New York - Fed Pulls Gun On Top City Cop

New York - The NYPD highest-ranking black cop had a gun pulled on him by a State Department agent outside The Waldorf-Astoria in midtown Manhattan.

The confrontation lasted several minutes before Douglas Zeigler, a 33-year veteran who is chief of the department's Community Affairs Bureau, was able to convince the agent who he was, at that time the agent holstered his gun. Zeigler was in his car with his wife, Neldra Zeigler, the NYPD's deputy commissioner of equal employment opportunity, when the agent approached the car, Zeigler was dressed in civilian attire but was carrying his gun, and the agent spotted it and drew his own weapon. Zeigler, who colleagues say has a reputation for being calm and low-key, immediately identified himself and showed his NYPD identification card, but the agent insisted he needed to see a badge.

The incident sparked outcry among prominent black cops, as well as others who think highly of Zeigler. The agent who pulled the gun and who was there as part of an escort for visiting Israeli dignitaries, is white.
"A lot of people are upset," one source said. "A lot of bosses and rank-and-file cops." Also does this incident follow what many inside the NYPD had seen as a demotion of Zeigler, who had headed the prestigious Organized Crime Control Bureau for more than two years, and was now named Chief Community Affairs Bureau.

Federal supervisors later personally apologized to Zeigler.