We read:
"The American Civil Liberties Union has shouted down various attempts by Congress to make burning or otherwise desecrating the Stars and Stripes a criminal offence, on the basis that it would infringe on freedom of thought and expression - burning a flag is an `expressive act', a form of `political speech', says the ACLU, and the authorities should keep their hands off it.
The British police are looking to go even further than Congress has tried but failed to: they want to criminalise `burning the flag of any country', not just the Union Jack. This is more brazen than anything attempted in other states....
In calling for a ban on any kind of flag-burning, the police show that their main aim is to clamp down on speech and protest. They are concerned not so much with `protecting national integrity' - as those various other laws against national flag-burning dubiously claim to - but rather with outlawing what they see as inflammatory (literally) protest. It's not the flag they're worried about, so much as the fire, the fiery passions of protesters and the public.
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