ST. PAUL, Minn. – A heavy police presence, with many officers in full riot gear, stood ready Tuesday as some 2,000 people protested poverty and homelessness near the Republican convention arena.

A day after nearly 300 people were arrested for scattered acts of violence near the arena, protesters rallied at a park before marching to the Xcel Energy Center about nine blocks away, where they planned to serve Republicans with a “citizens' arrest” for crimes against humanity.

Monday's violence unfolded after a largely peaceful anti-war march by some 10,000 people. Afterward, police blamed a splinter group of about 200 for harassing delegates, smashing windows, puncturing car tires, throwing bottles and starting at least one fire.

The RNC Welcoming Committee, a self-described anarchist group that has worked for months planning convention disruptions, claimed success in e-mails to its members and media. “The spectacle has been crashed!” read one.

The group, which wasn't officially connected to the organizers of either Monday or Tuesday's march, hinted at more trouble.

“We are excited about what the next few days may bring now that the illusion of business as usual has been shattered,” said Rose DaBarr, a spokeswoman for the group, said at a news conference Tuesday.

Tuesday's march was organized by the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign.

Spokeswoman Cheri Honkala said the march would deviate from the permitted path to go by the county jail, where some of those arrested Monday remained. Honkala said marchers wanted the event to be nonviolent.

Police said they were ready for problems.

“We are anticipating that there may well be less criminal activity because there are less of them out there,” St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington said. “But we do not expect there will be no criminal activity.”

Authorities said 130 of the 286 people arrested Monday faced possible felony charges. At least four journalists were among those arrested: Associated Press photographer Matt Rourke, Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and two of her producers. The four were later released, but only Goodman was cited for a misdemeanor and issued a court date, at which time she could be charged with a crime.

Rourke was covering Monday's protest when he was swept up by police moving in on a group of protesters downtown. Goodman was arrested as she asked police in riot gear about the status of producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar.

David Ake, an AP assistant chief of bureau in Washington, said he was concerned by the arrest of Rourke, a Philadelphia-based photographer.

“Covering news is a constitutionally protected activity, and covering a riot is part of that coverage,” Ake said. “Photographers should not be detained for covering breaking news.”

All three appeared on Goodman's show Tuesday and recounted their experience. A video of Goodman's arrest, aired on the program and posted on YouTube, shows her begging police not to arrest her before she was taken away in handcuffs.

Court proceedings were moving slowly. Ramsey County prosecutors filed their first formal felony charge Tuesday against a 22-year-old Mt. Eden, Calif., man for allegedly pushing a trash bin into the street and at a police squad during Monday's protests. Vernon Alexander Rodrigues was charged with obstructing the legal process by blocking officers who were about to arrest others.

Chuck Samuelson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Minnesota, said volunteer attorneys were representing protesters who wanted lawyers at their initial court appearances. The attorneys also were trying to determine if authorities had the right to continue holding about 20 protesters who had refused to give their real names.

The violent protests in St. Paul contrasted with a relatively peaceful Democratic convention in Denver, where only 152 people were arrested during the four-day event and the preceding weekend.

Associated Press writers Amy Forliti, Scott Bauer and Elizabeth Dunbar contributed to this report.

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