Sponsored by:
Senator ROBERT W. SINGER
District 30 (Monmouth and Ocean)
Senator JOSEPH PENNACCHIO
District 26 (Essex, Morris and Passaic)
SYNOPSIS
Broadens offenses of riot and disorderly conduct; enhances penalties for public monument destruction; addresses riot victim assaults; creates crime of promotion of violent, disorderly assembly.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning riot and related offenses and revising various parts of the statutory law and supplementing Title 2C of the New Jersey Statutes.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. N.J.S.2C:33-1 is amended to read as follows:
2C:33-1. Riot; Failure to Disburse. a. Riot. A person is guilty of riot if he participates with four or more others in a course of disorderly conduct as defined in section 2C:33-2a:
(1) With purpose to commit or facilitate the commission of a crime;
(2) With purpose to prevent or coerce official action; [or]
(3) When he or any other participant, known to him, uses or plans to use a firearm or other deadly weapon; or
(4) When he, with six or more others, causes damage to property or injury to another person.
Riot if committed under circumstances set forth in paragraph (3) or paragraph (4) is a crime of the third degree. Otherwise riot is a crime of the fourth degree.
b. Failure of disorderly persons to disperse upon official order. Where five or more persons are participating in a course of disorderly conduct as defined in section 2C:33-2 a. likely to cause substantial harm, a peace officer or other public servant engaged in executing or enforcing the law may order the participants and others in the immediate vicinity to disperse. A person who refuses or knowingly fails to obey such an order commits a disorderly persons offense.
(cf: P.L.1981, c.290, s.35)
2. N.J.S.2C:33-2 is amended to read as follows:
2C:33-2. Disorderly Conduct. a. Improper behavior. A person is guilty of a petty disorderly persons offense, if with purpose to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or recklessly creating a risk thereof he
(1) Engages in fighting or threatening, or in violent or tumultuous behavior; or
(2) Creates a hazardous or physically dangerous condition by any act which serves no legitimate purpose of the actor.
b. Offensive language. A person is guilty of a petty disorderly persons offense if, in a public place, and with purpose to offend the sensibilities of a hearer or in reckless disregard of the probability of so doing, he addresses unreasonably loud and offensively coarse or abusive language, given the circumstances of the person present and the setting of the utterance, to any person present.
"Public" means affecting or likely to affect persons in a place to which the public or a substantial group has access; among the places included are highways, transport facilities, schools, prisons, apartment houses, places of business or amusement, or any neighborhood.
c. A person is guilty of a crime of the fourth degree if during a riot he commits a violation of this section in a place of public accommodation, resort or amusement.
Place of public accommodation, resort or amusement shall have the same meaning as in R.S.10:1-5.
(cf: P.L.1978, c.95, s.2C:33-2)
3. N.J.S.2C:33-7 is amended to read as follows:
2C:33-7. Obstructing Highways and Other Public Passages. a. A person, who, having no legal privilege to do so, purposely or recklessly obstructs any highway or other public passage whether alone or with others, commits a petty disorderly persons offense. A person who violates this section in a course of riot as defined in N.J.S.2C:33-1 or disorderly conduct as defined in subsection a. of N.J.S.2C:33-2, commits a crime of the fourth degree. "Obstructs" means renders impassable without unreasonable inconvenience or hazard. No person shall be deemed guilty of recklessly obstructing in violation of this subsection solely because of a gathering of persons to hear him speak or otherwise communicate, or solely because of being a member of such a gathering.
b. A person in a gathering commits a petty disorderly persons offense if he refuses to obey a reasonable official request or order to move:
(1) To prevent obstruction of a highway or other public passage; or
(2) To maintain public safety by dispersing those gathered in dangerous proximity to a fire or other hazard.
An order to move, addressed to a person whose speech or other lawful behavior attracts an obstructing audience, shall not be deemed reasonable if the obstruction can be readily remedied by police control of the size or location of the gathering.
(cf: P.L.1978, c.95, s.2C:33-7)
4. N.J.S.2C:33-9 is amended to read as follows:
2C:33-9. Desecration of venerated objects. A person commits a disorderly persons offense if he purposely desecrates any public monument, insignia, symbol, or structure, or place of worship or burial. It is a crime of the fourth degree if the desecration occurs during the course of a riot. "Desecrate" means defacing, damaging, destroying, toppling or polluting.
(cf: P.L.1978, c.95, s.2C:33-9)
5. N.J.S.2C:12-1 is amended to read as follows:
2C:12-1. Assault. a. Simple assault. A person is guilty of assault if the person:
(1) Attempts to cause or purposely, knowingly or recklessly causes bodily injury to another; or
(2) Negligently causes bodily injury to another with a deadly weapon; or
(3) Attempts by physical menace to put another in fear of imminent serious bodily injury.
Simple assault is a disorderly persons offense unless committed in a fight or scuffle entered into by mutual consent, in which case it is a petty disorderly persons offense.
b. Aggravated assault. A person is guilty of aggravated assault if the person:
(1) Attempts to cause serious bodily injury to another, or causes injury purposely or knowingly or under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life recklessly causes such injury; or
(2) Attempts to cause or purposely or knowingly causes bodily injury to another with a deadly weapon; or
(3) Recklessly causes bodily injury to another with a deadly weapon; or
(4) Knowingly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life points a firearm,