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." |
http://www.rdrop.com/~pjw/PPR14/deaddons.HTML
A Southeast Portland neighborhood became yet another battlefield in the "War on Drugs" on Tuesday, January 27th. A house occupied by Steven Douglas Dons was visited by the Police Bureau's Marijuana Task Force (MTF). Piecing together statements made by police spokespeople and the District Attorney's office to the Oregonian and other papers, this is what seems to have happened:
At 10:45 AM three officers visited the home and surmised that there was a marijuana growing operation there. While those officers went to obtain a search warrant, two other officers from the MTF called for backup. After the backup officers arrived, Sgt. Jim Hudson, officers Steven Morrow, Kim Keist and Colleen Waibel knocked on the door, yelling "Portland Police." The officers did not know if anyone was in the home. After receiving no answer, something prompted Hudson to use a paving stone to break down the front door, 23 minutes before the warrant was signed.
The officers were met with gunfire. Keist and Hudson were injured; Waibel was killed. Officers returned fire and Dons was shot once in the chest.
Hours after the injured officers were carried from the scene, police shot tear gas and advanced on the house with an armored vehicle. They found Dons lying shirtless on his kitchen floor. He reportedly flashed a peace sign at them. Officers responded with five "non-lethal" beanbag rounds from their shotguns. These rounds can cause serious injury or death when fired from a distance of under 25 feet (see PPR #12). It is unclear why police felt it necessary to fire them indoors at a paralyzed suspect. Police then removed Dons' pants and, rather than calling for medical help, dragged him to their vehicle. His naked body was placed on the bumper while officers posed with machine guns for a photo opportunity.
That day Mayor (and Police Commissioner) Vera Katz and Police Chief Charles Moose held a press conference at the hospital where the officers were being treated. This dynamic duo attempted to focus attention on everything BUT the apparently illegal police action that had just taken place. Moose lashed out at local news crews for covering the event, while Katz called for tighter gun control policies. When asked if the officers had a search warrant, Moose stopped answering questions from the press. Police spin-doctor Lt. Cliff Madison would not comment on why the officers broke down Dons' door. It wasn't reported until two days later that police claimed the officers smelled marijuana smoke and raided the home because they feared evidence was being destroyed.
Ahhh,a anal English major. Ain't YOU "special"? I bet your momma is soooo proud! Idiot.
It doesn't matter in this case. It's random murder of strangers. There is no motive that connects him to any of his victims. It's also unlikely (but not for certain!)that he is connected to them in any way. Most murders are crimes of passion,and easily solved. This is totally different. It will either be solved by a informer or by accident. Being clever or smart will have nothing to do with it.
Dennis Leary's show... tries to quit smoking and winds up in anger management therapy... *hysterical* 
If he didn't want to be doing this,he would have his dept PIO officer out there dealing with the reporters. He wants the camera "face time".
Now you know.
Instead of doing research intended to reinforce your own condescending, arrogant opinion of the man, you might have simply read his resume instead.
http://www.co.mo.md.us/services/police/chiefbio.htm
I hardly think that somebody who has worked his way up through the ranks for EIGHTEEN years, could be considered ANY kind of affirmative action appointee.
Although, if you are just blindly AGAINST somebody, I could see how you would think that it is a huge jump to Police Chief, from the position of Deputy Chief, City of Portland, Operations Branch. Again, this is after EIGHTEEN YEARS in the same force.
I have always respected people who rose through the ranks but I also understand why people are brought in from the outside sometimes, too. In his case, since he was a Patrol Officer, Sergeant, Lieutenant and Captain, North Precinct, he is WELL-QUALIFIED. In addition to having held the aforementioned positions, he also was a Major in the Oregon Air National Guard, and an Adjunct Faculty member of Criminal Justice at Portland State University.
If that kind of sterling, on-the-job experience isn't good enough for YOU, then he also has a little bit of outside education, to help him in conducting investigations, too. He attended the FBI National Academy, 154th Session (1988), and also FBI National Executive Institute, 17th Session (1994).
While he was working his way through the ranks, it probably dawned on him that it would help him to get a more advanced degree. While YOU scoff at his DOCTORATE level degree (since YOU think PSU sucks), he also received a Bachelor's in U.S. history from UNC way back in 1975. As far as I know, Carolina didn't give out degrees for ineptitude way back in 1975.
If you will actually read his resume, then you will see that he has a long list of accomplishments and rewards that are too numerous to mention. Again, I say that he appears to have a long history of working to improve himself over time, and he comes from humble beginnings near here, in Lexington NC. He is a self-made man if I have ever seen one.
He is WORTHY of our respect, and he has EARNED my respect. You are free to continue thinking badly of him, if you wish.
Thank you. That's very American of you.
By the way, Portland State University also launched the educational career of one of the Muslim terrorist suspects who was recently arrested in Portland. He went on the be an intern in Mayor Vera Katz's office, but later, after he no longer worked there, he sent disturbing messages to the office which alarmed the staffers who reported him to the police in JULY, 2001, but the mayor and police decided not to follow through. They were not about to ruffle the feathers of former local Black Panther leader Kent Ford by investigating his radical Islamic son, Patrice Lumumba Ford.
AFTER the Sept. 11 attack, Ford travelled to his beloved second homeland, China, with fellow Muslims, to attempt to cross the border into Afghanistan and join the anti-America jihad. They failed to gain entry into the country and returned to Portland.... where they waited....
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