In an elaborate four-day simulation, they practiced breaking up unruly demonstrations and having a lone suicide bomber rush in.

The unruly demonstrations, which seemed to be coordinated, were an unpardonable attack against civil order across the Continent.

It is especially troubling that the board may have been intimidated by unruly demonstrations by Bush supporters.

Mr. Steisel also linked police misconduct and Mr. Giuliani's expletive-laced address to officers at an unruly demonstration last year.

He said an unruly demonstration by thousands of police officers last Wednesday had "changed the political landscape" of the issue, giving the bill's proponents a sudden and significant political boost.

Pressures on the police worsened last year, when the country suffered a wave of terrorist attacks in the summer and national strikes accompanied by unruly demonstrations in the winter.

"I had problems with the police rally," he said, referring to Mr. Giuliani's address to an unruly demonstration at City Hall last September.

The Police Department faced its biggest test of the Republican National Convention yesterday, confronting a series of large, unannounced and sometimes unruly demonstrations with a massive show of force.

Israel has stepped up its response, again shelling Palestinian buildings, firing into unruly demonstrations and focusing on militants.

Juxtaposing candidly personal interviews with shots of unruly demonstrations, the film becomes a microcosm of the national political divisions and the debates surrounding free speech.