Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said that if patrons at a restaurant are harassed by protesters, they should call the police.
Bowser’s advice, given during a Wednesday press conference, came two days after large groups of protesters yelled at patrons who did not voice their support for Black Lives Matter. She said the protesters’ behavior was probably illegal.
“What I saw in those videos was highly inappropriate,” Bowser said. “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.” She said that she’d “encourage any diner or restaurant to call the police immediately” if similar altercations were to occur moving forward.
In two particular instances that went viral, white protesters marched up to people at different restaurants in Washington and heckled them when they wouldn’t comply with the demand of vocalizing their support for Black Lives Matter.
Fredrick Kunkle of the Washington Post, who was at one of the restaurants in question on Monday, reported that protesters screamed at a woman identified as Lauren Victor for several minutes after she refused to raise her fist in solidarity with them. Similarly, another video showed a crowd of people confronting white diners outside a different restaurant, chanting, “White silence is violence!” and, “No justice, no peace!”
The protests were spurred by the shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old black man who was shot several times by Kenosha police officers a day before. The Wisconsin Department of Justice, with the help of the U.S. Justice Department, is investigating the shooting, while the officers involved in the incident have been placed on administrative leave. Their identities have not been released.
Editor’s note: This story originally said Blake had died. He is still alive.
