Reese's in pieces
There was another Friday afternoon news story burial attempt at Portland City Hall last week. Mike Kuykendall, director of services of the police bureau, resigned. The official story is sketchy. It's something about Kuykendall, a high-up civilian supervisor, sending inappropriate text messages to a subordinate, apparently saying something uncool about another member of the force. He was trying to use humor, and it backfired. We sure know that feeling.
In a police bureau where you can murder someone and get off with no punishment, it seems like fairly weak grounds on which to terminate someone's employment. Kuykendall was nominally in charge of internal affairs -- perhaps that is why his indiscretions are so sensitive. But the version that was dribbled out on Friday raises more questions than it answers.
We haven't seen Kuykendall for years, but we remember him as a smart guy with his heart in the right place. We suspect that he'll land on his feet somewhere in town. His good friend and boss, on the other hand -- Chief Mike Reese -- seems to have a lot swirling around him these days, what with his about-face on the road-raging, leg-touching captain, and now this. We'd put the over and under on his continued tenure as chief at 75 days.
| Posted at 7:45 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (6)
I think this statement pretty much says it all, "Kuykendall recently sat on the Police Review Board that voted 5-to-1 to recommend the firing of then-Capt. Todd Wyatt."
Kuykendall may have wanted to oust Wyatt against the Chief's wishes.
Posted by phil | February 4, 2013 8:18 AM
I'd say he hangs around until shortly after the next time the police kill someone without cause.
Posted by reader | February 4, 2013 9:09 AM
The old "Friday afternoon news dump" is THE WELL KNOWN trick practiced by most government bureaucrats. What a pity there are few real reporters left at the Oregonian... even fewer on the weekends.
Lately I've been wondering if university Journalism 101 consists mostly of learning how to drag, click, copy and paste government press releases... after editing out any references to race.
Posted by ltjd | February 4, 2013 10:30 AM
Sad. The take-away may not to trust your coworkers. And the ones you trust 100%, cut that by 50.
She (??) must have thrown him under the bus.
I will use this lesson to educate my friends.
Posted by sally | February 4, 2013 1:48 PM
http://ORne.ws/WV2Pkz
It would seem that he called his Captain a Nazi. Oh, and in addition to leading internal affairs, he was in charge of maintaining "professional standards". Too true!
Posted by Downtown Denizen | February 4, 2013 2:10 PM
Thanks for the link, Downtown Denizen. I'd say that story was done by a "real reporter." The underling here initiated the text exchange in a conversation about her "concentration camp situation." Kroger had a background of discipline for erecting a war memorial to Nazi soldiers.
Now there's a nice big fat lawsuit and a disability claim or two??
Who leaked these texts and why?
Posted by sally | February 4, 2013 2:28 PM