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Originally Posted by Al Norris
What we are being faced with is using the various Disturbing the Peace (DP, for short) statues to regulate otherwise lawful actions/activities that the general populace frown upon or are in some way, offended by.
I submit that DP laws were never meant to curtail actions or activities that are otherwise lawful.
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I disagree. I think that is exactly what those laws are for, and that's the problem with them.
In Ohio, the infraction is called "disorderly conduct". It is a very close relative of "contempt of cop". What sort of conduct does a PO generally consider disorderly? Not doing what he wants you to do is too often all it takes.
IMO, this genre of code has real constitutional problems. A person can't really know by reading the code what will be considered disorderly before he is arrested for it.
That said, we all want some degree of public order, and your paraphrase of the ordinary sense of what is constitutional depending on what one likes is true in this situation. When people see something they don't like, they ask where the police are when we need them.
The problem is us.