Recently, LA police declared an unlawful assembly over all of downtown LA. According to the news report, this "means nobody, with a few exceptions, including members of the news media, should be in the area and will be subject to arrest."
I understand that there's a right to freedom of assembly. I understand there to be a notion of an "unlawful assembly", where it can be a crime to assemble for the purpose of doing something illegal, or for the purpose of padding out a crowd so other people can do illegal things and get away with it, or in other ways that pass the required level of constitutional scrutiny.
But that's a fiddly fact-specific concept, not a thing that can just be declared over an entire city. And it applies to people actually assembling in the assembly in question, not just standing around town.
If somebody, say, decides to sit on their front porch, or go to the grocery store, or operate their hot dog cart, or hold their chess club meeting in the park, or whatever, in an area where an unlawful assembly has been "declared", and they are arrested, what crime would they be charged with? What are the elements of that offense, and the constitutional basis for it being able to be prohibited, given how it clearly cuts into the right of freedom of assembly? If this is just a police power but not an actual offense, what is the constitutional basis for granting that power?
The news article here is about California, so I'm interested in answers about California law.
