NEW YORK – The city said it set free nearly 500 protesters late Thursday after being fined by a judge for failing to immediately release the demonstrators, who had spent the previous days venting their rage at the Bush administration.
The legal battle came as the convention received a mostly mellow sendoff from protesters.
Hundreds of them gathered – noisily but without incident – near Madison Square Garden as a huge wall of police stood between them and the convention. As President Bush began his nomination acceptance speech inside at about 10 p.m., the crowds of protesters outside began to disperse. The week saw nearly 1,800 arrests in all, but only 26 on Thursday.
“It’s been a long week,” explained demonstrator Sam Nolan, 37, as he walked away from the protest. “The cops really wore us down. I guess people got intimidated.”
There were accusations that the city was deliberately holding the protesters longer so they would not be in the streets during Bush’s speech.
“The evidence shows that the city told defendants that they would not be released until George Bush went home,” said Dan Alterman of the National Lawyers Guild.
The New York Police Department denied the charge.
“The allegations that the NYPD was purposely holding demonstrators until after the president of the United States left New York City was part of a deliberate misinformation campaign,” police spokesman Paul Browne said.
State Supreme Court Justice John Cataldo fined the city $1,000 for every protester held past a 5 p.m. deadline that he set for their release. It was unclear how many detainees were still in custody, but Cataldo had ordered the release of 470 people.
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