By: Fern Sidman
Responding to increased pressure due to the frightening resurgence of anti-Semitism, New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio announced on Tuesday that he had hired a new executive director of the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes, officially launching the new city organization months ahead of the official deadline.
A WABC news report indicated that Deborah Lauter, an employee at the Anti-Defamation League for 18 years was introduced publicly as the first executive director of the newly established office.
“What motivates someone to take their hate and act out on it?” she said, according to the WABC report. “In this country, you have a right to be a bigot, right? It’s protected. What we’re seeing now is people being emboldened to act out on that kind of bigotry,” she declared.
Due to the almost daily occurrence of horrific hate crimes that are directed mostly at Jewish residents, some members of the New York City Council have expressed their criticism about what they believe is the DeBlasio administration’s tardiness in opening this office.
During a news conference last week with the family of an Orthodox Jewish rabbi named Avraham Gopin who was beaten with a rock in a Crown Heights park, Councilman Chaim Deutsch asked why the office had not yet opened, but a spokesperson claims the office actually opened last Monday, according to the WABC report.
“Far from having to scramble, the office opened last Monday (months early) and has been busy at work,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement, according to the WABC news report. “We delayed publicly announcing in an effort to accommodate the council and a possible joint announcement.”
Surprisingly, Lauter has never met with the mayor, according to the report. On Tuesday, however, she met Councilman Chaim Deutsch of the Midwood section of Brooklyn, who helped create the new hate crime office. Deutsch is a prominent figure in Brooklyn politics and is not only a leading advocate for the rights of his predominantly Jewish constituency but for all those that he serves in his Midwood district; irrespective of religion, gender, race or ethnicity.
“That’s also kind of disturbing that the mayor has not met with her yet and does that kind of beg the question is the mayor serious about this office or not?” Deutsch queried. “The mayor has always been really passionate about when it came to hate crimes in general, I just think he’s a little pre-occupied…We all know why,” he added in a sonorous tone.
DeBlasio is in the midst of running a campaign for the White House in 2020 and has been spending his time focused on traveling to campaign destinations and delivering addresses of policy and perspective.
Lauter said she’s only been on the job about a week, and she’s hiring another five or six staffers — and she will meet with the mayor eventually. Her main focus right now is on education and working with police on a growing and disturbing trend, according to the WABC news report.
The Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes will be tasked with coordinating city agencies’ responses to hate crimes and developing community-based strategies to prevent them in the first place.
