[Dimensio]

That's exactly what happened in the story mentioned in this article, yet many people seem to believe that it was a wise choice and, while perhaps not illegal, should not result in anything more than a 'symbolic' slap on the wrist punishment.

[Teacher317]

There's this funny little legal concept called "extenuating circumstances"... the nation is at war, protestors are getting more and more violent across the nation, the desecration of the flag could very easily be considered to meet the "fighting words" factor, and the "attack" was hardly life-threatening or brutal. While the nation is certainly becoming rather effiminate (recall that "gouging" was a "sport" in America... a contest where two consenting men tried to take out the eye of their opponent first), I don't think we're quite at the point where a brief impassioned scuffle over politics merits jail time.