In an ugly display outside the Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee Tuesday night, a man previously convicted of arson taunted police and passersby with racist and anti-gay slurs.

In new video posted by talk radio host Vicki McKenna, Corey Kirkwood can be seen lighting an American flag on fire.

NSFW:

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Kirkwood can be seen in the video shouting at police officers across the street and calling someone driving by a “fag.” Yelling at officers, he can be heard saying, “Come do your job, nigga.”

“Light it up, this is the way I light it up,” he shouts. “Light the motherf*cking flag right up.”

Kirkwood sings, “There’s some fag-ass police over there, they’re sucking cock (indescipherable)…” When some white passersby criticized him for burning the flag, he referred to them as “white honkeys.”

When he was confronted by Fox 6 after photos of his antics went viral, Kirkwood denied involvement.

“I was basically displaying my First Amendment right. I didn’t ever put anything on fire down at the convention last night,” Kirkwood said.

“I had my freedom of speech to stand on that flag, to lay next to that flag that was burning,” he said.

Police brought up a previous arson conviction for Kirkwood. He claims he’s being harassed by police and is considering a lawsuit.

“This particular character attempts to cause trouble every time he goes to a demonstration. We protected his right to be an (expletive),” Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn said.

“Setting fire to a flag is protected speech. The challenge is what’s the venue in which you choose to do that? I would assert setting fire to something in the middle of a crowd of people is an inherently dangerous act. We will bring those charges forward,” according to Flynn.

Video posted by the Milwaukee Police Department solemnly folding up the charred flag after Kirkwood left it in the street:

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Police say the incident has been referred to the Milwaukee DA’s office for possible charges.