How about that: Longtime local lefty activist Bertha Lewis just proved she has more guts than Mayor Bill de Blasio, the Rev. Al Sharpton and other local so-called leaders — by not dodging The Post’s questions about Hawk Newsome’s outrageous threats of rioting if Mayor-elect Eric Adams restores the NYPD’s plainclothes anti-crime unit.
“Give the brother a chance,” said Lewis, the president of the Black Institute, of the incoming mayor. “Adams has pledged a different way of policing. I’m going to wait and see what Eric does and what his Police Department does.”
How hard was that? She reserves the right to criticize if she doesn’t like what he does, in an implicit rebuke of Newsome’s raving.
De Blasio, by contrast, literally hid behind one of his flacks, Danielle Filson, rather than take the question. Nor did she later offer up any reply on the mayor’s behalf, merely pointing to his prior remarks that defended his decision to shut down the unit while “respecting” that Adams has his “own vision.”
Sorry, Bill: Straddles like that won’t stop your potential run for governor from being any more of humiliation than your White House bid.
Sharpton, meanwhile, ignored repeated requests for comment, though he has plenty of time to comment on the Georgia trial of Ahmaud Arbery’s killers.
Also declining to even issue a statement were Gov. Kathy Hochul, state Attorney General Tish James and NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea — though Shea’s long record of frankness on these issues at least leaves little doubt where he stands.
Hello, people: Hawk Newsome is a self-promoting arsonist. He may have set up his own Black Lives Matter group, which can at least try to start a riot — but no movement ever chose him as its leader.
Adams, meanwhile, refused to be rolled.
It’s beyond pathetic that so many New York leaders won’t even call out his pernicious nonsense. Thank God the city will soon have a leader who’s not afraid to stand up for reason and decency.
