Alabama lawmakers delayed acting on an anti-riot bill that would create harsher penalties for people participating in "tumultuous" protests.
The House Judiciary Committee sent the bill to a subcommittee on Tuesday after Black lawmakers raised concerns about the bill's vague language when defining riot. The same legislators recalled the state's history of using police dogs, fire hoses and arrests to break up civil rights protests.
Republican Rep. Allen Treadaway is a retired Birmingham police chief. He proposed the bill last summer after Birmingham protests over the death of George Floyd's death turned destructive.