{"data":{"id":"us-dc/d.c.-code-5-331.03","jurisdiction":"us-dc","citation":"D.C. Code § 5-331.03","heading":"Policy on First Amendment assemblies.","body":"(a)\nIt is the declared public policy of the District of Columbia that:\n(1)\nPersons and groups have a right to organize and participate in peaceful First Amendment assemblies on the streets, sidewalks, and other public ways, and in the parks of the District of Columbia, and to engage in First Amendment assembly near the object of their protest so they may be seen and heard, subject to reasonable restrictions designed to protect public safety, persons, and property, and to accommodate the interest of persons not participating in the assemblies to use the streets, sidewalks, and other public ways to travel to their intended destinations, and use the parks for recreational purposes; and\n(2)\nMPD shall not engage in mass arrests of groups that include First Amendment assemblies or that began as a First Amendment assembly unless MPD:\n(A)\nDetermines that the assembly has transformed, in substantial part or in whole, into an activity subject to dispersal or arrest; and\n(B)\nHas issued an order to disperse as described in § 5-331.07(e) and (e-1).","path":["Title 5. Police, Firefighters, Medical Examiner, and Forensic Sciences.","Chapter 3A. First Amendment Rights and Police Standards.","Subchapter I. First Amendment Assemblies."],"source_url":"https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/5-331.03","current_through":"2026-08-20 (D.C. Law 26-175)","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-08-29T05:44:07Z","sha256":"19f42ac540af5e3993e814c607429537ffd7061c8dda8ce0b510293a65bd63e4","source_id":"us-dc","stale":false,"prev":"us-dc/d.c.-code-5-331.02","next":"us-dc/d.c.-code-5-331.04"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}