On May 27, the State Department announced the appointment of Lee Rizzuto Jr. to be the next Principal Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Hamilton, Bermuda (see Champion of US Diplomacy Announces Political Donor to be Principal Officer at US Consulate General Bermuda).
Since the announcement, there has been two protests at the consulate, and an online petition expressing solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and calling for the rejection of the Rizzuto appointment. As of this writing, the petition has over 79,000 signatures. The island noted for its sandy beaches and cerulean blue ocean waters has an estimated 2018 population of 71,176.
The Consulate closed on June 1st when the first of two protests took place in front of the consulate (Demonstration Alert – U.S. Consulate General Hamilton, Bermuda, June 1, 2020).
A second demonstration against the appointment of Lee Rizzuto Jr by the United States Consulate. pic.twitter.com/TsaXH5slHb
— The Royal Gazette (@TheRoyalGazette) June 3, 2020
The “#Bermuda Solidarity with BLM & Rejection of Rizzuto Appointment as US Consul General” online petition has attained over 25,000 signatures in the past two days https://t.co/0y5LnhnLVU
— Bernews (@bernewsdotcom) June 3, 2020
Reject Rizzuto: protesters are outraged at the appointment of Lee Rizzuto Jr and racial injustice in the US, highlighted by the killing of George Floyd
Photography by Akil Simmons pic.twitter.com/MHfsMTkT84
— The Royal Gazette (@TheRoyalGazette) June 2, 2020
today in Bermuda, a peaceful protest was held to call for justice in the case of George Floyd and against the appointing of Lee Rizzuto Jr. (a Trump supporter and thus appointed by Trump) as Bermuda’s US Consulate #blacklivesmatter 🇧🇲 pic.twitter.com/JgfOOVpnaK
— königin (@_iamPRYCELESS) June 2, 2020
A controversial beauty products tycoon scheduled to take up the US Consul General’s post this summer made headlines in America after he shared “conspiracy theories and unfounded attacks” about President Donald Trump’s political opponents on Twitter. https://t.co/MhmIpLIKeJ
— The Royal Gazette (@TheRoyalGazette) May 29, 2020
Read "Bermuda Rejects Rizzuto" on Medium:https://t.co/D81FPtxW0m#RejectRizzuto #ICantBreatheBDA #BlackLivesMatter #Bermuda
— Hannah 🇧🇲 (@rennah) June 1, 2020