MIAMI -- A Miami New Times reporter said she doesn't understand why she was arrested during last week's protests against a proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas.

Reporter Celesete Fraser Delgado, 36, said she was interviewing protesters opposed to the proposed 34-nation free-trade pact Thursday when a Miami-Dade County police cruiser pulled up and an officer yelled at the group to get on the ground.

Delgado said she was surrounded by officers and forced to the ground, then arrested along with the protesters. Another reporter captured the arrest on videotape.

Anti-FTAA protests had turned sporadically violent Thursday, with some demonstrators throwing objects and hurling liquids, and smoke bombs with slingshots at officers, some of whom responded by hitting protesters with sticks, zapping them with stun guns and dispersing them with gas.

But Delgado said she and those who were arrested with her complied peacefully. She said she was handcuffed and put into a police van even though she told officers she was a reporter.

"I kept asking them 'What am I being detained for?' but they wouldn't say. In the paddy wagon we could hear the police officers arguing about what they were going to charge us with," Delgado said.

Delgado was charged with two misdemeanors, failure to obey a legal command and resisting arrest without violence. The charges were dropped during her arraignment Friday and she was released.

Protesters and officials from the AFL-CIO, which organized a Thursday march against the FTAA, have accused the police of over-reacting, saying officers attacked and arrested peaceful protesters along with those who were violent.

Police officials declined specific comment Monday on Delgado's case, but said officers acted appropriately during the melees. The State Attorney's Office said Delgado's charges were dropped for lack of evidence.