NY BLM leader vows street protests if 'old ways' of policing return
Black Lives Matter of Greater New York co-founder Hawk Newsome warns New York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams against returning to the pre-De Blasio policing model.
NEW YORK CITY – Black Lives Matter New York co-founder Hawk Newsome said that Mayor-elect Eric Adam’s plan to bring back a controversial plainclothes NYPD unit would trigger violence across the city — and he wouldn’t "stand in the way."
"So when a police officer murders an innocent black person and people take to the streets, I’m not going to get in the way of that because it’s the American way," he told Bryan Llenas in an interview with Fox News.
(Mayor-elect Eric Adams, left, and activist Hawk Newsome, right. (Getty Images))
Newsome was clarifying comments he made Wednesday after a tense meeting with Adams that touched on police reform. After the sit-down, he told reporters that if Adam’s resurrected the Anti-Crime Unit, "There will be riots, there will be fire, and there will be bloodshed."
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The activist insisted he wasn’t threatening to create the maelstrom but that it was an inevitable consequence of reintroducing the task force that Adams said would focus on gun violence.
"How am I advocating for violence when I’m simply telling you what’s going to happen?" he said. "It’s not about making threats. I don’t have the power to push a button and make people go out and fight."
Black Lives Matter New York co-founder Hawk Newsome. (Photo by Erik McGregor/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The Anti-Crime Unit was disbanded in 2020 after several high-profile police encounters — including the 2014 death of Eric Garner at the hands of an officer assigned to the task force.
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"When they come out into these streets and they’re given free rein, it’s only a matter of time before they brutalize somebody or they kill someone’s mother, father, sister or brother," he said of the cops. "When we have the next Eric Garner, the city’s going to be on fire."
Democratic candidate for New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul greet each other after Adams is declared victor at his election night party in Brooklyn on Nov. 2, 2021. (REUTERS/Andrew Kelly)
He said that Adams, a former NYPD police captain, would lead the city to another George Floyd — referring to the Black man who was murdered while in custody in Minneapolis by ex-police officer Derek Chauvin.
Newsome, who advocates for defunding the police and improving living conditions in minority neighborhoods, also accused Adams of being a "flip-flopper" who turned pro-cop to pander to his constituents.
The incoming mayor has said reducing violence and keeping the streets safe for New Yorkers is a top priority.
A spokesman for Adams didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fox News' Marta Dhanis contributed to this report.
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