DC Mayor Has ‘Black Lives Matter’ Painted On Street Leading To White House

Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has decided to send a message to the White House that Black lives matter.

On Friday, she had people paint the words “Black Lives Matter” in giant yellow letters on two blocks of 16th Street ― a street that goes directly to the White House.

At the end of the mural, on the side closest to the White House, the painters added the Washington, D.C., flag.

Street painters put the giant letters on the ground in anticipation of more protests against police brutality and racism in the coming days.

Bowser also had 16th Street NW ― which is just in front of the White House ― renamed “Black Lives Matter Plaza.” Washington Post reporter Julie Zauzmer filmed the new street sign going up to applause.

Bowser’s chief of staff, John Falcicchio, explained via Twitter that the mayor wanted “to make it abundantly clear that this is DC’s street and to honor demonstrators who [were] peacefully protesting on Monday evening.”

Many of those demonstrators were tear-gassed by federal police, who cleared the way for President Donald Trump to pose with a Bible in front of a church that has since denounced his actions.

The Black Lives Matter street mural appeared a day after Bowser posted a letter addressed to Trump on Twitter requesting that he withdraw “all extraordinary federal law enforcement and military presence from Washington, D.C.”

But while the street mural was visually striking, Black Lives Matter DC dismissed Bowser’s action, saying the mayor “has consistently been on the wrong side of BLMDC history” and that the mural was a “performative distraction from real policy changes” designed to “appease white liberals while ignoring our demands.”

Bowser previously earned criticism from activists for trying to make footage captured by police body cameras exempt from public records laws.