He spoke two days after a tense meeting at Borough Hall with members of the Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, co-founder of the group Hawk Newsome had some harsh words for the incoming mayor if he went through with his plans to reinstate the NYPD's plainclothes cop units.
'If he 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,' Newsome told reporters outside Borough Hall.
Newsome told the New York Daily News Friday that he made his 'riot' comments because he was triggered by a question about plainclothes officers.
'It made me think about the death of Eric Garner, it made me think about the death of Breonna Taylor, it made me think of the death of George Floyd,' he told the Daily News in a phone interview, referring to three black Americans killed by cops. 'And to think that Eric Adams is legitimately wanting to put our children in danger — it scares me.'
Newsome said that Adams was trying to distract from the real issue by zeroing in on his threat.
'So he wants to make this a political circus. What I want is to stick to the issue — what's the plan?' Newsome said.
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