KROEKER'S CORNER:
Uncovering the Past Present and Future of Portland's Police Chief*
KROEKER'S SHOOTER PAST
Sometimes-intrepid Willamette Week reporter Nick Budnick revealed in a July 16 article that Portland's Police Chief Mark Kroeker was involved in two non-fatal shootings early in his career as an L.A. street cop.
The article was meant to show that Kroeker has to struggle with his own past when deciding whether to discipline officers like Scott McCollister, who shot Kendra James (see other article). However, the Chief was pretty much portrayed as a heropartly, it seems, because much of the information came from an interview with Kroeker himself. In one case he fired blindly with a shotgun and pistol at a man who was shooting at policeand missed. The other was at a burglary suspect who got hit in the rear end. In other words, Budnick failed to point out, Kroeker shot at his back.
MARK KROEKER, INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY
Chief Kroeker, whose past includes stints in Bosnia as well as Haiti teaching American police tricks, went to Geneva in June to participate in a U.S. Institute for Peace conference on rebuilding nations after conflict (Oregonian, May 29).
Meanwhile, his plan to make Portland a national training ground for putting down dissidents...er, for dealing with "natural or man-made disasters" is gaining momentum (see PPR #27). The AP reported on August 13 that he'd swayed both of Oregon's Senators and received millions of dollars in backing for the "National Center for Disaster Decision Making."
The Oregonian trumpeted the idea in an editorial on the same day, hailng Kroeker for "the idea that this kind of pre-emptive emergency training could...bolster public confidence in a community's leadership."
We suspect there is a lot of momentum behind the decision, and with Mayor Katz leaving office, Kroeker will probably leave office and make himself emperor of the Center for life.
*Immediately after this issue of the People's Police Report was published, Chief Kroeker was forced to resign.