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The city of Syracuse, including Mayor Ben Walsh himself, acted with anti-Muslim and anti-Arab bias earlier this year when it closed a retail shop accused of illegally selling marijuana, according to a lawsuit filed by the shop owner.
The bias claim was added this month to a lawsuit against the city originally filed in State Supreme Court in October by Tarek Shehadeh, owner of T’s Wireless in the former Dey’s building in downtown Syracuse. The original lawsuit, claiming the city overstepped its authority in violated the law in shutting the shop down, named the city and its codes enforcement director, Jake Dishaw, as defendants.
This month, Walsh was added by name as a defendant, and the case has been transferred to federal court.
The amended lawsuit claims that the city’s action to close T’s Wireless and four other shops accused of illegal marijuana sales in September showed discrimination because all are “Arab-owned, Palestinian-owned, and/or Muslim-owned businesses.” The suit claims the city has failed to act against other shops that are “similarly or identically-situated” but not operated by Arab, Palestinian and/or Muslim owners.
“Each defendant has, at all times relevant to this action, been motivated by racial, ethnic, and religious-based discriminatory animus toward Plaintiffs and their employees, all of whom are Muslims Palestinian Americans,” the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit describes Shehadeh as a “Muslim Palestinian American and natural born United States citizen.”
In response to a syracuse.com request for comment on the allegation of racial bias, the city provided a statement from Corporation Counsel Susan Katzoff, the city’s top lawyer:
“The allegation in the amended complaint is a baseless and transparent attempt to distract from their unlawful behavior,” Katzoff said.
Shahedeh’s shop, whose address is 410 S. Warren St. in the Dey’s Centennial building, reopened on Oct. 25 following a temporary restraining order issued by State Supreme Court Justice James Murphy following the original lawsuit. T’s Wireless sells phones, clothing and shoes and also has a valid state license to sell hemp-derived CBD products (but not marijuana, which is separately licensed).
The lawsuit stems from a series of actions the city took against the five businesses in September.
In each case, the city codes office declared each location “unfit for human occupancy.” The codes actions followed inspections conducted by agents of the state’s Office of Cannabis Management and Department of Taxation and Finance, who claimed they found evidence the shops were selling marijuana (cannabis with higher levels of THC than hemp products).
In addition to T’s Wireless, the shops shut down were:
- EXscape Exotic, a smoke shop and vape lounge, at 167 Marshall St.
- NY Exotic, a smoke shop, at 123 Marshall St.
- North Side Express, a convenience store, at 400 Wolf St.
- Smoke City 420, a smoke shop, at 1105 N. Salina St.
Shehadeh’s lawyer, Brady O’Malley of the Nave Law Firm in Syracuse, said he is also representing one of the other shops, but declined to identify which one.
The September crackdown represented a new tactic in the city’s effort to contain the growth of illicit cannabis shops since New York state legalized adult-use cannabis in 2021. The state has been slow to roll out its own legal and licensed shops, called dispensaries, allowing a gray market to thrive.
In Syracuse, the city codes office has attempted to close about a dozen such shops in the past year or so, but often found that they just popped up again.
Dishaw, the code enforcement director, has told syracuse.com the state’s decision to inspect and cite shops for illegal marijuana helped provide the legal authority to declare the locations “unfit for human occupancy.” That declaration means they can’t be used for any purpose until they work out a plan to be in legal compliance. They are also subject to fines.
“The difference now is that we are working together with the state agencies,” Dishaw told syracuse.com in September, comparing last month’s action to the city’s previous efforts. “Now the state can come in and find them in violation, and we can come back and since they are operating contrary to law, we can declare them unfit.”
O’Malley said this week that he’s heard from the state cannabis office that the illicit marijuana charges against T’s Wireless will be dropped. The state cannabis office’s efforts to follow up on its inspections has also been hampered by delays.
In any case, the basis of Shehadeh’s original lawsuit is that the city did not have the right to shut the businesses down.
“The city’s improvisational use of code enforcement power as a means to ‘regulate’ the local cannabis market plainly violates state and local law,” the lawsuit states.
In October, a City Hall spokesman told syracuse.com the city’s actions were based on state and city codes, not cannabis law.
The original T’s Wireless lawsuit noted that Walsh himself stopped into T’s Wireless on the day before the state cannabis and tax agents inspected it for illicit cannabis. The suit includes exhibits showing Walsh taking pictures of cannabis products on a counter in the shop and then leaving. At that time, the shop was located in a different part of the Dey’s Centennial Building, facing Salina Street.
The lawsuit also includes videos taken by surveillance cameras in the shop. One shows a man identifying himself as an employee of the city codes department sympathizing with the person at the counter. He appears to say he didn’t think the shop was doing anything wrong, but that the orders came “from City Hall.”
Another video, according to the lawsuit, “shows Dishaw laughing, gloating, flashing his code enforcement credentials, smearing and mocking Plaintiffs and their employees, and casually describing his plan to shut down the store the next day.”
Don Cazentre writes for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook.