Latest protest scuffles at RNC leave 18 arrested, 2 police slightly hurt

CLEVELAND - Eighteen people were arrested and four, including two police officers, suffered minor injuries when protesters burned an American flag and scuffled with police Wednesday outside the entrance to the Republican National Convention.

Burning a flag is legal. But the protesters will face charges including failure to disperse, resisting arrest, and felonious assault on an officer, police said. Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams said that flames from the flag set several people's pants legs on fire, and that officers were assaulted while trying to put the fire out.

Two protesters were injured trying to put the fire out, police said, but declined treatment.

The number of arrests was the highest reported thus far in a single day at the convention. The day was marked by a mass display of police force, including officers in riot gear, a rare sight this week in a city that has seen largely peaceful demonstrations. For much of Wednesday, demonstrators milled amiably about the downtown Public Square, chanting, singing, and occasionally arguing, but without incident.

Over the three days before Wednesday's demonstration, five people had been arrested for minor offenses. A group called the Revolutionary Communist Party organized the flag-burning and has been protesting here since Sunday.

Reports that the group would burn a flag drew hundreds of reporters, police officers and firefighters to East Fourth Street and Prospect Avenue, the closest those without credentials can get to the GOP convention site. (Williams said Wednesday that the "massive media presence" was making it difficult for his department to police protests.)

News cameras surrounded a man with a flag, who angrily told reporters he was a Marine and would never burn a flag.

A team of street preachers called the Bible Believers yelled through microphones that any people who burned a flag should set themselves afire instead.

Police briefly blocked the intersection, but then, with no sign of the Revolutionary Communist group, let reporters and onlookers back in. That's when the group, in black T-shirts, linked arms in a circle and waved signs reading "America Was Never Great!" (The group advocates overthrowing the system to bring about a "New Socialist Republic.")

Reporters swarmed around the group. Moments later, a line of police pushed through the crowd toward it. The protesters held firm. "The pigs are coming!" one yelled. Another raised a flag in the air. Protesters set it alight.

Police surged in, spraying a white substance at the flag and the yelling protesters. Police said later that no pepper spray was used at the demonstration. It was unclear what was sprayed.

A scuffle ensued. Some demonstrators were pinned to the ground and handcuffed. Williams said a Cleveland police officer and a state trooper were "punched and pushed." He said some in the crowd had also talked of attacking the flag burners.

"The whole area got amped up when this happened," he said.

Bike cops moved in to separate reporters and protesters, chanting, "Move!" Officers carried off a man in handcuffs, while others pushed the crowd back to the sidewalks and mounted police lined up at one end of the crowd. That's when a line of police in riot gear moved in.

Police blocked off the intersection and, later, began letting through only those credentialed to enter the convention. Later still some protesters chanted at officers to free those arrested.

Attorney Jacqueline Green, a co-coordinator of the National Lawyers Guild, said the group questioned why arrests had occurred, "as flag-burning is protected free speech." She also said a live stream of the episode did not appear to show anyone's clothing catching fire.

In a news release Wednesday night, police said they moved in only after a demonstrator lit himself and others on fire, and after officers had issued a dispersal order.

awhelan@phillynews.com

@aubreyjwhelan 215-854-2961