Getting a jump start on the convention, anti-war/Bush/capitalism/fill-in-the-blank protesters took the streets of New York yesterday. Crowd estimates range 120,000 (NYPD estimate) to upwards of 450,000 (United for Peace and Justice estimate).

The protests, for the most part, were peaceful:

While often loud in denouncing President Bush, the protesters were mostly peaceful, a fact acknowledged by Mayor Bloomberg, who said, “United for Peace and Justice has behaved responsibly, as have virtually all the marchers.”

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly also commended the protesters “for keeping their word they pledged that [they] would follow the march route.

However, there were quite a few incidents which may make a bit uneasy as to how the next four days will unfold.

Protesters threw urine-filled balloons at cops, knocked down barricades and are planning to throw eggs at delegates who venture into the theater district. And:

In addition, there are groups that are passing out baskets of wirecutters and razor blades to cut the plastic Flexicuffs the police use to handcuff suspects under arrest.

Yes, there are dozens of protesters now walking around with razor blades.

A few bloggers are live-blogging the protests:

Ryan Sager, Jason Calacanis have some photos up while Matt Margolis has been audio blogging (scroll down).

[Thanks to A.Pundit - who has extensive protest coverage - for most of the links]