§61-6-1. Suppression of riots and unlawful assemblages.
All members of the department of public safety, all sheriffs within their respective counties and all mayors within their respective jurisdiction, may suppress riots, routs and unlawful assemblages. It shall be the duty of each of them to go among, or as near as may be with safety, to persons riotously, tumultuously, or unlawfully assembled, and in the name of the law command them to disperse; and if they shall not thereupon immediately and peaceably disperse, such member of the department of public safety, sheriff or mayor giving the command, and any other present, shall command the assistance of all persons present, and of all or any part of other law-enforcement personnel available to him, as need be, in arresting and securing those so assembled. If any person present, on being required to give his assistance, depart, or fail to obey, he shall be deemed a rioter.