The state of California defines a riot as such: “two or more people, acting together and without legal authority, disturb the public peace by using force or violence, or by threatening to use force or violence, and have the immediate ability to carry out those threats.”

California classifies a riot as a misdemeanor crime and anyone convicted of participating in this crime can receive a one-year jail sentence.

The state of Texas defines a riot as such: “the assemblage of seven or more persons resulting in conduct which creates an immediate danger of damage to property or injury to persons, and substantially obstructs law enforcement or other governmental functions or services, or, by force, threat of force, or physical action deprives any person of a legal right or disturbs any person in the enjoyment of a legal right.”

Texas classifies a riot as a Class “B” misdemeanor crime and anyone convicted of participating in this crime can receive a six month jail sentence and a $2,000 fine.

The state of New York defines a riot as such: “simultaneously with ten or more persons, he or she engages in tumultuous and violent conduct and thereby intentionally or recklessly causes or creates a grave risk of causing public harm, and in the course of and as a result of such conduct, a person other than the participants suffers physical injury or substantial property damage occurs.”

New York classifies a riot as a misdemeanor crime, and anyone convicted of participating in this crime can receive a one-year jail sentence and a $1,000 fine.

And then there’s Florida’s definition of a riot: “any person who willfully participates in a violent public disturbance involving an assembly of three or more persons, acting with a common intent to assist each other in violent and disorderly conduct, resulting in injury to another person, damage to property, or imminent danger or injury to another person or damage to property.”

Florida classifies a riot as a felony crime, and anyone convicted of participating in this crime can receive a five-year prison sentence and a $5,000 fine.

Those are four examples of just how seriously every state in our Union considers the crime of rioting. The people who long-ago codified these laws in their states’ criminal codes were acutely aware of an age-old tenet of public governance - once you give up the streets to rioters, anarchy and the breakdown of society will soon follow.

How many times in the last few years have we witnessed rioting in the streets, followed by anarchy and the breakdown of society? Too many to count. It’s an incomprehensible reality today that most public officials have either failed to grasp the significance of that sage principal of governance, or simply have chosen to ignore it and put their political agendas ahead of the safety of their own communities.

While we all have a constitutionally protected right to assemble publicly, speak publicly and protest publicly, no one has a right to riot publicly. A criminal riot is an event far removed from any legal and peaceful protest or free speech, although sometimes it may be difficult to differentiate one from the other. The line separating a legal protest from a criminal riot can be fluid, blurry and thin.

At other times, it’s a clearly discernible schism.

But to be clear, those who assemble with the intent to cause harm and chaos, and who endanger public safety, and who defy local or state laws, cannot legitimately claim to be engaged in any peaceful and constitutionally protected protest. They become rioters the moment they cross the Rubicon and commit the prima facie criminal acts constituting a riot, regardless of any feigned claims of protected conduct and free speech, or excuses for their behavior.

There is no such thing as a “mostly peaceful protest.” Do you remember, a few years ago, the many news reporters standing in front of burning cars and looted buildings, claiming they were witnessing a “mostly peaceful protest?” The fact of the matter is what may begin as a peaceful protest that morphs into a riot is a riot. And that transformation can happen very quickly. Once someone injures a police officer, or sets fire to a car, or throws a rock through a business’ window - however peaceful and legal the protest was beforehand - becomes a criminal riot.

If you feel passionately enough about an issue that you want to join a gathering in a lawful protest, you should certainly do so. It’s your constitutionally guaranteed right.

But, if you see the warning signs that things are beginning to “go south,” or if a law enforcement officer announces to the gathering that they are an unlawful assembly and orders everyone to disperse immediately, it might be a good idea to call it a day and leave the area.

Ernie Foucault is a retired San Diego police sergeant and former instructor in the San Diego Police Academy. I joined the police department in 1967 and retired in 1995. In the latter years of my career, I was the incident commander at the scene of several riots within the city, including a couple which took place on the grounds of San Diego State University. He lives in Kresgeville.