Updated August 21, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Revcom.us received the following Call from the Revolution Club

We demand:

Drop the charges on Gregory "Joey" Johnson and the RNC16 now!

On July 20 outside the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Gregory "Joey" Johnson was surrounded by a circle of members of the Revolution Club who created a safe space for him to burn the American flag. The area was crowded with many police and pro-Trump people. Police assaulted the protective circle, arresting Joey and 16 others as the flag started to burn. They face serious charges. As the fact sheet circulated by Joey Johnson's supporters convincingly shows, the arrests of him and 16 others were totally unjustified and illegitimate attempts to suppress legally protected political speech, as were the 24-hour-plus illegal detentions that followed.

Joey Johnson at the RNC: "We're standing here with the people of the world."

Before setting the flag on fire, Joey led chants, "1, 2, 3, 4—Slavery, Genocide, and War! 5, 6, 7, 8—America Was NEVER Great!" Johnson said he decided to burn the flag to make a statement about what was unfolding inside the RNC where the theme that day was "make America #1 again." Joey said, "America number 1? America first? It's always been first: at genocide, at slavery, at exploitation, of destruction of the environment, of torture, of coup d'etats, of invasions. We're standing here with the people of the world today." In addition, Johnson stated that a real revolution is what is needed, nothing less. Then he lit the flag on fire. As Johnson explained his and the Revolution Club's protest that day, "There are moments in history when someone has to put it on the line to sound the alarm."

Johnson won the right to burn the flag against enforced patriotism in the U.S. Supreme Court's 1989 landmark decision, Texas v. Johnson. For the police to effectively nullify this right in actual practice undermines this decision at a time when it is more imperative than ever to protect the right to dissent. The charges against Johnson and the RNC16 have to be decisively defeated. The authorities must not be allowed to get away with circumventing, distorting, punishing, and criminalizing this defining act of protest.

We the undersigned call for the charges against Gregory "Joey" Johnson and all those arrested with him at the RNC to be dropped immediately.

Initial Signers:

Fr. Luis Barrios, John Jay College of Criminal Justice*

Medea Benjamin, Code Pink

Robert Bloom, attorney, 1971 case of Panther 21

Richard Brown, Black Panther Party, San Francisco 8

Noam Chomsky

Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, EPA whistleblower

Paul J. Cristallo, attorney, Cleveland

Carl Dix, Revolutionary Communist Party

Jeffrey L. Edison, attorney, Detroit

Anneliese Failla, National Lawyers Guild* Detroit

Clinton Fein, artist/activist

Robert Justin Goldstein, Author, Flag Burning & Free Speech: Texas v. Johnson (Univ. Press of KS, 2000)

William Goodman, attorney, National Lawyers Guild*

Mickey Huff, Project Censored/Media Freedom Foundation

Daniel Hurwitz-Goodman, Guatemala Solidarity Project*

Alicia Kirkman, Mother of Angelo Miller killed by Cleveland police, 2007

Nicholas Klaus, National Lawyers Guild*

Michael Kogan, attorney, Los Angeles

Emily Kunstler, filmmaker, "William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe"

Sarah Kunstler, attorney, New York City, filmmaker, "William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe"

Jim Lafferty, Executive Director Emeritus, National Lawyers Guild*, Los Angeles

Betty Mahone, owner, African American Cultural Center, East Cleveland, OH

William Clarence Marshall, opera singer, Cleveland

Art McCoy, Founder of Black on Black Crime, Inc., Cleveland

Genevieve Mitchell, Director, The Black Women's Center, Cleveland

Peter Phillips, Phd.

Al Porter, Jr. President of Black on Black Crime Inc., Cleveland

Margaret Ratner Kunstler, attorney, New York City

David Rovics, singer/songwriter

Yusef Salaam, one of the Central Park Five - all exonerated

Eric A. Seitz, attorney, Honolulu

J. Tony Serra, attorney, San Francisco

Cindy Sheehan, peace activist, Vacaville CA

Rev. Frank Smith, Senior Pastor of Manna Church, Cleveland

Dr. Akinyele Umoja, Author, We Will Shoot Back: Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement

Cornel West, author

*Organization for identification only

Sign the call for the charges against Gregory "Joey" Johnson and all those arrested with him at the RNC to be dropped immediately here

Or:

Download the form as a PDF, circulate and donate:

To email your signed form: carlmdix@gmail.com

Or postal mail this signed form to:

RNC16

c/o Cleveland Revolution Books

2804 Mayfield Road

Cleveland, OH 44118-1603

DONATION/PLEDGE: https://www.crowdrise.com/revolution-club-at-the-conventions

Video: @Lukewearechange

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