Every person who shall obstruct any officer, civil, military, or otherwise, including any state, city, or town police, deputy sheriff, or fire fighter, while in the execution of his or her office or duty, shall be imprisoned not exceeding one year or be fined not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500).
R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-32-1
Obstructing officer in execution of duty
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case United States v. McQueeney (1982)
Most recently applied in Silva v. Garland (February 2022)
G.L. 1896, ch. 276, § 7; G.L. 1909, ch. 342, § 7; G.L. 1923, ch. 394, § 7; G.L. 1938, ch. 605, § 7; G.L. 1956, § 11-32-1; G.L. 1971, ch. 220, § 1; P.L. 1980, ch. 186, § 1; P.L. …
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: Rhode Island General Assembly. Reproduced from public-domain Rhode Island statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.