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Black Lives Matter DC

@blacklivesmatterdc

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BLMDC is a member-based abolitionist organization centering Black people most at risk for state violence in DC. NOT THE NAT’L BLM ORG.

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Thank you! 🖤

To everyone who joined us for Black August Liberation Day in Anacostia Park, thank you for showing up, bringing your families, sharing space, learning, connecting, and building with us.

Black August is not only about remembering our history. It is about carrying its lessons forward through action.

We honor those who came before us by continuing the work: studying, organizing, building community power, protecting one another, caring for one another, and making space for Black joy.

The gathering may be over, but the work continues.

Study. Train. Organize. Act.

We are our own liberators. ✊🏾

📷 @shotookit and @reese.bland

#blackaugust #blackaugustresistance #BlackLivesMatterDC #Anacostia by @blacklivesmatterdc

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No Safety Without Self-Determination: Exposing the Myth of Police Protection in D.C.

Statement from Black Lives Matter DC (BLM DC)

August 13, 2025

Washington, D.C.- Trump’s alleged “takeover” of D.C. is a con. It is not about public safety; it is political theater. It is designed to make people think something new is happening when Black and other marginalized D.C. residents know we already live in the most heavily policed city in the United States. Our city, with a population over 700,000, is patrolled by 32 independent police agencies, eight university departments, and five local agencies that have cooperative agreements with the DC Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) under the Police Coordination Act (PCA). These agencies share the same immunity and powers as MPD when patrolling D.C.

Federal police have shared arrest powers and street-level joint operations in our neighborhoods with MPD for decades. They are simply emboldened now, shielded by near-total hyper-immunity and excitedly encouraged to be more public with their abuse, more brutal, and omnipresent than ever before. High on power and with a deeper sense of invincibility after watching fellow officers Terence Sutton, convicted of killing Karon Hylton-Brown and covering it up, and Andrew Zabavsky, who helped conceal the crime, pardoned by a President with 34 felonies who told the press “cops will be allowed to do whatever the hell they want”. MPD later reinstated both officers.

At the core of D.C.’s systemic violence is a coordinated network of institutions and officials anchored by MPD, the D.C. Police Union, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C., the Mayor, and reinforced by certain members of the D.C. Council. Together, they maintain and expand a system that criminalizes, surveils, and controls Black communities. From Mayor Bowser bowing to demands to remove her performative Black Lives Matter mural, and D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto’s draconian “Secure D.C.” and “Peace D.C.” bills, to expanded surveillance hubs, technology, and federal-police joint task forces, they serve as the architects and enforcers of permanent occupation under the guise of public safety.

#FreeDC #DC # by @blacklivesmatterdc

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a year ago

Demetruis Alston died in MTPD custody at Anacostia Metro station during a deadly four-day period in which three Black men were killed by DC Metropolitan Police and Metro Transit Police, part of an ongoing wave of violence tied to the federal “Safe and Beautiful Task Force.”

Their names are:

David Warren Childs – November 17

Demetruis Alston – November 16

Kevin Booker – November 14

Police killings are not isolated incidents; they are part of the historic and structural design of policing in the United States. Officers routinely escalate encounters, disproportionately target Black and marginalized communities, and control narratives after a killing often with full support from the institutions and individuals that protect police from accountability.

Join BLM DC and many others for tomorrow’s Vigil and Rally for Victims of Police Violence During Federal Surge

What: Vigil and Rally for Victims of Police Violence

When: Friday, November 21 at 5:00 PM

Where: MPD Headquarters, 441 4th St NW, Washington, DC

Who: Community and family members; Harriet’s Wildest Dreams; Free DC; Black Lives Matter DC; Migrant Solidarity Mutual Aid; Stop Police Terror Project DC; and many other organizations by @blacklivesmatterdc

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a year ago

TOB! ❤️#freedc by @blacklivesmatterdc

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BLACK JOY IS @tobbandandshow at the Wharf! by @blacklivesmatterdc

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3 days ago

We’ll be at The Power Is Ours: 2026 Racial Justice Summit + Festival on Oct. 12 at The Wharf.

Join us and 50+ organizations from across D.C. for a free day of workshops, conversations, art, activities, community and go-go.

Come say hello, learn more about our work and discover organizations working across issues and communities throughout the city.

Free. All ages. Everyone is welcome.

#ThePowerIsOurs #AntiRacistDC #DCEvents #WashingtonDC #DCCommunity by @blacklivesmatterdc

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7 days ago

The National Guard soldiers deployed in DC like to highlight incidents where they have helped people experiencing overdose or mental health crises.

The reality is that this administration has cut billions of dollars worth of funding from mental health and addition programs, including programs to do street outreach to people experiencing homelessness and addiction. Soldiers are not a replacement for that. On Saturday we talked about it at MLK Ave & Malcolm X Ave SE.

Trump and the governors going along with him are now spending $3 million a day on this occupation. What could DC communities do to support people here if we had that money instead?

pending $3 million EVERY DAY on the National Guard deployment. That money belongs in resources for our community — food, healthcare, and housing. by @blacklivesmatterdc

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The stories we see in the news, on social media, TV, and in movies can shape how we think about our communities, crime, policing, and protest, sometimes without us even realizing it.

🎤 2 PM Sept 27th 📺 RSVP: bit.ly/story_control 🎤

Recognizing how framing and narrative can change how we view and examine the stories around us can help us read, watch, and listen to media more critically--and help us to better tell our own stories.

Join the DC COLLAB for Controlling the Story, an in-person and virtual interactive training in which we'll break down:

➡️ How framing and word choice can change the meaning of a story
➡️ The biases and preconceptions that can affect how news is reported
➡️ How media monopolies affect what you see, read, and hear
➡️ How "copaganda" shapes how we view police and crime, who we fear, and who we sympathize with
➡️ What ethical journalism looks like and the best ways to interact with the press
➡️ How storytelling and thoughtful framing can be used to challenge harmful narratives and build movement power

RSVP: bit.ly/story_control
Sunday Sept 27 2-4 PM
Virtual 🖥️ and in person 📍(2500 MLK Ave SE) by @blacklivesmatterdc

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a month ago

Today, we showed up.

We showed up to honor the people we have lost. We showed up for our neighbors who are still here. And we showed up to make clear that our communities need care, resources, harm reduction, healing, and investment ,not occupation, policing, surveillance, and criminalization.

During National Recovery Month, we are especially clear: people struggling with substance use, poverty, housing instability, mental health crises, or simply trying to survive deserve support, not punishment.

Understanding the root causes of what happens in our communities is not making excuses. Root causes are explanations, and if we are serious about changing outcomes, we have to address the conditions producing them.

Instead, our neighborhoods are being treated like enemy territory. The National Guard does not belong occupying our parks. Federal police do not belong intimidating our neighbors. More cameras and surveillance will not heal anybody, house anybody, prevent an overdose, feed a family, or bring back the people we have lost.

And no matter how many or how few of us can physically show up on any given day, this cannot go unchallenged.

Our parks belong to the community.
Our people deserve care.
Our people deserve resources.
Our people deserve to live.

National Guard OUT.
Invest in public health.
Invest in harm reduction.
Invest in community.

#NationalRecoveryMonth #HarmReduction #Ward8 by @blacklivesmatterdc

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❤️Treatment Not Soldiers❤️

In acknowledgement of National Recovery Month and in honor of the lives loss to overdose, we are gathering today at 1pm to be in community with one another, clean up our land, nourish our bodies with food and demand that this city prioritize radical investments in public health and end the policing of our people. Join us as we take action to reclaim Shepard Park.

Armed National Guard soldiers have recently been stationed in the park at Martin Luther King Ave. SE and Malcolm X Ave. SE, a hostile presence of what is supposed to be public community space.   Days after the Guard began their increased presence in this park, a community member overdosed in a nearby alley. This happened despite the fact that the National Guard has claimed their soldiers have been directed to help opioid overdoses in DC. September is National Recovery Month.  Join us as we take action to reclaim Shepard Park. Community members and organizations are showing up in solidarity to call for prevention programs, not police.

WHEN: Saturday, September 12, 2026 @ 1:00 PM WHERE:Community park at Martin Luther King Ave. & Malcolm X Ave. SE
Across from the Popeyes : 601 Malcolm X Ave SE taken in Washington, DC by @blacklivesmatterdc

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Chocolate City Experience! #ArtAllNight NE #Ward7 by @blacklivesmatterdc

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“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” — Audre Lorde

In recognition of National Recovery Month and in honor of the lives lost to overdose, we are gathering to be in community with one another, care for our land, nourish our people, and demand more from this city.

This Saturday, September 12th
Location: Shepard Park
Malcolm X & Martin Luther King Avenue, SE

10 AM–12 PM: Join Ward 8 Woods for their monthly community clean-up.

1-3 PM:Gather with us to distribute food and harm reduction resources, hear from community members, and uplift our demands.

Our people need treatment, resources, housing, care, and radical investments in public health—not soldiers, policing, surveillance, or criminalization.

We keep us safe when we choose care over criminalization. Come be in community with us.

Link to Register: bit.ly/WARD8PARK

#TreatmentNotSoldiers #WeKeepUsSafe #NationalRecoveryMonth #HarmReduction #explore taken in Washington, DC by @blacklivesmatterdc

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