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Last night a group called Disarm the NYPD met at Fort Greene Park to burn American and Confederate flags to protest "America's long history of institutionalized racism and murderous violence against black people."

Members of the group were outnumbered by angry bikers and media, and eventually at least one flag was burned.

"If anything it's a reenforcement to the vast portion of the American public that they're knuckleheads," NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton said yesterday, after he was asked about the flag burning. "If it goes into the realm of criminality, we'll certainly deal with it."

Bratton added, "It should be noted that the burning of the American flag…is not a violation of the law, it's an expression of the First Amendment freedom of speech."

It turned out that the NYPD's presence was necessary to prevent the bikers, armed with water guns and hammers, from attacking the few members of Disarm the NYPD.

Bikers and counter-protesters chased demonstrators from the park’s Prison Ship Martyrs Monument amidst cries of “cowards,” as others removed the burning flag from the flames.

“We must keep in mind that the Confederacy only lasted four years. Between the years of 1776 and 1861, slavery was upheld by the United States of America, not the Confederacy," Disarm the NYPD said in a statement. "In the years following the war, Jim Crow, segregation, and the extreme expansion of the prison industrial complex were all upheld by the United States of America, not the Confederacy.”

For those who remained, the night quickly devolved into a circus of arguing and proselytizing. One woman quietly sang the National Anthem and other songs to herself, as others took advantage of the police presence to state their cases in relative security. Tempers flared occasionally as one flag supporter quizzed demonstrators on the Geneva Convention, and again when a self-described anarchist and communist yelled “fuck your troops!” A Fox News correspondent on the scene, in an effort to discredit one protester, asked for America’s age.

As things came to an end, the swarming media outnumbered any demonstrators, and a flag-toting group gathered to chant “USA, USA”, and later, accusingly, “white trash, white trash”.

An NYPD spokeswoman confirmed that there were no arrests.

With reporting from Evan Alexander Siegel