Seventeen protesters were arrested outside the Republican National Convention on Wednesday afternoon. | AP Photo Police arrest flag-burning protesters outside convention

Police in riot gear arrested 18 protesters outside the Republican National Convention on Wednesday afternoon after a scuffle erupted as left-wing activists began burning a U.S. flag while chanting "America was never great."

The protesters included Gregory Lee "Joey" Johnson, the left-wing activist whose earlier flag-burning protest outside the 1984 GOP convention in Dallas led to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling protecting the right to set the Stars and Stripes ablaze, Revolutionary Communist Party representative Carl Dix old POLITICO.


Johnson "decided he would reprise his activity today as a statement against what's going on here at the Republican National Convention, where an outright fascist is being nominated for president and horrific crimes from America's past are being upheld, enshrined and promised to people here and around the world," Dix said in a separate videotaped interview posted on Twitter.

Cleveland police did not immediately confirm whether Johnson was among those arrested. Wednesday's arrests brought the total related to this week's convention to 23, they said.

Authorities said two officers from the Cleveland police and the Ohio State Highway Patrol suffered minor injuries after being assaulted during the melee, which occurred on the third day of a convention that had so far escaped the kinds of violence seen at some earlier campaign events featuring GOP nominee Donald Trump. Police, some on bikes or horseback, temporarily blocked access near East Fourth Street and Prospect Avenue to the zone near the Quicken Loans Arena.

One demonstrator lit himself on fire during the protest, and the fire spread to some bystanders during a subsequent struggle with officers, police Chief Calvin Williams told reporters later.

Firefighters moved to the scene to extinguish and confiscate the burning flag, while police arrested several protesters and began loading them into vans. Activists continued to call out slogans including "We need a revolution."

“Some of the demonstrators around here think that they’re going to move society by being out burning flags in the streets," said Iowa Rep. Steve King, who edged up to the crowd as the police moved in on the protesters. "And I would say, have any of ’em ever written a letter to the editor? Have they ever gone down maybe to their police department and said, ‘Say, I have something I want to talk to you about?’”

Local resident Eric Dibling said he saw police deploy pepper spray. But Williams denied that.

Earlier, police had escorted away a right-wing group that stepped on a rainbow flag. Also at the scene was actor William Baldwin, who argued with protesters and was met with chants of "f--- the bourgeoisie."

The fracas broke out while hundreds of people were in the streets, including delegates who applauded the police, as well as protesters screaming about the "revolution" and members of the Westboro Baptist Church waving signs attacking gays and lesbians. Some protesters with bandanas covering their faces chanted "hail Satan" at fundamentalist Christians.

People with shirts that said "NLG Jail Support Hotline" — apparently referring to the National Lawyers Guild — taped the arrests.

A column of police officers formed a corridor through the intersection, and delegates streamed through a human wall to get through the intersection and to the gated area. After police cleared the intersection, pushing part of the protest west down Prospect, credentialed convention-goers were able to go back into the perimeter around the arena.

Authorities had not issued any permits for demonstrations in the area where unrest broke out, which is at the main delegate entrance to the arena and about two blocks from the main permitted zone at Public Square.

Ben Schreckinger, Donovan Harrell, M. Scott Mahaskey, Kyle Cheney and Brooks Kraft contributed to this report.