In the wake of national protests that have erupted over the death of George Floyd, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser peacefully drove home the message that “Black Lives Matter” by having the words painted on a street that leads to the White House.
“There was a dispute this week about whose street this is,” tweeted John Falcicchio, Bowser’s chief of staff. “Mayor Bowser wanted to make it abundantly clear that this is DC’s street and to honor demonstrators who [were] peacefully protesting on Monday evening.”
While people were seen painting the words in large block letters in yellow across 16th Street NW, the D.C. chapter of the Black Lives Matter Global Network suggested in a tweet that Bowser’s message was an empty gesture.
The painting came as the mayor on Thursday addressed a letter to President Trump requesting that he withdraw “all extraordinary federal law enforcement and military presence from Washington, D.C.” now that a state of emergency for the city has ended.
Trump had previously ordered the U.S. Park Police and National Guard troops to forcefully remove peaceful demonstrators outside the White House Monday evening so that he could walk out to St. John’s Episcopal Church for a photo-op in which he held up a Bible.
