Author Topic: Laws on rioting an anachronistic snapshot into Texas Legislature's anti-civil rights mentality in 19  (Read 269 times)

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Online Elderberry

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Grits for Breakfast 7/7/2020

Laws on rioting an anachronistic snapshot into Texas Legislature's anti-civil rights mentality in 1965

Grits has heard of people reading someone the Riot Act, but until recently had never read Texas' own riot act for myself.

First, some historical context. Texas' offense of "Riot" was created in spring 1965, reacting to national events like passage of the the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Harlem Riots (begun after police shot a young black man) later that year. The famous 1965 Watts riots wouldn't come until August, when the Legislature was no longer in session.

The Texas Penal Code defines a "riot"in such a way as to give police maximum arrest discretion in any situation involving 7 or more people. Here's the statutory definition:

Sec. 42.02.  RIOT.  (a)  For the purpose of this section, "riot" means the assemblage of seven or more persons resulting in conduct which:

(1)  creates an immediate danger of damage to property or injury to persons;

(2)  substantially obstructs law enforcement or other governmental functions or services;  or

(3)  by force, threat of force, or physical action deprives any person of a legal right or disturbs any person in the enjoyment of a legal right.
So if an "assemblage of seven or more persons" resulted in conduct that, by "physical action ... deprives any person" of "the enjoyment of a legal right," then they're engaged in a riot under Texas law.

Notably, under the statute, "It is a defense to prosecution under this section that the assembly was at first lawful and when one of those assembled manifested an intent to engage in conduct enumerated in Subsection (a), the actor retired from the assembly." But that's just a future defense, it doesn't keep you from getting arrested in the first place!

Can you think of any behavior which truly constitutes "rioting" that isn't already criminalized somewhere in the law? Disorderly conduct? Property damage? Physical altercations? Obstructing a peace officer? IANAL, but creating an uber-offense that lets police indiscriminately round up everyone in a given location to me ignores the need for particularized accusations. I'm glad someone is litigating it.

More: https://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2020/07/laws-on-rioting-anachronistic-snapshot.html
« Last Edit: July 07, 2020, 07:10:30 pm by Elderberry »