What Are Public Order Crimes?
The goal of the law is to preserve public order. When people disagree with each other or the government, the law encourages them to explore legal avenues rather than resorting to riots and terrorist threats. Acts like these can cause panic and societal upheaval. They can also spiral out of control, resulting in property loss and bodily injury.
Conversely, the United States has a long history of preventing heavy-handed government action to restrict private activities and public protests.
The Constitution’s First Amendment protects speech as long as it doesn’t pose an imminent threat of violence. Missouri’s laws are intended to preserve the public order without stepping on personal rights.
Missouri Statutes Covering Public Order Crimes
The Missouri Revised Statutes contains an entire chapter devoted to Offenses Against Public Order. These crimes cover a range of activities related only by their impact on the public or institutions.
Public Offenses
Public offenses generally aren’t directed at any one person. Instead, they’re directed toward the public or public property. The offense of disturbing the peace occurs when the accused unreasonably and knowingly alarms or disturbs others by committing any of the following actions:
- Fighting
- Producing a loud noise
- Threatening to commit a felony against a person in a way likely to cause fear
- Producing noxious and offensive odors
- Directing offensive language to a person in a way likely to provoke a violent act
Disturbing the peace also happens when a person purposely inconveniences the public by blocking traffic or the entry or exit from public or private places.
A private peace disturbance charge can arise when prosecutors accuse someone of unreasonably and purposely causing alarm while on private property by fighting or making a threat to commit a criminal offense against another.
Rioting happens when a person assembles with six or more others and violates a state or federal law using force or violence after planning to do so. The related offense of unlawful assembly takes place when seven or more people plan to use force or violence to violate a law but fail to follow through.
Similarly, refusal to disperse happens when someone fails or refuses to follow the lawful order of a police officer at the scene of an unlawful assembly or riot.
Another related offense, promoting civil disturbance, manifests when someone instructs others in the use of firearms, explosives, or incendiary devices, knowing they’ll be used in a violent civil disturbance.
A terrorist threat involves someone communicating a threat or false report or creating a false belief of a life-threatening incident or condition, causing an evacuation or closure.
Institutional Offenses
Prosecutors can also charge people with public order crimes committed against institutions. For example, you can’t disrupt a house of worship by intentionally committing either of the following acts:
- Using profane language or rude behavior or making loud noises in or near a house of worship
- Injuring, intimidating, or interfering with a person in or entering a house of worship
Similarly, Missouri law prohibits anyone from entering schools, courthouses, and churches in a drunk and disorderly condition.
The state protects individuals, buildings, and public facilities by prohibiting people from causing any of the following catastrophes:
- Explosion
- Fire
- Flood
- Collapse
- Release of poison, radioactive material, germ, or other force or substance
Likewise, the law prohibits institutional vandalism. Someone commits this offense by defacing or damaging:
- Churches or other religious buildings and structures
- Cemeteries, burial grounds, or other memorials
- Religious schools, community centers, or hospitals
- School or district vehicles
- Government-owned public monuments or structures on public property
Missouri also protects the farming community by prohibiting agroterrorism, which occurs when someone purposely spreads any communicable disease among crops or livestock.
The law prohibits cross-burning to intimidate or cause distress, as well as protesting at or within 300 feet of a funeral or burial.
Finally, there are statutes that protect medical facilities. Prosecutors can charge people who commit any of the following acts:
- Interfering with a healthcare facility by disturbing the peace
- Refusing to leave a healthcare facility
- Threatening injury to patients or employees or damage to a healthcare facility
- Interfering with access to or from an ambulance
- Threatening to injure an EMT or damage an ambulance
Moreover, Missouri law prohibits employees of abortion facilities from knowingly ordering or requesting medical personnel to deviate from providing medical assistance to a patient for a reason unrelated to their health. It also forbids anyone from preventing medical personnel from providing medical care.
Possible Defenses to Public Order Crimes in St. Louis, MO
Your criminal defense attorney can employ many defenses against public order crimes. Several criminal defense strategies can protect your rights from government restrictions and intrusions, including the following:
First Amendment Violations
In some cases, public crime charges are brought to harass or intimidate. In others, protesters might be prosecuted because of their message and not their actions. The First Amendment to the Constitution protects your right to free speech no matter how disagreeable the message.
Alibi
The police may have difficulty identifying who did what in a riot or other public disturbance. As a result, you may get arrested and charged due to mistaken identity. We can use evidence like witness testimony, photos, and video footage to provide an alibi for the acts alleged against you.
Duress
Duress occurs when you’re forced to act due to threats against you or others. For example, you could raise this defense if you joined a group of rioters because they threatened to harm your family if you refused.
Lack of Intent
Most public order crimes require the prosecution to prove that you acted willfully or purposely. Willful acts occur when you know that the prohibited result is likely to happen and act anyway. Purposeful acts are when the prohibited result is your conscious goal.
Defenses that assert a lack of intent include:
- You were mentally ill and didn’t know the prohibited result would occur
- You had no knowledge of surrounding circumstances, such as others’ plans
- You performed the act with a different goal, such as protesting peacefully
Keep in mind that this defense will need to overcome any circumstantial evidence of your intent. For example, if you claim that you intended to protest peacefully, you’d need to explain any text messages you sent that discussed violence.
Entrapment
Entrapment is a risky defense because you must admit that you committed the crime you’re being charged with. However, you may be able to avoid conviction if you can prove that you wouldn’t have committed the offense without inducement.
