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Drag queen invites police chief to birthday bash by Jonathan Kipp
ortland Police Chief Mark Kroeker
has yet to apologize to the gay and les
bian community for the disparaging
comments he made years ago, but he
says an apology is coming. “Sooner
rather than later,” he told the Willamette Week.
Kroeker’s failure to apologize has angered many
people. However, some expect an apology might
come during a forum Dec. 11, when he will meet
face to face with the sexual minorities community.
The meeting will be the first in a public setting
since the taped comments were discovered and
released to the media. The forum was arranged in
a joint effort between Just Out publisher Marty
Davis and the Sexual Minorities Roundtable.
The roundtable held an emergency meeting
Nov. 21 to discuss what role it would play in
repairing the relationship between Kroeker and
the gay community. The group serves as a con
duit for communication between sexual minori
ties and the police bureau.
Organizers hope community members will
come to share their feelings and have a chance
for something positive to come out of the meet
ing. Capt. Bob Ball, a gay reserve officer and a
roundtable member, and Dan Cadigan of the
Oregon Gay and Lesbian Lawyers Association
will help facilitate the meeting.
Although Kroeker has not said he has
changed his mind about any of the comments
made on the tapes, he has tried his best to assure
his officers, gay and straight, that he is commit
ted to fairness and respect for the entire police
force. He has said the same about the citizens of
Portland he was hired to protect.
While Kroeker has been asked to resign by
numbers of people, he is enjoying significant
support from locals— including those in the sex
ual minorities community. Some even want to
help him rebuild the trust and popularity he was
enjoying until the scandal broke.
In an effort to do that, Kroeker was invited to
Portland legend and drag queen Darcelles 70th
birthday party. Some thought the chief needed
to get up close with Portland s gay community.
Video cameras and multiple reporters fol
lowed, and Kroeker’s night out turned the pri
vate party at Darcelles nightclub into a media
event. Television viewers got to see the chief,
smiling from ear to ear with his wife by his side,
face to face with gays and lesbians.
Even Oregonian columnist Steve Duin attended
and devoted an entire column to the party. Despite
the fun Kroeker might have enjoyed, some called
the ploy a joke and a public relations nightmare.
Mayor Vera Katz came out in strong support
of the chief after meeting with scores of citizens
and consulting with her staff. She said he is
committed to repairing his relationship with the
gay and lesbian community.
The upcoming forum just might be the
first step.
i
n
V/
i
s
%
%
'
'
-V-
K roeker to A ttend F orum
Portland Police Chief Mark Kroeker will attend
a forum 7 p.m. Dec. 11 at Metropolitan Commu
nity Church of Portland, 2400 N.E. Broadway. Call
503-236-1252 for more information.
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ood
P a n e l
Forum focuses on the boat oar by Jim Radosta
T
he Police Chief Concerns Group held a
forum to discuss Mark Kroeker’s controver
sial audiotaped speeches Nov. 21 at Lutheran
Inner City Ministries.
Bonnie Tinker, Love Makes a Family execu
tive director, moderated a panel of 10 keynote
speakers including Alan Graf of the National
Lawyers’ Guild, Susan Laarman of Bradley-
Angle House and Derry Jackson of the Portland
Public Schools board. Most of them focused on
Kroeker’s advocacy of corporal punishment and
the ongoing debate concerning police brutality.
“This is not about past homophobic state
ments,” Tinker said in a statement released prior
to the forum. “A major concern is his recom
mendation of violence within the family and his
use of this type of family ‘discipline’ as a model
for community justice.”
According to one speech Kroeker gave dur
ing the early to mid-1990s, he and his wife,
Dianne, oversaw a Christian camp for 500 to
700 high school students at Hume Lake in
Sequoia National Park for about 10 years. When
one of the kids would violate the rules, they
would be hit with a 3-foot segment of a boat oar.
Kroeker has admitted speaking about the issue
of paddling teens but insists that he must have
misspoken during the speech and that he person
ally never has used that form of discipline on any
child. However, transcripts indicate he described
the punishment in graphic detail, including
where the oar struck the buttocks to avoid injury.
Kroeker said the campers would return five
to seven years later to thank him for swatting
them. “They didn’t get it at home; they were
dying for it—that form of attention.”
Rick Fernandez was one of the few speakers
who touched on Kroeker’s anti-gay remarks. He
represented the American Friends Service Com
mittee’s Grupo Arco Iris, a support group for gay,
lesbian, bisexual and transgcndered Latinos.
To illustrate his stance, Fernandez offered a
scenario in which a police chief had slammed on
Jews or African Americans. “I doubt that we'd
still be having this discussion, and that’s what
bothers us the most.’ 1 s n
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