Republican National Convention

ST. PAUL (AP) ― Nearly 300 arrests. Numerous blasts of tear gas to disperse rowdy crowds. Police in riot gear on every corner.

It took a massive police effort, but authorities largely succeeded in stopping anti-government protesters from disrupting the Republican National Convention on Monday despite isolated acts of violence that raged for hours.

But some say the tactics went too far, sweeping up journalists and innocent people along with the roving bands that smashed windows in businesses and police cars, slashed car tires and blocked intersections.

Despite the chaos, the police presence kept traffic moving so that all buses carrying Republican delegates arrived at the convention site, the Xcel Energy Center, and carried them back to their hotels mostly without incident. And they kept the anarchists out of the security gates surrounding the arena.

To St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington, that means the police succeeded on perhaps their most challenging day of the four-day convention.

"There were groups that had an intention to stop the convention and they failed," he said. "While there were moments of chaos, what you saw was control. We expected to have problems, we were prepared for those problems and we responded to those problems in a very reasonable manner."

But some critics, including peaceful protesters and journalists, complained the response trampled on constitutional rights.

St. Paul police spokesman Tom Walsh acknowledged Tuesday that at least four journalists with press credentials were arrested on Monday, including Associated Press photographer Matt Rourke, who was later released.

Michelle Gross, leader of Communities United Against Police Brutality, said "scores of journalists, street medics and other people who committed no crime whatsoever" were among those arrested.

Others said they were startled to find themselves in the police crosshairs. Jessica Wenstrom, 22, of St. Paul, said she was hit with tear gas Monday afternoon as she was assembling with other protesters.

"There were tear gas grenades all around. A bunch of people were hit in the face," Wenstrom said minutes after the incident. "These were peaceful protesters. And as far as I know, nobody did anything wrong."

Harrington acknowledged it was difficult for officers to distinguish between those who were taking part in a riot and those who were merely observing it.

But he said officers made every attempt to target only those who committed crimes. And he said they showed restraint in the face of provocation, which included having liquid and rocks thrown at them and being called names.

St. Paul Police Sgt. Jack Serier said officers only used chemicals such as tear gas to disperse crowds when they were threatening to damage property and injure others. He said he had no idea how many times those chemicals were used.

Harrington said the nearly 300 arrests on Monday put a dent in groups that had spent months planning to disrupt the convention, but he said others remained organized.

Searches Friday and Saturday of buildings and houses in the Twin Cities also deprived protesters of materials including the makings of Molotov cocktails and metal objects that could disable buses, Harrington said. Protesters have rejected charges that such materials were seized.

Monday's violence was a sharp contrast with the Democratic convention in Denver a week earlier, where only 152 people were arrested. Dana Fisher, an associate professor of sociology at Columbia University said several factors explained it.

The lead anarchist group in Minnesota, the RNC Welcoming Committee, has been more successful in mobilizing members than its counterpart in Denver, partly because St. Paul is within driving distance of more progressive cities, she said.

Fisher also said the Recreate 68 group in Denver had some trouble getting its member groups to agree on a common mission. While anarchists wanted to launch broad criticism of the party, others wanted to try to push the Democrats to the left, she said.

In St. Paul, the lawful protesters stood mostly in solidarity with their more aggressive counterparts, sometimes appearing at the same news conferences. In interviews, few were willing to criticize the anarchists' tactics.

"With the crimes happening across this country and across this world, the idea that people might choose to put their bodies on the line and stand in front of delegate buses to block the flow of traffic, that is not a crime," said Jess Sundin, one of the lead organizers for Monday's march.

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The Republican National Convention will be at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul from Sept. 1 through Sept. 4.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)