PICKETING FIREFIGHTERS had applause Friday afternoon for a Providence mayor — though not the current one.

Former Mayor Vincent A. “Buddy” Cianci Jr. walked across Sabin Street from the Rhode Island Convention Center mid-afternoon, to the cheers of about 100 firefighters picketing outside the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Cianci, who served 4½ years in federal prison for running a criminal enterprise out of City Hall, walked down the picket line, shaking hands with firefighters.

What are you doing here, one asked. Cianci, now a radio talk-show host, held up his WPRO pass and said, “I have a press pass!”

THE LOUDEST APPLAUSE from the picketing firefighters Friday morning was for the Budweiser truck that blasted its horn as it passed by.

THE CONFERENCE BEGAN at 7 a.m., but union picketers were nowhere to be seen at that hour. Instead, about 40 firefighters congregated at the union’s Providence Firefighters Memorial Hall, watching television and playing pool. They were wearing white T-shirts that said: Fire Cicilline.

STANDING AMID about the firefighters on Sabin Street, across from the Convention Center, the staff representative for the Rhode Island State Association of Fire Fighters said the picketing firefighters at 10 a.m. hailed from Providence, Johnston, East Providence, Warwick, Cranston and Pawtucket.

“I assume in a short period of time, we’ll have representatives from every local in the state,” said Joseph A. Andriole, who is also the union president of Johnston Local 1950, the department from which he recently retired.

In addition to representatives of all 33 Rhode Island fire locals, Andriole said he expected firefighters from around New England at the protest.

When asked why the firefighters arrived an hour after the conference’s 8 a.m. start, Andriole said it was a strategic move to be outside during business hours.

THE POLICE PRESENCE that began on a small scale Friday grew as the morning wore on. Early on, one police car sat outside The Westin Providence hotel, across from the convention center’s north entrance, and officers were walking Sabin Street. The state police canine unit arrived with one dog around 7:30 a.m. and by 8:30 a.m., more officers and police cruisers were visible.

AT 7 A.M., BENEATH the overhang near the tunnel that goes under the sky bridge from the Westin to the Providence Place mall, a motorcade was parked — one Cadillac with a Washington, D.C., license plate and three SUVs with Massachusetts plates.

Providence police and two members of the Secret Service wouldn’t say who had arrived in the motorcade. But a member of the Secret Service asked a reporter not to photograph it.

A few minutes later, as a reporter walked on the sidewalk near the motorcade, a man in casual clothing who said he was with the Secret Service asked multiple times, “Are you writing down license plates?” while checking the reporter’s identification.

MOST OF THE picketing off-duty firefighters and police officers departed when rain grew heavy at 4:40 p.m.

–– reports from Tom Mooney, Kate Bramson, Thomas J. Morgan and Frieda Squires