[HISTORY: Adopted by the Mayor and Council of the Borough
of Somerville 6-5-46 as Ord. No. 372. Section 122-12 and Section 122-20 amended at time of adoption of
Code; see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. I. Other amendments noted
where applicable.]
No person shall keep or maintain any gaming house, house of
ill fame or disorderly house, or allow, suffer or permit any house,
shop, store or other building owned or occupied by him to be used
as a gaming house, house of ill fame or disorderly house or to be
frequented or resorted to by riotous or disorderly persons, prostitutes,
gamblers, vagrants or mendicants.
No person shall set up, keep or maintain, or allow, suffer or
permit to be set up, kept or maintained, in any house, shop, store
or other building or on any premises owned or occupied by him, any
faro table, faro bank, roulette wheel or other wheel or other device
or game of chance for the purpose of gaming, or any cockpit or other
place for the exhibition of animals while engaged in fighting.
No person shall buy, sell or offer for sale what is commonly
known as a "pool" or any interest or share in any such pool or make,
take or offer to take what is commonly known as "book," upon the running,
pacing or trotting, either within or without this state, of any horse,
mare, gelding or other animal, or upon any game, race or contest or
conduct or engage in the practice commonly known as "number-writing"
or "picking up numbers," or have in his possession any ticket, slip
or other evidence of an interest, share, bet or pledge in any pool,
lottery, race, contest or other game, or keep, maintain or attend
any place to which persons may resort for engaging in any such acts
or practices or for betting upon the event of any race, game or contest,
either within or without this state, or for gambling in any form,
and no person shall aid, abet, assist or participate in any way in
any of such acts or practices.
No person shall play for money or other valuable thing at cards,
billiards, pool, bowling, shuffleboard, faro bank or other bank of
like kind under any denomination whatever, roulette or other wheel,
at dice or at any other game with one (1) or more die or dice or with
any other instrument or device in the nature of dice; and no person
shall deal, play or engage in faro, roulette or other wheel or other
device or game of chance, whether as banker, player, dealer or otherwise,
for the purpose of gaming.
No person shall play for money or other valuable thing with
any slot machine or device in the nature of a slot machine or with
any other instrument, engine, apparatus or device; and no person shall
have or keep in his place of business or other premises any slot machine
or device in the nature of a slot machine or any other instrument,
engine, apparatus or device which may be used for the purpose of playing
for money or other valuable thing.
No person shall engage in any riot, public disturbance or disorderly
assemblage.
[Amended 3-16-64 by Ord. No. 601]
No person shall lounge or sleep in any street, sidewalk, curb,
alley, highway, park or other public place, quasi-public place or
place to which the public is invited, or utter loud and offensive
or indecent language, or make offensive remarks to or about any person
passing along, through or over any street, sidewalk, curb, alley,
highway, park or other public place, quasi-public place or place to
which the public is invited, or obstruct or interfere with any person
lawfully being in or upon any street, sidewalk, curb, alley, highway,
park or other public place, quasi-public place or place to which the
public is invited.
[Added 3-16-64 by Ord. No. 601]
No person shall refuse a police officer's request to move on
when such person stands around, moves slowly, idles, delays or congregates
with others upon any street, sidewalk, curb, alley, highway, park
or other public place, quasi-public place or place to which the public
is invited, with an intention to provoke a breach of the peace or
whereby a breach of the peace may be occasioned.
[Added 6-20-66 by Ord. No. 622]
It shall be unlawful for any person or persons to assemble in
the streets, public places or public halls of the Borough of Somerville,
or be upon the streets, sidewalks, steps or platforms of any store,
business house, park, church or railroad station, bus or other conveyance
or within or around any building, dwelling house, office, place of
business, factory or private or public place within said borough,
behaving in a disorderly manner by noisy, rude or indecent behavior,
by using profane, vulgar or indecent language, by making insulting
remarks or comments to others, by begging for alms, by fighting, by
unnecessary congregating in groups upon any street, sidewalk, railroad
station or other public place to the obstruction thereof or to the
annoyance of other persons lawfully there being, or by unnecessarily
doing or performing any other disorderly thing whatsoever that shall
disturb the peace or quiet of any family, neighborhood or any of the
inhabitants of the borough.
No person shall go about from door to door or place himself
or herself in any street, highway, park or other public or quasi-public
place to beg or gather alms, and no person shall conduct himself or
herself in such manner as to be guilty of vagrancy.
No person shall appear in any street, highway, park or other
public or quasi-public place in a drunken or intoxicated condition
or in a state of nudity, or dressed in a manner designed or calculated
to represent himself or herself as a member of the opposite sex, or
in any indecent or lewd dress, or make any indecent exposure of his
or her person, or be guilty of any lewd or indecent act or behavior,
or exhibit, sell or offer to sell any indecent or lewd book, picture
or thing, or exhibit or perform any indecent, immoral or lewd play
or other representation.
No person shall throw any stone, stick or other hard or offensive
substance, or shoot any revolver, pistol, gun, air gun, slingshot
or other device, at, into or upon any street or other public or quasi-public
place, or into any cars, vehicle or private property except in self-defense
when threatened with deadly bodily harm or in defense of another's
person when he is threatened with deadly bodily harm, or as expressly
authorized in this chapter.
No person shall give or cause to be given any false alarm of
fire.
No person shall make or cause to be made any bonfire between
sundown and sunrise without having first obtained a permit therefor
from the Chief of the Fire Department of the Borough of Somerville.
[Amended 12-16-2019 by Ord. No. 2597
No person shall ride a bicycle, skateboard, scooter or similar
device upon any sidewalk in the Borough of Somerville or on Division
Street located between W. Main Street and South Street.
A.
Exemptions.
(1)
This
shall not apply to members of the Bicycle Patrol Unit of the Borough
of Somerville Police Department, or other authorized safety officers.
(2)
This
prohibition shall not apply to a person who walks a unicycle, bicycle,
tricycle or motorized bicycle along or upon the sidewalks.
(3)
Riding
tricycles and similar vehicles exempted. This section does not prohibit
the riding of a tricycle and such similar vehicles upon the aforementioned
sidewalks and municipally owned property.
No person shall injure or damage any lights, wires, poles or
fixtures lawfully in or upon any street or other public place.
No person shall throw water, by the use of a hose or otherwise,
upon any sidewalk on Main Street between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and
6:00 p.m.
It shall be the duty of the police of the Borough of Somerville,
and they are hereby authorized and empowered, to enter upon any premises
wherein instruments or devices shall be used or employed in gaming
contrary to any of the provisions of this chapter, and, except in
the case of ball alleys, bowling alleys and billiard tables, to carry
away and destroy such instruments or devices so employed or used in
gaming.
Any person who shall violate any of the provisions of this chapter
shall, upon conviction thereof, forfeit and pay a fine of not exceeding
five hundred dollars ($500) or be imprisoned in the county jail for
a term not exceeding ninety (90) days, or both, and the Judge of the
Borough of Somerville before whom such person shall be convicted may
impose such fine or imprisonment, or both, as he may see fit, but
not exceeding the maximum herein fixed.
