feet) of Vice President Dick Cheney and shouted at him about the war in Iraq; another demonstrator was taken away by security forcs after trying to hoist an anti-Cheney banner.
More than 1,700 have been arrested, including 900 taken in on Tuesday, when protest actions were staged at a number of sites including Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center towers were demolished on Spetember 11, 2001.
"A number of anti-RNC activities failed to materialise, including a takeover of the lobby of the Warwick hotel, perhaps because of the police presence there," said Raymond Kelly, commissioner of New York City police.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has complained that police are violating standard procedures -- detaining people more than 24 hours, for example.
Laursen and other demonstrators have said that police are trying to keep them off the streets for as long as possible, and that the arrests are causing some demonstrators to think twice about taking part.
The ACLU has also complained about the conditions in which the detainees are held. They are being kept in a former bus depot set aside especially for the convention.
Still more troubling, the group said, is what it called a police policy of "pre-emptive arrests."
"For some demonstrations they show flexibility and restraint, sometimes they use pre-emptive arrests and restrictive action to prevent from demonstrating," the ACLU's Alex Vitale said.
"They decide who are the good demonstrators and who are the bad demonstrators. We hadn't seen these pre-emptive actions before in New York, and it's very troubling," Vitale said.
He cited the arrest of more than 200 bicyclists who held a peaceful protest by blocking city streets.
Security has been especially heavy around Madison Square Garden, where gay-rights activist Sean Cahill complained that he could not get close to the site because he was carrying a sign.
"I could go if I left my sign," Cahill said. "They are suppressing the First Amendment on the freedom of speech."