With reported hate crimes still rising, another NYC prevention official exits

The top official in the New York City government office charged with preventing hate crimes is headed out the door, three months after her boss was abruptly fired from his post.

Eunice Lee, deputy executive director of the Mayor’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, or OPHC, ends her four-year tenure with the office on Friday. She announced her departure in emails to city agencies and community organizations that were obtained by Gothamist.

“We worked through a global pandemic and strategized together through rising tides of hate and polarization locally, nationally and internationally,” Lee wrote in one of the emails. “I’ve learned so much in that time."

The emails offered no explanation for her departure, and Lee did not immediately respond to a message and phone call seeking comment. Her emails identified Gui Stampur, deputy director of programs at the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, as “the new point of contact” for OPHC issues. Stampur did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for criminal justice thanked Lee for her hard work and said the office wished her well.

Lee’s departure follows the controversial firing of Hassan Naveed as OPHC’s executive director in April. His ouster came amid a spike in hate crime and bias complaints in the city, many of which were tied to the Israel-Hamas war. It also came as Mayor Eric Adams faced rising criticism for statements supporting Israel in the conflict and condemning local pro-Palestinian protesters.

Reported hate crimes in the city were up 56% in March compared to the same point last year, with antisemitic crimes making up more than half of that month’s total of 75 alleged offenses. More recently, hate crime was up 68% in June compared to a year before, with antisemitic crimes driving most of the increase, according to the NYPD. The department's June crime report attributed the increase to “the fiery rhetoric and sometimes violent actions” that surrounded war protests.

OPHC is housed within the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice and was formed in September 2019. It coordinates how the city responds to local hate incidents through its Interagency Committee on Hate Crimes, which comprises more than 20 city agencies and the hate crime units in all five district attorneys’ offices.

Lee joined OPHC as program manager in January 2020, just ahead of a pandemic-related spike in anti-Asian bias crimes and incidents nationwide. She became deputy executive director in May 2023, according to her LinkedIn page.

“I feel grateful to have worked alongside such passionate people who are committed to this space and to working with and for some of NYC’s most vulnerable,” Lee wrote in one of her emails to city staff.

After Naveed’s departure from the hate crimes prevention office, 17 members of the City Council signed a letter that decried his “unjust and abrupt termination” and complained of “a change in the administration’s approach with vulnerable communities, raising concerns about fair representation for all New Yorkers.”

Asked about the May letter from councilmembers, Adams noted that reported local hate crimes were increasing, but declined to go into further detail, citing pending litigation. “Let the lawyers figure it out,” he told reporters. “People have to live up to what they’re hired to do. Taxpayers deserve that.”

OPHC uses education “as a way to really work towards hate-crime prevention, whether it's in the schools or … communities, meeting communities and learning about each other,” Naveed told Gothamist in a 2022 interview.

The city has begun interviewing to fill open OPHC positions.

This article was updated with comment from the Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice.