N.Y. Black Lives Matter Leader’s Law Degree Helps Him ‘Cop Watch’

Walter “Hawk” Newsome, a high-school-dropout turned Big Law firm project-manager who now helps lead the Black Lives Matter movement, says it helps to know more about the law than the police.

Newsome always knew he wanted to be a lawyer. But he set out on a different path in his last year at Touro law school in 2012 following the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

He ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the New York City Council from the Bronx with a platform that he says was “too radical,” and garnered roughly 3% of the vote. Then he worked ...