CLEVELAND
(AP) — Police arrested 17 people Wednesday after a melee broke out
during a flag-burning in the streets outside the Republican National
Convention.
It
was the most turbulent protest since the four-day convention began on
Monday. The chaos briefly prevented delegates and members of the media
from getting into the Quicken Loans Arena for the evening's proceedings.
Among
those arrested was Gregory "Joey" Johnson, whose torching of the flag
at a GOP convention three decades ago led to the landmark 1989 U.S.
Supreme Court decision that said flag-burning is speech protected by the
First Amendment.
Two
officers were assaulted and suffered minor injuries, police said. One
officer was seen bleeding from an elbow. Two of those arrested were
charged with felonious assault on a police officer, the rest with
failure to disperse.
Police
Chief Calvin Williams said a protester whose pants caught fire got
defensive when a police officer tried to put out the blaze. The man
assaulted the officer, and "things escalated from there," Williams said.
The
melee brought to 22 the number of people arrested during the
convention, far fewer than some law enforcement authorities had feared.
"Right
now, I think so far, so good," Williams said Wednesday night. "We're
still out there, we're still vigilant, to make sure we finish this day
and the last day tomorrow on a positive note."
The
protest took place just outside an entrance to the arena and near a row
of popular restaurants where cable news networks had set up for the
week.
Carl
Dix of the Revolutionary Communist Party said the group organized the
burning of the American flag as a "political statement about the crimes
of the American empire. There's nothing great about America."
Moments
after the flag was set on fire, officers charged in to put it out with
an extinguishing spray that some in the crowd thought was pepper spray
because of similarities in the design of the canisters and the eye
irritation caused by the fire-suppression substance.
"You're on fire! You're on fire, stupid!" a Cleveland officer shouted at a protester while firing the extinguishing spray.
"Burn that rag! Burn that rag!" supporters of the group yelled.
Pushing
and shoving broke out, and police quickly had several group members on
the ground in handcuffs. Some in the crowd jeered the officers, yelling,
"Blue lives murder!"
About 10 more minutes passed before the crowd was under control.
Earlier
in the day Wednesday, blocks away from the arena, a right-wing
religious group lifted a banner reading "Jesus is angry with you
sinners," while kissing lesbians mocked their message, helping turn
Cleveland's Public Square into part-carnival, part-debate floor.
The
expansive square was a free-flowing mix of ideas and beliefs along with
colorful characters pounding on bongos and wailing on a sousaphone.
The
day's demonstrations started when a few dozen people holding banners
printed with a red-brick design formed a human wall to mock Donald
Trump's plan to seal off the Mexican border.
"We want to wall off the hate of Trump," said Tim Chavez, of Columbus.
A half-dozen Trump supporters defended the GOP nominee from attacks by immigration activists.
Police officers used bicycles and their bodies to separate those with opposing views.
___
Associated Press writer Mark Gillispie contributed to this report.
___
This
story has been corrected to show that police used fire-extinguishing
spray, not pepper spray, and that the charges included failure to
disperse, not inciting violence
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