I have heard via a friend that the penalty for assaulting someone who was inappropriately destroying a flag was only $50. Is this true?
Where?
It’s possible that there might be some municipal ordinance somewhere that purports to say something along those lines, but assault is assault, and only a state law could give an affirmative defense like that.
I doubt seriously that such a state law exists anywhere.
But not having an encyclopediac knowledge of all fifty U.S. states’ laws, not to mention the possibility you were asking about non-U.S. flags and places… I have no idea.
- Rick
Utter nonsense.
Assault is assault. It doesn’t matter if the person was burning a flag or insulting your mother.
This sounds like an urban legend. Even if it were your own flag, it would hardly be an act of self-defence.
It’s possible that in some jurisdictions, the penalty for assault is something like “or a fine of $50 to $5,000”. This wouldn’t be referring to any specific sort of assault, but it’s conceivable that someone assaulted a flag-burner and got fined fifty bucks in punishment.
In his 1989 book “Parliament of Whores”, P.J. O’Rourke wrote that “…one southern state (passed) a statute fining people $25 for assaulting a desecrator of the flag…” He didn’t say which state.