of remaining at the scene of a riot or an unlawful assembly

after you've been ordered to disperse.

Now, this is sometimes called failure to disperse,

it's sometimes called refusal to disperse.

Courts have said that police and prosecutors are

very limited in their power to enforce this law because it has

the potential to infringe on your constitutional rights

to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.

So basically, the police are only

allowed to arrest you for this and the DA

to prosecute you if it's a situation where

you are part of a crowd that has become violent

or is inciting other people to violence

and you're ordered to disperse and you refuse to.

So I'll give you an example.

Suppose you're participating in a demonstration

downtown at City Hall and you're demonstrating against police

misconduct and police abuse.

And let's say the LAPD doesn't like your message,

doesn't like what you're chanting, so they order

you to disperse and arrest you.

That in itself would be an example of improper police

conduct.

Because you're exercising your right

to freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.

But let's say that you're part of a crowd that

starts to get unruly and you start

throwing rocks and bottles at police

and vandalizing cars in the neighborhood.

At that point, the police could order you to disperse

and arrest you if you don't.