Feds Spend $270,000 to Repaint Political Slogan on Street

Yellow block letters near White House cost a bundle.

The government has spent $270,000 of taxpayer money to repaint a political slogan on a street near the White House.

That’s according to a report from government watchdog Judicial Watch.

The organization reports getting a couple dozen pages of records in a Freedom of Information Act case with the Washington, D.C., Department of Transportation, and they revealed that was the cost to taxpayers to repaint the leftist “Black Lives Matter” slogan on the street.

“The repainting seems to have taken place shortly before Black Lives Matter groups began defending Hamas terrorist murders of Jews in Israel,” the report pointedly noted.

The slogan, in yellow-painted letters 50 feet tall, appeared after the protests and riots in Washington that were orchestrated by the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, the report said.

It’s on 16th Street NW near the White House.

The documents showed the price of the repainting was $53,551 for paint and supplies and another $217,680 for labor.

In a purchase order dated September 15, 2023 with the description ‘Black Lives Matter Plaza Redo’, a vendor charged DC-based Equus Striping a total of $53,551.20 for supplies for ‘BLMRedo2023’. These supplies included ‘StreetBond 250 Yellow-BLM (MMA)’, ‘StreetBond 250 Catalyst’, and ‘StreetBond Primer’, plus shipping,” Judicial Watch revealed.

“The labor for the repainting was provided by a subcontractor called Dewberry and totaled $217,680.”

Needed were “a foreman, operator, laborer, carpenter, and mason” who used “a backhoe/loader, portable air compressor, Bobcat, dump truck, pick-up truck, and service truck.”

“DC crime is out of control but local leaders continue to wastes $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,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

On July 1, 2020, Judicial Watch filed a civil rights lawsuit for First Amendment violations over a refusal by city officials to allow Judicial Watch to paint the message “Because No One Is Above the Law!” on a DC street.