Washington, DC - Last summer as media outlets around the world covered mass mobilizations of people protesting the continuous murder of Black people, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser did not hesitate to take center stage. She rushed to commission the painting of the first of many Black Lives Matter Street Murals in the country and renamed the area Black Lives Matter Plaza. She exploited the righteous visceral pain and outrage that fueled grassroots uprising positioning herself as a uniquely “progressive” Black woman Mayor. Mayors Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta, London Breed of San Francisco, and Lori Lightfoot of Chicago would similarly follow suit. The narrative took on a life of its own no longer centering the victims their police departments had murdered.
