---
title: O.C.G.A. § 38-2-303. Dispersion of mob; orders; where order unnecessary; penalty for failure to disperse.
collection: code
id: 38-2-303
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 38-2-303 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/38-2-303
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/38-2-303.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/38-2-303/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t37-t39-(v28)-2021-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=c6b9c518_0#page=440
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
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version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: MILITARY, EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT, AND VETERANS AFFAIRS / MILITARY AFFAIRS / ACTIVE DUTY POWERS
---

# O.C.G.A. § 38-2-303. Dispersion of mob; orders; where order unnecessary; penalty for failure to disperse.

(a) Before using any military force in suppression of any riot, rout, tumult, mob, or other lawless or unlawful assembly or combination, it shall be the duty of the officer in command of the force, or some person deputed by him, to command the persons composing the riotous or unlawful assembly or mob to disperse and return peaceably to their abodes and businesses. In no case shall it be necessary to use any set or particular form of words in ordering the dispersion of any riotous, tumultuous, or unlawful assembly, nor shall any command be necessary when the officer or person, in order to give it, would be put in imminent danger of bodily harm or loss of life or where the unlawful assembly or mob is engaged in the commission or perpetration of any felony, in assaulting or attacking any civil officer or person called to aid him in the preservation of the peace, or is otherwise engaged in actual violence to person or property.

(b) Any person or persons composing or taking part in any riot, rout, mob, tumult, or lawless combination or assembly who, after being duly commanded to disperse as provided in subsection (a) of this Code section, willfully and intentionally fail to do so shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than five years.

## History

Ga. L. 1916, p. 158, § 3; Code 1933, §§ 86-1304, 86-9906; Ga. L. 1951, p. 311, §§ 5, 54; Ga. L. 1955, p. 10, §§ 100, 114; Ga. L. 1982, p. 3, § 38; Ga. L. 1992, p. 6, § 38.

## Cross References

Rioting generally, § 16-11-30. Unlawful assembly, § 16-11-33.