Taxpayers Saddled With $270,000 Bill for Repainting ‘Black Lives Matter’ Mural in DC

People add a coat of paint to the Black Lives Matter sign that runs two city blocks near the White House on what was part of 16th Street but was renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, on May 13, 2021. Eric Baradat/AFP/Getty Images

Officials in the District of Columbia spent more than $270,000 in taxpayer dollars on a project to repaint the 50-foot-tall “Black Lives Matter” slogan on a street near the White House, records obtained by the nonprofit Judicial Watch show.

The 25 pages of records obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Judicial Watch show that the total price tag for the job of repainting the yellow phrase and the D.C. crest came in at $271,231. Paint and supplies accounted for $53,551, while labor totaled $217,680.

A memorandum of negotiations included in the obtained documents shows that the project—which included repainting the sign and “pavement restoration”—called for a foreman, operator, laborer, carpenter, and mason. The equipment included a backhoe/loader, portable air compressor, Bobcat, dump truck, pick-up truck, and service truck.

The documents indicate that the job of repainting the sign and other work took place between late September and early October.

“DC crime is out of control but local leaders continue to waste $270,000 in tax money promoting the extremist Black Lives Matter movement in the heart of Washington DC that is racist, anti-police, anti-American, and often violent,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement.

Officials at the D.C. Department of Transportation didn’t respond by press time to a request for comment about the documents or to what steps were taken to ensure that the cost to taxpayers was kept to a minimum.

People walk down 16th Street after volunteers painted "Black Lives Matter" on the roadway near the White House on June 5, 2020. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Volunteers add a new coat of paint to the Black Lives Matter sign that runs two city blocks near the White House, on what was part of 16th Street but was renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza, in Washington, on May 13, 2021. Eric Baradat/AFP/Getty Images

BLM Murals

The “Black Lives Matter” mural was first painted in the summer of 2020 along a section of 16th Street by a team of local artists, volunteers, and members of Washington’s Department of Public Works and Department of Transportation after days of protests in the nation’s capital, led by the BLM movement.

The 48-foot-tall capital letters run from curb to curb, and the text is followed by an image of the flag of Washington DC, two horizontal bars topped by three stars.

On June 5, 2020, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser renamed that section of 16th Street “Black Lives Matter Plaza.” Later, the installation was made permanent.

“What we have to say to the young black youth is that they matter, we care about them, and we hear them, and we’re listening to them, and we’re trying to make all of our systems starting right here in Washington, D.C., more fair,” Ms. Bowser said at a news conference in July 2021, after construction began to make Black Lives Matter Plaza into a permanent installation.

Similar murals were painted in New York City and other cities.

The painted signs have sparked controversy, in part because of the actions of the BLM organization, which claims that there is systemic racism in the United States and has led related protests, some of which have turned violent.

Founders of the movement have described themselves as “trained Marxists.”

Polling shows that there’s been a massive decrease in support for the BLM movement, amid conservative backlash and reports of infighting and financial mismanagement of some BLM groups.

In June 2020, following the death of George Floyd, about 67 percent expressed support for BLM. That support has since dropped considerably, falling to 51 percent in April. Opposition to the movement has risen to 46 percent in April from 31 percent in June 2020, according to Pew.

Some in the black community have opposed the murals. A woman wearing a “Jesus Matters” T-shirt and affiliated with a Christian ministry was arrested after dumping paint on part of New York City’s mural in the summer of 2020.

NYPD officers attempt to detain Bevelyn Beatty, who poured black paint on the Black Lives Matter mural outside of Trump Tower on 5th Avenue in the Manhattan borough of New York, on July 18, 2020. Yuki Iwamura/AP Photo

Fewer Police Killings, But More Murders

While a recent study shows that police killings declined in the aftermath of BLM protests, there was a jump in homicides as police became “less proactive” because of worries about public perception and lawsuits.

The Sept. 14 study analyzed two major waves of BLM protests—those following the death of Michael Brown, from 2014 to 2015, and those following the death of George Floyd, from 2020 to 2021.

Brown was an 18-year-old black man shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014.

Floyd died after a police officer knelt on his neck during an arrest in Minneapolis in 2020.

The study analyzed how police treatment changed over a five-year period between the two protest waves.

“The findings of the event study suggest that the BLM protests led police departments to pull back from interactions with the public and obtain body cameras, leading to increased crime and decreased police killings,” study author Travis Campbell wrote.

While police killings declined, homicides surged, the study shows. During the five-year period covered by the study, reported murders rose by about 11.5 percent, which translates to more than 3,000 additional homicides.

“The combined effect of police pullback and the widespread adoption of body cameras led to a 10% to 15% reduction in lethal force between the end of 2014 and 2019, preventing approximately 200 police killings,” the study reads.

In addition, property crime arrests fell by about 12 percent, and the property crime clearance rate—the number of cases solved by law enforcement—saw a “sharp decline” of 8 percent, according to the study.

Naveen Athrapully contributed to this report.