by Travis Mateer

The segment of “houseless” people who have the luxury of a motorized vehicle still have a problem: where to PARK that vehicle? If you consult Reddit, the obvious answer to the question of where to park is the Walmart parking lot. Here’s some context from the Reddit thread:

My idea is to ALSO find a nice parking lot, and thanks to a friend’s monitoring of scanner chatter, I have a top-notch idea brewing about which one to establish as a TAAAAAZ-enabled car-camping spot.

Scanner chatter? Yes, the chatter was about a break-in at a building once occupied by corporate information peddlers, but now sits empty. I confirmed it was the OLD location where the information peddlers once did their narrative control work by calling one of ’em up and asking, and it was.

What does this mean? For one thing, it means there’s some validity to the idea of the Broken Windows Theory, which posits that visual indicators of urban decay send messages to would-be criminals that a permissive attitude exists toward low-level nuisance activity, making it more likely that MORE SERIOUS crimes will be committed.

Here’s how Wikipedia explains it:

In criminology, the broken windows theory states that visible signs of crime, antisocial behavior, and civil disorder create an urban environment that encourages further crime and disorder, including serious crimes. The theory suggests that policing methods, which target minor crimes, such as vandalism, loitering, public drinking; and fare evasion, help to create an atmosphere of order and lawfulness.

My TAAAAAZ-enabled car-camping spot will be a COUNTER to the chaos-creep of societal collapse by ensuring that anyone entering this space understands the NAMF restrictions I plan on establishing and enforcing (No Alcohol/Meth/Fentanyl).

Maybe if the Authorized Camping Site had done this our city leaders would have avoided creating a safe space for meth dealers and human traffickers.

Another benefit about this location is the fact I’ve been trying to get in contact with the property owner, but so far the White Lion of Lehi County has ignored ALL my attempts to understand WHY this property is being allowed to blight such a “hip” part of Missoula. Perhaps the White Lion is busy fucking up another property in Scottsdale?

With NAMF restrictions in place, I’ll start training my fellow campers to do perimeter checks and to use deescalation techniques if any riff-raff give us trouble. Don’t worry, I’ve been trained in Crisis Intervention, so I have the skillset to properly train my little Lion Cubs to do good community work.

To sustain our little community, I envision having a little market where the alchemy of trash into art can occur. Again, this is well within my wheelhouse of skills to do properly. Doesn’t this all sound GREAT?

To wrap up this Friday post, I want to extend my congratulations to some members of law enforcement who recently showed off their skillset in doing GOOD police work, and NO, I am NOT being sarcastic.

One of the detectives (not the one I developed a methodology for) getting much-deserved kudos is the one I spoke with last May about my interpretation of graffiti along the river trail in Missoula. Another member of the PD team is the one who arrested me, and who shows up in the poem I started writing in jail.

I’ll share the concluding stanzas of that poem after the following quote about what our Missoula team achieved.

From the link:

“They were very calm under the pressure of this intense exercise, they made decisions as a team, organized the intelligence they were gathering thoughtfully, and kept both incident commanders and the tactical components well apprised of major developments during the standoff,” King said. “Coming to an event of this type competing with teams of this caliber and taking home a trophy as a first-time competing team is an impressive accomplishment, and the citizens of Missoula should be proud of the work their team is doing.”

The 10-hour competition assessed teams across various criteria, including communication, intelligence gathering, rapport-building, and resolution outcomes. The Missoula CNT earned perfect scores in two categories, which King said is a rare achievement for a first-time competitor.

One more thing before the rhymes, and that’s how this successful showing at a competition actually bolsters my claim that the “false alarm” SWAT response in September of 2022 was actually a police training, and that the MPD Public Information Officer, Lydia Arnold, potentially lied to me when I asked her about it via email.

Doesn’t this make you want to support my unique style of independent journalism on today’s GIVING pitch to keep enabling local non-profits?

Ok, now the concluding lines of poetry for this lovely looking Friday morning in Zoom Town.

I’m sorry for the time 
taken by this scam, but 
Sean I think I felt you 
through his arresting hand 

and the simple gesture 
of giving me control 
to choose the FM station 
on the cruiser radio 

Lord, please protect him 
and good ones with the badge 
none of us really know 
how much time we have

Thanks for reading!