A Miami man is sitting in jail because police say he drove down the street with an open container of beer. His bail? $10,000.

A teenager from New Jersey is locked up because police say he rode a bicycle through the streets of Miami in the middle of the night and refused to say what he was up to. Bail: $20,000.

Such major bail was ordered for such minor crimes, the public defender says, because the defendants were FTAA protesters.

In an emergency appeal filed Thursday, Miami Dade Assistant Public Defender Carlos F. Gonzalez asked a higher court judge to lower the bail.

"The bonds appear to be excessive and more in line with felony charges than the misdemeanors in question," said Public Defender Bennett H. Brummer, whose office filed the papers in the Third District Court of Appeal.

The issue is not a new one.

It has arisen at other protests with mass arrests, including the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, where Miami Police Chief John Timoney was police commissioner.

The pattern includes high-profile mass arrests, followed by high bail, culminating in a few weeks or months with low-profile dismissals.

Thursday's legal move came after a series of unusual bonds were imposed earlier in the day on protesters accused of minor crimes.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Maria Korvick ordered a $20,000 bond for Jesse S. Dewlow, 18, of New Jersey, and a $10,000 bond for James Anthony Samaro, 19, of Coral Springs, for loitering and prowling. The standard bond is $500, the public defender's office said.

Samaro and Dewlow were riding bicycles in the area of West Flagler Street and Northwest Second Avenue at 2:45 a.m. Tuesday when they were arrested after refusing to tell police where they lived or where they were going.

Armando Muller, 22, of Miami, was arrested after another officer saw him driving in the area of Northeast Eighth Street and First Avenue with an open beer container at 3:45 a.m. Thursday. Korvick gave him a $10,000 bond. The offense normally calls for a $500 bond.

In another case, Robert L. Hester, 37, of Bradenton, was standing on the southeast corner of Northeast Eighth Street and First Avenue when police saw him toss a plastic bottle containing a marijuana cigarette. Hester was given a $20,000 bond; the standard bond is $1,000.

"Bond is supposed to be something sufficient to ensure the defendant's presence for upcoming hearings," said Miami attorney Martin Ruskin.

"Unless there is evidence that these people are a danger to the community, asking for these high bonds is simply punitive," Ruskin said.

"They're using high bail to try and keep people in jail," said Fort Lauderdale criminal defense attorney Fred Haddad. "It's just pure tyranny."

Earlier in the day, Judge Gerald J. Klein held seven FTAA protesters arrested Wednesday at the crumbling Burdines mansion on burglary charges in lieu of $5,000 bond.

The young people, who appeared handcuffed via video camera in the judge's courtroom, came from all over the country. All claimed to be homeless or living with parents.

Joshua Davison, 23, of Chicago, said he was unemployed. Robert Matthew Gilbert, 21, of St. Petersburg, said he was starting a new job as a cook. Nicholas Gauger, 24, of San Francisco, said he did construction work but was currently homeless. James Lennox, 25, said he grew up in Los Angeles but has been unemployed for a year.

When asked by the judge how he supported himself, Lennox said, "I've been living in an abandoned building and eating trash, sir."

James Davidson, of Allentown, Pa., also said he was eating trash and living in abandoned buildings.

Harrison Richard Bartlett, 19, of San Francisco, said he was a former schoolteacher, now homeless.

Sarah Beth Rocher, a 19-year-old cook from Philadelphia and the only woman arrested in the house, shook her head as Assistant State Attorney Mark A. Smith told the court there were indications they entered the house illegally and intended to use the items police found to do harm.

The judge accepted Smith's argument that protesters were using the mansion as a staging area with the intent to create mischief.

Throughout the day, public defenders representing the protesters objected to what they referred to as unfair targeting of FTAA protesters to keep them off the streets while others arrested in similar cases received far more-lenient consideration.

Assistant Public Defender Elliott Snyder said in court that stamping "FTAA" across the arrest affidavits violated the protesters' rights to equal protection.

And, he said, they were the only defendants who were handcuffed behind their backs.

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