Glad it was Federal court, not State. Can someone explain how setting a police car on fire is a federal crime? Does it have to do with the specific charge?

CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge sentenced a Chicago man to nearly three years in prison Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to setting a police SUV on fire while wearing a Joker mask during widespread May 2020 demonstrations over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood sentenced 33-year-old Timothy O’Donnell to 34 months.

O’Donnell pleaded guilty in February to one count of interfering with law enforcement during the commission of civil disorder.

“He set a car on fire in the middle of a crowd,” Wood said. “He did it in a way that was intended to target law enforcement. He did it in a way that could have caused serious injury or death. Fortunately, it did not.”

Before he was sentenced, O’Donnell apologized “to those whose businesses were left in utter ruin” and said he was sorry “if I hurt Chicago’s character in any way.”

In a plea agreement, O’Donnell said he would pay $58,125 restitution to the Chicago Police Department to cover the cost of the damaged vehicle.

Man in Joker mask pleads guilty to setting CPD squad car on fire during riots
O’Donnell has been in custody since his June 2020 arrest.

Prosecutors said that a downtown protest had grown violent on the afternoon of May 30, 2020, when O’Donnell was seen on video taken by a bystander approaching the parked police vehicle, placing a cloth inside the gas tank and lighting it with a lighter.

Link: https://wgntv.com/news/chicago...tenced-to-34-months/

If the LEO agencies were, "federalized" (Deputized under U.S. Marshal), then that makes the arson of a local police (under such federal deputization) a Federal offence.

If you gonna start some, better know some, or suffer some.

quote:

O’Donnell pleaded guilty in February to one count of interfering with law enforcement during the commission of civil disorder.

that's your fed charge. not " arson," but rather the interfering during civil disorder, which is a federal crime.

link: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/231

ETA: I hope he has fun in jail