"The measures are going to strike the right balance between providing security without inconveniencing New Yorkers," he said. "New York City is being well protected on land, at sea and in the air."
But antiwar activists contend that such extensive security precautions carry a downside, perhaps scaring off some of the hundreds of thousands of potential protesters.
In these final days before the convention, the police have talked in nearly equal terms of preparing for terrorists and possibly violent protesters. They have thrown up a fenced outdoor pen on the far West Side of Manhattan to hold any overflow of people arrested in demonstrations.
The New York Daily News reported this week that unnamed "police intelligence sources" had warned that "50 of the country's leading anarchists" are coming to New York and that some had "histories of violent and disruptive tactics." The newspaper ran a fuzzy photo of one such man on its front cover, treatment usually reserved for al Qaeda suspects.
The man, Richard Picariello, is an antiwar organizer but is not affiliated with any anarchist group. Nor has any public official presented any evidence that anarchists plan more than sustained civil disobedience.
Civil disobedience and direct action are tactics planned by various other groups. Several protesters rappelled down the side of the Plaza Hotel on Friday and hung a large anti-Bush banner before they were arrested by police.
Police officials have issued permits for marches and demonstrations in every corner of Manhattan. But organizers worry that if there is trouble, police may not discriminate between the violent few and the many thousands engaged in peaceful protest.
"We see a lot of misinformation that's building up the hysteria," said Jamie Moran, a member of RNC Not Welcome, a collective that includes anarchists. "The police and some in the news media are attaching terrorist labels to us . . . making it look as if the anarchists are an organized crime syndicate."
In Brooklyn, along the stretch of grocery stores, Urdu video stores, sari shops and mosques known as Little Pakistan, the ramped-up security and presence of thousands of federal law enforcement officials evokes mixed emotions in many residents.
Two members of this Pakistani community died in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, so many share the fear of another attack . But federal immigration and FBI agents also interviewed and temporarily detained many members of this community in the months after those attacks. Hundreds were later deported for immigration violations. As a result, there is a lingering and palpable wariness about the enforcement power of a government on full alert.
At the recent Pakistan Day parade, organizers say that so many police lined the streets that some Pakistani Americans stayed away.
"People come into this office wanting to know whether they should come out" of their homes, said Razvi, the executive director of the Council of People's Organizations, which has an office on Coney Island Avenue. "I tell people to have their identification . . . but they are likely not going into the city next week."
