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I agree with some of your sentiments.

1. Assemblies should be peaceful.
2. Assemblies should not disrupt other peaceful assemblies.
3. Assemblies should not (greatly) disrupt the daily life and economy of the local area.

So, if we roughly establish those as the rules, why must assemblies be pre-approved by the government or have their location dictated by the government? If I wanted to get a group of people together in Central Park to discuss politics - and we don't damage the park or disobey the above rules - why must I check first with the government?

Obviously, any assembly that becomes unruly or seeks to disrupt should be (legally) dispersed. That's not a peaceful assembly.

I look at it this way: those anarchists are going to assemble anyways... and they are going to get arrested. So the only people the laws hurt are the law-abiding citizens - because it is that much more difficult for us to put together a peaceful assembly.

This parallels gun laws. In NJ it takes THREE MONTHS for a law abiding citizen to get a license to lawfully own ANY weapon. If I wanted to skirt the law, I could go down to teh city basketball courts and buy a gun within a day. The criminals get by and the law-abiding citizens suffer.

I look at it this way: those anarchists are going to assemble anyways... and they are going to get arrested. So the only people the laws hurt are the law-abiding citizens - because it is that much more difficult for us to put together a peaceful assembly. I>
Look at past riot/protest actions. Participants will be arrested at the time but many of the charges will be dropped because there is a lack of will among the prosecutors to nail the anarchists. Keep them in jail for days? It crowds the jails.
I think that they seem to arrest them just to hold them until the event passes. Keeps everyone safe.
The police are there to protect and serve. That includes protecting the civilians in the area, the delegates holding a convention (peaceful assembly) and even the protestors.
The protestors are complaining that they cannot get near enough to the delegates to cause them terror (that is what it is about, blocking a street and screaming in their faces).
If abortionists can be protected from pro-lifers yelling "murderer" then these people who are serving a constitutional function (nominating a presidential candidate) deserve protection in their duties.
We protect the president from those who mean him harm. This is an extension of that.

The violent fringe hurts it for everybody.

In NJ it takes THREE MONTHS for a law abiding citizen to get a license to lawfully own ANY weapon.

You should support efforts to have such laws challenged as unconstitutional. While you can be restricted in where you take your gun (just as you can be restricted in where you gather), you have 1st Amendment and 2nd Amendment rights.

You don't have to be "licensed" to post on the internet or speak at a pub.

If the protesters were decent, nonviolent, law-abiding citizens, I'd wholeheartedly agree with you. But they are not. In fact, it is their intention to disrupt the convention; harass and intimidate citizens; disrupt commerce throughout the city; harass the police; etc. It's not that they have something to say and want to say it, but that they want to prevent President Bush and the rest of the GOP from having their say.

They're not trying to exercise their freedom of speech so much as trying to suppress someone else's.

Your idea of letting any and all groups of cretins gather wherever they want and then letting the police wade in when they get out of hand is dangerous, both to the cops and the city, in general. Cops get hurt -- and so do the horses they sometimes use. These bastards have been known to literally punch these NYPD horses in their faces. They don't "disperse" when the cops tell them to do so.

I still don't understand why my fellow NYC citizens and I are going to have to pay for the "privilege" of these assclowns crapping (both literally and figuratively) all over this city. They trash the hell out of this place whenever they have one of their dopey, leftist rallies/riots. The money that's going to be wasted on extra NYPD overtime, sanitation department overtime, court personnel overtime, jail staff overtime, etc., is going to be a major drain on a city that isn't exactly running a surplus!

I'm also less than amused that their antics will take police attention away from anti-terrorism duty.