Flag-burning melee is most raucous protest of RNC so far; at least 18 arrested

Police here arrested 18 protesters, two of them on felony charges of assaulting a police officer, after one of them lit an American flag on fire Wednesday. Among those arrested was Gregory Lee “Joey” Johnson, whose burning of a flag more than 30 years ago at the 1984 GOP convention led to the landmark 1989 Supreme Court decision that flag-burning is speech protected under the First Amendment. Johnson, 59, of San Francisco, was charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, police said Thursday.