DC officials expect city’s largest demonstration against police brutality since Floyd’s death

Protesters stayed out Friday evening in spite of the rain. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Demonstrations continued in the rain outside the White House on Friday. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

A man and a woman who had been protesting walk in the rain Friday evening near the White House. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Protesters gathered along 16th Street before the rain on Friday. (WTOP/Ken Duffy)

Protesters stayed at Black Lives Matter Plaza on Friday in spite of the rain. (WTOP/Ken Duffy)

Two young women laid down along the stencil created along 16th Street NW. (WTOP/Ken Duffy)

A protester holds a Black Lives Matter sign at the fence outside Lafayette Square on Friday. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

A man holds a flag during a protest on Friday. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

People walk down 16th Street after volunteers, with permission from the city, painted “Black Lives Matter” on the street near the White House on June 5, 2020 in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images/Tasos Katopodis)

With the Washington Monument in the background people walk on the street leading to the White House after the words Black Lives Matter were painted on it by city workers and activists Friday, June 5, 2020, in Washington.

With St. John’s Church in the background, people walk under a new street sign on Friday, June 5, 2020, in Washington. “The section of 16th street in front of the White House is now officially ‘Black Lives Matter Plaza,'” District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser tweeted. The black and white sign was put up to mark the change.

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser walks on the street leading to the White House after the words Black Lives Matter were painted in enormous bright yellow letters on the street by city workers and activists Friday, June 5, 2020, in Washington.

City workers and activists paint the words Black Lives Matter in enormous bright yellow letters on the the street leading to the White House, Friday, June 5, 2020, in Washington.

Demonstrators protest Friday, June 5, 2020, near the White House in Washington, over the death of George Floyd, a black man who was in police custody in Minneapolis. Floyd died after being restrained by Minneapolis police officers. (AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 05: Demonstrators gather on 16th St. near Lafayette Park during a peaceful protest against police brutality and the death of George Floyd, on June 5, 2020 in Washington, DC. Protests in cities throughout the country have been largely peaceful in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 05: A student holds up a fist during a Black Lives Matter sit-in at the National Cathedral during a peaceful protest against police brutality and the death of George Floyd, on June 5, 2020 in Washington, DC. Protests in cities throughout the country are largely peaceful in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black man who was killed in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House, Friday, June 5, 2020, in Washington. White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow, left, and Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia, top right listen. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

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Authorities in D.C. expect Saturday to be the largest demonstration against police brutality in the city since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

The District has featured daily protests for the past week and they have largely been peaceful, with people marching back and forth from the White House to the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial.

Those numbers are expected to swell Saturday.

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told reporters Friday that local officials were projecting between 100,000 and 200,000 protesters.

D.C. police Chief Peter Newsham wouldn’t commit to a number but predicted it would be smaller than the 1 million people who attended the Women’s March in 2017.

D.C. police announced Friday that a large swath of roads would be closed to make room for protesters. See a full list of road closures here.

The latest

The demonstration comes as authorities have sought to reduce tensions by having National Guard troops not carry weapons.

There were no arrests during demonstrations on Thursday and Friday and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser canceled the curfew that had been in place since Monday.

Bowser said she will decide on Saturday morning if it will be reinstated.

Businesses open their lobbies, bathrooms for protesters

Several businesses in the D.C.-area, such as the 9:30 Club, promised to open their premises to protesters who needed to rest, get water, use the bathroom or charge their phones.

The map below shows spots in the District that will open their doors to protesters.

Many have said they will only allow a maximum of 10 people inside at a time in order to keep up social distancing measures recommended by the city for slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Bowser renames section of 16th St.

On Friday, a “festival-like” atmosphere developed in the newly-minted “Black Lives Matter Plaza.”

By midday Friday, crowds had gathered near Lafayette Square near the White House, which has become a common focal point of protests in the city in the last week.

WTOP’s Ken Duffy reported that the atmosphere on 16th Street was more like a festival than previous days, with protesters playing music loudly across the newly-named plaza.

Duffy reported that rain began in the area of D.C. around 6:30 p.m.

Protesters remained in the area around the White House.

Ahead of the Friday protests, Mayor Muriel Bowser penned a formal letter to President Donald Trump requesting the removal of federal law enforcement and military personnel from the city.

In the letter, Bowser explains that with several nights of peaceful protests in which no arrests were made, she had decided to end the state of emergency in the city.

I request that @realDonaldTrump withdraw all extraordinary federal law enforcement and military presence from our city. pic.twitter.com/AvaJfQ0mxP

— Mayor Muriel Bowser #StayHomeDC (@MayorBowser) June 5, 2020

In response to the mayor’s letter, President Trump called Bowser “incompetent,” saying her “budget is totally out of control and is constantly coming back to us for ‘handouts’ …”

The president said if Bowser “doesn’t treat these men and women well, then we’ll bring in a different group of men and women.”

In recognition of Breonna Taylor’s birthday, Bowser unveiled a number of changes made in the city ahead of the weekend’s expected protests.

The mayor announced she renamed the section of 16th Street in front of the White House “Black Lives Matter Plaza.”

Taylor, 26, was shot and killed by police in her home on March 13, when they mistakenly executed a no-knock warrant on her apartment while looking for a suspect.

The mayor also commissioned a banner spanning several city blocks written into the street that reads “Black Lives Matter” followed by the flag of D.C.

Breonna Taylor, on your birthday, let us stand with determination.

Determination to make America the land it ought to be. pic.twitter.com/XOfu6CGEGY

— Mayor Muriel Bowser #StayHomeDC (@MayorBowser) June 5, 2020

“There was a dispute this week about whose street this is,” Bowser’s chief of staff tweeted. “Mayor Bowser wanted to make it abundantly clear that this is DC’s street and to honor demonstrators who peacefully protesting on Monday evening.”

On Friday, Defense Secretary Mark Esper ordered all active duty troops to return to their home bases.

On Wednesday, Esper reversed a Pentagon decision to pull several hundred active duty personnel from D.C.

Organizers of Black Lives Matter DC called the mural “a performative distraction from real policy changes.”

“Bowser has consistently been on the wrong side of BLMDC history. This is to appease white liberals while ignoring our demands. Black Lives Matter means defund the police,” the group said on Twitter.

Bowser responded to the groups’ comments in news conference Friday.

“Black Lives Matter is very critical of police,” she said.

“They’re critical of me. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t see them and support the things that will make our community safe. And that we don’t all have a larger responsibility in the nation’s capitol to send that very clear message to our nation.”

Physicians at Howard University Hospital stage “die-in”

Resident physicians at Howard University Hospital in D.C. staged a “die-in” protest on Friday in honor of George Floyd, NBC Washington reported.

Around noon, physicians holding signs reading “Am I next?” and “Black Lives Matter” stood in front of the hospital in memory of Floyd.

Rolling protests sweep Montgomery, Prince George’s County

Peaceful protests spread across two of Maryland’s largest counties on Friday.

Hundreds took to the streets in Prince George’s County’s Upper Marlboro and similar numbers turned out in Rockville in Montgomery County.

The Upper Marlboro protesters gathered together around 2 p.m. and marched to the town’s courthouse. The town said that most protesters disbanded and returned to their vehicles around 3 p.m.

Peaceful protest still underway in downtown Upper Marlboro at the County courthouse. pic.twitter.com/e5X0Lvol2f

— The Town of Upper Marlboro (@TownUMarlboro) June 5, 2020

WTOP Traffic Reporter Jerry Booth reported a large protest moving down Rockville Pike near Twinbrook Parkway.

#Rockville demonstrators on Rockville Pike near Twinbrook Pkwy. Traffic held #mdtraffic pic.twitter.com/ORY3Ec75UG

— Jerry Booth (@TrafficBooth) June 5, 2020

This is a developing story. Stay with WTOP for the latest.

WTOP’s Will Vitka, Ken Duffy and The Associated Press contributed to this report.