Now that the tear gas has dissipated, civil libertarians are gearing up to sue the city of Miami on a variety of constitutional issues, alleging massive police misconduct during protests of the Free Trade Area of the Americas conference.

The American Civil Liberties Union says it will file a lawsuit in the next few weeks claiming illegal searches and seizures. The organization is compiling anecdotes from protesters claiming police randomly stopped them without probable cause and searched their belongings.

One ACLU lawyer found three garbage bags full of protester belongings in a downtown gutter where several demonstrators and a journalist were arrested Thursday following a melee between protesters and police.

Protest groups say police were making wholesale sweeps. "It was almost as if they were 'hunting' activists," said Kris Hermes of Miami Activist Defense.

"I don't see anything that supports their claims, but we are looking into all of it," Miami police spokesman Delrish Moss said Monday. "Police officers understand the laws that surround 'stop and frisk' even in situations that deal with protests."

About 7,000 demonstrators flooded downtown Miami to protest the FTAA last week. Protesters say the removal of of trade barriers will cost U.S. jobs, pollute the environment and create an exploited labor force in Latin America.

The demonstrators were met by 2,500 police from 40 departments, many of them in riot gear. Officers used an array of weapons on demonstrators: tear gas, pepper sprays, batons of all sizes, rubber bullets, tasers and electric shields.

In all, about 230 were arrested. Only a few remained behind bars as of Monday, protest groups said.

Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, director of the ACLU's South Florida chapter, said the seizing and dumping of belongings of protesters is a clear violation of the Constitution's Fourth Amendment. "This is cops taking the law into their own hands," she said.

By throwing away driver licenses and passports, she said, police make it much more difficult for a person arrested to bond out of jail or to even get on an airplane back home.

She said the behavior of the police is astonishing, considering the city of Miami paid $1.5 million in 1997 to settle an ACLU suit for burning the possessions of homeless people arrested for vagrancy.

The ACLU is not the only group planning a lawsuit against Miami and the police. The National Lawyers Guild, Miami Activist Defense and the AFL-CIO, among others, also have indicated they plan to take legal action.

Hermes said his group is looking into how other constitutional rights of protesters, such as the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney, were also violated.

One of those who may file a lawsuit is lawyer Brenna Bell, who was arrested with about 25 protesters dispersing after a rally in front of the Miami-Dade County Jail.

Bell said she spent 17 hours in handcuffs, without water, and was refused access to an attorney. She said others arrested for crimes not associated with the protests were not subject to the same conditions.

"It was incredibly disparate treatment," Bell said. "One person heard prison guard talk that orders from the top were to treat us a lot more different than their usual procedures."

And the anti-FTAA protests continue. A group of about 10 people, some with their faces painted, marched in West Palm Beach Monday, near Clematis Street and CityPlace. Police followed them closely.

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