After Hassan Naveed, City Hall’s former hate crimes prevention director, was fired earlier this year, he alleged his axing was the result of religious-based workplace discrimination and said he would take legal action against Mayor Adams’ administration over the matter.
A notice of claim filed by Naveed reveals he also plans to take legal action directly against Adams over allegations that the mayor defamed and retaliated against him in the aftermath of his termination.
Naveed’s notice, filed in July, marks the first formal step in his planned lawsuit against the city and charges Adams made the “false and defamatory” comments about him during an April 30 press conference at City Hall.
“When asked why [Naveed] was terminated, Mayor Adams stated, along the lines of, ‘you’re given a responsibility in a role, you’re in charge of hate crimes. I’m seeing an increase in hate crimes,’ and ‘people have to live up to what they’re hired to do, taxpayers deserve that,’” states the notice, a copy of which was obtained by the Daily News via a Freedom of Information Law request.
“Mayor Adams made such statements with the personal knowledge that they were false and harmful to plaintiff’s reputation, but stated them publicly anyway in retaliation and to punish [Naveed], such that [Naveed] may not receive a job in the future.”
The notice, which has never previously been reported, specifies Naveed’s lawsuit will allege “defamation of character” and “retaliation,” in addition to wrongful termination and violations of his freedom of religion. Naveed is Muslim and said upon his April 18 sacking that he had “definitely been fired because” of his faith, as first reported by The News.
In response to his defamation accusations, Adams spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak said Wednesday that Naveed is the one making “false” comments.
“This individual was an at-will employee who, after being terminated, went to the press and made false statements about why he was let go. The press then asked Mayor Adams for his explanation and he responded with the truth,” Mamelak said. “The mayor has every right to set the record straight when false claims are made about the administration.”
In an interview with The News this week, Naveed elaborated on his notice’s defamation claim, saying Adams’ April 30 remarks about him were contradicted by his City Hall job performance reviews, which he claimed gave him positive grades.
“And the idea that occasional fluctuations in hate crime data shows success is superficial,” Naveed said. “We are supposed to look at things from a much larger perspective, beyond politics.”
At the time Naveed was canned, hate crime rates were spiking in the city following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, with the NYPD receiving 136 hate crime complaints and conducting 76 hate crime-related arrests in the first quarter of 2024. Those rates have since increased further, with 153 complaints and 79 arrests logged by the NYPD in the third quarter of 2024.
In addition to his performance reviews, Naveed said he sent emails while at City Hall urging then-Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks’ office to allocate more resources for Naveed’s team amid the city’s early 2024 hate crime uptick. Those requests went unfulfilled, according to Naveed.
In April, Mamelak, Adams’ spokeswoman, said Naveed was let go because “it was determined that the important mission of this office should be led by someone who puts bringing hate crimes down first and themself second.”
Naveed’s position hasn’t been filled nearly eight months later. Naveed’s former deputy, Eunice Lee, the only other staffer in the hate crimes prevention office, resigned in July, and her role hasn’t been filled either.
Mamelak said City Hall is in the process of “onboarding” a new executive director to replace Naveed, but didn’t offer a timeline for when a hire will be made. She also said the office has hired two new staffers since the spring.
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