D.C. mayor renames street outside of White House “Black Lives Matter Plaza”
The mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser, has renamed the area of 16th Street NW just outside the White House “Black Lives Matter Plaza.”
Bowser joined tens of thousands of protesters downtown on Saturday to protest the killing of George Floyd.
“I have a two-year-old girl. I want her to grow up in a country where she’s not scared to go to the grocery store, not scared to go to work,” Bowser, who is African American said. “It’s so wonderful to see everyone peacefully protesting, wearing their masks. Today, we say no. In November, we say next.”
Bowser also had a group of local artists paint “Black Lives Matter” on the street in giant yellow letters. The area has become the center of operations for the protests in the nation’s capital.
Throughout the protests, Bowser has become a high-profile opponent of President Donald Trump. She poked at the president on Twitter Friday night after keeping the street lights shining brightly into the night.
“We turned on the night light for him so he dreams about #blacklivesmatter plaza,” Bowser tweeted.
On Thursday, Bowser had members of the Utah national guard, who were deployed to Washington for the protests, removed from their hotel downtown. She said that members of that guard unit were staying in hotel rooms paid for by the city via a contract that was meant to cover the cost of national guard members deployed for the COVID-19 response.
President Donald Trump hasn’t shown any love for Bowser. On Friday he tweeted:
.@MayorBowser is grossly incompetent, and in no way qualified to be running an important city like Washington, D.C. If the great men and women of the National Guard didn’t step forward, she would have looked no better than her counterpart Mayor in Minneapolis!
The Washington chapter of Black Lives Matter was also not impressed by Bowser’s actions calling the mayor’s move to paint the mural in front of the White House “a performative distraction from real policy changes.”
“This is a performative distraction from real policy changes. Bowser has consistently been on the wrong side of BLMDC history. This is to appease white liberals while ignoring our demands. Black Lives Matter means defund the police,” the group tweeted.
Washington, D.C. has historically elected Democrat African American mayors. In the city of 700,000 people, African Americans make up about 46 percent.
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