State v. . Hunter

Citations

• 11 S.E. 386
• 106 N.C. 796

Syllabus

<p>Arrest — Police Officers — Municipal Ordinances— Constitution— Nuisance.</p> <p>1. A police officer may make arrests, without warrant, for violations of municipal ordinances, when committed in his presence; but he must determine, at his own peril, the fact that there has been a violation of a valid ordinance. If the ordinance is invalid, the fact that he acted in good faith will not protect him — the question of bona fides only arises in determining the extent of force used by him in overcoming resistance to arrest.</p> <p>2. An ordinance which declared that “ whenever three or more persons obstruct a sidewalk it shall be the duty of the officer to request them to move on, and if such persons unreasonably persist in remaining so as to incommode others passing, he (the officer) shall take them to the station-house,” is in contravention of the Constitution, in that it subjects the citizen to imprisonment at the will of the officer, and without giving him an opportunity for trial or preliminary examination.</p> <p>3. The act of one person in simply stopping on the sidewalk of a street for a reasonable time, without misbehaving in any way, does not constitute such a nuisance as the city of Asheville had the power to forbid and punish under its charter.</p> <p>(Davis, J., dissenting.)</p>