The Black Lives Matter movement has been at the center of protests still sweeping across the country as protesters demand not only police reform but also for the U.S. to finally address the systemic racism that plagues the country.
Hawk Newsome, president of Greater New York Black Lives Matter, said that if the movement ultimately fails to achieve meaningful change, it will “burn down this system.”
Trump immediately went to Twitter to denounce Newsome and call him a traitor. “Black Lives Matter leader states, ‘If U.S. doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it’. This is Treason, Sedition, Insurrection!” Trump tweeted.
Here’s what Newsom said during a Fox News interview with Martha MacCallum. “If this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it. All right? And I could be speaking figuratively. I could be speaking literally. It’s a matter of interpretation.”
“Let’s be very real,” Newsome said. “Let’s observe the history of the 1960s when Black people were rioting. We had the highest growth in wealth, in property ownership. Think about the last few weeks since we started protesting. There have been eight cops fired across the country.”
He continued, “What is this country rewarding? What behavior is it listening to? Obviously not marching. But when people get aggressive and they escalate their protests, cops get fired, Republican politicians talking about police reform.”
“I don’t condone nor do I condemn rioting,” Newsome added. “But I’m just telling you what I observed.”
MacCallum asked Newsome what Black Lives Matter hoped to achieve through violence.
Newsome answered, “Wow, it’s interesting that you would pose that question like that because this country is built upon violence. What was the American Revolution? What’s our diplomacy across the globe?
“We go in and we blow up countries and we replace their leaders with leaders who we like. So for any American to accuse us of being violent is extremely hypocritical,” Newsome added.
The movement is about “saving lives,” Newsome said. It should be praised for supporting the Second Amendment, The New York Post reported.
“Nobody’s talking about ambushing police officers. We’re talking about protecting lives,” he said. “There’s nothing more American than that. We talk about uplifting and upholding the Second Amendment. I think you should be applauding me, seeing how you guys are huge supporters of the Second Amendment.
“But it seems to be the hypocrisy of America that when Black people start talking about arming themselves and defending themselves, (that) talk is ‘violent,” said Newsome, who earned his law degree from Howard University Law School. “But when white people grab assault rifles and go to our nation’s — their state capitals, it’s all good.”
Newsome helped write “The Black Act,” a legislative proposal for both the state and federal levels “that would fight racism by making changes in policy in policing, the prison system, education, and housing,” Heavy reported.
Newsome concluded his Fox interview saying, “I just want Black liberation and Black sovereignty. By any means necessary.”
Newsome isn’t the only person calling for the “system” to be burned down. In May, rapper and activist Killer Mike pleaded with protesters in Atlanta not to destroy the city but to instead “burn” systemic racism, CBS News reported.
Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 73: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin makes the case for why this is a multi-factor rebellion vs. just protests about George Floyd. He discusses the Democratic Party’s sneaky relationship with the police in cities and states under Dem control, and why Joe Biden is a cop and the Steve Jobs of mass incarceration.
Killer Mike joined Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and rapper T.I. on May 29 to address the violence, saying that while he understood the anger of the demonstrators, “it is your duty not to burn your own house down for anger with an enemy. It is your duty to fortify your own house so that you may be a house of refuge in times of organization.”
Killer Mike added, “We watch it like murder porn over and over again, so that is why children are burning it to the ground. They don’t know what else to do…It is the responsibility of us to make this better, right now…We do not want to see targets burning, we want to see the system that sets up for systemic racism, burned to the ground.”
