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H 7550Violent Crime Penalties

Criminal Offenses - Disorderly Conduct

This bill makes blocking a highway a felony with mandatory prison time, increasing penalties for repeat offenses or causing death.

Held for study
Population
Affected
15
Email Legislator
Introduced Feb 6, 2026Committee House Judiciary

Plain-English Summary

This legislation creates a new felony crime called "unlawful interference with traffic." It specifically prohibits individuals from intentionally sitting, standing, kneeling, or loitering on federal or state highways if doing so blocks traffic or distracts drivers. The bill establishes mandatory minimum prison sentences for violations: one to three years for a first offense, three to five years for a second, and five to ten years for a third. Additionally, if blocking the highway delays an emergency vehicle and results in a death, the offender faces five to thirty years in prison.

For younger readers

This new law creates a strict rule against playing, sitting, or standing in the middle of big highways. It says that blocking cars or distracting drivers on these fast roads is very dangerous. If someone breaks this rule on purpose, they will get in serious trouble and have to go to jail for at least one year. If they do it again, they stay in jail longer. Also, if they block an ambulance or fire truck and someone dies because help couldn't get there fast enough, the person who blocked the road could go to jail for a very long time.

Who & Where It Applies

Impacted groups
Protesters and activistsMotorists and commutersEmergency respondersLaw enforcement officersCommercial truck drivers
Impacted communities
All

Constitutional & Fiscal Check

High risk

High risk. While the government can impose time, place, and manner restrictions on speech, classifying non-violent protest on public ways as a felony with mandatory minimums may be challenged as an unconstitutional burden on the First Amendment right to assemble. Furthermore, the provision criminalizing conduct that causes "distraction" may be challenged as void for vagueness, as it lacks a clear standard for what constitutes a criminal distraction, potentially leading to arbitrary enforcement.

Estimated cost
Amount unknown
Estimated revenue
None

Bill Analysis

Both viewpoints
For Progressives
  • Ensures that emergency vehicles, such as ambulances and fire trucks, can reach patients and hospitals without delay, potentially saving lives during medical crises.
  • Protects the physical safety of pedestrians and protesters by discouraging them from entering high-speed roadways where the risk of fatal accidents is extremely high.
  • Distinguishes specific highway obstruction from general disorderly conduct, theoretically providing clearer legal definitions for what constitutes dangerous interference with public infrastructure.
  • Imposes severe felony charges and mandatory minimum prison sentences for non-violent acts of civil disobedience, which critics argue is a draconic and disproportionate punishment.
  • Threatens to chill free speech and the right to assemble by criminalizing a specific form of protest often used by marginalized groups to raise awareness of social injustices.
  • Removes judicial discretion by instituting mandatory minimums, preventing judges from considering the specific context or intent of a protest when sentencing an individual.
For Conservatives
  • Protects the free flow of commerce and the daily commute by preventing individuals from shutting down critical state and federal infrastructure.
  • Upholds the rule of law by establishing strict, non-negotiable consequences for individuals who intentionally disrupt public order and disregard traffic laws.
  • Prioritizes the safety of law-abiding drivers and families by deterring behavior that creates dangerous distractions and obstructions on high-speed roadways.
  • Increases the financial burden on the state and taxpayers by mandating long-term incarceration for non-violent offenders, expanding the size and cost of the penal system.
  • Limits the power of the judiciary through mandatory minimum sentencing, which some conservatives view as government overreach into the authority of the courts.
  • Uses broad language regarding causing a "distraction," which could theoretically be interpreted loosely by the government to infringe on personal liberties in unintended ways.

Votes

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Full Bill Text

Changes to existing Rhode Island law · 33 additions · 2 deletions

SECTION 1. Section 11-45-1 of the General Laws in Chapter 11-45 entitled "Disorderly Conduct" is hereby amended to read as follows: 11-45-1. Disorderly conduct.

(a) A person commits disorderly conduct if he or she intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly:

(1) Engages in fighting or threatening, or in violent or tumultuous behavior;

(2) In a public place or near a private residence that he or she the person has no right to occupy, disturbs another person by making loud and unreasonable noise which under the circumstances would disturb a person of average sensibilities;

(3) Directs at another person in a public place offensive words which are likely to provoke a violent reaction on the part of the average person so addressed;

(4) Alone or with others, obstructs a highway, street, sidewalk, railway, waterway, building entrance, elevator, aisle, stairway, or hallway to which the public or a substantial group of the public has access or any other place ordinarily used for the passage of persons, vehicles, or conveyances;

(5) Engages in conduct which obstructs or interferes physically with a lawful meeting, procession, or gathering;

(6) Enters upon the property of another and for a lascivious purpose looks into an occupied dwelling or other building on the property through a window or other opening; or

(7) Who without the knowledge or consent of the individual, looks for a lascivious purpose through a window, or any other opening into an area in which another would have a reasonable expectation of privacy, including, but not limited to, a restroom, locker room, shower, changing room, dressing room, bedroom, or any other such private area, notwithstanding any property rights the individual may have in the location in which the private area is located.

(8) [Deleted by P.L. 2008, ch. 183, § 1].

(b) Any person, including a police officer, may be a complainant for the purposes of instituting action for any violation of this section.

(c) Any person found guilty of the crime of disorderly conduct shall be imprisoned for a term of not more than six (6) months, or fined not more than five hundred dollars ($500), or both.

(d) In no event shall subdivisions (a)(2) — (5) of this section be construed to prevent lawful picketing or lawful demonstrations including, but not limited to, those relating to a labor dispute.

SECTION 2. Chapter 11-45 of the General Laws entitled "Disorderly Conduct" is hereby amended by adding thereto the following section: 11-45-3. Unlawful interference with traffic.

(a) A person commits the crime of unlawful interference with traffic if the person intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly:

(1) Stands, sits, kneels, or otherwise loiters on any federal or state highway under circumstances that said conduct could reasonably be construed as interfering with the lawful movement of traffic; or

(2) Stands, sits, kneels, or otherwise loiters on any federal or state highway causing the interruption, obstruction, distraction, or delay of any motorist operating a motor vehicle upon said highway.

(b) Any person, including a police officer, may be a complainant for the purposes of instituting action for any violation of this section.

(c) Any person who violates subsection (a) of this section is guilty of a felony and shall, upon conviction, be sentenced for a first violation of this section, to a term of imprisonment of not less than one year nor more than three (3) years at the adult correctional institution. Not less than the first sixty (60) days of said sentence shall be ineligible for the benefit of suspension, deferral, or probation.

(d) Any person who violates subsection (a) of this section is guilty of a felony and shall, upon conviction, be sentenced for a second violation, to a term of imprisonment of not less than three (3) years nor more than five (5) years at the adult correctional institution. Not less than the first one year of said sentence shall be ineligible for the benefit of suspension, deferral, or probation.

(e) Any person who violates subsection (a) of this section is guilty of a felony and shall, upon conviction, be sentenced for a third violation, to a term of imprisonment of not less the five

(5) years nor more than ten (10) years at the adult correctional institution. Not less than two (2) years of said sentence shall be ineligible for the benefit of suspension, deferral, or probation.

(f) When the death of any person ensues as a proximate result of the interruption, obstruction, distraction, or delay of an emergency vehicle caused by conduct violating the provisions of subsection (a) of this section, the person violating this section shall be guilty of "unlawful interference with traffic, resulting in death" and shall, upon conviction, be sentenced to a term of imprisonment of not less than five (5) years nor more than thirty (30) years at the adult correctional institution. Not less than five (5) years of said sentence shall be ineligible for the benefit of suspension, deferral, or probation.

SECTION 3. This act shall take effect upon passage.