Bill Text: NJ A2356 | 2014-2015 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Enhances penalties for committing improper behavior in place of public accommodation.
Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 4-1)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2014-02-06 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Law and Public Safety Committee [A2356 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2014-A2356-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman REED GUSCIORA
District 15 (Hunterdon and Mercer)
SYNOPSIS
Enhances penalties for committing improper behavior in place of public accommodation.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning improper behavior and amending N.J.S.2C:33-2.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. N.J.S.2C:33-2 is amended to read as follows:
2C:33-2 a. Improper behavior. A person is guilty of a petty disorderly persons offense, if with purpose to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or recklessly creating a risk thereof he
(1) Engages in fighting or threatening, or in violent or tumultuous behavior; or
(2) Creates a hazardous or physically dangerous condition by any act which serves no legitimate purpose of the actor.
b. Offensive language. A person is guilty of a petty disorderly persons offense if, in a public place, and with purpose to offend the sensibilities of a hearer or in reckless disregard of the probability of so doing, he addresses unreasonably loud and offensively coarse or abusive language, given the circumstances of the person present and the setting of the utterance, to any person present.
c. Notwithstanding the provisions of N.J.S.2C:43-3 and N.J.S.2C:43-8, a person who commits the offense of improper behavior, as defined by subsection a. of this section, who engages in such behavior in a place of public accommodation, as defined by subsection l. of section 5 of P.L.1945, c.169 (C.10:5-5), shall be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not less than one day or more than 30 days; shall be ordered to perform 50 hours of community service; shall be ordered to pay a fine of $500 in addition to any restitution ordered; and shall be banned by judicial order from frequenting the place of public accommodation for not less than one year or more than two years.
"Public" means affecting or likely to affect persons in a place to which the public or a substantial group has access; among the places included are highways, transport facilities, schools, prisons, apartment houses, places of business or amusement, or any neighborhood.
2. This act shall take effect immediately.
STATEMENT
This bill enhances the penalties for engaging in the petty disorderly person's offense of improper behavior while in a place of public accommodation.
Under current law, improper behavior is defined as engaging in fighting, threatening, violent or tumultuous behavior or creating a hazardous or physically dangerous condition with the purpose to cause or recklessly create the risk of public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm. Improper behavior is a petty disorderly person's offense which is punishable by a period of imprisonment of not more than 30 days, a fine of not more than $500, or both, however a court is not required to order jail time or a fine.
Under the provisions of the bill, the penalty for committing improper behavior in a place of public accommodation will be a term of imprisonment of at least one day, but not more than 30 days, 50 hours of community service, a fine of $500 in addition to any restitution ordered, and a one to two year ban from frequenting the place of public accommodation where the improper behavior was committed.
