New York City’s first female police commissioner, Keechant Sewell, announced on Monday that she would step down — and sources say that City Hall was both blind-sided by the move and responsible for it.

Sewell, 51, was appointed by Mayor Eric Adams and sworn in on January 1, 2022 but has apparently tangled with the mayor’s office in recent weeks. And according to a report from The New York Post, she may have felt as though City Hall was making it more and more difficult for her to do her job effectively.

In a memo to some 55,000 NYPD officers and staff, Sewell shared some of her thoughts but did not give an official reason why she was leaving the position.

“I have made the decision to step down from my position. While my time here will come to a close, I will never step away from my advocacy and support for the NYPD, and I will always be a champion for the people of New York City,” she wrote, adding, “Since I joined you almost a year and a half ago we have faced tremendous tragedy, challenges and triumphs together.”

“I have witnessed your compassion, heroics and selflessness on a daily basis. They have reaffirmed to me what people around the globe have always known: you are an extraordinary collective of hard-working public servants dedicated to the safety of this city, engaging our communities and sharing what we know with our partners for the benefit of the world,” she continued.

According to several of The Post’s sources, Sewell had to receive approval from City Hall before promoting police officers — something police commissioners are typically authorized to do on their own.

“She was fed up. She was tired of being their puppet,” one source told the Post, while another added, “They tied her up. There’s no executive choices on her behalf. If a cop distinguishes himself and she wants to promote him, she can’t do it.”

Sewell also reportedly angered City Hall when she backed the Civilian Complaint Review Board’s decision to discipline the city’s highest-ranking uniformed officer — Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey — for abuse of power in a 2021 case. Sources told The Post that City Hall had wanted Maddrey to “get a pass.”

Sewell’s resignation was still reportedly a shock to the mayor, one source said: “The mayor was caught short. They did not think she would be leaving today. The earliest they thought it was later in the summer.”

“She was great, someone who genuinely cared about cops, the public and the rule of law. If she was given more authority she would have done great things for this job,” another source said of her departure.

Professor Gad Saad, despite what the pronunciation of his surname may suggest, is an unusually jovial man, who has given the subject of happiness a considerable amount of thought.

Saad grew up in an active war zone in Lebanon and has suffered career setbacks as a result of injury and his ideological stances, and he notes that everyone has a long list of setbacks and unpleasant experiences they’ve faced in life: “But I refuse to let life beat me down. I don’t want to be unhappy for five minutes longer than necessary – life is too short and too precious.”

To that end, Saad has proposed seven ways to maximize your happiness.

1. Find The Right Spouse

Marriage is arguably the most important relationship in any person’s life (rivaled only by a parent’s relationship with their children, which are ideally the product of marriage) and it is a relationship that is completely under your control, so when picking a spouse, choose wisely.

“He or she is also the person you are going to spend the most time with,” Saad notes. “Spending time with someone with whom you share values, who is your best friend, is bliss. Spending time with someone who doesn’t share your values is torture.”

2. Work Your Way To The Right Profession

Saad notes that most of the time that isn’t spent with your family is spent at work: “A job that you find fulfilling and meaningful means that you’re spending a good part of your day in a happy mental state. The opposite is also true – nothing, outside of a bad marriage, will make you more miserable than a workplace you can’t stand.”

3. Seek The Sweet Spot

On a wide variety of traits and behavior patterns, the optimal position is in the middle of two extremes: too much stress and you can become anxious and overwhelmed, too little and you can become apathetic and bored. Too little attention to detail and your work will be shoddy and second rate, too much perfectionism and you’ll struggle to finish anything to your own satisfaction.

The best place to find yourself is often the happy medium.

4. Stay Playful

“Play is a human universal, found in all societies.” Saad notes that human beings are inherently motivated by play and need it – even growing up in the middle of a war torn city he and his friends found time to play.

“You can’t work all the time, unless, of course, you can turn your work into play,” he says. “That’s the best of all possible worlds.”

5. Pursue Many Interests

Life offers many opportunities for happiness and fulfillment – friendships, hobbies, travel, study. Taking advantage of many of them and constantly expanding your horizons is a source of accomplishment and pleasure.

“Pursue knowledge across multiple disciplines. This is a truly enriching way to live your life.”

6. Be Persistent and Resilient

“Life is hard, but if we’re persistent enough, and resilient enough, we can use adversity to our advantage.” Being able to accept that there will be hardships and obstacles will help you overcome them and become a better and stronger person for it.

“Don’t be afraid to fail,” Saad says. “Failure is the way you learn.”

7. Minimize Regrets

Saad noted that a common regret expressed by people in hospice care is “I wish I let myself be happier.”

Saad argued that our happiness is largely within our own control, and that obsessing over things outside of your control and making decisions that actively make you unhappy is wasting a limited resource – time.

“Be happy. It’s a better way to live.”

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