WASHINGTON — Mayor Muriel Bowser is calling out protestors who confronted diners on D.C. sidewalks in Columbia Heights Monday evening.
Video of aggressive shouting at one restaurant customer, in particular, has gone viral with more than 11 million views as of Wednesday afternoon.
According to Washington Post Reporter Fredrick Kunkle, who shot the video while covering the protest, 49-year-old D.C. resident Lauren B. Victor was surrounded by protestors who demanded that she raise a fist in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Kunkle said Victor told him she would not comply even though she told Kunkle she was sympathetic to the movement.
The actions by protestors seen in the video were not lead by BLM DC organizers, according to April Goggins, who spoke for the organization. Goggins pointed WUSA9 to a Wednesday tweet by the organization that said “…we were live doing an online training” on the evening of the protest.
On Wednesday, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser said the protest tactics were wrong.
"What I saw in those videos was highly inappropriate," Bowser said. "It was likely against the law. They were on private property. But more importantly, I don't think it had anything to do with demands for social justice.”
Bowser called on business owners and patrons to call police if it happens to them. The mayor did not say whether protestors might be investigated and charged.
On social media, the video sparked sharp rebukes of the protest tactics. MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough calling the protestors “horrible people” on his verified account.
“This is a very bad protest tactic unless your goal is to turn people against whatever cause you are promoting," another Twitter user poster.
Kunkel said the protest started Monday evening with outrage over the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin but changed as it moved into a strip of restaurants on 18th Street in Northwest.
“I think the idea was that this was an attempt to engage white people in the struggle to end racism for Black Lives Matter,” Kunkle said.
Kunkle described his interview with diner Lauren Victor, who told him she had marched in previous protests.
"But what she said is it just didn't feel right to have several hundred people confront two people dining out and effectively coerce a sign of support," Kunkle said. "She said to me, in effect, 'I don't even know what my raising a fist was supposed to mean. Nobody asked me what I thought about this movement or my opinion.' So she held out."
Neither Victor nor any of the protest organizers WUSA9 attempted to contact Wednesday responded to requests for comments.