PHILADELPHIA -- Three progressive activists were taken to jail early Friday after they attempted to place Hillary Clinton under “citizen’s arrest” on the final night of the Democratic National Convention.

The citizen’s arrest was farcical from the beginning, with activists singing their indictment. But the sentiment was not a fringe perspective on the streets outside the DNC, which bustled all week with anti-Clinton activism.

It came after crowds numbering in the hundreds chanted for hours taunts such as “lock her up!” and “indict, convict, we’re sick of all your sh--!” at the gates of the convention venue. A sign saying “the Clintons are super predators and must be brought to heel” was attached to a perimeter fence and remained for hours.

Before attempting to climb over a wall of bicycle cops, one of the three self-deputized activists, a man wearing an Occupy DNC T-shirt, offered a call-and-response explanation for their action.

“Yo Hillary, your time has come!” he sang, with an echo from supporters. “To pay for all the crimes that you have done.”

“No this ain’t a simple protest -- We’re here to put you under arrest!”

Activists shared specific charges, which included Clinton allegedly conspiring with the Democratic National Committee to cheat Sen. Bernie Sanders of a fair shot at the party’s nomination. They alleged voter fraud and denounced her support for covert and overt U.S. war efforts abroad.

The female member of the trio belted into a megaphone that Clinton stood accused of “gross negligence in the matter of exposing national secrets for your own f--king convenience!” in reference to Clinton’s use of a private and insecure email server while secretary of state, for which Clinton will not face criminal charges following an FBI investigation.

The activists understood from the beginning it would be them, rather than Clinton, who wound up behind bars. But police officers frustrated their plans, initially shoving them away, resulting in a lengthy sit-in.

Police had just put out a press release saying Thursday saw no arrests and no citations for disorderly conduct. (The running convention total was then 103 disorderly conduct citations, which carry a $50 fine but often come with detentions first that feel like a conventional arrest. And at least 11 people faced a federal charge for climbing or shoving in the perimeter fence.)

But eventually, officers roughly took the three "citizen's arrest" activists into custody and chaotically loaded them into police vans. The city police department said late Friday afternoon they were released with disorderly conduct citations.

“They’re not guilty, she is!” a woman called after the vans.

One police officer not involved directly in the detentions asked what the activists had done. He seemed amused when told they attempted to arrest Clinton.

The night ended as hundreds of progressive activists who remained outside long after Clinton was done speaking welcomed Sanders delegates as heroes.

A large group of delegates marched down Broad St. toward the week’s well-tread protest areas. “We are the 1,900!” they chanted, referring to the approximate number of Sanders delegates, with Massachusetts delegate Maurice Taylor energetically prompting, “who are we?”

The two crowds -- protesters and delegates -- rushed toward each other like long-separated relatives in the wee hours of the morning. Many delegates thanked the activists for giving them strength to engage in activism inside the convention perimeter, which ranged from booing speakers to staging a sit-in at a media workspace.

Each day of the convention, hundreds or thousands of Sanders supporters marched and rallied at the gates of the convention, at first holding out hope delegates would pick the Vermont senator over popular vote winner Clinton, and when that didn’t happen, they announced their refusal to step in line.

“Hell no DNC, we won’t vote for Hillary!” was the anthem of the week for people who spent any time outside convention fences -- even more ubiquitous than U.S. flag burnings, carried out by the most radical protest elements at least twice on Thursday and Wednesday -- resulting in a progressive activist trying to stomp out the flames, setting her long dress on fire -- and twice on Tuesday, though one of those featured two flags.

Generally, police allowed protesters room to do as they please. A Cannabis Pride Parade on Thursday featured public smoking of marijuana -- illegal and punishable by a $100 ticket in Philadelphia -- but did not bust anyone. A mass consumption happened at 3:59 p.m. rather than 4:20 amid steady rain. Officers watched and smiled. One circled close by on a bicycle.

On Thursday, many protesters and delegates said they would leave the Democratic Party after Sanders’ defeat. But in a disappointment to protesters an anticipated mass walkout of Sanders delegates during Clinton’s speech fizzled under still unclear circumstances.

Caressa Stoller, a Sanders delegate from West Virginia, waited outside a gate where protesters expected delegates to walk through. She says she left the convention early -- on Tuesday -- as she was tired of being around “sheeple.” She says she spent the rest of the week protesting.

Stoller, who says she now will vote for Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, isn’t alone in declaring she’s done.

The Quiet Corners of the DNC View All 19 Images

Taylor, who led the marching Sanders delegates, attended an anti-Clinton bean banquet “fart-in” protest at the gates of the convention on Wednesday, where he said he also plans to vote for Stein. Two other Massachusetts delegates at that protest, Zakiyyah Sutton and Kathleen Hong, said they weren’t sure who to support.

One of the few delegates who did make it out of the convention at about the time Clinton spoke, California Sanders delegate Eric Reynolds, told a crowd featuring at least a dozen bandanas that party leaders were lying about “party unity” behind Clinton.

Kevin Hunt, an Oregon delegate who later addressed delegates, says delegates were “trapped by plainclothes Comcast cops” when they left Clinton’s “highly jingoistic” speech. “I felt like it was the German Reichstag 1936,” he said.

The reason the mass walkout failed to materialize nonetheless remains foggy. Possible contributing factors include locked doors off the convention hall floor and a reported request from Sanders himself that delegates not protest.

But alternative explanations abound. An activist showed others a text message he said was from a California delegate, who texted she had tried to join the crowd but had instead been funneled onto a one-way northbound train that did not make stops.

An Indiana delegate who arrived even later said he had been put out of a far-away exit. Other delegates did not volunteer a reason.

Gregory McKelvey, a Sanders delegate from Oregon, told activists to keep up the fight.

“This revolution is going to continue way longer than Bernie Sanders,” he said. “The protesters on the streets, the actions you see inside, it’s taking over the country now.”

It remains to be seen, however, if the progressive movement can harness and direct this week’s enthusiasm, which on several occasions was manifest in thousands of people marching a four-mile route despite heat in the mid-90s.