The organization Picture the Homeless protested yesterday outside the Mayor's office and then outside of the Manhattan Criminal Court Building, to condemn the police practice of arresting homeless persons for supposed "disorderly conduct."

The activists asserted that police arrest and fine these individuals without specifying exactly what they have done in order to consider their behavior "disorderly."

Moreover, they pointed out that judges throw out the majority of these arrests and fines as baseless.

Alease Lowe, who serves on the Civil Rights Committee of Picture the Homeless, rejected the police's claim that they don't keep a record of these arrests, and criticized Attorney General Andrew Cuomo for not responding to her request that he demand the data from the NYPD. The only data available comes from surveys that the organization conducts in shelters and soup kitchens about these types of arrests, which make life difficult for the homeless and further challenge their ability to leave life on the streets.

"If you have an arrest or a fine on your record, you will have problems finding publicly subsidized housing, and if you live in a shelter, they can kick you out," said Lowe.

"I was also homeless three years ago and the police arrested me. They told me that I wasn't considered a citizen," said Angelo Vega, pointing out the inconsistency of the shelter system. "They wanted me to get a job, but they sent me to a shelter 50 miles outside of New York."

The Police Department issued a press release yesterday stating that of the 1,428 arrests made so far this year where disorderly conduct is the main charge, 91 percent of them were not of homeless individuals. And of the 8,066 arrests made during the same time period, where disorderly conduct was a minor offense, 95 percent were not homeless.