Issue and Opposition: A series of protests following George Floyd’s death due to police brutality in Minneapolis spread across the country in 2020. George Floyd was a 46-year-old black man who was killed when Derek Chauvin, a white law enforcement officer of Minneapolis PD, pinned Floyd down with his knee for 9 minutes 29 seconds on his until he asphyxiated to death. Floyd had allegedly used a counterfeit 20-dollar bill in a grocery store nearby. Floyd was yet another victim of police brutality in a long line of such deaths of black people in the USA, sometimes without any real crime being committed. Following Floyd’s killing, the protests that broke out were mostly peaceful civil disobedience campaigns led by Black Lives Matter (BLM) leaders although, in a few instances, the actions turned violent, and looting of shops and damaging of public and private properties ensued. In Washington DC, protesters and activists supporting the BLM movement, condemning mindless police atrocities endangering black lives, and demanding greater police accountability, gathered on the streets outside the White House in peaceful demonstrations. Despite no provocation from the protesters, President Trump ordered law enforcement agencies to use tear gas on the crowd to dispel them. Usually, the tear gas of any type is used on the crowd to contain a riot-like situation, which was not the scene in Washington DC on June 1, 2020. Once the crowd was cleared by the use of chemical irritants, Trump took a walk, and crossed the street to Lafayette Square, for a photo op with a Bible held in his hand in front of the St. John’s church. DC Mayor Muriel Bower had shown her support to the BLM supporters and retaliated against Trump’s treatment of BLM activists and protesters in a unique way.
Dilemma Action: Muriel Bowser recruited local artists and got the words Black Lives Matter painted in large yellow alphabets on the streets leading to the White House. Renaming streets to embarrass or taunt officials or diplomats is not new to Wahington DC. In 1980, the street on which the Soviet Embassy was situated was renamed after an arrested dissenter and Putin critic Andrew Sakharov. In 2018, the street on which the Russian ambassador’s residence stood was renamed after Boris Nemtsov, a slain Putin critic and dissenter. More recently, in 2021, the street outside the Saudi Embassy was renamed after Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi Washington Post journalist who was allegedly killed by Saudi state actors for criticizing his government.
Outcome: The purpose of BLM Plaza and other renamings of streets is to troll, embarrass, and ridicule an authority and draw media attention to wrongdoing by that authority. To that extent, this dilemma action was thoroughly successful.