Flag-burning melee is most raucous protest of RNC so far; at least 18 arrested
CLEVELAND — Police here arrested 18 protesters, two of them on felony charges of assaulting a police officer, after one of them lit an American flag on fire Wednesday.
Among those arrested was Gregory Lee “Joey” Johnson, whose burning of a flag more than 30 years ago at the 1984 GOP convention led to the landmark 1989 Supreme Court decision that flag-burning is speech protected under the First Amendment. Johnson, 59, of San Francisco, was charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, police said Thursday.
Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams said during a press briefing Wednesday night that the protester who set the flag alight inadvertently set his pants leg on fire. When police officers tried to extinguish the flames, he fought back, which led to the felony assault charge.
The melee involved a group, identified by local media as the Revolutionary Communist Party, outside the secure delegate entrance to the Republican National Convention hall and near Cleveland’s East Fourth Street entertainment district.
Protesters Joseph Scogin, 38, of Oxnard, Calif., and Dominique Knox, age unknown, of Cleveland, were charged with felony assault on a police officer. The other 15 demonstrators were charged with miscellaneous misdemeanor charges, including failure to disperse, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Williams said that the suspects were not arrested for lighting the flag on fire, but rather for inciting violence and assault.
“[The protester] lit himself on fire … he lit other people on fire,” which turned the demonstration into what police deemed an “unlawful assembly,” Williams said.
“We gave dispersal orders,” Williams said. “Those that didn’t leave were arrested.”
The protest started at about 4 p.m. and involved about 20 protesters. As one protester lit the flag, others chanted, “America was never great.” A throng of media circled the demonstration in a tight ring. Police, using bicycles for leverage, edged into the crowd and forced camera-wielding media reporters away.
Over the next half-hour, hundreds of police officers, including some in riot protective gear and some mounted officers, arrived to disperse the crowd of protesters, media and onlookers. Officers formed tight lines, using bicycles and their bodies to corral people out of the street and down the block.
During the press briefing, Williams said that there had been more media representatives present than protesters.
A total of 23 people have been arrested during the first three days of the convention, according to police officials. Earlier on Wednesday, Williams said he was pleased with the city’s security plan and that efforts to keep the peace had “gone good so far.”
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