Excerpt:
Planned hearings by the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security on the "radicalization of the American Muslim community" drew noisy protesters on both sides of the issue to his Long Island office on Tuesday.
About 100 opponents of the hearings were confronted by about the same number of supporters, some waving "Don't Tread on Me" flags and chanting slogans favoring the hearings. For a time, protesters from each side argued heatedly in face-to-face confrontations in a parking lot adjacent to the congressman's office before police stepped in and separated the groups with barricades.
At one point, hearing supporters sang "God Bless America," while moments later their counterparts sang, "This Land is Your Land." No arrests were reported.