Street message for Trump, protesters
Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser renamed a street in front of the White House ‘‘Black Lives Matter Plaza’’ and had the slogan painted on the asphalt in massive yellow letters, a pointed salvo in her escalating dispute with President Donald Trump over control of DC streets.
City officials said the actions were meant to honour demonstrators who are urging changes in law enforcement practices after the killing of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police.
‘‘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 honour the peaceful demonstrators who assembled Monday night,’’ said John Falcicchio, the mayor’s chief of staff.
For days, Bowser has strongly objected to the escalation of federal law enforcement and the military response to protests and unrest in the nation’s capital.
Trump has urged a crackdown on demonstrators, outraged by sporadic cases of looting during protests in Washington and some other cities.
He and Attorney General William Barr marshalled a huge influx of federal police and National Guard units to the capital, against Bowser’s wishes.
On Friday, local time, city workers included a DC flag at the end of the display in front of St John’s Church, close to where federal law enforcement forcefully cleared the area of largely peaceful protesters on Monday night just before Trump walked over and posed for news cameras, a Bible in his hand.
The art takes up two blocks on 16th Street Northwest, between K and H streets, an iconic promenade directly north of the White House.
Local artist Rose Jaffe said she and others joined city work crews to paint the giant slogan, starting before dawn.
Mid-morning, Bowser, a Democrat, watched silently as a city worker hung a sign at the corner of 16th and H streets that said ‘‘Black Lives Matter Plz NW.’’ Onlookers cheered, and the song Rise Up by Andra Day played from speakers.
‘‘In America, you can peacefully assemble,’’ Bowser said in brief remarks to the crowd.
Bah-Pna Dahane, 45, said he was finishing up a run near the White House when he saw the street-painting effort and decided to pitch in. He said he had been a victim of brutal police tactics in New York and knows that change will not happen if people don’t act.
‘‘I said: ‘You know what? Let’s do it. Let’s make it happen’,’’ he said as he painted.
The group Black Lives Matter DC reacted to the street painting with criticism of the mayor, saying she should decrease the budget for the DC police and ‘‘invest in the community’’.
Bowser’s proposed budget increases funding for traditional policing while cutting spending on programmes to reduce violence through community-based intervention initiatives.