Topic: 1st Amendment
Reading The Riot Act

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Have you been read the riot act lately? Here is a brief history of the origin of this interesting turn of phrase.

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by Ken D. Berry, MD
(libertarian)
Saturday, January 31, 2009

Many a teenager after having been chastised for some transgression by parents has later told his friends he was "read the riot act". Out of the mouth of this babe comes reference to a dusty, yet interesting, English law from the 18^th century, of which he is certainly ignorant. Below is a quick primer on this law and how it affected America.

Rioting over religious matters in London in the early 1700's led to major property damage, eventual downfall of the standing Ministry, and threatened invasion of the city. In 1714, Parliament passed The Riot Act which effectively made the already illegal acts of assembling and/or rioting even more legally hazardous. After passage of this Act, when a group of more than a dozen citizens assembled, and were judged by the local Sherriff to be up to no good, the Sheriff could stand before them and read the official language of this act; the exact language being be found here. When he had finished reading them the Riot Act, the gathered group (regardless of whether they had assembled peacefully or not) had exactly one hour to go back to their homes or places of work, or else. The else ranged from 2 years of hard labor to being killed by the Sheriff during his action of dispersing the crowd. The Sheriff could also assemble the posse comitatus (able-bodied men older than 15 years) to help him enforce this decree.

The Riot Act is important to Americans because of its tie-in with the banned use of the military in civilian law enforcement matters, later codified in America's Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. It seems even back in 1714 the English apparently saw the potential danger of giving federal troops license to police the streets of their own country. It was apparent to folks even back then that such powers would eventually be abused. How is it that America's recent congresses have forgotten the maxim that all power that can be abused, will eventually be abused?

The Riot Act was read and acted on several times in England over the years, the last being in the early twentieth century; the act was eventually repealed in 1973. In America, oral warnings such as "Stop, police!" and "LAPD, open the door or we'll break it down!" appear to be direct descendents of this long-held duty of policing officials to verbally announce to The People. America has no law analogous to the Riot Act due to the common knowledge that The People in America are free to assemble without regard to size or cause. Current government officials' belief that they have the power to stop or abridge such assembly changes neither the law nor the knowledge concerning this Right; they are in fact morally powerless to prevent it.

Interestingly, the first recorded figurative use of the term "read the riot act" was by William Bradford, the Governor of Plymouth Plantation, who this author has written of before.

©2009 Ken D. Berry, MD, all rights reserved. You must have written permission from the author in order to republish this work.
Published: Saturday, January 31, 2009
Last modified: Saturday, January 31, 2009

The views expressed in this article are those of Ken D. Berry, MD only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Ken D. Berry, MD is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.

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