Crimes Against the Public Peace

Vegas Criminal Lawyer Explains Crimes Against Public Peace

In the state of Nevada, it is illegal to engage in conduct that is considered detrimental to public health, public safety, or public order. There are different chapters of Title 15, which is Nevada’s penal code, that prohibit different kinds of conduct against public order. One of the chapters, Chapter 203, deals with crimes against the public peace.

Crimes against the public peace could lead to serious criminal charges and conviction could potentially result in jail time, damage to your reputation, fines, and other consequences that affect your future. You want to do everything you can to try to avoid being convicted of a crime against the public peace, which means you need to get the right legal help from a qualified professional who can assist you in developing the right response to charges of wrongdoing.

LV Criminal Defense is here to help. Our Vegas defense attorneys have extensive experience providing defendants with assistance responding to evidence, negotiating plea agreements, or putting together a case for acquittal.

When you’ve been accused of crimes against public peace, we will work closely with you to identify the nature of the offense, the elements of the crime the prosecutor must prove, and the best course of action aimed at minimizing or avoiding consequences. To find out more about the ways in which our team can help you, give us a call today.

Nevada Laws on Crimes Against Public Peace

Chapter 203, the chapter of Nevada’s penal code that deals with crimes against the public peace, contains numerous statutes identifying different types of unlawful behavior. The relevant chapter includes Nevada Revised Statute section 203.101 through N.R.S. 203.119. Collectively, these statutes prohibit:

• Breaching the peace.
• Assembling in order to cause a breach of the peace
• Assembling in order to commit unlawful acts
• Provoking someone to commit breach of the peace
• Publishing something that incites breach the peace or that incites another crime
• Affray
• Unlawful assembly
• Routing and rioting
• Armed associations
• Disturbing meetings
• Committing offenses in public conveyances
• Forcing entry and refusing to leave when you are now lawfully present
• Criminal anarchy
• Criminal syndicalism
• Committing an act in a public building or other area that cause an interference with people peacefully conducting activities

Each of the statutes that prohibits these unlawful behaviors establishes a specific definition of the offense which has been made illegal.

For example, under N.R.S. 203.010, breach of the peace is defined to include willfully and maliciously disturbing the peace or the quiet of any family, person, or neighborhood by making loud noises or unusual noises. It also prohibits willfully and maliciously disturbing the peace or quiet of any person, family, or neighborhood by tumultuous conduct, offensive conduct, threatening conduct, challenging someone to a fight, or quarreling. If you violate this statute by breaching the peace and the prosecutor can prove you acted willfully or maliciously, you can be convicted of a misdemeanor offense.

Armed association, on the other hand, is another offense that is considered to be a crime against the public peace. This offense is defined in Nevada Revised Statute section 203.080 to include associating yourself with others as a military company with arms, without the consent of the governor, unless you are a member of the municipal police, university cadets, public school cadets or companies, a state militia, or the troops of the United States. However, despite this prohibition, members of social associations and benevolent associations are not prohibited from wearing swords. If you do violate N.R.S. 203.080, armed association is considered to be a misdemeanor offense.

Another offense within Chapter 302, forcible entry and detainer, is defined to include unlawfully using, or encouraging or helping others to unlawfully use, force or violence to enter another person’s land or to take another person’s possessions. Forcible entry and detainer is defined in Nevada Revised Statute section 203.110. This statute also makes clear that if any person is removed from his land or property pursuant to court order who unlawfully comes back to that property can also be found guilty of this offense. This crime is a misdemeanor, just as many of the other offenses within Chapter 203 are.

Each of the other offenses within this chapter also has its own specific definition as well. It is the prosecutor’s burden to prove every element of an offense within Chapter 203 in order for a defendant to be convicted of violating the provisions of this part of Nevada’s penal code. A defendant does not need to prove he is innocent to avoid a guilty verdict, but rather than be acquitted of the crime he has been accused of committing against public peace if he can introduce reasonable doubt as to his guilt.