to punish and intimidate
last week the NYPD’s motto of “to protect and serve” seemed more like “to punish and intimidate”. the NYCLU has been doing a great job following the biased and unjust actions the city enacted on the protesters last week, and concluded police used "practices that punish and intimidate people for exercising their right to dissent". in NYCLU Grades Policing Of Protesters At The RNC they cover the horrendous tactics used by the NYPD:

“The NYCLU has received reports from members of the press, legal observers, medics and even passersby who found themselves caught in the Spiderman-type orange mesh netting the police used to make arrests.”

“police suddenly charged into the crowd with metal barricades and a squad of plain clothes officers later drove their scooters into the crowd. Some arrestees and bystanders reported being kicked, punched or hit with batons by police.”

“Having announced for months that it was prepared to handle over 1000 arrests a day during the RNC, the City chose to detain arrestees in this dank, filthy bus depot where people had to sit or lie on the floor covered with soot and quite possibly toxic automotive fluids.”

first hand reports from arreseted blogger’s:
Bikes Against Bush organizer arrested
Go indirectly to jail
Political Prisoner in NYC
Documentation of Gitmo on the Hudson
New York City follies

and check out:
City May Have to Pay Protesters
the Village Voice is reporting arresties “might be getting $1,000 checks from New York City” as a judge has “held the city in contempt for refusing to abide by his order to release some 560 people who had been detained without a hearing for up to 67 hours”
RNC Legal Report, The First of Many
RNC Prisoner Release Interviews (Audio)
Cops Arrest Hundreds Of Convention Protestors (CBS)

(*photos above provided by our friend Janet M.)