Penal Law § 245.05

Offensive exhibition · as in force on May 31, 2026

§ 245.05 Offensive exhibition.

A person is guilty of offensive exhibition when he knowingly produces, operates, manages or furnishes premises for, or in any way promotes or participates in, an exhibition in the nature of public entertainment or amusement in which:

1. A person competes continuously without respite for a period of more than eight consecutive hours in a dance contest, bicycle race or other contest involving physical endurance; or

2. A person is held up to ridicule or contempt by voluntarily submitting to indignities such as the throwing of balls or other articles at his head or body; or

3. A firearm is discharged or a knife, arrow or other sharp or dangerous instrument is thrown or propelled at or toward a person.

Offensive exhibition is a violation.

Official sourcehttps://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/PEN/245.05

In plain English

A person commits offensive exhibition by knowingly producing, operating, managing, furnishing premises for, promoting, or participating in public entertainment where:

(1) Someone continuously competes in a physical-endurance contest for more than 8 consecutive hours;
(2) Someone is ridiculed through volunteered indignities such as objects thrown at the person; or
(3) A firearm is discharged or a knife, arrow, or other dangerous instrument is propelled at a person. ★

The offense is a violation.

Marked in the text: penalties, time limits, sums of money. Editorial emphasis added by this edition; it does not appear in the statute as enacted.

In print

This provision appears in Volume 4 — The Court Clerk: Penal Law; Volume 1 — The Court Officer in Plain English; Volume 3 — The Court Officer: Penal Law; Volume 3 — Your Career: Penal Law in Plain English.