november 1 2000
8
CHIEF CONCERNS
Mark Kroeker's anti-gay comments stun the community
ortland Police Chief Mark Kroeker is
in hot water.
Although the city still is reeling
from his now-infamous tapes, peo
ple are snapping out o f it and begin
ning to step forward and speak. And almost
all of them, supporters or not, want to hear
from Kroeker.
For many, the shixrk and confusion—and
even doubt and skepticism— slowly have been
replaced by hurt feelings, anger and disgust.
Still, some are coming out in support of Kroek
er without demanding an explanation.
In any case, the timing couldn’t have been
worse. Amid the Oregon Citizens Alliances
Measure 9, the Boy Scouts of America’s gay
ban and Dr. Laura Schlessinger’s biology
lessons, some are wondering whether homo
phobia is the last permissible and socially
acceptable prejudice.
If Kroeker’s tapes were about Blacks, Jews,
Latinos or women, would there he any ques
tion about his continued ability to serve as
police chief?
T he T apes
K
roeker’s troubles started when the Port -
land Alliance called a press conference
Oct. 27 and released cassettes discovered dur
ing an investigation into his past. Editor Dave
Mazza also published portions of the tran
scripts in the alternative newspaper’s N ovem
ber edition.
K roeker ’ s
C omments
“You say you can’t legislate morality? You
know whats happening. Millions erf people are
going to die in the future in the AIDS epidemic
because we decided that the legislation of certain
kinds of morality was not the affair of the state.”
“We are increasingly becoming a valueless, a
lawless society, and we’ve become so more as we
move to that day ‘alternative lifestyle’ is being
used for certain forms of perversion. And I have
to tell you there is an alternative death style
which is breeding through our major cities.”
“We Christians, we are not a social force,
we’re not a special interest group, we don’t need
to come up with dictates about whether homo
sexuals should be administered into the min
istry. We don’t need to do that. We have God’s
word for the qualifications for the ministry.
That’s what we ought to be holding up.”
“People and Christians are saying, yeah that
sounds right, whatever you do in the privacy of
your home is OK. And even if you withdraw the
biblical principles you know which are quite
clear, for example, on this terrible issue of homo
sexuality, the other clear evidences in our soci
ety show that, as we have moved away from
control of certain criminal activities, the result
has a disaster, a disaster.”
by Jonathan Kipp
The recordings were made when Kroeker
addressed the Fellowship of Christian Police
Officers some years hack while working for
the Los Angeles Police Department. Mazza
purchased the tapes off an Internet site locat
ed in the United Kingdom. On one tape,
“The New Social Disorder,” Kroeker makes
disparaging comments about homosexuals,
calling them perverse, and people with AIDS,
blaming the epidemic on a failed effort to leg
islate morality.
The media widely are reporting the tapes are
11 years old, but Kroeker said he doesn’t recall
exactly when he made the speech and guessed it
was during the early 1990s. He has continued
making speeches to the fellowship since the
recordings— one as recent as 1998 during its
international conference.
Since the tapes were discovered, they have
been taken off some Internet sites at Kroeker’s
request. Other sites still offer the tapes for sale.
O utreach E fforts
he Portland Alliance expose came as a sur
prise to many within the sexual minorities
community, the majority of which previously
had been impressed with Kroeker’s outreach
efforts. He was the guest speaker during an
Aug. 14 meeting of the Portland Area Business
Association, the gay chamber of commerce. He
competed against the Rose City Softball Associ
ation’s all-star team during its annual Grudge
Match on June 17. He even marched in the
Pride 2000 parade June 18.
But Kroeker’s 10-month tenure also has been
plagued with controversy. He began enforcing an
unpopular paramilitary dress code for his officers
July 1. He admitted mistakes were made during
the police’s aggressive response to the May Day
demonstrations and marches. And groups con
tinue to bombard the bureau with accusations of
racial profiling and police brutality.
Most dissent has come not from the sexual
minorities community but from radical students,
activists and anarchists.
When the story hit the mainstream media,
Kroeker and his boss, Portland Mayor Vera Katz,
were both out of town, and the press was left
without comments from either. Although the
Oregonian initially downplayed the story, wait
ing for a comment from the chief, some of Port
land’s television and radio news programs aired
the details as a lead story just hours after the
tapes became public.
Days later, Katz, who is on a long-delayed
vacation after her treatment for breast cancer,
did release a statement via telephone. She said
Kroeker’s remarks concern her but do not reflect
her personal beliefs. Katz said she would make
additional comments after meeting with him
Nov. 6 upon her return.
“It is definitely on the radar screen,” said Elise
Marshall, deputy chief of staff at the mayor’s
office. She said that the public’s response to the
tapes has been significant and that most mes
sages are not in support of Kroeker.
T
T he C hief ’ s R esponse
he bureau released Kroeker’s highly antici
pated statement in response to the tapes
Oct. 30. He railed on Mazza for not contacting
him before the excerpts were published. “I
T
"I do not want
to be evasive.
I do wont to put
m y religious
beliefs in a place
o f privacy."
— Portland Police
Chief M ark Kroeker
believe this to be unfair and find it most dis
turbing,” Kroeker wrote.
Mazza, whose newspaper has a history of
criticizing and challenging the bureau, said he
didn’t contact the chief because his calls
often don’t get returned. He thought Port
landers should take the information and
make their decisions without Kroeker’s
reaction.
The chief’s statement went on to defend his
right to a private religious life: “It comes down
to a matter of rights, responsibility and account
ability. I will rigorously defend my right to
speech and my right to my religion and all its
doctrines.”
Kroeker’s comments infuriated some while
confusing others. Some wondered why he didn’t
retract his statements on the tape.
Others found his statement to be arrogant
and representative of a “disconnect” between
Kroeker and the community. None questioned
his right to free speech and to his own personal
and religious beliefs.
But they wonder whether Kroeker now able
to lead. After all, the bureau is built on a com
munity policing model; he was hired to build
coalitions, including one with Portland’s minor
ity communities.
Kroeker said he always serves all people in a
way that adheres to the Law Enforcement
Code of Ethics; the values of the bureau, in
cluding integrity, compassion, excellence and
respect; and the laws of Oregon and Portland.
But he said he has the right to compartmental
ize his life.
K roeker T alks
nd compartmentalize he did.
In an interview with Just Out, Kroeker
declined to comment on whether he thought
homosexuals were “morally corrupt," which is
the stance of many ultraconservative Christian
groups, including the OCA. In fact, he said he
wasn’t familiar with the OCA.
“I do not want to be evasive,” Kroeker said.
“I do want to put my religious beliefs in a place
of privacy.”
Kroeker reiterated many times that it was
never appropriate to talk about his personal
views and religious convictions at work. But
the Willamette Week reported that at least one
of his supporters said he has a history of doing
just that.
“He doesn’t hide the fact that he’s a Christ
ian,” retired LAPD Lt. David Smith said. “He
talks to the guys and talks about how he thinks
people ought to live.”
No R egrets
roeker indicated he does not have a prob-
l . \ lem with gays and lesbians, but he refrained
from retracting the statements in the tapes.
“I’ve built affection and warmth,” he said
about the sexual minorities community. “I have
it. I have it in my heart. In the past 10 years I’ve
developed an agenda of love. My words now
aren’t nearly as important as what I’ve done in
my life.”
Still, Kroeker declined an offer to make an
apology. He said people should look at his record
in working side by side with members of the gay
and lesbian community. “Things in a religious
context should be left there,” he said.
C ivil R ights
ome say the issue isn’t religion but civil
rights. “I’d like to hear him recontextualize
his comments,” said Jaime Balboa, Basic Rights
Oregon executive director.
City Commissioner Dan Saltzman said he
was disappointed to learn of Kroeker’s remarks.
Although he recognizes the chief might have
had the time and opportunity to change views
about homosexuality, he questions how some
one in that position can separate private opin
ion from public service. Saltzman said he
expects he will filter and process the police
force’s actions differently knowing Kroeker’s
feelings.
Multnomah County Chair Bev Stein said
the chief needs to assure the community that
he’ll be fair to all people. But she said he must
explain where he stands today. “I am concerned
when a prominent person isn’t a strong advocate
for basic rights for all people,” Stein said.
County Commissioner Diane Linn, another
longtime supporter of the gays and lesbians,
hopes that Kroeker will have some honest dia
logue with the community and that people will
be convinced he can continue in his position
without his beliefs affecting his job. “The com
munity has to he concerned,” she said. “It begs
the question about discrimination.”
A M oral D isease
K
roeker’s comments about AIDS were par
ticularly troublesome for some. But when
pressed on the issue, he said: “AIDS is not a gay
disease. AIDS is AIDS.”
Kroeker said he’s held that belief for a long time
but could not explain why he equated AIDS with
morality during his speech almost 10 years ago.