New York City Mayor-Elect Eric Adams Calls On Fellow Democrats To Reject Rhetoric By BLM Activist

Eric Adams, the mayor-elect for New York City, is calling on his fellow Democrats to reject a Black Lives Matter activist’s threats that there would be “riots and bloodshed” if plainclothes policing is reinstalled in the city.

BLM activist Hawk Newsome made the threats during a meeting Wednesday with Adams, a former police officer who made a return to law and order a prime plank in his election campaign. Adams is New York City’s second Black mayor.

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At a press conference on Friday, Adams addressed Newsome’s calls to violence.

“National, state and city electeds should stand up and say, ‘We will never allow anyone to make those comments,’ that there will be blood in our streets, because you know where that blood ends up? In the streets of our community,” Adams said.

“I think that this is an excellent moment for the local and state and federal Democratic Party to state: We could have justice without violence,” Adams said.

The Wednesday meeting between Adams and the BLM representatives was carried on Instagram live. Newsome said after that meeting while speaking to reporters, “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 said on Friday that he made his remarks on bloodshed because he was triggered by a question on 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,” Newsome told the New York Daily News in a phone interview. “And to think that Eric Adams is legitimately wanting to put our children in danger — it scares me.”

New York City has seen crime skyrocketing over the last two years, with the state’s “no bail” policy contributing to a rise in street crimes. The anti-crime units were disbanded under outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio.

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