ST. PAUL, Minn., Sept. 2 (UPI) -- Amy Goodman, the host of Pacifica Radio's "Democracy Now!," has been arrested while covering protests at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.

Goodman and two producers were arrested Monday, The Washington Post reported. Goodman was held for about three hours before being released but the producers were still in custody Monday night, the newspaper said.


Goodman, 51, the best-selling author of "The Exception to the Rulers," said she was on the convention floor interviewing delegates when she got word that producers Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar had been arrested. She said when she got to the scene of the protest, she was arrested as well.

"(Police) seriously manhandled me and handcuffed my hands behind my back. The top ID (at the convention) is to get on the floor and the Secret Service ripped that off me. I had my 'Democracy Now!' ID too. I was clearly a reporter."

St. Paul police arrested 284 people Monday in reported incidents of violence and road obstruction by a few demonstrators in what the Star Tribune newspaper in Minneapolis said was an otherwise peaceful crowd estimated at 10,000.

St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman said police exercised restraint but an observer for the National Lawyers Guild, Gina Berglund, said the police action was "completely out of proportion."