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On the 15th of August, Blackout DC staged what was announced as a march from the White House to the Capitol to protest police murder of Black and Brown people. Cops expected a direct march but got a surprise! The march diverted from Penn Ave north up 7th st to Chinatown, then proceeded east to block the I-395 tunnels before finally going to the US Capitol. At the Capitol, offerings for those murdered by police were placed in a cardboard coffin. This was intended to take place on the Capitol steps, but US Capitol police blockaded the top exits from the Capitol West Lawn against protesters-and only protesters. As a result the offering ceremony took place on the spot where people were blocked.

Video-395 shutdown and coffin/offering ceremony at the US Capitol

The July 3ed Anniversary special Bike Party was perhaps the largest ever, but the August 12th ride may have been second only to that one for sheer size. DC never seemed to get big Critical Mass or other such rides in the past, now the organizers of the DC Bike Parties seem to have found the magic formula for turn out in this town.

Video highlights 1st half of the ride(2:40)

On August 9, 1945, the US dropped the second atomic bomb of WWII on Nagasaki, Japan. On August 9, 2015, hundreds rode in Global Zero's "Bike Around the Bomb" protest ride around the periphery of the part of DC that would be severely damaged by the smallest nuclear weapons in existance. Similar rides were conducted in cities all over the world. Several organizers spoke before the ride against efforts by the GOP (and AIPAC) to scuttle a nuclear deal with Iran that would block that country from building nuclear weapons. They warned that the alternative to the treaty may well be war.

Video of the ride

Commentary on US warmongering by the last 11 US presidents was added to the mural by Mama Ayesha's restaurant on Calvert Street.