DC mayor has ‘Black Lives Matter’ painted on White House road amid row with Donald Trump
DC Mayor Muriel Bowser unveiled the newly-repainted 16th Street amid an ongoing row with President Trump over military troops deployed in her city
The mayor of Washington DC has had a giant ‘Black Lives Matter’ slogan painted on a road leading to the White House amid an ongoing row with Donald Trump.
Mayor Muriel Bowser had workers begin the yellow slogan which stretches over several blocks of 16th Street early Friday morning, with the new sign completed hours later. Mayor Bowser also installed a ‘Black Lives Matter’ sign on the street, after asking President Trump to remove US military troops from Washington DC.
Re-opening the road Friday afternoon, Mayor Bowser tweeted: ‘The section of 16th street in front of the White House is now officially “Black Lives Matter Plaza”.’
The politician dedicated the road to Breonna Taylor, an African American emergency services worker shot dead by police in her home in Louisville, Kentucky, in March. Friday would have been Taylor’s 27th birthday.
President Trump and Bowser have clashed on multiple occasions in recent days after he called in the National Guard amid Black Lives Matter protests outside the White House.
He tweeted Friday afternoon: ‘The incompetent Mayor of Washington, D.C., @MayorBowser, who’s budget is totally out of control and is constantly coming back to us for “handouts”, is now fighting with the National Guard, who saved her from great embarrassment over the last number of nights.
‘If she doesn’t treat these men and women well, then we’ll bring in a different group of men and women!’
He was responding to an open letter shared by Bowser Thursday, which said she was ending an ongoing state of emergency and curfew after the previous nights protests had passed without a single arrest.
The letter added: ‘Our police and incident command have clear channels of communication and roles and it is important to note that these additional, unidentified units are operating outside of established chains of command.’
She said tactics in recent days – which included military helicopters hovering low over protesters to try and disperse them – were ‘frightening’ and could potentially ‘breed confusion.’
Trump’s plan to call in the military has also been blasted by his former defense secretary Jim Mattis, who claimed it was totally inappropriate to deploy the US military against its own citizens in anything but a last resort.
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