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Disorderly conduct and public order

Summary of the topic

Chapter 42 of the Penal Code covers the offenses a patrol officer meets most often on the street, and section 49.02 sits beside it because public intoxication is handled at the same scenes.

Section 42.01 lists eleven kinds of disorderly conduct, such as abusive language in a public place that tends to incite an immediate breach of the peace, unreasonable noise, and fighting in a public place. Most limbs are Class C misdemeanors. Discharging a firearm in a public place and displaying a firearm or other deadly weapon in a manner calculated to alarm are Class B misdemeanors.

Section 42.02 defines a riot as an assemblage of seven or more persons resulting in conduct that creates an immediate danger of damage or injury, obstructs law enforcement, or deprives a person of a legal right. Knowing participation is a Class B misdemeanor, and the offense takes the grade of any higher offense committed in furtherance of the assembly. Section 42.03 makes it an offense to obstruct a highway, sidewalk or similar passage, or to disobey a reasonable order to move, and it is a Class B misdemeanor that rises to a state jail felony where the actor knowingly prevents the passage of an authorized emergency vehicle. Section 42.05 makes it a Class B misdemeanor to disrupt a lawful meeting or procession. Section 42.04 gives a speech defense where the conduct consisted of speech or peaceful gathering and no order to move was given before arrest, or the order was manifestly unreasonable in scope, or the actor promptly obeyed it.

Section 49.02 makes it a Class C misdemeanor to appear in a public place while intoxicated to the degree that the person may endanger the person or another. Under article 14.031 of the Code of Criminal Procedure an officer may release a person who is not a child if detention in a penal facility is unnecessary for the protection of the person or others and the person is released to the care of an adult who agrees to take responsibility, or consents to treatment or to admission to a sobering facility.

Section 42.07 makes harassment a Class B misdemeanor, committed with intent to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment or embarrass another by one of nine listed acts, such as threats or repeated calls. Section 42.072 makes stalking a third degree felony, committed by conduct on more than one occasion that is harassment or threatening and that places the person in fear. Sections 42.09 and 42.092 grade cruelty to livestock and to other animals, with torture and fighting at the felony level and neglect at the Class A misdemeanor level.

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