Bryton Mellott is a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He works at Walmart and is a social justice activist.

On July 4, 2016 Mellott was arrested and charged with desecrating the United States of America flag after he posted photos on Facebook. Mellott had burned the flag to protest the state of violence and race in America and had made similar posts decrying the state of violence and race in the United States.

Flag desecration is a class IV felony under Section 49-1 of Illinois state law.

When police arrested him they asked Mellott to take down the Facebook photos however he refused. The page was later taken down for unknown reasons.

Mellott was also charged with disorderly conduct, both as an offender and a victim.

The reason for both classifications is because police fielded calls from people making threatening calls against Mellott while he himself committed an act that was “causing others to be put at risk of harm.”

In one Facebook post Mellott wrote “I am not proud to be an American. In this moment, being proud of my country is to ignore the atrocities committed against people of color, people living in poverty, people who identify as women, and against my own queer community on a daily basis."

On July 5, 2016 the Urbana Police Department dropped all charges against Mellot.