Shouldn't flag burning be illegal just for safety reasons?

Question

It's illegal to roam the streets burning a 4 by 6 piece of cloth that ISN'T a flag - - it's a fire hazard for Chrissake. So how does the fact that it's a flag make what is clearly unacceptable now acceptable?

And think about the CO2 you're releasing!!!!!!!

And the dye and the thread...... it's GOT to be worse for the air quality than burning my leaves - but you Libs said we can't do that anymore.

OK Andrew, I guarantee you that in any city in the country if you go to a public place and take a match to a 4 foot by 6 foot piece of cloth, you'll at least be cited for it.

OK I understand you have an issue with laws specifically identifying the flag as something that can't be burned in public but my point is that it's MOOT - you ALREADY can't burn ANY large piece of cloth in public so why does it matter?

Answer 1

Yes it should.I had a contained trash fire on my property a couple of years ago,and the fire dept.came and extinguished it and cited me.Had i been on the ball,i would have told them that there was an American flag in the fire pit.

Answer 2

I've always found flag burning to be absurd - a contradiction. Destroying a symbol of freedom when exercising one's freedom of expression - nonsense!

Having said that, how far would you go to curtail freedom of expression and political protest? Would you go as far as the Thais, for example, where if you even accidentally step on a baht coin you can be arrested because the face of the King is on the coins? The penalty for intentionally stamping on a coin or note there is jail time. But I guess you probably didn't know that.

Answer 3

If the burning itself is dangerous, then it is banned under applicable safety laws.

If it's a law that specifies it's designation as a flag, then, no, you can't ban it.

Let's be clear here, protecting flag-burning as free speech only protects the flag-burning from laws that single it out as a crime based on it being a flag. If it's a danger, or a fire hazard, or someone else's property, it's illegal.

Answer 4

If someone burns the flag I hope he burns himself in the process. Legally he can do it. If we get all hot and bothered by it he has done what he set out to do. He got our attention. If we ignore him he will stop doing it. In most communities burning a piece of cloth is not illegal. If that cloth ignites something or someone else that is a problem.

Answer 5

If burning a flag is bad, imagine how much worse it must be to lie the country into an invasion... Invading Iraq should have been illegal for safety reasons...

Answer 6

Ok...let me go ahead and get this straight for you. Not every liberal is out there burning flags...I've never even seen one burn (in person) in my entire life. That is a far lunatic fringe...just like Timothy McVeigh, a staunch conservative blew up the federal buiding in OKC...I don't call all conservatives terrorists, now do I? That's because it is an unfair generalization. You should know the difference too if you are over the age of 12. Thanks.

Answer 7

Texas v. Johnson, the case which held flag burning to be secure speech, replaced right into a particular call, 5 to 4 interior the final court docket. for my section, i stumbled on Rehnquist's dissent to be the main persuasive argument. He argued that flag burning is "no needed part of any exposition of suggestions" yet fairly "the equivalent of an inarticulate grunt or roar that, it style of feels honest to assert, is maximum possibly to be indulged in to not convey any specific theory, yet to antagonize others." He went directly to assert that he felt the statute in question replaced right into a real looking restrict merely on the final way Johnson's theory replaced into expressed, leaving Johnson with, "an entire panoply of alternative symbols and each attainable type of verbal expression to precise his deep disapproval of national coverage." He quoted a 1984 ultimate court docket decision in city Council of la v. Taxpayers for Vincent, the place the final public reported that, "the 1st substitute does not assure the right to hire each attainable technique of communication in any respect circumstances and in each single place." i might might desire to trust that reasoning.

Answer 8

Given that I've never seen a US flag burned - either in person or on television - outside of the Israeli occupied territories, it surprises me that this issue generates so much heat and so little light.

Answer 9

I think it should be illegal because in some parts of this country, we still love the flag. If you burn it in those parts of the country, you are liable to get an asswhipping. I mean that is just a safety reason there.

Answer 10

I'm a liberal who burn leaves every two weeks. I only burn the flag when I'm mad enough - maybe once a year or so. Now, you cons want to stop me? Getoutahere!