A group of anti-racism and police brutality protesters, called Disarm NYPD, burned a Confederate and American flag in the middle of Brooklyn's Fort Greene Park on Wednesday night.
The confederate flag made appearances on the news and social media in association with the shooting in South Carolina on the evening of June 17. The shooting took place in a church in Charleston and took the lives of nine, innocent people.
Yesterday, New York Daily News reported that the Disarm NYPD accomplished the plan. As the group began burning the flags, another group of pro-flag supporters rushed towards Disarm NYPD in order to stop the burning. Flag burners dispersed but gathered back at the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument to discuss the event afterwards.
One of the flag burners, 24 year-old Amanda Meltzer, declared, "My brothers are buried under this flag! They're not critically thinking about what the flag represents! It represents genocide, imperialism, and oppression!"
"Through direct action, organizing, education, and other tactics we will continue struggling until the NYPD has no more firearms," Disarm NYPD stated on their official website.
During the planning of the event, the group organized a Facebook event page. "We will set fire to this symbol of oppression- the American flags- and march to honor our brothers and sisters who have fallen in the long struggle for freedom," Disarm NYPD wrote on the page.
Pro-flag supporters remained at the monument to sing "America the Beautiful" and discussed whether Disarm NYPD violated the right to free speech. "They have a right to burn the flag but I have a right to say I don't like it," one flag supporter answered.
NY Daily News confirms that no arrests were made during the protest.
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