MIAMI -- Massive violent protests that marred previous free-trade meetings never materialized during this week's Free Trade Area of the Americas gathering as police quickly pounced on embryonic uprisings.

And that had protesters complaining Friday that officers overreacted when they used rubber bullets, batons, tear gas and concussion grenades against them. They also say most of those arrested and injured were nonviolent demonstrators.

Scattered, small-scale protests continued Friday, one-day after the trade meeting concluded, including one at the jail where many of the protesters still in custody were being held. No violence was reported.

The National Lawyers Guild asked Friday for an independent investigation into officers' behaviors during Thursday's clashes. The group sent monitors to record police behavior at the protests.

``Such paramilitary tactics are ill-conceived and self-defeating and have no place in a democratic society,'' Michael Avery, the group's president, said in a letter to Mayor Manny Diaz.

But Police Chief John Timoney said officers acted with restraint and professionalism, giving protesters ample verbal warnings before using any force. Some demonstrators threw water bottles and other projectiles at officers, set fires in the street and used slingshots to fire marbles and other hard objects.

``If we didn't act when we did, it would've been worse,'' Timoney said. Other police officials said that by their officers' actions, Miami averted the five days of rioting and millions of dollars in property damage that occurred outside the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle in 1999.

There have been 172 arrests in Miami, compared to 570 during the Seattle protests. At least three officers and 12 demonstrators were treated at hospitals Thursday and at least 125 demonstrators were treated by medics affiliated with protest organizers.

``All you have to do is look at the videotapes from Seattle and realize the potential for destruction,'' Miami police Lt. Bill Schwartz said. ``And Miami was just not going to be another Seattle.''

But some demonstrators said they were attacked by police Thursday without provocation.

Cory Fischer-Hoffman, 20, a student from Olympia, Wash., said she was on the front line of a standoff with police Thursday, flashing the peace sign when the officers began advancing on the crowd. She said she was hit in the face with a club, but was not seriously injured.

``We were just standing there, totally peacefully,'' Fischer-Hoffman said. ``I was honestly looking this guy in the eye with a peace sign, and then all of a sudden, boom. There was no provocation.''

Cheri Hoggan, the 44-year-old wife of a steelworker union member from Grantsville, Utah, said she was pushed to the ground when officers descended on a young protester trying to enter an anti-free trade rally. She and others said an officer put a gun to her head when she tried to stand next to the demonstrator.

``I'm just bruised up and down,'' she said. ``It was a pretty scary ordeal.''

The American Civil Liberties Union was investigating whether police officers repeatedly violated Fourth Amendment rights against illegal searches by stopping people at random, frisking them and dumping the contents of their backpacks into gutters, said Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, president of the ACLU's South Florida chapter.

She said that police officers rarely invoked and randomly misapplied a new ordinance banning people in groups from carrying rifles, guns, water guns or lumber more than a quarter-inch thick. The ban was adopted earlier this month in anticipation of the demonstrations.

The ACLU has received about 100 complaints related to police treatment during the FTAA protests.

``We have many, many reports of people whose property was destroyed by police,'' Rodriguez-Taseff said. ``It was a wholesale suspension of the Fourth Amendment.''

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