Black Lives Matter (BLM) Greater New York co-founder Hawk Newsome surrendered to police on Monday morning after being hit with felony assault charges for a local feud in Harlem that allegedly turned violent last week.
Dozens of Newsome’s supporters gathered outside of the 28th Precinct in Central Harlem at around 8:30 a.m. on Oct. 27 to watch the activist turn himself over to cops on second-degree assault charges.
Newsome is accused of punching Democratic District Leader William Allen and throwing a megaphone at him on Oct. 23 during a rally outside of Council Member Yusef Salaam’s office on West 125th Street. Newsome was leading a rally against the elected official after Salaam pulled funding from a nonprofit organization run by an acquaintance of the activist.
Tiffany Fulton, who founded Silent Voices United, an organization she says helps mentor local youth, told amNewYork that Newsome was leading the demonstration when Salaam’s mother approached and began scolding Newsome.
“You can’t tell me about my son!” the senior could be heard yelling in a video shared online as Allen watched on. Newsome could then be seen arguing with Allen before appearing to cock his arm back and making a punching motion; the alleged assault, however, was not visible.
Fulton claimed that Allen ushered Salaam’s mother over to disrupt the rally, which led to Newsome confronting Allen.
“When you get excited, you’re poking, you’re poking, but you’re pointing. And Hawk was pointing and talking about, why would you bring this woman over here? Why would you do that? Why would you start this? And William grabbed his arm,” Fulton said outside the 28th Precinct stationhouse on Monday morning. “Hawk never put his hands on William. And I’m here today because I need to tell the truth.”
amNewYork reached out to Allen, who said that he would return a phone call but ultimately did not respond before publication time. Salaam’s office likewise did not respond when contacted.
Newsome believed he was surrendering on misdemeanor assault charges, but after giving up, discovered that the charges had been upgraded to a felony count because the alleged victim, Allen, is over the age of 65.
When Newsome was escorted out of the rear of the stationhouse in cuffs later that morning, he dubbed the charges a “political attack.”
“This is a political attack. I am not even thinking about the charges, I am thinking about Al Sharpton and Yusef Salaam using the same justice system they promised to fight against, against me,” Newsome said.
“You can’t blame Trump for weaponizing the justice system when you do it yourself,” he yelled before being placed in the back of a police vehicle.
Rallying around him outside the 28th Precinct on Monday morning, some of his band of followers — including Chivona Newsome, Hawk Newsome’s sister and co-founder of BLM Greater New York, bizarrely compared him to Jesus Christ.
“This walk that Hawk will be doing is a warrior’s walk. It’s a walk of martyr. It’s what it’s looked like throughout history when someone has stood up against an oppressive government,” Chivona Newsome said. “We saw it when the prophets challenged the money, we saw it when any revolutionary has spoken up, and we’ve seen it happen to the greatest activist to ever walk this earth, Jesus Christ, when he stood against a religious and political establishment.”
