Activists on Thursday alleged the city of Miami, Police Chief John Timoney and other officials violated their constitutional rights during November's free-trade summit in a lawsuit aiming to stop the ''Miami model'' from being used against other mass protests nationwide.

The federal civil-rights suit asserts that Miami police and other agencies used such an array of force against anti-free trade demonstrators that they muzzled free speech, conducted unlawful search and seizures and made false arrests.

About 2,500 police officers provided security for the Free Trade Area of the Americas meeting in downtown Miami.

Police arrested 234 demonstrators during the summit, using Tasers, rubber bullets and tear gas. Timoney and other officials defended the show of force as reasonable given the violence they faced from protesters who threw rocks, bottles and other objects.

Timoney said police ``showed remarkable restraint.''

The suit, which seeks class-action status, was filed by the Miami Activist Defense, an ad hoc group of activists, attorneys and law students, and the National Lawyers Guild, a New York-based liberal organization that deployed legal observers to the summit.

They asked for both compensatory and punitive damages, including legal costs, lost property, medical expenses and other damages.

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