2 jailed over Confederate flag fight in South Carolina

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Authorities say two tourists visiting South Carolina were arrested over the weekend in a dispute over the Confederate flag.


Local media outlets report the South Carolina Secessionist Party was putting on its weekly display Saturday of Southern flags when a woman broke two small Confederate flags off a parked truck and ran away with them.

James Bessenger, founder of the party, ran after her. Police say the woman's father told them he grabbed Bessenger to stop him from chasing his daughter.

Twenty-two-year-old Lydia Folckomer of Brooklyn, New York, has been charged with malicious injury to real property. Police say she told them she grabbed the flags because she was upset by them.

Fifty-year-old Paul Folckomer of Brevard, North Carolina, is charged with simple assault. It wasn't known if they had attorneys.