crankymessiah wrote:
] ] LA HABRA -- Antiwar protesters burned and ripped up
] ] flags, flowers and patriotic signs at a Sept. 11 memorial
] ] that residents erected on a fence along Whittier
] ] Boulevard days after the terrorist attacks in 2001 and
] ] have maintained ever since.
] ]
] ] However, although officers witnessed the vandalism
] ] Saturday afternoon, police did not arrest three people
] ] seen damaging the display because they were "exercising
] ] the same freedom of speech that the people who put up the
] ] flags were,' La Habra Police Capt. John Rees said Monday.
] ]
] ] "For this to be vandalism, there had to be an ill-will
] ] intent,' he said.

Followup article here, about what the police did or didn't see. According to new reports, the police did witness people doing things like changing signs that said "We Love the USA" to say "No War", but the actual vandalism such as tearing or burning flags did not occur until after the police had left:

http://www.whittierdailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,207%7E12026%7E1237155,00.html