Mayor Calls Out Unusually High Levels of Hate, FBI Notes High Level of Current Terrorist Threats

By Yehudit Garmaise

“I have not witnessed in my time in the City the level of just outward hate that I am seeing,” Mayor Eric Adams said at his press conference this morning at City Hall. 

“There are a small number of people in this city who have hijacked the dialogue,” the mayor said. “But this is a city in which we live together.”

After meeting with Jewish leaders last week and hearing from “many Jewish residents,” Mayor Adams said he hears that people are afraid to look visibly Jewish “as they move throughout the City.”

After citing recent incidents of hate speech and violence were directed at several minority groups, Mayor Adams said, “We are watching an erosion of the decorum and the erosion of who we are as residents of New York City: one of the most diverse cities on the globe.

“Hate has no place in our city,” Adams repeated, before “calling on New Yorkers to lift up our city during this extremely challenging time. It appears to me that some have become comfortable with displaying hate.”

While 8.3 million New Yorkers, 8.3 million people weren’t marching the streets, striking people, nor assaulting others, he pointed out.

Christopher Wray, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, addressed the “dangerous implications in the Middle East for homeland security,” when he warned US Senators today about the FBI’s worries about “violent extremist individuals or small groups will carry out attacks against Americans going about their daily lives.

“The reality is that the terrorism threat has been raised throughout 2023, but the ongoing threat in the Middle East has raised the threats of attacks against Americans in the U.S. to a whole ‘nother level.”

After referring to the “horrific terrorist attacks by Hamas on innocent people in Israel a few weeks ago,” Wray reassured the participants of a Senate hearing, “We have been working around the clock to support our partners there and to protect Americans here at home.”

What Wray most feared was that “the actions of Hamas and its allies will serve as an inspiration the likes of which we haven’t seen since ISIS launched its so-called Caliphate several years ago.”

“In just the past few weeks, multiple foreign terrorist organizations have called for attacks against Americans and the West. ISIS urged its followers to target Jewish communities in the U.S. and Europe. Hezbollah has expressed its support for Hamas and threatened to attack US interests in the Middle East.”

Wray reassured the public that the FBI is keeping its “sights on Hamas by conducting multiple, ongoing investigations into individuals affiliated with that foreign terrorist organization. We are continuing to scrutinize our intelligence to assess how threats may be evolving.”