Report Title:

Penal Code; Disorderly Conduct; Music

Description:

Clarifies disorderly conduct offense to include music containing lyrics that is played to incite violent activity.

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	2095
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

RELATING TO DISORDERLY CONDUCT.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

     SECTION 1.  Section 711-1101, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§711-1101  Disorderly conduct.  (1)  A person commits the offense of disorderly conduct if, with intent to cause physical inconvenience or alarm by a member or members of the public, or recklessly creating a risk thereof, the person:

    (a)   Engages in fighting or threatening, or in violent or tumultuous behavior; [or]

    (b)   Makes unreasonable noise; [or]

    (c)   Subjects another person to offensively coarse behavior or abusive language which is likely to provoke a violent response; [or]

    (d)   Creates a hazardous or physically offensive condition by any act [which] that is not performed under any authorized license or permit; [or]

    (e)   Impedes or obstructs, for the purpose of begging or soliciting alms, any person in any public place or in any place open to the public[.]; or

(f) Performs in person, or plays by recording, violent music in a public place, as defined in section 711‑1111.

     (2)  Noise is unreasonable, within the meaning of subsection (1)(b), if considering the nature and purpose of the person's conduct and the circumstances known to the person, including the nature of the location and the time of the day or night, the person's conduct involves a gross deviation from the standard of conduct that a law-abiding citizen would follow in the same situation; or the failure to heed the admonition of a police officer that the noise is unreasonable and should be stopped or reduced.

     The renter, resident, or owner-occupant of the premises who knowingly or negligently consents to unreasonable noise on the premises shall be guilty of a noise violation.

(3)  Music is violent within the meaning of subsection (1)(f), if a song contains violent lyrics that increase aggression-related thoughts and emotions that can influence perceptions of ongoing social interactions, coloring them with an aggressive tint.  Music is violent if such aggression-biased interpretations of the music's lyrics can, in turn, instigate a more aggressive response, whether verbal or physical or both, than would have been evoked in a nonbiased state, thus provoking an aggressive escalatory spiral of antisocial exchanges.

     [(3)] (4)  Disorderly conduct is a petty misdemeanor if it is the defendant's intention to cause substantial harm or serious inconvenience, or if the defendant persists in disorderly conduct after reasonable warning or request to desist.  Otherwise disorderly conduct is a violation."

     SECTION 2.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 3.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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