#DC braces for protests as mayor adds to ‘Black Lives Matter Plaza’ display

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“Black Lives Matter” is painted on the pavement of 16th Street near the White House.
EPA

Washington, DC, will shutter many of its downtown streets Saturday in preparation for mass protests — just a day after the city’s mayor shone a literal spotlight on her decision to rename the streets around the White House “Black Lives Matter Plaza.”

Mayor Muriel Bowser added light projections to the area, shortly after the new moniker was painted in massive yellow letters down 16th Street.

“@MayorBowser’s Chief of Staff John Falcicchio just told me the Mayor installed new Black Lives Matter light projections near the White House. They’re on two buildings on the newly named Black Lives Matter Plaza,” NBC reporter Shomari Stone tweeted Friday.

Bowser, who President Trump slammed as “incompetent,” then posted another view of BLM Plaza.

“You awake? Here’s the view from space,” she wrote early Saturday, along with an aerial photo of the DC plaza that’s been the scene of mass protests and where she had high-powered floodlights installed.

Bowser announced the renaming earlier Friday: “The section of 16th street in front of the White House is now officially ‘Black Lives Matter Plaza,’” she wrote.

The renaming is widely viewed as a public rebuke of President Trump’s alleged use of military force to clear demonstrators from the area days earlier.

Police on Saturday shut down most vehicular traffic near the White House starting at 6 a.m., the Washington Post reported.