According to documents obtained by the Washington Post, President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 stimulus package provided $3 million to Mayor Muriel Bowser to create Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C.
It was revealed in an email exchange on June 16 that many top Bowser staffers were planning to ask for $3 million from the stimulus package for “streetscapes & beautification” projects in Washington, D.C.
This money would be used for new projects during the city’s fiscal year 2022, which runs from October 20,21, to September 20,22. Breitbart News released the emails once they were received.
How much money was transferred to BLM Plaza from the COVID-19 stimulus program by the White House in FY2022, if at all?
According to a news release from Bowser, the $3 million figure is in line with the costs of the plaza’s construction, which was completed in late October.
BLM Plaza has been permanently placed. An additional $3 million investment will be made in the coming months to repair and rehabilitate neighboring walkways and create a more unified public area around the monument, according to a statement from Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office.
Doing memorial works and installing new seats, lights, signs, and trees on the streets of your town.
A “Black Lives Matter” mural was painted on two streets near the White House during the worldwide upheaval following the police shooting of George Floyd in June 2020, when Bowser halted vehicle traffic to create the painting.
A temporary “art installation” was originally planned for BLM Plaza. Even so, the mayor of Washington, D.C., announced in July 2021 that the monument would be permanently transformed into a national landmark, bringing it into the twenty-first century.
After the plaza’s construction was completed in October, Bowser claimed one of her “happiest memories” was when former Rep. John Lewis visited the plaza only weeks before he died of pancreatic cancer in July 2020.
Even though he called Black Lives Matter Plaza “good difficulty,” we are confident that it will serve as a thought-provoking gathering spot for years to come.
According to Bowser, “we will continue to plan and act in pursuit of a perfect union,” bowing to civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
In the June 16 email exchange that revealed the mayor’s stimulus money request for BLM Plaza, Saesha Carlile, Chief Administrative Officer of the District of Columbia Department of Transportation, was one of the Bowser administration employees involved.
Nancy Hapeman, Deputy Chief Procurement Officer of the D.C. Office of Contracting and Procurement, and Marc Scott, Chief Operating Officer.
Requests for comment from the offices of Bowser, Carlile, Scott, and Hapeman went unanswered.
Black Lives Matter leaders and other similar groups were being investigated when it was discovered that Bowser requested federal COVID-19 stimulus funds for BLM Plaza, which led to questions about the financial windfall their charitable organizations made during the 2020 riots.
This Black Lives Matter activist from the Boston area, known for her connections to prominent Democratic senators, has been the focus of a federal investigation since October over allegations that she embezzled money from her social justice group, which she claimed earned millions of dollars in 2020.
In October, Grant, Cannon’s husband, was sentenced to prison after being charged with mortgage fraud and representing her charity as his personal property during a mortgage application in May.
“Federal agents utilized him to examine me,” she said in a podcast last week.
A Washington Examiner investigation found that the BLM Global Network Foundation, which represents the national BLM movement, has no recognized head in command of the tens of millions of dollars it had raised in 2020 since May.
Local BLM activists and chapters have long accused the main BLM organization of financial mismanagement.
Also, in February, California, and Washington threatened legal action against the corporation for failing to provide financial information beginning in 2020.
In February, Amazon’s charity giving platform, AmazonSmile, blocked the national BLM group for not adhering to state guidelines across the country.
