New York Police Department officers are calling for NYC Black Lives Matter leader Hawk Newsome to be investigated as a “domestic terrorist” over threats of “riots” and “bloodshed” that he said would take place if Mayor-elect Eric Adams does not comply with the organization’s demands.
Earlier this week, Hawk Newsome said “If [Adams] thinks that they’re going to go back to the old ways of policing, then we are going to take to the streets again. There will be riots, there will be fire and there will be bloodshed because we believe in defending our people,” referring to Adams potentially reinstating the NYPD’s previously disbanded anti-crime units.
New York cops blasted the BLM leader after his threatening remarks, including one current police supervisor who said Hawk Newsome “should be denounced by every politician because he is threatening to harm the citizens of New York.”
“The FBI should investigate him as a domestic terrorist and look into where he is getting his money. The people funding him should also be investigated,” the police supervisor continued, according to the New York Post. “He is threatening to overthrow the government, cause physical harm and property damage.”
Another police officer with the NYPD said the controversy caused by Hawk Newsome is “a lose-lose situation for Black Lives Matter.”
“If the mayor likes the cops, the cops will work for the mayor,” the cop said. “People in these communities where shootings and other crimes are spiking want the cops on the street.”
During his campaign for mayor, Adams vowed to reverse the abolition of the plainclothes units, which were disbanded during the 2020 Black Lives Matter demonstrations. Critics of the units claimed they were excessively forceful in African-American and Hispanic communities.
Chivona Newsome, BLM co-founder and sister of Hawk Newsome, echoed her brother’s warnings, saying that the group “will shut the city down…give him hell” and “make it a nightmare.”
During a meeting with Adams in Brooklyn Borough Hall that was livestreamed on Instagram, the mayor-elect and BLM activists got into a heated exchange over police policies.
After Hawk Newsome told Adams that BLM would consider the mayor responsible for future NYPD officer misconduct, Adams responded, “You’re on the ground: Stop the violence in my community. I’m holding you accountable.”
Chivona Newsome warned that public safety will only improve if the mayor creates better jobs, education and food programs. She called the situation “a government issue.”
Adams responded, “You need to be corrected. You need to be corrected based on what you’re saying. Don’t tell me, ‘I need to do this’ … say, ‘We need to do this.’”
