WASHINGTON — D.C. Councilmember Anita Bonds has some harsh words for the activists who protested outside of her Northwest home Friday.
“Y’all know these are the same tactics the KKK used against black people!” she said. “They don’t have a right to protest at my home, okay, after 10 p.m."
Bonds said the group protesting, called Sunrise Movement DC, not only violated the District's noise ordinance, but crossed a line during the demonstration that lasted until midnight.
“If the councilmember felt terrorized to the extent that she felt terrorized in a way that she can somewhat equate or parallel to the KKK coming to intimidate black people in America, that's emotionally not at all the intention and not the goal,” Aura Angelica of the Sunrise Movement DC chapter said.
Angelica said the activists were protesting what they perceive as Bond's inaction on housing legislation, and her endorsement of D.C. developer Marcus Goodwin for the Council At-Large.
“That duo is really not a duo that's actually putting equity and the D.C. residents’ best interests at heart,” Angelica said.
Goodwin released a statement condemning the protests.
“This is not the Washington, D.C. that anyone wants to live in -- where an African American woman, inside her own home, is terrorized at midnight by a group of radicals," Goodwin said.
Bonds said she felt like the protesters were taking advantage of their own racial privilege.
“What do you say to young folk who are obviously using their privilege?" she asked.
“I don't believe that our tactics are all that aggressive,” countered Angelica. "But if someone's saying, ‘hey, you're a bunch of white kids coming out and talking aggressively or making noise on the street of a Black woman and that makes me uncomfortable -- sit in your place,’ like that's the conversation that we can have.”