When harassing Black folk goes wrong

Once again, the New York Police Department has gotten itself involved in some racial bullshit of the typical kind: messing over innocent Black folk. What the NYPD didn’t account for, however, was that on May 2, the negro they were messing with was the highest ranking (uniformed) Black officer in the city. AKA… the HNIC.

The details of the story have not yet been flushed out but the gist of things is that Cheif Douglas Ziegler was sitting in his department issued SUV when two white officers approached the car and confronted him. The remainder of the story comes from Newsday.com.

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.

… 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.

Ha! Not only did those officers run up on the HNIC of the NYPD, he ran into Mrs. HNIC… the deputy commissioner for equal employment!

It will be interesting to see if the Department makes the results of this investigation public. The NYPD is facing a lot of damaging publicity and rightfully so. Just recently we have seen clashes over Sean Bell, Romona Moore and now this.
Granted, Philly PD is beating folks so I can’t say it’s just NYPD that is tripping.

I can’t all and all say police are bad. I’ve known some cops (an extremely sexy one, too) and they’re genuinely interested in helping the community. They want to change the image of police departments and build up the trust which has hardly ever existed between law enforcement and the Black community. Still, it seems like those kinds of officers are the exception, rather than the rule. I would personally like to see the cities and municipalities take more responsibility for policing the police. Additionally, the training of these officers needs to be revamped. Just like racism is institutionalized in our corporations and in our schools, it is institutionalized in our criminal justice system. In order to chip away at this problem, we must first address the fundamental principles on which police training is based.

You know, I always thought it would be interesting to go to the police academy. Not to become a cop. No way. But to learn what they learn. Really though, what better way to break down the system than to learn it from the inside out? I think I’m gonna schedule a ride-along with the Philly PD. I’ll wait ’til winter, though. The streets is hot and the murder capital of America heats up right along with it.