Two of about 30 Brandeis students who joined hundreds of thousands of people in New York City Saturday to protest the possible war against Iraq were arrested. There were 400,000 protesters in New York according to estimates by the organizing groups. New York City police said more than 100,000 attended. The New York protest was one of many held in major cities around the world that day. Brandeis students Aaron Cela '04 and Matthew Andrews '04 were arrested by New York City Police. According to the lawyers for other arrested protesters, over 300 were charged with disorderly conduct. Both Brandeis students have been released and Andrews is now back on campus."They (the police) shoved my head into the pavement and then another cop put his knee on the back of my head and a third cop pressed my ankles down into the pavement with a nightstick," Andrews said. "The voice of what must have been a female cop shouted, 'Stand up, mother fucker!' I was so shaken I said I couldn't stand, but if they lifted me to my feet I could walk."

Susan Tsoglin '04 was with Andrews and witnessed the arrest. She said the police began shoving people in various directions with what she said was the intention to split the group of protestors in two, so that busses and other traffic could pass. They also blocked the intersection of 53rd Street and 3rd Avenue, dividing the protesters.

According to CNN, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said, "I think (the protest) went well. It was orderly. We facilitated people's ability to make their opinions known."

CNN reported more than 5,000 police officers were on duty as law enforcement remained on high alert after recent warnings of a possible terrorist attack. Kelly said there were injuries to eight officers, including one who was pulled off his horse and beaten by demonstrators.

Tsoglin said the police gave them no warning when they tried to break up the group. "Of course, we weren't warned (of the police attempt to split the group), and the lack of space on the sidewalks just caused people to get pushed into one another and get angry with the unnecessary demonstration of power by the police," Tsoglin said. "Matt tried to hold on to my sleeve for a few moments so that our group of five people stays together, but the police decided that the only way to split us into two quickly was to charge with horses, and so I quickly lost sight of Matt and everybody else I had been with."

Tsoglin said she believes the police used excessive force by using horses as "weapons."

"The horses are not made to be used as weapons, so they swayed their heads and tried to avoid people, and it freaked us out because the use of horses as forms of police brutality was just ... ridiculous," Tsoglin said. "I had been slightly kicked in the ankle by one of the horses."

Andrews said he recalls almost being hit by a horse. "Then the cops with nightsticks passed me into the crowd and I was face to face with a horse for a second," he said.

Tsoglin said she watched as Andrews and Cela were trapped in the "soup of policemen and horses."

"Seconds later, I watched Matt being forced to the ground, several police officers holding him down, and another protestor with blonde dreads rushing over to try to help him get up," she said. "At this point, I was being held back by a new line of police and was screaming, 'Oh god Matt, oh god Matt,' to myself and panicking."

Andrews said he believes he did not do anything wrong. "I don't understand why we were targeted for this abuse. Nobody on my chain-gang was hostile to the police," he said. He said he was instructed by a legal observer from the People's Law Collective to plead not guilty to the charges as the observer said he believed the charges would probably be waved.

During his arrest, Andrews said he lost both his hat and glove and that he was hurt. "I now have bruises all around my head, under my right cheekbone and on my ankles and knees as well as a mark on my left wrist from the handcuffs," he said.

After the arrest, Andrews said he was kept in a bus from 3 p.m. to around 10:30 p.m. and then was taken to a police station in Manhattan and released at around 12:30 a.m.

"We were kept in handcuffs and not given any food or water or allowed to use a bathroom," he said.

"After several hours, my left hand was becoming swollen and numb because the handcuffs were too tight," he said.

Andrews said he believes the police were using "intimidation tactics."

"This is standard for the NYPD from my experience," he said.

After the arrest, Tsoglin said she lost sight of two others she had been with, Elisa Harkness and Jeffrey Kosbie, for about half an hour. Ultimately, she said she was able to locate them and after several phone calls, she said they confirmed that Andrews and Cela were arrested.

We were relieved and hoped that if Aaron had been arrested, that they would at least be together," she said. "Later on that night, nine hours or so after Matt and Aaron had been arrested, they were released and we found Matt covered with bruises on his forehead -- where he had had his head buried into the cement and held down by a police officer's knee. Ridiculous -- simply ridiculous."

"I went to NYC to stop a U.S. war against Iraqis and found myself in a U.S. war against Americans," Andrews said. "If protesting did not have any power, they would have ignored us -- I believe their brutality was a sign of our effectiveness. They have decided they can't ignore us.