Protest Peacefully, Get Discounts in NYC

NEW YORK —  Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg thinks he’s found a way to pin down rowdy protesters at the Republican National Convention -- by offering them a powder-blue button that labels them “Peaceful Political Activists.”

In a bid to tame potentially disruptive protests, Bloomberg and tourism officials Tuesday offered a unique package of discounts on hotels, restaurants, plays -- even cut-rate entry to the Museum of Sex -- to the best-behaved demonstrators.

There are also discounts to plays, including “Naked Boys Singing,” which features full frontal nudity and show tunes.

In exchange for the package, the protesters must promise to obey city laws and regulations and pick up their blue pledge pin, Bloomberg said at a news conference at NYC & Co., the city’s tourism bureau.

He acknowledged, however, that compliance was voluntary.

“We can’t stop an anarchist from getting a button,” the mayor said when asked if the pins could guarantee good behavior. “I don’t know how many anarchists will want to wear this button.... But they still would get the discounts as long as they have the button.”

William Dobbs, spokesman for United for Peace and Justice, which is battling the city over the right to stage a 250,000-person antiwar rally on the Great Lawn in Central Park, laughed off the offer.

“The whole thing is cuckoo,” he said. “We don’t want discounts, we want our 1st Amendment rights.”

Minutes before Bloomberg was due to make his pitch to reporters, four antiwar protesters with the feminist group CodePink were busted across the street for dangling an anti-Bloomberg banner from their ninth-floor hotel window.

The women, all in their 20s and 30s, were taken into custody. As of 7 p.m., they had not been charged, police said.

“The girls paid like $200 for their room,” CodePink spokeswoman Jodie Evans said. “They paid full price. They didn’t get any discounts.”