AIDS activists infiltrated and disrupted the Republican convention yesterday – adding to serious concerns about security at Madison Square Garden just as President Bush is set to accept his renomination there tonight.
The members of ACT-UP, who were on the floor of the Garden near the Wisconsin delegation, blew whistles and shouted, “Drop the debt!” and “End AIDS!”
The disruption occurred during a speech to young Republicans by Bush’s chief-of-staff, Andrew Card, at about 11:30 a.m., just after he was introduced by the president’s twin daughters.
The activists had been holding pro-Bush signs before they started brandishing their AIDS-related signs.
The activists were quickly jumped by some young Republicans, who prevented them from unfurling a banner and shouted “four more years” to drown out the protesters’ chants.
One Republican, Daniel Suhr, 20, of Milwaukee, was punched in the head by an activist, and had a cut near his temple. A cameraman was also injured.
Secret Service agents rushed over to drag the protesters off the floor as Card continued his speech.
Police said 12 people were arrested, including four who had been busted Friday at the nude protest outside the Garden at 33rd Street and Eighth Avenue.
Later, a pink-clad woman was tackled inside the Garden as she rushed the stage during Vice President Dick Cheney’s speech
As officers swarmed the woman, she struggled for about 45 seconds before she was dragged from the floor, saying over and over, “I’m not resisting arrest.”
That incident was at least the fourth security breach at the Garden since Republicans began their convention on Monday.
A Yale student was arrested Monday after he got close to Cheney and spewed anti-war messages at him.
On Tuesday night, a leader of the Code Pink activist group – which tried to unfurl a banner at the Garden – was arrested after heckling Cheney.
Sources in the Secret Service and law enforcement told The Post the Secret Service is angry about the disruptions. It blames the Republican National Committee for being sloppy in handing out credentials and in briefing the Secret Service.
All of the people busted in the first three incidents had legitimately obtained credentials, according to the sources.
Last night, up to 100 anti-Bush protesters and about 30 pro-Bush supporters tried to out-shout one another in separate pens on the other side of Queens Boulevard from where the president was visiting an Elmhurst social club.
And as many as 1,500 demonstrators conducted a “March on the Media” consisting of loud but peaceful protests outside the Midtown headquarters of CNN, Fox News Channel and CBS.
Another 100 protesters demonstrated outside the Copacabana on West 34th Street, where Coca-Cola was sponsoring a party attended by conventioneers.
Altogether, 20 people were arrested yesterday – a sharp drop from Tuesday when Manhattan set a city record of arrests in one borough by busting 1,187 – bringing the convention total to 1,767.
The volume of those arrests, the holding of those detained in a former bus depot at Pier 57, and the slow rate of arraignment drew criticism by activist groups.
Some 500 of those arrested Tuesday had not been arraigned in 24 hours, violating state law, they said.
Legal Aid lawyers noted that 80 percent were charged with violations, such as disorderly conduct, which usually result in a desk-appearance ticket rather than an arrest.
A judge ordered the city to speed up the arraignments and about 300 supporters gathered in a park across the street from Manhattan Criminal Court to cheer the protesters as they were released.
Kate Gandall, whose history of civil disobedience dates back to the anti-draft protests of the ’60s, said after her release that the conditions at Pier 57 were “punitive . . . the worst I’ve ever experienced.”
A police spokesman defended the booking facility as “clean, well equipped and orderly.”
Also released from jail last night was Brooklyn filmmaker Angela Coppola, who said she was filming for the British Broadcasting Company when she got caught in a police dragnet.
Additional reporting by Frankie Edozien, John Doyle, Matthew Sweeney, Laura Italiano, Carl Campanile, Erin Calabrese, Hasani Gittens and David Andreatta
ARREST COUNT: 1,767