FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 2, 2020
Contact: Black Lives Matter (BLM) DC press@dcblm.org
(Washington, DC) - Yesterday, Michael Sherwin, the Trump appointed U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia (DC USAO) released a statement in response to DC Mayor Muriel Bowser’s press conference. During the press conference she demanded prosecutors violate the 5th and 14th Amendments and prosecute protestors without due process and disregard probable cause. Sherwin simply explained that the Washington DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) lacked sufficient evidence to support any criminal charges against people exercising their first amendment rights.
Bowser continues to block any and all calls for accountability despite repeatedly being defeated in court for MPD’s continuous and willful violation of protestors’ rights by kettling, brutalizing, making mass arrests, and committing major violations during trials. From Pershing Park, to Trump’s Inauguration to Swann St. Mayor Bowser and Police Chief Newsham have treated every uprising for Black lives the same. During Bowser’s press conference they inserted the words “Assault on a Police Officer” (APO) as many times as they could only to incite fear and add to the drama of the moment. The truth is that just yelling at an officer can be considered an APO.
Bowser’s drama-filled press conference highlights her own hypocrisy of fighting for DC Statehood, while simultaneously transferring criminal cases to federal court which DC Attorney General Karl Racine says, “ignores the will of local policymakers and undermines the District’s interest in governing itself.” Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) has stated, “A U.S. Attorney has no business prosecuting the local crimes of a jurisdiction…”. Again, Bowser had already initiated agreements with federal law enforcement to work with MPD in DC last year.
Bowser stood before the entire country overlooking her mural during the 2020 Democratic National Convention and condemned the military force used against protestors fighting for racial justice on Lafayette Square (and Black Lives Matter Plaza). However, it was Bowser who first activated the District’s National Guard to support MPD in controlling the protests in DC as reported in a tweet on May 31st.
We are calling for all people of DC to sign our petition to Defund The Police and attend an upcoming event to help us build a world without police.
Black Lives Matter DC is a member based abolitionist organization centering Black people most at risk for state violence in DC, creating the conditions for Black Liberation through the abolition of systems and institutions of white supremacy, capitalism, patriarchy and colonialism.
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