A planned American flag burning at LSU ended before it started when about 1,000 LSU students and other protesters forced police to intervene.

LSU graduate student Benjamin Haas had originally planned to burn an American flag Wednesday to promote his First Amendment rights and to support an LSU student arrested last week for stealing and burning a flag.

When Haas finally arrived to a chaotic scene, he was surrounded by a large crowd yelling obscenities and chanting, "U-S-A" and "Go to hell hippie, go to hell."

Police say horse-mounted offices escorted Haas out for his own safety to a police car as the crowd followed and he was driven off. He was not arrested.
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