Occupy City Hall STL protests continue downtown

Protesters painted ‘RESIGN LYDA RESIGN’ outside St. Louis City Hall overnight as protests over the city’s mayor continued into Friday.

City crews were seen at 5:30 a.m. trying to scrub the large yellow and white letters off of Tucker right in front of the building. Crews were seen applying a substance to the paint and then power washing the letters.

Protesters have been gathering outside city hall off and on since Wednesday.

Various other protests have happened over the last two weeks ever since Mayor Lyda Krewson read the names and addresses of protesters who called on the city to defund police.

She read their names during a Facebook live briefing. The mayor apologized and took down the video, but protesters saw it as an intimidation tactic and things have escalated since then.

Thursday night, the group “Occupy City Hall STL” threw Krewson a mock “retirement” party, hanging signs and blocking the main entrance to 1200 Market Street.

5 On Your Side received the following statement from Mayor Krewson's communication director Jacob Long Friday morning.

"Mayor Krewson is not distracted by this any of this and remains focused on what she was elected to do: addressing the needs of more than 300,000 St. Louisans who are counting on her to help get them through multiple public health and economic crises, including a worldwide pandemic. This is the main entrance of a very public building that needs to be open for people to do business with the City. Mayor Krewson is not resigning or retiring."