New York Policemen Didn't Recognize Their Own Off-Duty Chief!

Posted by Alex in Crime & Law, Politics on May 11, 2008 at 8:29 pm


Some of NYPD’s finests are in trouble: two undercover police officers ordered a black man out of his parked car with guns drawn … without realizing that the guy’s an off-duty NYPD chief!

"How you can not know or recognize a chief in a department SUV with ID around his neck, I don’t know," a police source said.

Chief Douglas Zeigler, 60, head of the Community Affairs Bureau, was in his NYPD-issued vehicle near a fire hydrant when two plainclothes cops approached on May 2, sources said.

One officer walked up on each side of the SUV at 57th Ave. and Xenia St. in Corona about 7 p.m. and told the driver to roll down the heavily tinted windows, sources said.

What happened next is in dispute. In his briefing to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, Zeigler said the two cops, who are white, had no legitimate reason to approach his SUV, ranking sources said.

After they ordered him to get out, one officer did not believe the NYPD identification Zeigler gave him.

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13 comments to "New York Policemen Didn't Recognize Their Own Off-Duty Chief!"

  1. Lore
    May 11th, 2008 at 8:48 pm

    This does not surprise me. After police officers were acquitted for killing an unarmed black man with 50 shots in NY nothing surprises me anymore

  2. Heil Bush
    May 11th, 2008 at 9:03 pm

    Its actually kind of satisfying to see one of their own fall victim to amerika's police state that they help create. Pigs. Now he gets a taste of how the rest of us feel.

  3. Ali S.
    May 11th, 2008 at 9:17 pm

    Well, having visited NY all I can say is I'm glad I've decided not to visit that city after the way I was treated by cops. Being brown and a tourist just doesn't mix anymore. :(

  4. SiteSeer
    May 11th, 2008 at 10:17 pm

    Overt racism, dead & gone --killed by the civil rights movement and buried by political correctness. Casual racism, alive and regaining lost ground; evolving.

  5. Louisa
    May 11th, 2008 at 10:52 pm

    There are many places in this country that I cannot go because I look "white". I would get beat up, raped or killed. It cuts so many ways. None is right but no one is immune, Alex.

  6. Aar000n
    May 11th, 2008 at 10:54 pm

    All the other commenters here seem to be immediately jumping to the conclusion that the two cops were racist.

    The part of the article on Neatorama here isn't complete.
    There was more than one take about what happened, and only the black man's point of view was listed on neatorama. Here's what the two white cops had to say.

    "When one officer spotted Zeigler's service weapon through the rolled-down window, he yelled "Gun!" according to sources who have spoken with the officers.

    Both cops raised their weapons and ordered the driver out of the car, sources said.

    Instead of saying he was an armed member of the NYPD, Zeigler shouted, "Don't you know who I am?" the sources said.

    When one cop reached over to check the identification badge around Zeigler's neck, the chief pushed him away, sources said.

    Only then did Zeigler tell the two officers his name and rank, those sources said."

    Obviously, one of the stories has to be wrong.

  7. Justin
    May 12th, 2008 at 12:23 am

    Aar000n that part is up to debate. The Chief of police, insists that he identified himself and that there was no reason for them to search him.

  8. ted
    May 12th, 2008 at 6:15 am

    He was parked near a fire hydrant? They should have known right away he was a cop. One thing's for sure: those two officers won't be getting any more promotions in their careers. Police departments are all about politics.

    This all reminds me of the story told me by an Ontario Provincial Police officer about a new style of car being presented to the media by the Commissioner. An officer drove it all the way to the photo-op, but was not allowed to deliver it to the Commissioner and have his 15 minutes of fame because he was white. At the end of his drive, he handed the keys over to a black officer, who then drove it the last 100 feet to the photo-op. Racism cuts both ways.

  9. Pol x
    May 12th, 2008 at 6:40 am

    has no one else noticed that the NYPD police chief is 60?

    That guy is 60 years old?

    My god he looks half that.

    I know black guys age very well, but frankly this looks more like the picture of Dorian Gray than evolutionary good fortune and clean living.

    I'm over 20 years his junior and look like his Dad..except white.

    AS for racism, yeah sure there was probably a bit, but as soon as some one shouts GUN cops tewnd to spring into action regardless.

    If they hadn't responded to a gun warning they'd be in a lot of trouble.

    Better to draw down on a friendly than be thought a NON racist, but in the past tense.

    Also there is the unpleasent truth that a disproprtionate amount of crime is perpetrated by black men.

    It's no doubt a symptom of a more fundamental inequality and deeper seated racism but if you were a copper on the street I think that you'd no longer care about such niceties regardless of whether you were black or white.

    Hell no one is perfect, and we tend to get less so when some we feel our lives are threatened.

  10. gl3nk
    May 12th, 2008 at 8:51 am

    What does this have to do with him being black????? Just another reason to play the race card.

  11. CheeseDuck
    May 12th, 2008 at 3:41 pm

    Uh. I don't get it. Why didn't they shoot him. He's black! ;)

  12. Lea
    May 12th, 2008 at 6:49 pm

    He'd be dead in Cincinnati.

    I'm just sayin'. It's how our cops roll. :P

  13. J of The Sandhills
    May 12th, 2008 at 8:25 pm

    with the size of NYPD, i understand why they didnt immediately recognize him. why didnt the cops see the city issued plates on the SUV? i know one thing, undercover cops will be either jockey a desk or working secuity at a Home Depot parking lot soon :p


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