Man Arrested, Jailed, Charged With a Felony for Burning the FlagBy Matt Agorist A short time after he posted the photo on Facebook, Mellott was swarmed with online attacks and threats from countless individualswho have no concept of freedom of speech. Shortly after the threats to Mellott began pouring in, the Urbana police departments phone began ringing of the hook with calls for his arrest so police responded. Sgt. Andrew Charles, with the Urbana police told the News Gazette they arrested Mellott because of all the threats against him and his place of employment, Wal-Mart. The volume of responses and specificity of threat against his place of employment (a location where an act of violence would likely cause harm to others), prompted police involvement in this case, said Charles. Police are claiming they were forced to arrest Mellott and charge him with a felony to protect him. Mellott has been charged with Section 49-1, flag desecration, a class four felony in Illinois, Charles said. Hes also been charged with disorderly conduct, both as an offender and a victim. Mellotts arraignment is set for Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. Included with his image of a burning American flag was the following post: I am not proud to be an American. In this moment, being proud of my country is to ignore the atrocities committed against people of color, people living in poverty, people who identify as women, and against my own queer community on a daily basis, Mellott wrote. Of course, Mellotts views on guns are misguided, but he harmed no one yet he was deprived of his freedom. The sheer number of calls for his death and his deprivation of rights on Facebook, however, are shocking. Clearly ignoring the ostensible freedom the flag supposedly represents, fascists would rather see people punished for their speech becauseit offends them. Shortly after he posted the photo, the Facebook page Bryton Mellott dead or alivewas setup. On it, people call for Mellott to be beaten, anally raped, shot, burned alive, and imprisoned for a piece of cloth. In the famous Supreme Court case of Texas v. Johnson in 1989, a five-justice majority ruled that desecrating the American flag wasprotected speech under the First Amendment to the US Constitution. Despite this ruling, Americans from sea to shining sea continue to call for the arrest, or even death, of those whod dare express their opinion through the use of theOld Glory. The very essence of freedom is tolerating peaceful forms of expression, no matter how uncomfortable they make us feel. Sadly missing the point, however, are folks who fail to understand that burning or desecrating a flag without fear of punishment from ones government, is what liberty is all about. When a society becomes more concerned with a piece of cloth than the freedom it is meant to represent, its time to wake up. As a former member of the USMC, I am unoffended when I see flag set ablaze or stepped on because I see it as an act of expression by a group who feels oppressed. Those who feel oppressed must never be silenced. Throughout history, the patriotic majority has been responsible for most of the atrocities committed against our fellow humans. Only because of a handful of irate freedom-loving individuals, unafraid to challenge the status quo, do we have any semblance of liberty in America today. A true patriot is never a member of the majority who calls for their opposition to be silenced with state force because their views are offensive. No, a true patriot is the one who refuses to be intimidated in the face of this violently obstinate collective. In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot. Mark Twain Matt Agorist is the co-founder of TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared. He is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. Follow @MattAgorist. Those calling for violence against this speaker probably have one thing in commonbelow average intelligence. Their brutal suggestions are childish and irrational. Gee funny they dont do that to the illegals that burn our flag!!!!!!! The only way to dispose of the flag legally is to burn it. I guess the government doesnt know this. Really thats putting it much too nicely. People like that are a very real threat to our collective democracy. Speech and actions are not comparable. Thats like suggesting you can feel the color orange, even with your eyes closed. The action of your lips moving is your speech. The words that come out of your mouth is speech. You can move your lips without making a sound. You get the point. Dont be a pedant. You dont get the point. Pick up a dictionary. Its the Constitution that is sacred. I agree that people have a right to burn a flag that they own, but it seems a foolish act since it will generate so much ill will and do nothing to help move forward whatever agenda that person has. Pulling Not The The Another After Any Yet So One TL;DR All of that fancy talk belies on the point that you are actually ALLOWED TO SPEAK IN YOUR DEFENSE. Most times you are not afforded that luxury, especially in any Federal District Court. You ever wonder why they have a 99.8% conviction rate? They make the rules, and when the rules they made are manipulated by legal-beagles like you, they just arbitrarily and immediately change the rules. Then they win and you go to prison. We have no rule of law. We are ruled by violence and fear. If you hire an attorney (see Corpus Juris Secondom Section 14, Attorney and Client) of course you will get railroaded into the hoosegow. There is no law ANYWHERE that says you must hire someone to speak for you. If there is, then show me where it is found and its number. You are NOT doing anyone a service with this B.S. legal-beagleing of yours. Im TELLING YOU, they dont let you speak nor explain anything, and when they do, it is only to answer leading questions as YES, NO, please repeat question. THATs IT! You try and divert to something like asking questions about fraud, they just ignore you and proceed with whatever they intend. You badger them there is always the bailiff to twist your arm or smash your face with a hard-edged object. You go into one of those kangaroo courts representing yourself, you will find many judges eager to hold you in contempt of court until you comply with their little games. That little game is either losing everything you worked for to pay some lying evildoer pretending to service justice, which you still do not get, or you get the freebie know-nothing who is just an officer of the court and YOUR BEST INTERESTS ARE NOT THEIRS. They dont care, theyll let you rot in jail, or put you with some rabid animal that has a hobby of sexually molesting others. You go get some education and get out of your little playbaby make-believe world inside your head where you feel we are still under the rule of law, judges care about right and wrong, and rational discourse. Drop it. You will never convince me because the real world of how they operate contradicts what you wrote. Well it looks to me like youre crying about losing all of your money in the casino, when you had no obligation to walk into it in the first place. It is IMPOSSIBLE for anyone to represent themselves, its a contradiction in terms. But, you CAN defend yourself against people trying to commit crimes upon you. If you enter a plea of any kind, you are admitting to the pretended jurisdiction of the legal system. If you say anything other than what is needed to deflect the courts false assumptions about you, you are admitting to the pretended jurisdiction of the legal system. If you want to play by the contrived rules of the rigged up legal system, go right ahead, it wont bother me one bit. But dont you dare try to tell me that I am wrong, when I am not. How many years have you been studying the legal system and its machinations? And I dont mean watching reruns of Perry Mason or Matlock! If the situation is really so dire as you claim it to be, then why dont you do something about it? Or do you just wish to cower in the corner somewhere, wetting yourself while you await your turn at being run through the meat grinder we call the legal system? OF course. Being victim to injustice is a crying offence. But anyways, this conversation is turning sour. Fine whatever, then. I wish you well. (Im not arguing this anymore with you. Neither of us are going to move from position weve taken in this) Brave young man, apparently gay, although I guess the community is now calling themselves queer again, as in the 1950s. He burned his Chinese made flag, and now everyone knows about him and his beliefs. He might have a career in public relations and advertising. He is in danger, though, as many folks whove never done anything to help their neighbors or country, will happily kill him and feel good about it. Americans are full of rage and hatred, and not much understanding. This fellow is clever, and the United States Supreme Court has already ruled that flag burning is protected as FREE SPEECH. Of course, all of those willing to inflict violence on him have never bothered to read. What are we going to do with all the hatred and rage Americans are expressing? Not happy, and not willing to do anything to make American a better place? It can be scary living in a land with no rule of law, and a herd mentality devoid of all reason, logic, and facts. Hes queer to distinguish himself from the other 57 Facebook genders. what a bunch of simpletonsbelieving in a flag of all things. Why would you hold sacred a flag that is nothing special? And likely made in Southeast Asia? The PTB have got you all by the nutz. Its not about burning a flag, its about the response by both the police and mindless idiots who feel they have a devotion to a piece of cloth. This reminds me of goldbugs and gunowners. They all feel these things will save their lives, and they will be much better off than those without. Simpletons. Such irrational attachment to a flag is tantamount to IDOLATRY, is it not? If anything this should show people how sad the so called news is today. They really are. Phony baloney Social Justice Warriors. And yet Hillary Clinton is ABOVE any law and excusable from breaking laws of treasonpunishable by death. Probably not a good idea Bryton but the right frame of mindyou actually see the big picture and havent learned that these other oh so comfy Americans are not able to understand what is right in front of their eyes. Wait. The cop said it was free speech then arrested him on a felony charge? So free speech is criminal? Yes. Three of us were arrested in Stevens county, Washington, for reading our redress of greivances to a district court judge before court was put in session. We were arrested in the courtroom for trespassing. I was then the only one prosecuted (as a perceived leaderwhat a joke) with Interference with court and disorderly conduct. Subsequently kangaroo courted wherein I was not allowed to ask any jury screening questions to test their impartiality, prohibited from testifying to the whole truthspecifically, the nature of the grievance, that the US Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land or to the US Supreme court decisions we researched ahead of time to rely on to protect our actions. The government officers involved have committed sedition, insurrection and Treason. We are at War. Weve been at war a long time. We (us citizens) lost. Typical PHAGGet a life LOSER!! Better not turn him over to ISIS, they will throw his QUEER azz off the highest tower and youtube it for a 10 million hits while laughing and raping their women. Mellot has unalienable rights however misguided and ignorant. freedom is tolerance. Ron Paul 