He stood out

Charles Moose, who was the Portland police chief from 1993 to 1999, has died. He was 68 years old. After he left Portland, he was a police chief in Maryland, where he was prominent in the infamous D.C. sniper case, and then a police officer in Hawaii. He was on a short list to return to Portland as chief in 2017, but the suits picked Danielle Outlaw instead. She was here for a short espresso.

Moose came to Portland from North Carolina in 1975, specifically to become a cop. He worked his way up the ladder and was eventually named chief by then-Mayor Vera Katz. He was a champion of the philosophy known as "community policing," and he had some successes while he was running the cop shop here. He made a point of living a half block off MLK Boulevard on Going Street. 

With Police Chief (later Mayor) Tom Potter

When I started Googling around to refresh my memory of Moose's time in Portland, it didn't take me long to find what I suspect is a definitive store of information on the subject. It's a 2017 master's thesis from a history student at Portland State, of all things. By Douglas Kenck-Crispin, the title is "Charles A. Moose: Race, Community Policing, and Portland's First African American Police Chief." Really engrossing reading, if you're ready for all 191 pages of it. 

Interestingly, the anarchists may have been the beginning of the end for Moose, 22 years ago. They, a birthday party at Ditler's Beach, and Moose's own hot temper led up to his departure. It's too bad, in a lot of ways. I would hardly call what's happened to the police bureau since then "progress."

UPDATE, a few hours later: Small world, the author of said thesis has a piece up in the Merc right now about D.B. Cooper.