Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser on Friday renamed a street in front of the White House "Black Lives Matter Plaza" and had the slogan painted in huge yellow letters on the roadway in an apparent rebuke of President Donald Trump's militaristic response to U.S. protests over police brutality.
Bowser tweeted footage of the street painting on a section of 16th Street in the U.S. capital with a message to Breonna Taylor, a black woman killed by Louisville, Kentucky, police who has inspired nationwide protests along with African American George Floyd, who died on May 25 in Minneapolis police custody.
"Breonna Taylor, on your birthday, let us stand with determination.," Bowser wrote. "Determination to make America the land it ought to be."
Bowser and Trump are at odds over the president's use of federal law enforcement agencies and military police to break up a protest on Monday night so he could have a photo op outside a church near the White House.
At a Thursday news conference, Bowser said: “We want troops from out-of-state, out of Washington, D.C.”
On Friday, the city also installed a street sign for Black Lives Matter Plaza at the intersection of H and 16th Streets, where the St. John's Episcopal Church that Trump visited is situated.
Using rollers and buckets of yellow paint, with brushes to finesse the edges of the letters, a group of people - men and women, of different races and ages, some wearing roller blades, some work boots - painted the street. Many were sweating under the warm Washington sun.
Trump, buffeted by the economic blow of the coronavirus pandemic and protests on Friday again said he had advised some state governors to call in the National Guard in order "to dominate the streets."
"Don't be proud. Get the job done. You'll end up doing much better in the end, calling the National Guard. Call me," Trump said in remarks at the White House.
"You have to dominate the streets. You can't let what's happening, happen," Trump said, echoing some of his previous remarks.
Nationwide protests, largely peaceful, have at times turned to vandalism, looting and clashes between police and protesters.
No comments:
Post a Comment