On Saturday night, Black Lives Matter protesters marched through the residential area of Georgetown in Washington, D.C., late at night to purposefully disrupt the sleep of residents.
Black Lives Matter protesters in DC bring the noise to residential neighborhoods in Georgetown. pic.twitter.com/yAlD8DhUwh
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 9, 2020
Noise pollution protest in Georgetown.
We loud. #DCProtests #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/lVyz7w3u23
— FederalFelonMouse (she/her) (@LiteraryMouse) August 9, 2020
“Black Lives Matter protesters marched down the streets of residential Georgetown slightly before midnight on Saturday night and screamed, ‘Wake your a** up!’ One person is seen using a megaphone and shrieking, ‘If we don’t get no justice, then you don’t get no sleep!’ Others are banging metal pots to wake people up,” The Blaze reported. The outlet also notes that the demonstrators “protested in front of a strip of mostly LGBT-centered bars in Dupont Circle.”
Yelling homophobic slurs toward more people at outdoor dining areas. Same chant they were doing in Seattle yesterday as well #WashingtonDC pic.twitter.com/KUpSx63Rvl
— Kitty Shackleford (@KittyLists) August 9, 2020
The technique of intimidating others in order to change their views has been demonstrated by radical activists before. In Louisville, Kentucky, Black Lives Matter protesters reportedly threatened a Cuban restaurant owner. The Courier-Journal reported that according to a press release, La Bodeguita de Mima was forced to close July 24 during a demonstration at which several protesters presented the owner with a list of demands and said he “better put the letter on the door so your business is not f***ed with.”
“The restaurant remained closed the next two days because ‘management and staff were concerned about safety,’ according to the release. ’30+ staff members (mostly immigrants) were unable to earn a paycheck,’” The Courier-Journal added.
In late June, Martha MacCallum of Fox News asked Greater New York Black Lives Matter president Hawk Newsome, “What exactly is it that you hope to achieve through violence?”
Newsome responded, “Wow, it’s interesting that you would pose that question like that, because this country is built upon violence. What was the American Revolution, what’s our diplomacy across the globe? We go in and we blow up countries and we replace their leaders with leaders who we like. So for any American to accuse us of being violent is extremely hypocritical.” He added, “I said if this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it. All right? And I could be speaking … figuratively. I could be speaking literally. It’s a matter of interpretation.”
Newsome concluded, “I just want black liberation and black sovereignty, by any means necessary.”
At the beginning of June, the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service at Georgetown University wrote:
We are aware of the many other fellow human beings of color who have been needlessly brutalized by state violence and systemic racism over the centuries on our Georgetown University campus, in our home city, and in the United States. We see this systemic racism in educational inequity, in criminal injustice, in poverty, in immigration policies, and in health disparities, including with the COVID-19 pandemic that is taking a majority toll on Black and Brown communities … The time for the transformation of an unjust system upheld by white privilege is now.