Cop who stopped chief isn't racists, parents say
BY JOHN LAUINGER and ALISON GENDAR
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Sunday, May 11th 2008, 4:00 AM
Rev. Al Sharpton with Daily News exclusive about NYPD chief stopped by cops. Giancarli for News
Rev. Al Sharpton with Daily News exclusive about NYPD chief stopped by cops.
A white cop who was disciplined after ordering the NYPD's highest-ranking black officer out of his car was simply doing his job - not racial profiling, his parents said Saturday.
Officer Michael Granahan was stripped of his gun and badge Friday because he and his partner stopped and questioned NYPD Chief Douglas Zeigler while he was off duty and parked on a Queens street on May 2.
"They are saying this might be discrimination," Granahan's mother, Frances, said yesterday.
"Michael's girlfriend is black," she said. "We didn't raise our kids to be prejudiced. We're from the Bronx. We have every nationality around us."
The three-year veteran's motives in stopping Zeigler are being questioned by NYPD brass and drew criticism from the Rev. Al Sharpton.
After the Daily News' exclusive report yesterday detailing the incident, Sharpton said it showed how no minority members - even three-star chiefs - are immune from mistreatment.
"Whether your name is Bell or Zeigler, we have problems in this city," Sharpton said, referring to Sean Bell, who died in a hail of police bullets.
But Granahan's father, Richard, blamed Zeigler for the incident. He said the 60-year-old was in a department SUV parked at a hydrant in Corona with tinted windows rolled up and the engine off.
When Granahan and his partner ran the license plate, it was listed to a rental agency - and the plainclothes anti-crime cops approached. They had made a gun arrest in the area the week before.
"He said, 'Please roll down your windows,' and the guy mumbles something. At that point, Michael asked him to roll down all four windows completely. The driver rolled down all four slightly," the father said.
That's when Granahan's partner saw the driver fumble at his waistband and hollered, "Gun!" the father said. As Granahan grabbed the door handle, Zeigler stepped out and "smacked Michael's hand," the elder Granahan said.
"The guy says, 'Don't you know who I am?' and he starts ranting and raving. Then [Zeigler] shows him his ID."
Zeigler gave Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly a different account, saying the cops had no reason to stop him, never yelled "Gun!" and ignored his ID. He said he was in the area to drop off a package.
Zeigler also had a gun pulled on him in 2006 when a State Department agent at first didn't believe his ID at a fund-raiser at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel. Federal supervisors later apologized.
White folk trip me out every time they say shit like my son/daughter can't be racist because their boyfriend/girlfriend is black. I hope they remember Justin Volpe's(the cop who sodomized Abner Louima) family tried that shit too and it got them nothing.
That BLUE UNIFORM PROTECTS YOU UNTIL YOUR BLACK ASS TAKES IT OFF
for him. The NYPD is another biggest bureaucracy in the city of NY and to the NYPD you are just a tax number thats it, they have 38+ thousand officers. So them getting their guns back is virtually impossible. They are effectively finished.
