§ 240.20 Disorderly conduct.\n A person is guilty of disorderly conduct when, with intent to cause\npublic inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or recklessly creating a risk\nthereof:\n 1. He engages in fighting or in violent, tumultuous or threatening\nbehavior; or\n 2. He makes unreasonable noise; or\n 3. In a public place, he uses abusive or obscene language, or makes an\nobscene gesture; or\n 4. Without lawful authority, he disturbs any lawful assembly or\nmeeting of persons; or\n 5. He obstructs vehicular or pedestrian traffic; or\n 6. He congregates with other persons in a public place and refuses to\ncomply with a lawful order of the police to disperse; or\n 7. He creates a hazardous or physically offensive condition by any act\nwhich serves no legitimate purpose.\n Disorderly conduct is a violation.\n
N.Y. Penal Law § 240.20
Disorderly conduct
Applied in 155 court decisions — leading case Garcia v. Does 1-40 (2014)
Most recently applied in 87 Misc. 3d 134 - People v. Norvil (Messiah) (December 2025)
2014-09-22
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: NYS Open Legislation (New York State Senate). Reproduced from public-domain New York statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.