The Washington region’s faith community stood front and center Sunday as thousands of protesters again converged in the nation’s capital in the 10th straight day of protests against racism and police brutality. After Saturday’s demonstration in the District drew more than 10,000 participants — the biggest crowd since protests in the city began May 29 — Sunday brought more peaceful mass gatherings.
Here are some significant developments:
• Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) marched outside the Capitol on Sunday as people around him chanted, “Do justice! Do justice!” Romney, the first GOP senator to attend the protests that have been disparaged by President Trump and other members of his party, embraced the week’s mantra, saying he wants to find “a way to end violence and brutality and to make sure that people understand that black lives matter.”
• In addition to the religious tone of Sunday’s protests, references to the civil rights era also were evident across Washington. Along the closed-down streets leading to the White House, several hundred people marched in a demonstration meant to recall the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery.
• Despite the enormous crowd that massed near the White House on Saturday, Trump on Sunday sought to play down the gathering while announcing he was decreasing the heavy presence of federal security forces on D.C. streets. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and others had criticized the president’s deployment of heavily armed federal officers in the District, without name tags or other identifying insignia, to quell protests that have been mostly peaceful.
• Across the Washington suburbs, meanwhile, thousands more took part in demonstrations. In Maryland, protests were held in Takoma Park, Clarksburg, Silver Spring, Gaithersburg and Germantown, while in Virginia, gatherings were held in Falls Church and in Fairfax and Arlington counties.
June 8, 2020 at 9:01 AM EDT
Bowser says she hasn’t heard from the White House on ‘Black Lives Matter’ street painting
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser said Monday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that she has not heard from the White House about her move to paint “Black Lives Matter” in large, yellow letters on 16th Street NW in downtown Washington near the executive mansion.
She said she had the message painted to show that the District is a “place for healing.” Bowser said black Americans want to “be recognized [as] human beings and show that our lives matter.”
She said the city had seen “federal forces used in a political stunt to attack peaceful protesters.”
“We saw the American military moved around like toy soldiers to try to intimidate our citizens,” she said. “The American military should not be used like that.”
DC Mayor Bowser discusses why she had “Black Lives Matter” painted on the street that leads to the White House:
“The BLM mural is a representation of an expression of our saying no, but also identifying and claiming a part of our city that had been taken over by federal forces.” pic.twitter.com/NlFMUX5TRE
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 8, 2020
By Dana Hedgpeth
June 8, 2020 at 8:06 AM EDT
Anger, defiance and desperate hope: Behind the scenes of the D.C. protests
For more than a week, thousands of protesters have taken to the streets of Washington, D.C., to protest police brutality following the death of George Floyd. A city that felt occupied by federal authorities and National Guard troops earlier in the week has since given way to throngs of peaceful — and at times festive — demonstrators. Here are stories from amid the crowds throughout the week, from a violent crackdown in Lafayette Square on Monday to dancing in the streets on Saturday.
By Washington Post Staff
June 8, 2020 at 6:19 AM EDT
D.C.’s ‘Black Lives Matter’ street art inspires similar giant murals in cities nationwide
The sun had only been up for about an hour Sunday morning when Charman Driver and about a dozen other people convened on a street in downtown Raleigh, N.C., for another day of protesting against racism. But instead of signs and banners, the group showed up with a different means of spreading their message: paint.
Within hours, three giant words written out in marigold yellow block lettering stretched the length of a city block near the Contemporary Art Museum of Raleigh.
“End Racism Now.”
“This is what I’m doing for my child,” Driver, a community activist and local business owner, told WRAL. “Her and her friends need to know the real truth about this country that we live in.”
By Allyson Chiu
June 8, 2020 at 6:11 AM EDT
Federal authorities offer $15,000 reward in arson at AFL-CIO building
Federal authorities have announced a $15,000 reward in the May 31 arson at the AFL-CIO headquarters during protests in the District.
The Washington office of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms & Explosives said on Twitter on Saturday that the incident at the building in the 800 block of 16th Street NW caused about $1 million in damage.
According to the federal law enforcement agency, a fire was set in the front lobby around 10:15 p.m. May 31 after about two dozen people vandalized and burglarized the building.
The structure is one block north of Lafayette Square, which has been the site of confrontations between law enforcement officers and demonstrators protesting police brutality and racism following the death of George Floyd in the custody of the Minneapolis police.
The fire was part of a wave of violent acts that broke out near the end of the protest at the square on May 31. Arson also occurred at the nearby St. John’s Episcopal Church, the bureau said, and a reward of $10,000 was offered in that incident earlier last week.
By Martin Weil
June 8, 2020 at 6:07 AM EDT
Perspective: Mayor Bowser is besting Trump in tug of war over what ‘law and order’ means in D.C.
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) is winning her high-profile tug-of-war with President Trump over how to preserve what the president calls “law and order” on District streets.
Bowser has drawn nationwide attention and support because she understands there are multiple ways to defend law and order. Trump only cares about one, which is preventing violence such as looting and arson.
At least three other kinds of law and order are also at stake, and each is just as important as the one preoccupying Trump.
First is the need to guarantee citizens’ First Amendment rights to protest peacefully. With a few exceptions, Bowser and D.C. police have protected that bedrock democratic freedom. The Trump administration violated it on live television June 1 when federal officers used gas and projectiles to clear nonviolent protesters from Lafayette Square for the president’s awkward, Bible-lifting photo op at St. John’s Episcopal Church.
By Robert McCartney
June 8, 2020 at 6:04 AM EDT
Pentagon outlines withdrawal of troops from nation’s capital after Trump’s announcement
President Trump said Sunday he had ordered the National Guard to start the process of withdrawing from Washington, D.C., “now that everything is under perfect control,” as tens of thousands of people descended on the city for a weekend of protests over the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
In a tweet, the president warned that the guardsmen could return. “They will be going home, but can quickly return, if needed. Far fewer protesters showed up last night than anticipated!” he said.
Army Secretary Ryan D. McCarthy confirmed later Sunday that all out-of-state National Guardsmen would be withdrawn from the nation’s capital within 48 to 72 hours and all active-duty U.S. troops that had been put on alert outside the city earlier in the week had gone home. He said officials were working on a plan to deactivate D.C. National Guardsmen as well but expected they would still help local police and federal law enforcement in the coming days.
By Paul Sonne
