WASHINGTON — Federal authorities Monday arrested a person throughout the road from the White Home after he set an American flag on hearth the day President Donald Trump signed an government order meant to crack down on flag burning.
The person, who recognized himself as a 20-year fight veteran in a video posted to social media by the information outlet The Bulwark, mentioned, “I’m burning this flag as a protest to that unlawful fascist president that sits in that Home,” as he pointed towards the White Home from Lafayette Sq..
The Secret Service mentioned in an announcement that it detained the person round 6:15 p.m. ET “for igniting an object” and that he was turned over to U.S. Park Police.
Park Police mentioned they arrested the person for violating a statute that prohibits lighting a hearth in a public park.
The arrest got here hours after Trump signed an government order to crack down on “desecration” of the American flag in reference to inciting violence or violating different legal guidelines.
The order directs Lawyer Normal Pam Bondi to “vigorously prosecute” individuals who burn the American flag whereas engaged in different offenses, and it says she “might pursue litigation to make clear the scope of the First Modification exceptions on this space.”
The Supreme Court docket dominated 5-4 in 1989 that the Structure protects burning the American flag.
Trump’s order doesn’t make flag burning against the law or assess a penalty for it, but it surely argues that burning flags in a manner that’s “more likely to incite imminent lawless motion” or quantities to “combating phrases” shouldn’t be constitutionally protected.
When he signed the order, Trump mentioned: “If you burn the American flag, it incites riots at ranges that we’ve by no means seen earlier than. Individuals go loopy.”
The U.S. lawyer for D.C., Jeanine Pirro, has performed a key function within the Trump administration’s efforts to exert federal management over elements of Washington and proven a willingness to aggressively go after low-level transgressions. She mentioned this month that her workplace had charged a person accused of tossing a sandwich at a federal agent in D.C. with felony assault.
