The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mayor has message for president
Street in front of White House renamed ‘Black Lives Matter Plaza.’
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser renamed the street in front of the White House “Black Lives Matter Plaza” on Friday and emblazoned the slogan in massive yellow letters on the road, a pointed salvo in her escalating dispute with President Trump over control of D.C. streets.
The actions are meant to honor demonstrators who are urging changes in police practices after the killing in police custody of George Floyd in Minneapolis, city officials said.
They come after several days in which the mayor strongly objected to the escalation of federal law enforcement and a military response to days of protests and unrest in the nation’s capital.
Local artist Rose Jaffe said she and others joined city work crews to paint the giant slogan, starting around 4 a.m.
The art will take up two blocks on 16th Street NW, between K and H streets, an iconic promenade that leads directly north of the White House.
Shortly after 11 a.m., a city worker hung up a “Black Lives Matter Plz NW” sign at the corner of 16th and H streets NW. Bowser watched silently as onlookers cheered and the song “Rise Up” by Audra Day played from speakers.
“In America, you can peacefully assemble,” she said in brief remarks to the crowd.
Trump has urged a crackdown on protesters, outraged by sporadic cases of looting in Washington and some other cities. He and Attorney General William P. Barr marshaled a huge influx of federal police and National Guard units to the capital against Bowser’s wishes.
The federal plan to contain protests in Washington, D.C., currently employs about 7,600 civilian law enforcement, National Guard and active-duty Army personnel stationed just outside the city, an array of forces Barr and others say is justified to defend the capital at a time of unrest. The numbers are detailed in an internal document compiled for the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Thursday and seen by Bloomberg News.
City workers included a D.C. flag at the end of the Black Lives Matter street display in front of St. John’s Church, close to where federal law enforcement cleared the street Monday night just before Trump walked over and posed for news cameras, a Bible in his hand.
“There was a dispute this week about whose street it is, and Mayor
Bowser wanted to make it abundantly clear whose street it is and honor the peaceful demonstrators who assembled Monday night,” said John Falcicchio, the mayor’s chief of staff.
The group Black Lives Matter DC reacted to the street painting with criticism of the mayor, saying she should decrease the budget for the Metropolitan Police Department and “invest in the community.”