Article M-901 - Territorial Trespass

"You were taken inside the borders of a power that does not receive you. The State does not weigh your purpose; it weighs the fact that you crossed."

Every power in the world keeps a ledger of who may walk its ground. A citizen the ledger marks hostile does not stop being a citizen, but they stop being welcome, and the watch that guards the roads reads that ledger before it reads intentions. M-901 is the article the bench reaches for when the only offense proved is presence.

It is the lightest of the territorial articles by design. The Code treats an unwelcome traveler as a nuisance to be removed rather than a criminal to be broken, and the opening term is short enough to read as exactly that: a night held, then out.

Escalation Under the Recidivism Clause

A first trespass draws the opening term. A second within thirty days draws twice as much, a third twice again, until the article's ceiling is reached. The ceiling is set low on purpose. However often a citizen wanders where they are unwanted, the Code refuses to treat wandering as violence.

On Bail

M-901 is bailable, and cheaply so: the fine is reckoned at the plain value of the term with no surcharge. The State would rather have the traveler gone than housed, and takes the fine as the faster road to the same end.