Moscow: New legislation should be established that would punish the burning of the United States flag with one-year jail terms, US President Donald Trump said.
The president referred to an incident that took place in the city of Portland on Thursday evening which saw protesters topple a statue of George Washington. According to video footage from the incident, a US flag was wrapped around the statue and set alight.
“Two days ago, leftist radicals in Portland, Oregon, ripped down a statue of George Washington and wrapped it in an American flag and set the American flag on fire. We ought to come up with legislation that if you burn the American flag, you go to jail for one year,” Trump said at a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Saturday evening.
Earlier on Saturday, North Carolina Governor Ray Cooper ordered the removal of Confederate monuments on Capitol grounds after protesters ripped down two statues in the city of Raleigh on Friday.
Statues and monuments commemorating individuals linked with slavery or racism have become a major target of Black Lives Matters demonstrators in the wake of George Floyd’s death on May 25 in the city of Minneapolis. (UNI)