Black Lives Matter Leader: If America ‘Doesn’t Give Us What We Want, We Will Burn Down this System’

Appearing Wednesday on the Fox News Channel’s The Story with host Martha MacCallum, Greater New York Black Lives Matter president Hawk Newsome warned that if the United States “doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down this system and replace it.”

A partial transcript is as follows: 

MARTHA MACCALLUM: People watch what you say in that video, that you now want to show legislation down people’s throats now that you have everyone’s attention and you’ve also said violence is sometimes necessary in these situations. What exactly is it that you hope to achieve through violence?

HAWK NEWSOME: 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.

[…]

MACCALLUM: The only reason why I posed that first question to you the way that I did is I watched you talking on a bunch of different interviews today and you said, “burn it down.” You said, “burn it down, it’s time.” That makes me think you want to burn it down.

HAWK NEWSOME: I said If this country doesn’t give us what we want, then we will burn down the 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 and let’s observe the history of the 1960s. When black people were rioting, we have their highest growth and wealth, in property ownership. Think about the last few weeks. Since you started protesting there have been eight cops fired across the country. Remember you were telling us that there was Due Process?

That’s why the cop that choked Eric Gardner kept his job and kept receiving raises for five years. Anytime a cop hurt a woman, a child, our elders, there was always a call for due process. But the moment people start destroying property, now cops can be fired automatically. 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, now, you have police officers and Republican politicians talking about police reform. I don’t condone nor do I condemn rioting but I’m just telling what I observed.