Ohio will be one step closer today to making failure to disperse an arrestable offense.
Lt. Jeffrey Puls of the Columbus Division of Police will be testifying as a proponent of this law at 11 a.m. before the House of Representatives criminal justice committee.
Puls testified over the summer before the Senate criminal justice committee, and the Senate passed the original bill.
The substitute version to Senate Bill 57 will raise the failure to disperse from a minor misdemeanor to a misdemeanor four. This change will give police, who could only ticket before, the authority to arrest those who fail to obey their orders.
Rioting is a felony under Ohio law and this bill will make it so police do not have to prove people planned to initiate a riot.
The bill adds stricter consequences to a controversial provision that was included in the 2004-2005 Ohio budget. The provision had ignited controversy from legislators, school administrators and student activists who believed the bill would prohibit their right to protest.
Part of the controversy arose from the hazy definition of what it meant to fail to disperse. Opponents of the bill argued a distinct separation was necessary between actual rioters and those who fail to disperse, and under the suggested provision this distinction did not exist.
The provision that was passed over the summer required all state-funded universities to expel any student convicted of “rioting” or “failure to disperse” and denied financial aid to that student for two years. Other Ohio universities cannot accept applications from students convicted for one year under the budget provision.
