As President Joe Biden's convoy passed by, police in New York apprehended a guy whom they believe was attempting to set an American flag on fire.
A report from Breaking 4 News claims that the event occurred at 4 p.m., on Thursday. Several New York Police Department (NYPD) uniformed police surrounded the anonymous man, who was clothed in a bright neon jacket, according to the site.
Man sets fire to American flag
A photograph of the flag that he allegedly tried to light on fire as the presidential entourage passed him on their way to the NYPD headquarters was also presented. The man allegedly attempted to burn the banner, which had a hole and a torch mark in it.
President Biden, who was in New York City to speak with Mayor Eric Adams about lowering gun crime in the city, looked to be the target of the incident. As the president made his way through the streets of New York, a handful of protestors were observed along the route. The individual who set fire to the flag has yet to be charged.
Burning an American flag is not a crime in and of itself. In the landmark 1989 decision of Texas v. Johnson, the US Supreme Court ruled that flag burning was a form of free speech protected by the First Amendment. Even though there have been several attempts by Congress to alter this decision through suggested amendments, flag burning has remained unquestionably allowed ever since, according to Newsweek.
On Thursday, as the presidential vehicle arrived in Lower Manhattan to carry President Joe Biden to NYPD Headquarters for a roundtable with elected officials, protesters met it with scathing chants and insults.
On Pearl Street near the Brooklyn Bridge, a group of protesters gathered behind a police roadblock to give the president a hard time. "Let's go, Brandon, let's go, Brandon," one protester chanted as the police motorcycle-led motorcade came off the FDR Drive, which has become a popular, strange anti-Biden slogan on the right.
As the president's armored Cadillac limousine passed by, another demonstrator screamed, "You are not my president, Joe Biden" via a microphone and made an incoherent comment about a pedophile.
Mayor Eric Adams, Gov. Kathy Hochul, and Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell met with Biden, US Attorney General Merrick Garland, and members of Congress at One Police Plaza to discuss illicit guns and crime in the city, as per Fox5 New York.
Biden visits New York to discuss combating gun violence
The visit of President Joe Biden comes at a time when there is a growing national concern about public safety and police brutality. In addition to other additional steps, Mayor Eric Adams of New York and other municipal leaders are requesting federal aid in reducing the flow of weapons into the state.
According to a senior administration source, Biden chose New York not just because the city has suffered a rise in gun violence, but also because it has implemented gun-crime prevention techniques that the president supports.
Biden's visit was accompanied by a number of new efforts by the Justice Department, including a National Ghost Gun Enforcement Initiative that will teach a limited group of attorneys on how to prosecute laws regarding untraceable guns with no serial numbers.
Earlier this year, the first police fatalities in New York City occurred, and there are worries that killings are on the rise across the country. After being dispatched to a domestic disturbance in Harlem last month, police officers Wilbert Mora and Jason Rivera were shot and killed. The night of the shooting, Rivera, 22, died. Last week, Mora, a 27-year-old man, was taken off life support. In total, five officers from the New York Police Department were shot in January, USA Today reported.
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