St. Paul police arrested 286 people Monday — far exceeding the number of arrests at last week’s Democratic National Convention.

Most of the thousands of protesters Monday were peaceful, but small groups deviated from the city-approved parade route to break windows, slash tires and attempt to prevent delegates from reaching the Republican National Convention.

It was a much different scene than occurred in Denver last week, where only a few protest groups marched on the Democratic National Convention and police arrested about 130 people.

This week’s convention, on the other hand, has turned up as many as 8,000 protesters carrying anti-war signs and chanting for the end of the Iraq War.

Of the 286 arrests Monday, 130 were for felonies, 51 for gross misdemeanors and 103 for misdemeanors (with two “unknown,” according to the St. Paul Joint Information Center that was set up as a one-stop shop for convention information).

At least some of those arrests are already being questioned. The Associated Press reported that one of its photographers was arrested and a YouTube video shows police arresting “Democracy Now!” host Amy Goodman.