In Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) condemned protesters harassing strangers in a city diner, who were demanding they raise their fists in solidarity with the BLM movement.
“What I saw in those videos was highly inappropriate,” she said at a press conference on Wednesday, as reported by The Hill. “It was likely against the law if they were on private property. But more importantly, I don’t think it had anything to do with demands for social justice.”
Bowser also encouraged “any diner or restaurant to call the police immediately” if that behavior from protesters continues to persist. She also highlighted the fact that people dining are helping to keep local businesses afloat during the pandemic.
“I would venture to say that the vast majority of those experiences have been 100 percent positive,” she said. “I also don’t think that D.C. residents would be bullied out of living their everyday lives.”
As the Daily Wire reported, a viral video this week showed crowds of Black Lives Matter extremists cornering an innocent woman while chanting “white silence is violence” to bully her into raising her fists:
Leftist activists cornered a woman at a restaurant in Washington, D.C., early this week and demanded that she give in to their demands of joining them by raising her fist. She stood her ground and refused to give in.
Washington Post journalist Fredrick Kunkle captured the incident on video and shared it on social media, writing: “In a scene that played out several times Monday, a Black Lives Matter protest that began in Columbia Heights confronted White diners outside D.C. restaurants, chanting ‘White silence is violence!’ and demanding White diners show their solidarity.”
The woman in the video, Lauren B. Victor, told Frederick Kunkle of The Washington Post that even though she marched with and supports the Black Lives Matter movement, she did not feel it was appropriate to be coerced into showing solidarity by a vicious mob.
“In the moment, it didn’t feel right,” Victor said. “I wasn’t actually frightened. I didn’t think they’d do anything to me. I’m very much with them. I’ve been marching with them for weeks and weeks and weeks.”
Mayor Bowser’s condemnation of the extremism came shortly after Don Lemon of CNN said that violence in cities like Kenosha, Wisconsin, could cost Joe Biden the White House in November if the party does not take a more forceful role against it.
“I do think that what you said was happening in Kenosha is a Rorschach test for the entire country, and I think this is a blind spot for Democrats,” Lemon said on Tuesday night. “I think Democrats are ignoring this problem or hoping that it will go away, and it’s not going to go away.”
“So unless someone comes up with a solution over the next 73 days or 70 so, however many days — 68 days — so the problem is not going to be fixed by then, but what they can do — and I think maybe Joe Biden may be afraid to do it, I’m not sure, maybe he won’t, maybe he is,” Lemon continued. “He’s got to address it. He’s got to come out and talk about it. He’s got to do a speech like Barack Obama did about race.”