Actually, I suspect that the scenario outlined in the OP is quite common. I once saw a group of black-clad anarchists set a flag on fire at a protest, and a cop rushed over and snatched the flag away, without arresting or beating up anyone, and that was the end of that. Perhaps this scenario is becoming even more common, since I think people have been put on trial for beating up flag-burners.
I don’t get angry at flag-burners or flag-rescuers. But people who beat up flag-burners should (and do) go to jail.
Precisely. See? She gets herself all kidnapped and murdered and stuff, and here would be the perfect cause for her to take up were she still alive, dog gone it.
I admit I didn’t quite get the “arson” remark, but the scenario from the O.P. could lead to a charge of simple robbery (at least under the laws of the State of Georgia):
Those firefighters that rushed into the WTC without regard for their personal safety were something, but is that anything compared to the heroism of stealing someone’s flag? :rolleyes:
It’s just the flag. It’s the symbol of freedom, not freedom itself.
Some people want to outlaw burning it because they feel they are protecting what their loved ones died for fighting in wars. In fact what they are doing is becoming what their loved ones died fighting against. Repressors of opinion. You might not like the opinion, but whatever your opinions are you can bet there are people who don’t agree with it. Aren’t you glad they can’t throw you in jail because of that?
If burning the flag is disrespectful, it’s no more disrespectful than flying it at McDonalds.
My intention in the OP was to see if I’d have any legal defense if I prevented a flag burning, and that’s been answered to my satisfaction.
Please note that I’m not in favor of an amendment barring flag burning, as I’ve said in other threads.
Suffice it to say, though, that unless there was such an amendment passed and you were burning a flag in protest of that, then your actions would most likely have an adverse effect on your cause…at least in my view.
Well, it’s certainly true that, as it now stands, the American flag is simply a symbol of the United States. Therefore, whatever message a flag burning is intended to convey, in practice it tends to send the message of hatred for the United States itself and its basic institutions.
However…if an amendment to the Constitution is ratified which bans “flag desecration”, then, to me at least, the flag will no longer stand for the United States or its Constitution or its fundamental institutions. The flag will have been successfully hijacked by self-righteous jingoists and right-wingers (with the aid and comfort, no doubt, of many spineless left-wingers) and, while I will still respect and support the United States and its Constitution, I will no longer have any respect at all for that particular piece of colored cloth.
I agree with 100% of your first paragraph, and about 95% of the second.
If, somehow, the legislators managed to get such a bill through Congress, and it somehow got, what, 38 states to ratify it, then I’d just have to resign myself to the fact that I didn’t understand the intent of the First Amendment to the Constitution as well as I thought I did.
But I’d still respect the flag. I’d think, though, that the actual desecration would actually lay in the amendment itself.
I’m not sure why you would make this statement. The Supreme Court has said that the First Amendment protects flag burning. If Congress and the state legislatures pass a constitutional amendment, it will overrule that decision, but it wouldn’t necessarily be the “original intent” of the First Amendment that would be enshrined in the Constitution, but rather the intent of the Congress and the state legislatures which pass the amendment.