NEW YORK - April 10th 2009 - Riot police were caught on videotape Friday manhandling New School student protesters who seized a building to demand the resignation of university president Bob Kerrey.

An NYPD cop is shown on an amateur video tackling a protester on 14th Street as police retook a student center from the protesters. Another demonstrator is shown being slammed to the sidewalk on the video.

But cops released a video of their own that showed protesters hurling a metal barrier in the air and rampaging along 14th Street, footage they say shows police restraint amid chaos.

Police negotiators talked protesters into surrendering the Greenwich Village building a few hours after the demonstrators seized it before dawn.

Ona Mirkinson watched in dismay as cops knocked a protester down to the sidewalk outside.

"They shoved him to the ground and beat his head into the pavement," claimed Mirkinson, 30, a teacher from Brooklyn. "It's disgusting. I've never seen anything like that."

Police defended the operation and said the cops depicted in the video acted properly.

Kerrey, who has been under fire for years at the liberal bastion, said he had no choice but to call in the cops to roust the protesters.

"Their claim that this was a simple political protest is false," Kerrey said in a statement.

The video shows cops arresting protesters and supporters and also clearly shows them using pepper spray, even though police brass categorically denied they did so.

Twenty-two people were arrested, cops said. Most were charged with burglary and some were also hit with assault and resisting arrest counts.

There were no serious injuries reported.

Kerrey's eight year reign at the New School has been controversial among both students and faculty, 95% of whom passed a no-confidence motion against him last December.

"This is wrong and we need to change the way this university is run," said graduate student Scott Ritner, 26.

Ed. Note: This is wrong and we need to change the way this COUNTRY is run!!