NYC mayor pledges RENAMING & painting streets ‘Black Lives Matter’ in bid to appease George Floyd protesters

Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City announced he would name a major street in all five boroughs ‘Black Lives Matter’ and paint the phrase on the pavement just like in Washington, DC, after protesters demanded his resignation.

“A proposal put on the table was to name streets in each borough and to paint the words on the streets of this city. In each borough, at a crucial location,” the mayor said at a press conference on Tuesday, adding that it was time the city officially did something “to represent the fundamental power of Black Lives Matter.”

What will be clear in the street name and on the streets of our city is that message, that now our city must fully, fully, deeply feel – and this nation must as well – that Black Lives Matter.

One of the locations will be “near” the City Hall in Manhattan, while the others will be decided by city leaders and activists, the mayor added. 

De Blasio’s redecoration pledge is patterned after the similar stunt by Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, who last week had city workers paint BLACK LIVES MATTER along the street just north of the White House, and put up a sign “Black Lives Matter Plaza” outside the church vandalized and set on fire by protesters several days earlier.

Black Lives Matter DC responded by calling the gestures “performative” and demanding more  specific steps, such as defunding the police.

On Monday, protesters in New York gathered outside Gracie Mansion – the mayoral residence – to demand De Blasio’s resignation. 

New York has been hit by a wave of protests sparked by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25. The African-American man died after a police officer knelt on his neck for almost nine minutes. Though the officer was immediately fired and quickly charged with murder, protests turned to riots within days and spread to the rest of the US.

De Blasio has come under harsh criticism this week, not just by activists but by other city officials, over his handling of both the protests and the Covid-19 pandemic, which hit New York City particularly hard. 

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