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Can This Man Survive?
by Victoria Taft
OCTOBER 2000

At first glance he wouldn’t pass muster with Portland’s “political correctness” gestapo. He fills no quotas. So how did a guy like Mark Kroeker get to be the police chief in a place so dominated by liberalism that it often referred to as the “People’s Republic of Portland.” More to the point, how long can he hope to last?

Last winter as Y2K approached and the whole world was bracing for computers to crash, toilets to back up and the power grid to blow out; the city of Portland announced its choice to fill the power vacuum in the chief’s spot. Mark Kroeker, 55, a 35 year police veteran and former Deputy Chief in Los Angeles, was the person chosen to succeed Charles Moose. Moose had gone on to greener pastures in Virginia in what looked curiously like a “jump before you’re pushed” situation.

The choice was a bit of a surprise. After all, Kroeker was preceded in the chief’s spot by an African American man and before that a woman. It was clear that, in the name of diversity, the city mothers and fathers wanted someone who could serve Portland well, but who could fill a quota, too.

After three weeks of focus groups with community members from special interest groups — from the head of “Cop Watch” to the police union to the head of the gay and lesbian task force — and after a national search by a California firm; and vetting by a “Blue Ribbon” panel; three candidates emerged. Eventually Portland found what it was looking for: an experienced, polished, politically astute, heterosexual, religious white guy?

Who would have guessed?

Kroeker has also felt the sting of intolerance about his faith since he’s come to Portland. His Christian beliefs preceded him. They came with the package. But when activists from the May Day protests met with the chief and Mayor Vera Katz at Maranatha Church in northeast Portland with signs reading, “RIGHT WING CHRISTIAN GO BACK TO LA” and “CHRISTIANS ARE DIRT” it stung.

“I’ve seen hurt in the chief’s eyes because people damn him for being a Christian and for being from LA,” says the mayor’s police liaison, Elise Marshall, who has constant contact with the chief.