A protestor outside of the Republican National Convention caught himself and two other demonstrators on fire when he tried to burn an America flag on Wednesday.
The incident began when protesters blocked RNC delegates from entering the Quicken Loans Arena, the location of the convention, and did not respond to police issued orders to disperse.
According to Police Chief Calvin Williams, during the standoff, one rebellious protest began to set fire to an American flag.
In the process of lighting the flag, the protester accidentally set his pants on fire along with the symbol of American freedom. An officer tried to intervene to help put out the man’s pants out before any serious injuring were sustained.
"You're on fire! You're on fire, stupid!" a Clevland officer reportedly shouted as he tried to approach the man while carrying a fire extinguisher. You can watch a video of it here.
The protester, fearing that the officer was not actually coming to help him not get life threatening burns, desperately tried to keep the flag away from the officer. In the duration of the game of “keep-away,” the protester succeeded to setting two other protesters aflame.
A witness to the protest said that it was Gregory Lee “Joey” Johnson, the man who fought for the right to have flag burning be protected under the First Amendment back in 1998, who set the flag, and consequently two of his comrades, on fire.
Thankfully, no one required medical treatment after the confrontation, although Ohio State policemen were pushed and punched while trying to stop the protesters from being severely burned.
After the confrontation, 17 people were reportedly arrested, two on felony charges for assaulting a police officer. The others face misdemeanor charges for failing to disperse. The crowd was comprised of Revolutionary Communist Party members who wanted to completely rebuild society and were protesting the nominations of both Hillary and Trump.