Drunk and Disorderly: A Reminder Ahead of the Peak Sports Season

February tends to be a very popular month for sports. The Super Bowl is around the corner, NCAA basketball is heating up with conference games, we are deep into the NBA season, and even the MLB is gearing up for spring training. Fans show their support for and allegiance to teams while watching games at home, in the arena, or at a local bar. Celebration often leads to drinks, drinks occasionally lead to questionable behavior, and questionable behavior frequently leads to consequences. Although it is not a crime in North Carolina to be drunk in public, it is a criminal offense to be drunk and disorderly in public. Intoxicated and disruptive. Old G.S. 14-334 made it a misdemeanor for any person to be drunk and disorderly in any public place. Old G.S. 14-335 made it a misdemeanor for any person merely to be drunk or intoxicated in any public place. Both offenses were punishable by a fine of not more than $50 or by imprisonment of not more than 30 or 20 days in jail, respectively. Those statutes were repealed in 1977 and replaced by the current public intoxication statutes, found in Article 59 of Chapter 14 of the general statutes. The current drunk and disorderly statute—renamed intoxicated and disruptive—maintains the element of disorderliness for the offense. Under G.S. 14-444, it is a Class 3 misdemeanor for a person in a public place to be intoxicated and disruptive in any of the following ways: (1) blocking or otherwise interfering with traffic [...]