Adams, BLM Leaders Trade Barbs After Heated Meeting

NEW YORK CITY — A behind-closed-doors sit down between Eric Adams and Black Lives Matter leaders ended with the advocates warning the mayor-elect's policing policies could cause "riots" and "bloodshed."

Those words spoken by New York BLM co-founder Hawk Newsome on Wednesday received breathless coverage by the New York Post and New York Daily News.

They show that Adams — a former NYPD captain who will be the city's second Black mayor — could be at odds with advocates skeptical, at best, of his police reform bona fides.

Adams, for his part, dismissed the concerns.

"That was a lot of grandstanding," he said on FOX5.

“Those 13 people are not representative of the Black Lives Matter movement," he added.

The mayor-elect also encouraged New Yorkers to watch a livestream of his meeting with the BLM leaders.

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The video shows an initially cordial meeting turn heated as Adams bristled at some of their suggestions and characterizations. He told them he’s “not new” to fighting for racial justice.

“Brother, I live on the front lines, my life is the front lines,” he said at one point.

When the conversation turned to accountability, Adams said he welcomed it for himself but also cast it back on the Black Lives Matter organizers.

“When you hold me accountable, I’m holding you accountable,” he said. “When you’re on the ground, stop the violence in my communities. I’m holding you accountable, don’t hold me accountable because I’m not, I’m not being the mayor, being the borough president, being a state senator — I put my body on the line for my community. So, I’m not here for folks to say, Eric, we’re going to hold you accountable. No, it’s us — we are in this together.”

The BLM activists left the meeting particularly angered over Adams' plan to resurrect a new version of a controversial disbanded undercover NYPD anti-crime unit.

Newsome said such a return to the "old ways" of policing after the George Floyd protests and recent reforms will prompt protests.

"There will be riots, there will be fire and there will be bloodshed because we believe in defending our people,” he said, according to the New York Daily News.