Given the chance to reconcile with the sexual minorities community at a public forum Dec. 11, Portland Police Chief Mark Kroeker did little to assure the community that he is accountable for his words and actions, or that he will lead the charge to root out homophobia in the Portland Police Bureau. Since Mayor Katz announced on Nov. 9 that she "strongly supported" Chief Kroeker and, as the Police Commissioner, would retain him as Chief of Police, Kroeker has taken five weeks to make a public appearance and statement to the community - not counting a public relations stunt pairing the beleaguered chief with Portland celebrity and night club owner Darcelle that turned into a public embarrassment. But rather than appease community outrage, Kroeker's appearance seemed to galvanize community interest in the growing movement for police accountability.

To the more than 200 people attending the public forum at Metropolitan Community Church - organized by JustOUT - Kroeker issued a weak apology for having hurt the sexual minorities community.

"I am very sorry for the effect that my words have had on this community ... I have changed substantially in my life and the way I view the world," he said.

But Kroeker then repeatedly avoided direct questions about his new world view. He repeatedly put forward that he had a right to his personal views, despite the fact that only two months ago he was marketing them to the public. Kroeker was neither specific or elaborate in his apology and answer to the community. He appeared to fail the community both by what was revealed in his slips of the tongue and by the short-sightedness of his formal statements.

Since the "the Kroeker tapes" were discovered and made public by The Portland Alliance last October, the Chief has refused to retract his statements maligning the trial system, advocating corporal punishment of children, and the submissiveness of wives to their husbands. Kroeker also has publicly denied having personally disciplined children with a three-foot wooden oar, a story he tells in the first person in his speech "Family Discipline." On the tape he details a model of family discipline that includes striking a child with aboard oar until the pain causes the child to submit. In the course of his speech, he encourages the audience to extrapolate this example to include society and be implemented by police officers.

The Dec. 11 forum started on a sour note when a Portland Police Bureau recruiter launched into a lengthy, and largely irrelevant explanation about how candidates for the bureau were screened. Nervous laughter broke out from forum organizers when the recruiter inadvertently said the process was meant to screen out people for homosexuality (she had meant to say homophobia). She was followed by more questions asking how we had "ended up" with Kroeker, queries which were eventually curtailed by Marty Davis of JustOut.

Kroeker attempted to regain the high ground with an opening statement about "who Mark Kroeker is." From there, he went on to elaborate on the medals of honor he had earned for having advised UN "special police forces" in Haiti, Bosnia, and Palestine (see The Portland Alliance, Nov. 2000). But the forum quickly turned from being a potentially successful public relations effort for the Chief, to an exposé that the "man behind the uniform" has changed less than even he professes.

Whatever ground Kroeker gained was lost again when the public comment period began. First came an anonymously submitted written comment from the audience asking if, at one of his upcoming speaking engagements at Montavilla Baptist Church where he is to speak to couples reconfirming their marriage vows, he would condone and encourage same-sex marriages. Noncommittally, Kroeker replied, merely, "I am reviewing my speaking engagements."

The real turning point of the evening, however, came when Jonathan Kipp, a reporter with JustOut, pressed Kroeker on whether he would seek disciplinary action against Officer Rob Blanck for writing an article in the Portland Police Association "Rap Sheet" disdaining and mocking the sexual minority community's outcry about Kroeker's comments and demand for protective measures. Kroeker replied, "The City Attorney spoke to me about this and advised me not to speak on the matter." Stopping short of exhibiting any intent to advocate for or support gay officers and community members, Kroeker not only emboldened his opponents at the forum - he lost those who had come to give him a fair chance at explaining himself. With a rumbling of dissatisfaction, many in the crowd held up small printed signs declaring "Answer the question!"

Throughout the forum, the audience raised a range of issues: queer youth and all children were put at risk by Kroeker's advocacy of corporal punishment of children; Kroeker's disdain for the trial system affected the sexual minority community; the lack of out gay officers evidences that the Portland Police Bureau is a homophobic and dangerous workplace; the recent Portland Joint Terrorism Task Force implicates all political dissidents in criminal activity; and the Portland Police Bureau's handling of civil disobedience. Several individuals and organizations, including Basic Rights Oregon, continued to call for Kroeker's resignation.

Kroeker responded that he had arrested people for injuring children, that he believed that the Portland Police Bureau is "an open and an accepting workplace. [But] the better person to ask is the gay man in the organization rather than me," Kroeker told the crowd. Regarding the Portland Joint Terrorism Task Force, he promised that the Bureau would follow Judge Marcus' ruling regarding limitations on intelligence gathering.

But when pressed on specifics, Kroeker balked. Ken Spice of the Police Accountability Campaign 2002 asked Kroeker, "Do you still instruct your officers that the halls of justice is the hall of injustice?" Kroeker avoided the question, replying, "Again, these were comments made in a religious setting."

Bonnie Tinker, Executive Director of Love Makes A Family, Inc., caught Kroeker in this misappropriation, saying to him: "When somebody clouds bigotry under freedom of religion we all stand to lose freedom of religion. What I hear you doing is cloaking public policy statements in the freedom of religion. You are being false witness."

When she pressed him on the issue of the illegality and inhumanity of having beaten children and demanded that he make a public statement repudiating his comments advocating corporal punishment and asserting that as criminal, Kroeker refused.

Later, a speaker raised the fact that how he described and instructed adults in disciplining children - striking them hard, to cause severe pain, but on the soft parts of their bodies so that the bruises are internal and do not leave a visible mark - is identical to how several victims of police brutality have described being beaten by officers.

Overall, Kroeker delivered no policy proposals or indications of his leadership to the effect of ensuring a law-abiding Bureau that is open and accepting. As a result, when individuals called for civilian investigation of complaints of police misconduct, and for the actualization of the Police Accountability Campaign proposed initiative, they roused near universal applause. The idea of Kroeker's resignation enjoyed nearly equal support.

What does the community forum mean for Portlanders concerned about their police? Clearly, the chief did not experience an epiphany. If anything, he appeared determined to stonewall as much as possible. Those who came opposed to the chief most likely heard nothing to change their minds. At least some of those who supported Kroeker at the beginning were disappointed at his poor showing and lack of openness. The most important thing about the evening was that the chief did not pull off a media coup, leaving the fires for stronger civilian oversight of the police burning brightly in the community.

Adrienne Ratner is a member of the Police Accountability Campaign 2002 and of Portland Copwatch.

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