WASHINGTON ― Law enforcement agents have seized hundreds of cloth masks that read “Stop killing Black people” and “Defund police” that a Black Lives Matter-affiliated organization sent to cities around the country to protect demonstrators against the spread of COVID-19, a disease that has had a disparate impact on Black communities.

The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) spent tens of thousands of dollars on the masks they had planned to send all over the country.

The Movement for Black Lives is a group of more than 150 leaders and organizations that are “unified in a radical vision for Black liberation and working for equity, justice and healing.” It was started in December 2014, a few months after the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, following the police killing of Michael Brown. ?

“Police have rioted coast to coast, beating and gassing protesters who have called for an end to police violence, with the explicit approval of President Trump,” Chelsea Fuller, a spokesperson for the Movement for Black Lives, said in a statement to HuffPost.