00:00President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday criminalizing burning the American flag,
00:05despite a 1989 Supreme Court ruling declaring it's a constitutionally protected form of protest.
00:13The order was one of three Trump signed to crack down on what he describes as rampant violent crime,
00:19even as federal statistics show a declining crime rate in much of the country.
00:23It mandates a one-year jail term for flag burning,
00:26and it calls for denying U.S. citizenship or visas for immigrants who burn a flag.
00:31Trump acknowledged the 1989 Supreme Court ruling,
00:34which said flag burning is protected by the First Amendment under the U.S. Constitution.
00:39They called it freedom of speech, but there's another reason which is perhaps much more important.
00:44It's called death, because what happens when you burn a flag is the area goes crazy.
00:51If you have hundreds of people, they go crazy.
00:53But when you burn the American flag, it incites riots at levels that we've never seen before.
01:00People go crazy.
01:01Organizations that promote free speech criticized Trump's order.
01:04In a statement, the chief counsel of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression said,
01:09President Trump may believe he has the power to revise the First Amendment with a stroke of a pen, but he doesn't.
01:16For Shade Arrow News, I'm Lauren Keenan.
01:18If you want more on this story, download the Shade Arrow News app or visit san.com.
Comments