Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum had a heated debate on Friday’s broadcast of “The Story” with New York Black Lives Matter co-founder Hawk Newsome.
Newsome criticized New York Mayor-Elect Eric Adams’s plan to bring back plainclothes police officers to address the rise in crime plaguing the city.
Partial transcript as follows:
MACCALLUM: So since that unit was disbanded, we’ve seen homicides almost double in New York City. So he’s saying, “I want a safe city.” And a lot of New Yorkers respond to that really positively. They want a safe city. They want to be able to go out into the streets. They don’t want people breaking the windows and stealing stuff. They want to see children safe on the streets. What is wrong with anything that he just said there?
NEWSOME: Well, here’s the problem. The man does not have a plan. He’s about to be the–
MACCALLUM: Yes, he does have a plan. He’s going to put the anti-crime police unit back on the street?
NEWSOME: Wait, wait, wait, wait, can you listen? Can you listen? Or are you going to yell at me, or are you going to let me make my point? You just talked.
MACCALLUM: Don’t do that, ok? Don’t do that. Alright? Because I can interject and I can say–
NEWSOME: Here, let me make a statement.
MACCALLUM: Go ahead…
NEWSOME: The things that he’s saying, precision policing, focusing on gangs, these are all things that de Blasio said. Crime isn’t just up in New York City. It’s up around the country, so what is he going to do that’s different other than talk?
MACCALLUM: He’s the mayor of New York City. He wants that unit back on the street.
[CROSSTALK]
MACCALLUM: Let’s take turns here, ok? I let you answer. Let me ask you a new question, and then I’m going to let you respond, ok?. I spoke with a New York City detective when that unit was disbanded. He said, ‘You mark my words: there are going to be kids dying. This is going to be really bad.’ Let me put up on the screen, 21 children have been killed in the streets of New York, mostly in gang violence. The purpose of this unit that he wants to put back on the street – this is his plan, you asked what his plan was – was to clean up illegal guns, violence, and hard drugs on the street. So I’m asking you, what is wrong with putting this unit back on the street if it keeps children of New York City and adults safer?
NEWSOME: Ok, there’s this thing called the Constitution. The Fourth Amendment protects us against illegal search and seizure.
MACCALLUM: Right.
NEWSOME: Secondly, this unit has been responsible for the most high-profile deaths in the city. He isn’t saying what he’s going to do differently. For your journalistic integrity, just ask the right question. What is his actual plan? He’s just talking and drumming up news stories so that we can get this back and forth going, between two black men and instead of talking about the things we agreed upon–
MACCALLUM: That is not what it’s about.
[CROSSTALK]
NEWSOME: –which is feeding people good food, right? You want to talk about us being in these streets? We have a school where we teach kids how to be safe every single day. Today, I spent the day looking for a lost 11-year-old. I don’t get paid by the city to do this. I’m not running for office –
MACCALLUM: You know what, God bless you for that. And that is a good thing.
NEWSOME: But see, you don’t know what it’s like, you don’t know what it’s like to be pulled over and thrown up against walls.
MACCALLUM: No, I don’t. I will cede that to you.
[CROSSTALK]
MACCALLUM: I’m sorry that happened to you. I really am. The fact of the matter is–
NEWSOME: You live from a place of White privilege, where you don’t–
MACCALLUM: Come on, don’t throw that at me. You know what? I want this whole city of people of every background, faith, color to be safer. What I see on the street is that not what is happening since this unit was disbanded–
NEWSOME: But you see that all over the country.
MACCALLUM: We’re talking about New York! You care about New York. You’rE Black Lives Matter New York.
[CROSSTALK]
NEWSOME: I do this in Houston. I do this in Atlanta. I help Black people all over the country like a Black Salvation Army.
MACCALLUM: Good for you. I’m not-that’s great.
NEWSOME: What are you doing? I found a lost kid today. What are you doing to help the greater good other than being on the news and running your mouth?
MACCALLUM: I said, God bless you, and I would like that child to able to grow up safely in this city, and we don’t have the kind of support that we need because we have diminished these officers and put them in a situation where they can’t protect that little 11-year-old that you saved today. And like I said, good for you for the work you’re doing about poverty, but you have to have both sides.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN