Photojournalist Josh Pacheco recalled a hectic scene after a swarm of Chicago police officers ordered a crowd of protesters and journalists to disperse from a march in front of the Israeli Consulate on Tuesday.

“Nobody understood the dispersal order, nobody knew exactly where to go,” Pacheco told The Intercept, adding that they had been walking away, trying to leave the area with other journalists. “And that is when I was arrested, I was pulled off of the sidewalk.”

Pacheco — a freelance journalist who has worked with the New York Times, PBS, and Forbes — was one of at least three credentialed journalists arrested amid protests on the second day of the Democratic National Convention.

During their arrest, Pacheco, who was carrying their photography equipment with media credentials hanging around their neck, said they had identified themself as a journalist to officers. But Pacheco said an officer responded by snatching away their credentials.

“I did alert them that I was press,” Pacheco recalled. “It was very visible that I had my press pass.”

Pacheco spent the next nine hours in police custody. Also arrested in the same march were photojournalists Sinna Nasseri and Olga Federova, who shared on social media that they had been released by early Wednesday morning.

Nasseri, whose photography has been featured in the........

© The Intercept