BLM leader who threatened 'riots' if plainclothes unit was brought back says Mayor Adams listened to activists

New York City Mayor Eric Adams touted 31 arrests on Monday that were made last week by the NYPD’s new Neighborhood Safety Teams, a revamped version of the NYPD's controversial plainclothes anti-crime unit that was disbanded in 2020.

Officers in the new Neighborhood Safety Teams wear clothes that make them more easily identifiable as police officers.  (NYPD) Neighborhood Safety Team officers in the 23rd precinct arrested a gang member in East Harlem with an illegal gun last week.  (NYPD)

"If they think they are going back to the old ways of policing then we’re going to take to the streets again," Hawk Newsome, co-founder of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, said outside Borough Hall after meeting with Adams in November. "There will be riots, there will be fire, and there will be bloodshed." 

The new Neighborhood Safety Teams consist of 90 officers spread out across 25 different precincts citywide, with five more teams on the way in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, and Staten Island.