The president of the Black Lives Matter movement in the Greater New York area has claimed that rioting is justified at protests because the ‘American way’ is through ‘bullets and blood’ not peaceful protest.
Hawk Newsome appeared on Fox Nation’s ‘No Interruption” on Wednesday speaking to host Tomi Lahren about Black Lives Matter and about recent anti-police protests in New York.
Newsome, who also appears in the cast of CopWatch America on Bet, told Lahren he would not condemn the destruction caused as it calls attention to the organization’s grievances with society.
The civil rights leader also claimed that peaceful protest is the ‘tool of white supremacy’, posting the interview to Instagram and slamming Lahren as ‘White Supremacist Barbie’.
In a new episode of Fox Nation’s ‘No Interruption’, Tomi Lahren sat down with the president of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, Hawk Newsome, who refused to condemn rioters
Participants protesting on a subway platform in the South Bronx in November 2019 to voice outrage at the conduct of the NYPD, protesting what they see as blatant acts of police brutality
Black Lives Matter activist Hawk Newsome, who refused to condemn protesters rioting at anti-cop demonstrations, rallies activists in front of Trump Tower on January 14, 2017 in New York
‘The riot is the language of the unheard,’ Newsome said, comparing the modern-day protests to The Boston Tea Party.
‘What if you throw a whole bunch of tea in the water and start a war?’ he asked.
‘That’s what this country was built on.’
Lahren was particularly keen to push Newsome on the recent anti-cop protests in New York which saw subway stations and other transportation hubs around the city flooded with thousands of protesters.
The January 31 protest was organized by a collection of 30 grassroots groups called ‘Decolonize This Place’ and saw protesters carry signs with slogans such as ‘F— the Police’ and ‘No cops! No fares!’
After the protest, NYPD Chief Terence Monahan claimed in a tweet that some protesters attempted to ‘physically assault’ police officers.
Lahren had previously ripped the demonstrations, which voiced anger at the increased police presence on the New York subway and the ever-rising cost of a subway ticket, by asking protesters ‘Are you out of your mind?’
NYPD Chief Terence Monahan claimed protesters were attempting to ‘physically assault our officers’ at a ‘Decolonize this Place’ demonstration in New York on January 31, 2020
Fox host Tomi Lahren criticized protesters demonstrating against increased police presence on the New York subway and the ever-rising price of a subway ticket in the city
‘Last Friday night, a group who calls themselves “Decolonize This Place” called on New York City area communities to join them as they f*** s*** up,’ Lahren said on her show ‘Final Thoughts’.
‘So what are they so enraged about?’ she asked.
‘They don’t think they should have to pay the [subway] fare – of get this – $2.75 cents. And they don’t want 500 new officers hired to police their indecent and unlawful behavior on and around the city transit system.
‘You’re really going to act like that because you don’t think you should have to pay to ride the subway? Are you out of your mind?’ she continued.
‘Clearly disgusting anti-police chants and signs, blocking entrances, vandalizing buses, gluing and/or breaking transit card readers and illegally jumping turnstiles is their chosen method to raise awareness of their perceived oppression and fight for their distorted concept of justice, because nothing says justice like refusing to pay a standard fare.’
When questioning Newsome on Wednesday, Lahren asked him whether he thought the actions of some of the demonstrators were justified by the cause, pressing him to state whether he condemned it or not in his role as a leader of Black Lives Matter.
Demonstrators from the Black Lives Matter movement march through central London on July 10, 2016, during a demonstration against the killing of black men by police in the United States
Protesters holding a banner while marching in the South Bronx in 2019 gathered at the Adam Clayton Powell State Office Building Plaza to voice their outrage at the conduct of the NYPD
A Black Lives Matter protester holds candles during a vigil on March 23, 2018, in Sacramento, California, after two officers shot and killed Stephon Clark, an unarmed black man, in his yard
‘There are a lot of black people who say “f— the police”,’ Newsome retaliated.
‘But the majority of the people out there who are saying “f— the police”, in these particular events, are white people.
‘You have to really start to ask why people say, “f— the police”.
‘You really have to take away this fetish or the way that we fantasize policing and really look at it for what it really is.’
‘From day one, black people’s interactions with the police had been negative,’ Newsome added.
‘The Fugitive Slave Act, where they would take black people, stop them in the street, ask them for their papers, if they couldn’t produce them they’d send them back into slavery.
‘Sometimes they sent free people back into slavery. The interaction between black people and police in this country has never been good.’
Fox Nation’s Tomi Lahren sat down with the president of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, Hawk Newsome, to discuss the movement and recent anti-cop protests in New York
Actor Nick Cannon, center, with Hawk Newsome, right, of Black Lives Matter in Greater NY
Lahren responded to say she didn’t understand the way in which such tactics are productive.
‘I’m not going to disagree with what you believe in,’ she answered.
‘What I’m saying is this — when we’re talking about solving problems, the methods in which I’ve seen groups like Black Lives Matter advance their ills or societal grievances — when it turns into burning, looting in the streets, I don’t see it being productive.’
Newsome highlighted that only ‘one percent’ of the demonstrations would include any form of destructive protest but he did not condemn them, instead claiming that such forms of protests are ‘the American way’.
‘For a country that drops bombs on people, for a country that incarcerates people, for a country that enslaves people — to criticize us for vandalism is preposterous,’ Newsome told Lahren.
‘I want to make sure I’m getting you clearly,’ pressed Lahren.
‘It is OK to vandalize, to light things on fire and to loot businesses because the United States of America drops bombs on other countries, and because we have problems… people have grievances.’
‘I think that it is a tool of white supremacy to say if you want freedom, then you get it by protesting peacefully,’ Newsome continued.
‘Why is it a tool of white supremacy?
‘Because the white supremacists who built this country never earned anything peacefully. They did it through bullets and blood. And that’s the American way.’