{"id":19291,"date":"2025-10-28T00:35:41","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T00:35:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/19291\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T00:35:41","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T00:35:41","slug":"ny-blm-leader-hawk-newsome-charged-with-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/19291\/","title":{"rendered":"NY BLM leader Hawk Newsome charged with assault"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Black Lives Matter founder Hawk Newsome<\/a>\u00a0ranted about \u201cblack faces of systemic oppression\u201d as he turned himself in Monday to face charges for allegedly assaulting a black local leader during a dust-up at a political rally in Harlem last week.<\/p>\n

The activist is accused of punching Manhattan Democratic District Leader William Allen, 66, and hurling a bullhorn at him when the protest descended into chaos at about 10:45 a.m. on Friday, according to police and sources.<\/p>\n

The entire saga unfolded when Newsome and a host of activists swarmed the Harlem office of Councilman Yusef Salaam \u2014 one of\u00a0the exonerated Central Park Five<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 to object to non-profit leader Tiffany Fulton having $10,000 in her community funding pulled.<\/p>\n

Walter \u201cHawk\u201d Newsomes, co-founder of BLM of Greater New York, at Manhattan Criminal Court. William Miller<\/p>\n

Newsome turned himself in at the 28 Precinct facing felony assault charges Monday. Matthew McDermott<\/p>\n

The scuffle broke out after Salaam\u2019s mother, Sharonne \u2013 on hand for a separate press conference \u2014 went over to confront Newsome, who was shouting her son\u2019s name into the bullhorn during the rally,\u00a0 Allen said in an interview Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Allen, who was there for the other press conference on solitary confinement, described himself as an \u201cinnocent bystander\u201d \u2013 telling The Post he walked over at the same time to chat with Fulton, but ended up facing the ire of Newsome.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Video footage circulating online shows Newsome getting in Allen\u2019s face and accuse him of bringing an \u201cold lady over here\u201d in reference to the councilman\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy problem is with you \u2018cause I can\u2019t get in her face like that,\u201d he yelled as he appeared to let the bullhorn go, according to the footage.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou put an old lady in front of me,\u201d he also screamed even though Allen claimed Sharonne walked over on her own.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe basically assaulted me,\u201d said Allen. \u201cHe hit me in the chest, I backed up and as I\u2019m backing up he raised his arm and threw the bullhorn at my head. Thank God it missed me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newsome compared himself to Martin Luther King Jr. as he decried the looming charges as politically motivated. Matthew McDermott<\/p>\n

The prominent local leader said he then faced the wrath of a Newsome ally who complained when the NYPD got involved while Newsome refused to offer an apology.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe never did that, and that was it for me,\u201d he said. \u201cHad he done that, I probably would\u2019ve never taken the trip over to the [precinct].\u201d<\/p>\n

Newsome, who urged supporters to gather outside the 28th precinct to watch as he voluntarily surrendered first thing Monday, compared himself to Martin Luther King Jr. as he decried the looming charges as politically motivated.<\/p>\n

\u201cRecognize this as a step in the right direction. Not only do we fight racism \u2014 systemic, black racism \u2014 we fight the black faces of systemic oppression,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMartin Luther King Jr. got locked up 26 times. Right? 26 times for this. This is a sign that we are fighting,\u201d Newsome continued.<\/p>\n

Allen shot back, \u201cI may not have known Dr. King personally, but he\u2019s no Dr. King.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newsome was charged with attempted felony assault, attempted misdemeanor assault and harassment, cops said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe charges against me are false,\u201d the BLM leader insisted.<\/p>\n

As Newsome was being led out of the police precinct, he argued he was the victim of \u201ca political attack.\u201d William Miller<\/p>\n

Newsome is accused of punching Manhattan Democratic District Leader William Allen (pictured). Facebook\/William Anthony Allen<\/p>\n

\u201cThis person is saying that I hit him, but there\u2019s no video evidence of that. There\u2019s 30 cameras out there. Nobody has a video of that. The only thing that was hurt was his pride.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Newsome was being led out of the police precinct, he argued he was the victim of \u201ca political attack.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not even thinking about the charges. I\u2019m thinking about Al Sharpton, Yusuf Salam, using the same justice system that they promised to fight against, against me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newsome\u2019s allies, too, were quick to claim the charges were \u201ctrumped-up\u201d and \u201cpolitically motivated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fulton, the executive director of Silent Voices United Inc. who recently had her funding cut, accused others of inciting disruption and chaos.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see this kind of political weaponization in Harlem is heartbreaking,\u201d Fulton said in a statement.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe are witnessing firsthand how speaking truth to power comes with consequences when the system feels threatened,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people incite chaos and then hide behind police badges and political titles, it shows how far some will go to protect lies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe domino effect of ignorance, gossip, and misinformation is real \u2014 it destroys good people while the guilty hide behind power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her organization had $10,000 pegged for its coffers, according to paperwork shared on Instagram by her non-profit Silent Voices United.<\/p>\n

Allen, the Democratic leader who has a prior working relationship with Fulton, is shocked how quickly things descended into chaos.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Harlem, we\u2019re a village,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have differences, we are able to work out differences.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Black Lives Matter founder Hawk Newsome\u00a0ranted about \u201cblack faces of systemic oppression\u201d as he turned himself…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3283,357,13243,57,9,11,10,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-19291","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-arrests","9":"tag-assaults","10":"tag-black-lives-matter","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}