Disturbing the Peace: Offenses Against Public Tranquility
Disturbing the peace, or breaching the peace, involves any unruly behavior that disrupts the public’s right to a calm environment. In the U.S., people have the right to live without unnecessary noise or threats, and actions that interfere with this can lead to charges. This disruption can affect anyone nearby—neighbors, passersby, or people in the same establishment—or be directed at a specific person through threats or physical actions.
Disturbing the peace represents an infraction or a misdemeanor in most jurisdictions. However, depending on whose peace you allegedly disturbed, and the seriousness thereof, you could be charged with a felony.
Disturbing the Peace Examples
Sometimes referred to as the “catch basin of minor offenses,” prohibited disturbing the peace activities include the following:
- Public drunkenness, urination, or lewd conduct
- Fighting with someone in a public establishment, such as a bar, or challenging someone to fight
- Playing your TV or music system too loudly at night so that it disturbs your neighbors
- Incessantly shouting profanities at your neighbors
- Letting your dog bark incessantly in your backyard at all hours of the day and night
- Holding a public march, protest or assembly for which you have no permit
- Shouting “fighting words” in public with the intent to incite others to violence
- Annoying other guests in the hotel in which you’re staying by knocking on the doors to their rooms or making too much noise in your room
- Interfering with the conduct of someone’s business
Intent
Disturbing the peace charges hinges on the intent behind your actions—not necessarily the outcome. For example, if you throw the first punch in a bar, you don’t have to intend for a full brawl to break out. The key factor is that you intended to hit someone, and you either knew or should have known it could lead to a larger fight. Intent lies in the action itself, even if the resulting chaos wasn’t fully anticipated.
Plea Bargains for Disturbing the Peace
Prosecutors often use disturbing the peace as a way to allow defendants to “earn an infraction” when they have been charged with a misdemeanor or possibly even a felony offense. Using the above bar fight example, law enforcement officers could have charged you with assault, battery, or even aggravated battery if you hit the person with a weapon, such as a beer bottle. All of these represent criminal offenses for which, if convicted, you could face jail time.
Disturbing the peace is what’s called a lesser included offense of these crimes. In other words, you couldn’t have assaulted or battered the person without the initial intent to throw that first punch. Consequently, the prosecutor may offer you a plea bargain agreement whereby if you plead guilty to disturbing the peace, the more serious charge(s) will be dropped. By pleading guilty to this charge, you undoubtedly will have to pay a fine. However, you won’t be faced with jail time.
Disturbing the Peace Defenses
Defenses to a disturbing the peace charge generally fall into the following four categories:
- I did it, but I had to do it to defend myself or someone else.
- You didn’t do it
- I did it, but what I did didn’t disturb anyone.
- I did it, but what I did is protected by my First Amendment right to free speech.
In America, free speech is sacrosanct. This means that it’s such a fundamental and valuable right that the government cannot interfere with it. Nevertheless, you do not have the right to say whatever you want whenever and however you want to. For instance, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, writing for the majority in the 1919 U.S. Supreme Court case of Schneck v. United States, famously stated that “falsely shouting fire in a theatre [sic] and causing a panic” is not protected free speech.
In the subsequent 1942 case of Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, Justice Frank Murphy, writing for the majority, said the following:
“There are certain well-defined and narrowly limited classes of speech, the prevention and punishment of which have never been thought to raise any constitutional problem. These include the lewd and obscene, the profane, the libelous, and the insulting or ‘fighting’ words, those which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace. It has been well observed that such utterances are no essential part of any exposition of ideas, and are of such slight social value as a step to truth that any benefit that may be derived from them is outweighed by the social interest in order and morality.”
Symbolic Speech
Your right to free speech covers certain symbolic actions, not just the words you say. This became a major issue during the 1960s civil rights movement when many peaceful protesters were arrested and charged with disturbing the peace for opposing segregation. The Supreme Court later overturned numerous convictions, ruling the laws used to silence these demonstrations were unconstitutional. Key cases included:
- Garner v. Louisiana (1961) – peaceful black protesters who quietly sat at a “whites only” lunch counter
- Taylor v. Louisiana (1962) – peaceful black protesters who quietly sat in the “whites only” area of a bus depot
- Edwards v. South Carolina (1963) – peaceful black marchers who refused to disperse from in front of the state capitol
Do You Need a Lawyer?
Have you been charged with disturbing the peace or a crime for which it’s a lesser included offense? Your best course of action likely is to seek the advice, counsel, and representation of an experienced local criminal defense lawyer. They not only will know whether the circumstances surrounding your alleged disturbing the peace amount to an infraction, misdemeanor, or felony in your jurisdiction but also what you can use as a defense that could result in your acquittal.
Work With an Experienced Local Lawyer
Submit a request online today or call us at (866) 345-6784 to get in touch with an experienced criminal defense lawyer in your area.
About the Author
Aaron is a professional legal writer with a B.S. in English Education from Southern Illinois University – Carbondale. He has written, published, and edited thousands of legal articles for RequestLegalHelp, which has connected over 5 million people to legal help in the United States.
With over five years of experience writing thousands of legal articles for law firms across the U.S. and Canada, Aaron specializes in covering federal, state, and city-level legal issues ranging from auto accidents to wrongful terminations. Contact Aaron at [email protected] for article suggestions, collaborations, or inquiries.
