Solution for flag burning

Make it a federal crime to burn a flag without a federal permit. This way you wouldn't infringe upon free speech rights, but you WOULD require protesters to have to get a permit in order to exercise that right in a public space.

The cost of the permit would cover the cost to have fire and medical personnel stand by to insure safety, plus the cost of cleanup by sanitation personnel. Just an initial estimate might be around $3500-$5000.

In order to secure a permit, an insurance certificate would have to be issued by an insurance carrier indemnifying the city, state or federal government from any liability for damages as a result of damage to property, injury or loss of life. If the person didn't have a carrier, a form would be available to purchase a policy from a carrier on the spot for a cost of, say, $2500.

Failure to secure a permit could result in an arrest and citation, with the court assessing a fine for the cost of the permit, all associated court costs, plus a fine of up to $25,000 with the proceeds donated to a veteran's organization, plus the violator could be sentenced to serve 80 hours of community service in a VA hospital for a first offense with record waived after 18 months of unsupervised probation without a violation.

Second and other subsequent offenses of burning a flag without a permit would receive all of the above, plus a mandatory jail sentence of no less than 90 days in jail with multiple offenders sentences for up to one year in jail.

I'd be okay with passing a flag burning law under these kind of stipulations in order to preserve everyone's free speech rights.