Mayor Michael Bloomberg, already under fire for his tough stance against anti-GOP protest groups, yesterday suggested that First Amendment rights of free speech and free assembly are "privileges" that could be lost if abused.

Bloomberg, speaking to Republican National Convention volunteers in Manhattan, was trying to downplay concerns that protesters will disrupt this month's convention - when he began articulating a broader constitutional vision.

"People who avail themselves of the opportunity to express themselves ... they will not abuse that privilege," he said at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. "Because if we start to abuse our privileges, then we lose them, and nobody wants that."

The mayor's comments drew immediate criticism from protest groups and came amid reports that federal agents and city police have been questioning activists, monitoring Web sites and dropping in unannounced on organizational meetings.

"The right to protest is not nor has it ever been a privilege - it is a constitutionally protected right that everybody in this country enjoys," said Leslie Cagan, head of United for Peace and Justice, which has locked horns with the city over its attempt to stage a 250,000-person protest in Central Park. "I have no idea what he's talking about. I'm completely flabbergasted."

Bloomberg press secretary Ed Skyler said, "The mayor certainly did not mean to imply that the First Amendment was in jeopardy here; nothing could be further than the truth, as the convention will show."

The online dictionary, Law.com, defines a privilege as a "special benefit, exemption from a duty, or immunity from penalty, given to a particular person, a group or a class of people." A right, on the other hand, is defined as a "an entitlement to something, such as ... freedoms of speech, press, religion, assembly and petition," according to the online law dictionary.

City officials have granted permits for a 50,000-person protest in Central Park and have offered Cagan's group a route that passes Madison Square Garden and culminates on the West Side Highway, which the group accepted, then rejected. The parties met yesterday but failed to reach a new agreement, Cagan said.

As Bloomberg arrived at John Jay yesterday, he was greeted by a
now-familiar contingent of off-duty police officers hectoring him for a raise. In previous demonstrations, protesters were allowed within a few feet of the mayor. Yesterday, they were ushered behind steel barricades 20 yards away.

"We're offending the mayor, and now we're being forced into pens," said Walter Liddy, a Patrolmen's Benevolent Association official who led the protest.