PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia police arrested five people who they said tried to burn a large American flag in Washington Square Park in Society Hill Sunday evening.
According to police, about 25 people gathered in the square around 6 p.m. Officials said a protest leader placed a large American flag on the sidewalk and doused it with an accelerant. That’s when police officers walked over with a fire extinguisher.
Police said members of the crowd formed a circle around the officers to block them, and bicycle officers intervened.
After they parted the crowd and prevented a fire from being lit, police said the crowd refused multiple dispersal orders.
At that point, police arrested three men and two women for failure to disperse. Officials said the rest of the group left.
Police said this was the third demonstration of the day; the two previous gatherings were larger but incident-free.
