Dozens of activists gathered in protest outside the upper Northwest home of Mayor Muriel Bowser on Saturday, chanting “bounce Bowser” and “shame.” A large banner summarized their opposition to a number of the mayor’s positions, reading “Bowser’s policies = black deaths.”
“[It] is really important for us to create a new narrative and directly confront her so she’s not comfortable living in a city where her policies harm and kill black folks,” says Nnenna Amuchie, chair of Black Youth Project 100 D.C. chapter.
The mayor’s office did not respond to a request for comment. It’s not clear if she was home at the time of the protest.
The BYP activists voiced protest with Bowser’s intention to build a new D.C. Jail; with MPD’s past participation in a training program in Israel; and with the continued criminalization of sex work in D.C.
The dilapidated condition of the D.C. Jail has long been a point of contention for inmates, advocates, and community members. In January, Mayor Bowser allocated $150,000 to study the design of a new jail.
“Building a new jail guarantees that more black D.C. residents will be criminalized and locked in cages,” argues Kai Hartsfield, the communications co-chair of BYP 100 D.C. “The proposed new jail would cost $700 million. There’s so much more we could be doing with that money to make D.C. safer, because putting people away doesn’t keep us safe.”
The activists also took issue with Bowser’s recent trip to Israel and MPD’s participation in Israeli training programs. “We are against MPD going to learn from one of the most violent police forces in the world tactics to use on black people here,” Amuchie said.
And the protest took a sober pause to remember Dee Dee Dodds, Ashanti Carmon, and Zoe Spears, three trans women who were killed on Eastern Avenue, a street straddling the D.C./Maryland border and known as a gathering place for sex workers. BYP 100 wants the D.C. government to work quickly toward passing a bill decriminalizing sex work, which they believe would have kept women like Dodds, Carmon, and Spears safer.
“We love you! We miss you! You should be here!” the group called out in call and response form.
A group of D.C. councilmembers re-introduced a bill to decriminalize sex work last month. Bowser has convened a working group through the Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants to look into arrest diversion programs for sex work.
It is not the first time that activists have taken grievances directly to the mayor’s doorstep. Protesters showed up at Bowser’s home last summer to demand that she delay the demolition of D.C. General homeless shelter.
BYP 100 hopes to push the mayor to invest more in housing and other measures.
“The main things we’re interested in investing in are mental health resources and trauma care. We want this administration to invest in jobs and housing. We know that in D.C. we have a housing crisis. And a lot of trans women are forced into sex work because they don’t have housing,” says Hartsfield. “If you invest in those things, other crimes wouldn’t be so prevalent.”
