Washington, DC, to eliminate the painting “Black Lives Matter”, says the mayor

By Ashraf Khalil, Associated Press

Washington (AP) – The country’s capital will remove the great painting of the words “Black Lives Matter” in a street with a White House Parté while the mayor of Washington Muriel Bowser is struggling to repel the threats of encroachment by President Donald Trump and the Congress Controlled by Le Républicain.

Bowser underlined the change on the social platform X Tuesday, by writing: “The mural inspired millions of people and helped our city to go through a painful period, but now we cannot afford to be distracted by interference of the convention devoid of meaning. The devastating impacts of federal job cuts must be our number one concern. »»

This decision shows that the change of tone of Bowser towards Trump and the Congress Republicans since the president’s first term. Bowser, a democrat, ordered painting and renamed the Black Lives Matz Plaza intersection as a public challenge in June 2020. He came after days of chaotic demonstrations at this place against police brutality following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

His approach to demonstrations brought him to direct conflict with Trump. The president at the time accused Bowser of losing control of his city and threatened to invoke his power to resume the metropolitan police service. He did not follow but declared his own multi-agency locking which included flying helicopters at low altitude to intimidate the demonstrators.

In Trump’s second passage to the White House, Bowser worked to avoid conflicts and minimize all the points of contention. She went to Trump’s Mar-A-Lago to meet the president after his election and publicly underlined their agreements, as a mutual desire to bring federal workers to their offices at full time.

Trump recently revived a subject of frequent campaign discussion to want a federal “takeover” of the national capital, describing Washington as a criminal crimal, graffiti and homeless. Bowser refused to comment on the information that the White House was preparing a Washington targeting decree; She publicly said that the greatest threat to the so-called autonomy of the domicile rule was “some of the people in the congress”.

The Republicans, who control the two chambers of the congress, have repeatedly threatened to interfere in large -scale municipal affairs. A measure currently before the Congress, named the Bowser law, seeks to completely revoke the 1973 Home Rule Act which grants the capital limited autonomy.

It would be a deep controversy, probably testing the force of the majority of the three -seater gop house. Some representatives have used budgetary cyclists to target Washington policies ranging from the legalization of marijuana, namely whether the right turns on red lights should be legal. And some in the Congress spoke publicly about their disdain for street painting Black Lives Matter.

While Bowser and Trump agreed to return the federal workers to their offices, Trump’s push to reduce the federal workforce is already finances of the city. A report last week of the city’s financial director predicted a billion dollar budget deficit over the next three years due to the loss of thousands of workers in the federal government.

Bowser storing publicly with the militants of Black Lives Matter in 2020 did not gain much credibility with them at the time. The local affiliate of Black Lives Matter rejected this decision as a “performative sensitivity” and decried Bowser as being extremely biased towards the police. The same activists exhausted contempt on Bowser on Tuesday after his overthrow.

Nee Nee Taylor, a founding member of the DC Black Lives Matter subsidiary, addressed Bowser on Tuesday, saying: “You never worry about the life of blacks. You paint these words were performative.

Originally published: March 4, 2025 at 7:25 pm PST