Court Opinion

ID: 9644996
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 21:09:56.963078+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:21.177634
License: Public Domain

Concurring Opinion by
Mr. Justice Cohen:
I concur with the result reached by the majority, but I am troubled by the imprecise and vague standards set forth in the Disorderly Conduct Act under *121which appellant was convicted. Under section 250.1 of Tentative Draft No. 13 of the Model Penal Code the offense of Disorderly Conduct is defined as follows:
“(1) Disorderly Conduct. A person is guilty of disorderly conduct if, with purpose to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or with knowledge that he is likely to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, he: (a) engages in fighting, threatening, or violent or tumultuous behavior; (b) makes unreasonable noise or coarse [indecent?] utterance, gesture, or display, or addresses abusive language to any person present; or (e) otherwise creates a hazardous or physically offensive condition by any act which serves no legitimate purpose of the actor.” (Emphasis supplied).
In determining what constitutes unreasonable noise it is necessary to ascertain whether the act or acts involved serve any legitimate purpose of the actor. In the instant case, the appellant was engaged in the normal course of earning his livelihood and his conduct was not engaged in with the purpose of causing public inconvenience. Since the typical disorderly conduct statute is as vague as the Pennsylvania statute, the Model Penal Code was intended to systemize and make more specific these unsatisfactory statutory definitions. And since disorderly conduct statutes necessarily encroach upon the freedom of action of an individual, it is important that the basis of criminal liability be carefully thought out and articulated. See comment to section 250.1 Model Penal Code, Tentative Draft No. 13 (1961). It would be helpful if the legislature would take cognizance of the provisions and discussions of The American Law Institute’s Model Penal Code in subsequent amendments to the Pennsylvania Criminal Code.