AFTER FIRST HEARING that the NYPD was setting up holding cells on Pier 57, we were horrified. It seemed to represent everything that a paranoid most fears about any administration. Namely, that they really are going to start rounding up Americans for practicing their First Amendment rights. We expressed this fear last week on Page Two.

But after reading and hearing what the protestors who ended up in the old bus terminal had to say, we must admit our feelings are now more mixed. Simply put, many of the released protestors came off like the whiny, pampered kids they are.

"Ohh," they moaned, "the floor's got oil stains on it!" And "ooohhh, there's no place to sit!" And "ooohhh, they don't serve vegan snacks!"

One 20-year-old woman quoted in the Daily News even complained about the New Age music piped into the cells. "It was really degrading and upsetting," she said. Good thing she wasn't there long enough for them to get around to those Abu Ghraib-tested Engelbert Humperdinck torture tapes.

We're very happy that hundreds of thousands of people were in the streets protesting last week. We're no fans of last week's special guest. But while there's no question that several constitutional amendments were at the very least compromised during the GOP's visit, we wish the protestors—especially those who were quoted—didn't so often perfectly represent why we stopped joining mass street protests a long time ago. Nothing is more off-putting than some attention-seeking kid with a digi-cam who taunts the cops, partakes in various acts of civil disobedience, then screams "police brutality" the moment they face the inevitable, fully expected police response. Honorable descendants of Thoreau and King do not start cursing and chanting "the whole world is watching" as they get hauled away. They make their stands with quiet dignity, fully aware of the consequences and ready to pay the price, come what may.

Which is not to say the NYPD was the model of restraint, professionalism and rationality. Too many stories show otherwise. But protesters who loudly complain about the lack of amenities in their holding cells are simply revealing that they don't take what they're doing very seriously. In the end, their personal comfort appears more important to them than the very serious business that brought them onto the streets and into the jaws of the state's admittedly unpredictable security apparatus. It's as if they went into last week thinking they're untouchable because they're pampered white kids, and a holding cell without Evian is cruel and unusual punishment.

Believe us—you'd much rather spend the night in a stinky converted bus station with a bunch of your friends than in a regular holding cell at a local precinct house. As some protestors can attest, a few hours in one of those and you might well reconsider your feelings about the police and the poor, downtrodden people you claim to be fighting for.