RFP Staff
♦ In a scene reminiscent of the late Pastor Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church confrontations, a white couple and the 3 children accompanying them stood in front of Saint John’s Lutheran Church at 200 West Innes in Salisbury and verbally assaulted Sunday morning churchgoers, calling out: “Repent or you’re going to Hell!” The couple’s 3 children, estimated between 3 and 12 years-old, held up cardboard signs with Bible quotes making reference to apostasy and hellbound futures.
Saint John’s churchgoers did not engage with the couple and the three children and chose to hurry past them.
Today’s verbal assault on Saint John’s churchgoers violates NC State Statute:
§ 14-288.4. Disorderly conduct.
(a) Disorderly conduct is a public disturbance intentionally caused by any person who does any of the following:
(1) Engages in fighting or other violent conduct or in conduct creating the threat of imminent fighting or other violence.
(2) Makes or uses any utterance, gesture, display or abusive language which is intended and plainly likely to provoke violent retaliation and thereby cause a breach of the peace.
(3) Takes possession of, exercises control over, or seizes any building or facility of any public or private educational institution without the specific authority of the chief administrative officer of the institution, or his authorized representative.
(4) Refuses to vacate any building or facility of any public or private educational institution in obedience to any of the following:
a. An order of the chief administrative officer of the institution, or the officer’s representative, who shall include for colleges and universities the vice chancellor for student affairs or the vice-chancellor’s equivalent for the institution, the dean of students or the dean’s equivalent for the institution, the director of the law enforcement or security department for the institution, and the chief of the law enforcement or security department for the institution.
b. An order given by any fireman or public health officer acting within the scope of the fireman’s or officer’s authority.
c. If an emergency is occurring or is imminent within the institution, an order given by any law-enforcement officer acting within the scope of the officer’s authority.
(5) Shall, after being forbidden to do so by the chief administrative officer, or the officer’s authorized representative, of any public or private educational institution:
a. Engage in any sitting, kneeling, lying down, or inclining so as to obstruct the ingress or egress of any person entitled to the use of any building or facility of the institution in its normal and intended use; or
b. Congregate, assemble, form groups or formations (whether organized or not), block, or in any manner otherwise interfere with the operation or functioning of any building or facility of the institution so as to interfere with the customary or normal use of the building or facility.
(6) Disrupts, disturbs or interferes with the teaching of students at any public or private educational institution or engages in conduct which disturbs the peace, order or discipline at any public or private educational institution or on the grounds adjacent thereto.
(6a) Engages in conduct which disturbs the peace, order, or discipline on any public school bus or public school activity bus.
(7) Except as provided in subdivision (8) of this subsection, disrupts, disturbs, or interferes with a religious service or assembly or engages in conduct which disturbs the peace or order at any religious service or assembly.
(8) Engages in conduct with the intent to impede, disrupt, disturb, or interfere with the orderly administration of any funeral, memorial service, or family processional to the funeral or memorial service, including a military funeral, service, or family processional, or with the normal activities and functions occurring in the facilities or buildings where a funeral or memorial service, including a military funeral or memorial service, is taking place. Any of the following conduct that occurs within two hours preceding, during, or within two hours after a funeral or memorial service shall constitute disorderly conduct under this subdivision:
a. Displaying, within 500 feet of the ceremonial site, location being used for the funeral or memorial, or the family’s processional route to the funeral or memorial service, any visual image that conveys fighting words or actual or imminent threats of harm directed to any person or property associated with the funeral, memorial service, or processional route.
b. Uttering, within 500 feet of the ceremonial site, location being used for the funeral or memorial service, or the family’s processional route to the funeral or memorial service, loud, threatening, or abusive language or singing, chanting, whistling, or yelling with or without noise amplification in a manner that would tend to impede, disrupt, disturb, or interfere with a funeral, memorial service, or processional route.
c. Attempting to block or blocking pedestrian or vehicular access to the ceremonial site or location being used for a funeral or memorial.
As used in this section the term “building or facility” includes the surrounding grounds and premises of any building or facility used in connection with the operation or functioning of such building or facility.
(b) Except as provided in subsection (c) of this section, any person who willfully engages in disorderly conduct is guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor.
(c) A person who commits a violation of subdivision (8) of subsection (a) of this section is guilty of:
(1) A Class 1 misdemeanor for a first offense.
(2) A Class I felony for a second offense.
(3) A Class H felony for a third or subsequent offense. (1969, c. 869, s. 1; 1971, c. 668, s. 1; 1973, c. 1347; 1975, c. 19, s. 4; 1983, c. 39, s. 5; 1987, c. 671, s. 1; 1993, c. 539, s. 189; 1994, Ex. Sess., c. 24, s. 14(c); 2001-26, s. 2; 2006-169, s. 1; 2012-12, s. 2(b); 2013-6, s. 1.)
