NEW YORK - Civil rights advocates said Sunday that a recent incident in which a high-ranking black police official was ordered out of his car by a white officer points out ongoing racial problems in the city's police department.
“Something is wrong with our police department and their interactions with people of color,” said State Sen. Eric Adams, a former police captain.
Chief Douglas Zeigler, the head of the NYPD's Community Affairs Bureau and the highest uniformed black officer on the force, was off duty and sitting in his department-issued SUV on a Queens street on May 2 when two white police officers approached the vehicle and confronted him.
The full details of what happened next aren't completely clear, but a department spokesman confirmed a report in the Daily News that the encounter turned testy, and one of the officers tried to wrest open Zeigler's door, even after the three-star chief had identified himself.
“He dealt with the chief in a discourteous manner, which is unacceptable,” NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.
The officer, Michael Granahan, was stripped of his gun and badge Friday pending a departmental investigation.
Civil rights lawyer Norman Siegel, who joined Adams at a news conference in front of police headquarters, said the department should make the results of its investigation public.
“There could be an explanation,” Siegel said. “But the news reports are very troubling. And if there is an explanation, that explanation should be made public, and made public at least within 30 days.”
The incident was reported as police are being criticized for stopping and frisking record numbers of pedestrians - about 145,000 in the first quarter of this year.
The majority of them were black or Hispanic.
Granahan's father, Richard, blamed Zeigler for the incident.
He told the Daily News for a story in Sunday's editions that Zeigler was parked at a hydrant in Corona, Queens with the SUV's windows rolled up and the engine off.
The father said that Granahan's partner saw the driver fumble at his waistband and hollered, “Gun!”
As Granahan grabbed the door handle, Zeigler stepped out and “smacked Michael's hand,” Richard Granahan said.
Zeigler has headed the Community Affairs Bureau since January 2006.
His wife, Neldra Zeigler, is the NYPD's deputy commissioner for equal employment opportunity.
Chief Douglas Zeigler, the head of the NYPD's Community Affairs Bureau and the highest uniformed black officer on the force, was off duty and sitting in his department-issued SUV on a Queens street on May 2 when two white police officers approached the vehicle and confronted him.
The full details of what happened next aren't completely clear, but a department spokesman confirmed a report in the Daily News that the encounter turned testy, and one of the officers tried to wrest open Zeigler's door, even after the three-star chief had identified himself.
“He dealt with the chief in a discourteous manner, which is unacceptable,” NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.
The officer, Michael Granahan, was stripped of his gun and badge Friday pending a departmental investigation.
Civil rights lawyer Norman Siegel, who joined Adams at a news conference in front of police headquarters, said the department should make the results of its investigation public.
“There could be an explanation,” Siegel said. “But the news reports are very troubling. And if there is an explanation, that explanation should be made public, and made public at least within 30 days.”
The incident was reported as police are being criticized for stopping and frisking record numbers of pedestrians - about 145,000 in the first quarter of this year.
The majority of them were black or Hispanic.
Granahan's father, Richard, blamed Zeigler for the incident.
He told the Daily News for a story in Sunday's editions that Zeigler was parked at a hydrant in Corona, Queens with the SUV's windows rolled up and the engine off.
The father said that Granahan's partner saw the driver fumble at his waistband and hollered, “Gun!”
As Granahan grabbed the door handle, Zeigler stepped out and “smacked Michael's hand,” Richard Granahan said.
Zeigler has headed the Community Affairs Bureau since January 2006.
His wife, Neldra Zeigler, is the NYPD's deputy commissioner for equal employment opportunity.
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