September 03, 2003
Dismissing Kroeker
This particular aspect of the change in leadership at the Portland Police Bureau is fast becoming a dead horse, but I'll flog it one more time anyway. First, there's a bit from The Nose in today's Willamette Week:
Kroeker's capper began last week when the chief met with Mike Lindberg, a former city commissioner who had become an informal advisor to the chief.
The Nose has it on good authority that Lindberg thought it was time to push Kroeker toward some newer, if not necessarily greener, pasture. He'd checked with Katz, who agreed.
...
On Wednesday afternoon, Lindberg met Kroeker at a Starbucks a block from Central Precinct to deliver the news. Not that Kroeker had to go tomorrow or next week., but he should prepare to leave--and not wait 'til the L.A. chief's job opened up again.
Rather than quietly plan a face-saving exit strategy, Kroeker returned to the bureau, took the elevator to the 15th floor and informed his command staff--a structure that leaks worse than the pond in the Classical Chinese Garden.
And then there's this from today's Oregonian:
"How am I doing? " Kroeker asked his friend amid what was another demoralizing week for the chief.
"Tell me, honestly, how am I doing?"
Lindberg was honest.
"Frankly, as a friend," Lindberg said, "I'd say you have lost the support of City Hall."
According to this article, Lindberg says he made the decision to be up front with Kroeker on his own, and was not sent in as an intermediary from the Mayor's office. Lindberg also denies specifically informing the Chief that he had until Tuesday morning to tender his resignation.
Meanwhile, there's today's S. Renee Mitchell column, which argues that Kroeker's attempt to assume to mantle of victimhood is bogus:
If Kroeker is a victim at all, it is of too many of his own circumstantial screw-ups. He quilted a distracting pattern of blunders that tried Portland's patience. To top it off, Kroeker would have preferred to leave the city he promised to devote every ounce of his energy to, but last year he blew his second chance to be L.A.'s police chief.
It's too bad my community-policing strategy hasn't netted results, but give me some more time, Kroeker would say. I'm sorry my officers cursed at, pepper sprayed and/or shot your loved one to death, but I'll make it better one day.
It's unfortunate my rank-and-file and the greater Portland community have lost confidence in my leadership and ability to investigate police shootings, but, by golly, change is a-coming.
This week, it's beginning to look more and more as if Kroeker is the one who fouled this up. Seemingly never interested in Portland as more than a resume-padding item, he in the end appears to have almost willfully contributed to his already-tarnished image by throwing a tantrum-by-news-conference.
Which only serves to help illustrate why he's always been such a poor fit for Portland. As fascinating as this has been, in an accident-by-the-road sort of way, it was all rather asinine. And since it now seems that much of the fault for the inelegant manner in which he is leaving the Bureau seems to rest on his shoulders, it will make it that much easier to dismiss him from our thoughts in addition to dismissing him from the Bureau.