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Black Lives Matter activist was convicted on Wednesday of breaking a police car window last May. - Tia Pugh had faced federal anti-riot charges in the case.
- Pugh's lawyers argued the law was racist and had a history of being used against Black activists, AL.com reported.
Black Lives Matter demonstrator Tia Pugh was found guilty on Wednesday on a federal anti-riot charge after she broke the window of a police car during a protest last May.
Pugh was convicted of impeding law enforcement officials "in a manner that impacted interstate commerce."
Last May, Pugh was arrested and federally charged for breaking a police car's window in Mobile, Alabama during a protest after George Floyd's murder.
An Alabama federal judge ruled that the federal anti-riot law that Pugh was charged with violating was constitutional. But her attorneys claimed the law had 'racist' origins and was aimed at stifling First Amendment rights, according to AL.com.
Pugh's lawyers argued that Pugh was charged under the "Civil Obedience Act," a law aimed at demonizing and charging civil rights leaders who advocated for civil disobedience in the 1960s.