Bias acts have dipped in NYC. The hate crimes 'czar' is still plenty busy.

Vijah Ramjattan, a Trinidad-born Hindu who once served as a counselor and grievance coordinator at the Rikers Island jail, was appointed in January to head New York City’s Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes. Even with recent declines in reported hate crime in the city, there has been plenty to keep him busy.

Within the vastness of the city government bureaucracy, the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes is tiny — encompassing just three people. Nonetheless, it plays a pivotal role in responding to bias incidents and crimes across the city.

Ramjattan, 44, the executive director, responds to acts of hate, as he did in a recent press conference with Mayor Eric Adams in the wake of a June 18 anti-Muslim attack on an E train in Forest Hills.

And on a sweltering afternoon ahead of Pride celebrations, Ramjattan was out and about in a blue suit for a new program by his office known as 7-on-7, meeting with LGBTQ residents of Queens at a Latin bar on Northern Boulevard, dining with the patrons and even dancing.

The Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes also conducts its work by distributing $3 million in city funding to a variety of organizations representing New Yorkers of varying faiths and racial backgrounds, as well as LGBTQ New Yorkers.

And sometimes the office itself is the center of attention.

Such was the case a year ago, when previous office lead Hassan Naveed was abruptly fired. The move prompted complaints from elected officials that Naveed, with the Israel-Hamas conflict grinding in the background, had been targeted because of his Muslim faith, a charge Adams’ office denied.

Adams in May announced the creation of an office tasked solely with confronting antisemitism. While hate crime is down 16% in New York City — 303 incidents through June 30 in 2025 compared to 359 incidents over the same period in 2024 — and anti-Jewish hate crimes is down 18%, the latter continues to represent the highest volume among bias-motivated crimes, according to city data.

Ramjattan grew up in Trinidad, the great-great-great-grandson of Indians brought to work on sugarcane plantations in the Caribbean as indentured servants.

“ That was a fancy way of saying slavery,” Ramjattan said. “ I wear that very proudly. Slavery runs in my blood.”

Gothamist recently met with Ramjattan to discuss his work and the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes. This transcript of the conversation was lightly edited for length and clarity.

You served as a counselor and grievance coordinator on Rikers Island. How does that inform your work now?

My job was to help and stop the youth from committing suicide, because there were alarming rates of adolescents who were placed in solitary confinement committing suicide. And I went in there and that just made me realize how human beings can really be mean to other human beings.  I also saw how a punitive system doesn't work, punishing someone and saying, ‘You are bad,’ jail you and lock you up, that doesn't make them any better.

There was less focus on rehabilitation. That work also helped me to understand who was coming through the jails. And for me it was like, where did they come from? How come you’re in solitary confinement at 15 years old?

I realized that they were coming from neighborhoods who have been historically marginalized, underrepresented, underserved, under-resourced.

How much do you have to understand why people hate?

Can we really understand that? I mean, I think if you ask every person who has committed a hate crime in the past why they hated or why they committed a crime, you'll have a different answer.

What we do is we speak to the victims of hate crimes. We speak to the families and we try to make sure we speak to our partners on the ground to educate them first and foremost.

How do we, first of all, heal those who have victims of hate crimes? How do we heal communities who have historically been marginalized and been segregated? How do we build community by building relations and opening up our doors to each other, to learn about each other?

What are some of the projects, specific projects that you're investing in?

One of the projects that I've started since I came in the office here was NYC Youth Moving Forward Against Hate.

We go to the schools and we speak with [students in] elementary, middle school and high school to leave them with knowledge, knowing what is bias, what's discrimination and what a hate crime is.

The first time that a youth or a child knows what a hate crime is should not be when they commit one or when one is committed to them. So we believe that the power of education in this atmosphere is most important.

[For the 7-on-7 program] we identify seven large communities along the 7 line. This is our third 7-on-7 [event] we're doing, where we are saying to the community, "We see you, no matter who tells you that you should not be, or you are not New Yorker because you're different or you look a certain way or you speak a certain way, or you dress a certain way. We are here to say to you, ‘No. New York loves you.’"

What would you say your biggest challenge is?

How do we stop hate? Many times we do this work and we try to bring community, and we serve community, but then you go home on the train and after doing a long day of just a beautiful event — for example, right now — then I'll get two more notices from NYPD saying there was a hate crime where a gay male was attacked. Having to really digest that and despite that, we continue to work. I would say it's a reality of the work.

What gives you encouragement?

What gives me encouragement is days like this when we come to the community and we see others who say, "Thank you for seeing us. Thank you for letting us know that we are seen."