Former NYC hate crimes head sues mayor Eric Adams for discrimination: Report

The former head of New York City’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes said under mayor Eric Adams, he was discriminated against because of his religion and ethnicity, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.

Adams hired Hassan Naveed in October 2022 to combat “the scourge of hate” across the city. Naveed says he was subject to a “hostile work environment” during his one-and-a-half-year term as executive director, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday against Adams and New York City at the State Supreme Court in Manhattan. 

Naveed said in the lawsuit that things went south, particularly after the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel, when he came under scrutiny on account of his Muslim identity. In his lawsuit, he mentioned how two of his superiors - one of whom is listed as a defendant in the lawsuit - pulled him aside and asked him what he thought of “beheaded babies”.  

Naveed and other Muslim colleagues met with Adams on 23 October 2023 to discuss their concerns over Adams’s aides sharing “anti-Muslim, anti-Arab, and anti-Palestinian” content on social media. But say they were told by Adams that Muslims were experiencing hate as a consequence of failing to adequately condemn Hamas. They also said Adams compared pro-Palestine marches to “Klu Klux Klan protests.” 

Adams has developed ties to Israel and met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in August 2023 on a trip to Israel and in September in New York City. In May, he signed a Declaration of Intent to establish the New York City–Israel Economic Council, a joint initiative to strengthen economic ties and promote innovation between New York and Israel. 

Adams terminated Naveed’s employment in April 2024. Kayla Mamelak Altus, a spokeswoman for the mayor, told The New York Times in a statement that Naveed was an at-will employee “who was let go for poor job performance, plain and simple, and not terminated because of his identity, religion or views. Any suggestion otherwise is absurd.”

She said the Adams administration would respond in court, where they are “confident” Naveed’s claims will be disproven.

Islamophobia accusations

The lawsuit comes just days after Adams made a public statement while endorsing Andrew Cuomo's candidacy for mayor ahead of the November election. His statement implied that under Mamdani's mayorship, the city would be overrun by "Islamic extremism". 

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“New York can’t be Europe, folks. I don’t know what is wrong with people,” he said. “You see what’s playing out in other countries because of  Islamic extremism," Adams said. 

His comments were widely criticised as Islamophobic.

Adams said he was motivated by his desire to fight Islamic extremists who were “burning churches in Nigeria, destroying communities in Germany, and had taken over the logical thinkings (sic)”.

He also dismissed  New York state assemblyman Mamdani, whom he ran against and lost to in the city's primary, as a “communist”. The term has been used by his ally, US President Donald Trump, to refer to Mamdani on multiple occasions. 

Just weeks ago, before he dropped out of the mayoral elections, Adams called former Governor Cuomo a “a snake and a liar” for pressuring him to drop out of the race.