Posted on 10/11/2002 8:54:57 PM PDT by MVV
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‘Raw Intensity’
A Closer Look at the Man Behind the Sniper Investigation
Oct. 11
— Montgomery County Police Chief Charles Moose, the man leading the search for the serial sniper who is terrifying residents in the Washington, D.C., area, is known as a passionate and sometimes controversial man.
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Moose, who spent six years as the first black police chief in Portland, Ore., is no stranger to controversial cases.
In 1994, Moose was saddled with the difficult task of answering media questions about Tonya Harding, the figure skater convicted of hindering the prosecution in a plot to injure rival Nancy Kerrigan.
Steve Duin, a reporter for the The Oregonian, told ABCNEWS that he remembers Moose as a man who doesn't hide his passionate side and sometimes his temper when on the job.
"You are getting right now, I believe, a very raw, unfiltered look at a very raw, unfiltered guy. Chief Moose is high energy and he's high strung ... he's a guy who has needed and who has taken anger management classes," Duin said. Moose's intensity has been revealed in a few of his daily news conferences since the series of sniper shootings, which has left seven dead, began last week.
After a 13-year-old boy was critically wounded by a sniper's bullet Monday, Moose held an emotional press conference. "Shooting a kid — it's getting to be really, really personal now," he said as a tear rolled down his left cheek.
The police chief also showed anger in a press conference Wednesday after the media reported leaked information about the tarot card police discovered at the scene where the boy was shot.
"We've got retired police chiefs out there looking for other jobs taking advantage of this situation to get their face on television," he said during the press conference. "Chief Moose has a temper but he has also a real raw intensity, you are seeing a real genuine guy," Duin said.
Moose, 49, grew up in Lexington, N.C., and earned a doctorate in urban studies at Portland State University.
"Here's a guy who has a doctorate and yet sometimes talks like he's some ninth-grade kid," Duin said.
Moose helped lower crime and introduced community policing in Oregon's largest city until he left for Maryland in 1999.
When Moose was named Portland's chief in 1993, he and his wife made national news when they bought a house in one of the toughest neighborhoods in town.
"Being part of that community makes my message a real message, but it also says that the people that live in and around my house don't have to worry about my house being a crackhouse," he told KATU-TV in Portland in a 1997 interview.
Moose also said that he and his wife Sandy have dealt with painful instances of discrimination over the years because he is black and she is white.
"Being a person that is in an interracial marriage, my wife and I were subject to many different types of discrimination, sometimes subtle, sometimes very blatant," he said during his interview with KATU-TV.
As the father of two sons, now 22 and 27, Moose admits he often gets emotionally fired up, especially when it comes to the safety of children.
The man who has become the face of the sniper case told KATU-TV, in the 1997 interview, that he has often regretted letting his emotions get the best of him over the years. "I know I did some things I wish I hadn't done, tried to learn from those things," he said. "I tried to move on." |
Chief Moose makes me uncomfortable when he's on camera, like I'm cringing that he's going to personally lose it.
His tirade against the media was really bad, my husband & I watched it LIVE and looked at each other, like "whaaaaa? - he's got to be kidding!?"
It's not that I think it's wrong for him to be mad or upset, and furious they shot a kid at school... but don't show it like that. Thats more appropriate for the school principal, parent etc, not the man leading the charge to catch this monster!
It's almost clintonesque (but I do realize the difference in that he's not faking his emotions).
People want to have confidence in their Leaders including Law Enforcement BUT with him as the spokesperson it's difficult.
His speech impediment doesn't help, BUT it's what he says and how he says it thats the worst!
Don't have a dog in this fight, other than what I've already said.
Just wanted to say welcome to FR.
Black or White.... Halley is fine.
And, as a former LEO, I know enough to never depend upon the average cop to make me feel safe.
Hmmm. I thought the daughter called herself (Something) Bellafonte. She is a looker.
So where's the picture?
Shari Belafonte
No one person will or should be expected to solve this. Good police work happens when law enforcement agencies work together.
He's NOT from Oregon. You live in Texas, and can't recognize a Southern accent???
He's Black, and Southern... Is it ANY wonder that a LOT of condescending people on here merely want to call him stoooopid, instead of offering any helpful ideas about how THEY would do anything any differently.
I'd like to stick about 50 cameras in front of the poeple here, and then start asking extremely difficult, unanswerable questions to them, and then see how THEY fare.
Where I come from, people usually ADMIRE others who have tried to improve themselves over time. The notion of the 'self-made' man USED TO mean something in this country.
TUHHHHDUHHHHH
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