Month: August 2019

by William Skink

Political partisans on both sides will quickly exploit any tragedy if it means furthering their agenda. For team blue, the El Paso shooting appears tailor-made to attack Trump and the alt-right he leads. The young man drove 60 miles to kill Mexicans at Walmart. The footage is terrifying and heartbreaking.

As I do on most Monday mornings, I make the rounds online to see what my regular clicks are saying. At The Montana Post there are already three posts up. The first one is from Don Pogreba, titled Empty Prayers from Empty Suits Won’t Wash the Blood from Their Hands. This was posted on August 3rd at 7:25pm, so before the second mass-shooting in Dayton, Ohio occurred (we’ll get to that shooting in a bit). The second post, written the next day at 9 in the morning by the same partisan author, is about the reprehensible Montana Shooting Sports Association. The third post, written a few hours later, again penned by Pogreba, is titled The Silence of Republican Candidates for Governor After El Paso and Dayton is Indefensible.

In the rush to launch political attacks at political adversaries after these two tragic mass-shootings over this past weekend, Pogreba must not have sought out any information on what may have motivated the second shooter to open fire in Ohio. Though I haven’t looked into this too closely, since it just happened less than 48 hours ago, one of my regular clicks has some indications the other polarized extreme of the political spectrum may have played a role:

And while the media was eager to quickly expose the El Paso shooter as a right-wing extremist with the implication that he is merely following Trump’s belligerent rhetoric, only few details had emerged about the Dayton, Ohio shooter although we certainly understand why the mainstream media may not have rushed to make these alleged details public – because according to Heavy.com, the Dayton shooter was an Elizabeth Warren (and Bernie Sanders) supporter who advocated for socialism, communism and supported Antifa.

I have no idea if this is true or not, but it highlights why one may want to more fully process tragic events before immediately exploiting them to further a political agenda. It’s disgusting when the right does it, and it’s disgusting when partisans like Pogreba do it.

The Dayton shooter, Connor Betts, has a Missoula connection. This deranged young man’s own sister was apparently a victim, and she had recently been working at the Missoula Smokejumper Center, according to the Missoula Current.

A little suggestion to the partisans who rush to their said little computers to exploit another tragic example of America’s deep-rooted sickness: you are a part of the problem, and I wish there was a 48 hour stfu rule about vomiting your political attacks so families can mourn their dead.

by William Skink

I’m confused. The Missoula Current recently reported that County Commissioners needed an ordinance to “deter aggressive transients” at the Missoula Development Park. From the link:

At the request of several property owners, Missoula County commissioners have implemented an ordinance banning overnight camping at the Missoula Development Park, and they’re urging others to notify the sheriff’s office of any violators.

Several local businesses, including the AT&T call center and 836 Technologies, said overnight transients have left behind waste and garbage, and have harassed their employees.

“There are several problems with overnight camping – the transients,” said Brian Freeman of 836 Technologies. “They’re not actual campers, as we all know. Trash, crime and raw sewage is often left behind. These people don’t work in the area, and don’t do anything to bring businesses into the area. It creates problems with our employees.”

I find this confusing for two reasons. The first is an assumption that the effort seven years ago by County Commissioners to end the Occupy encampment would apply here. Don’t remember that effort? Well, here’s a helpful article to remind you:

Occupy Missoula will have to find new digs.

Missoula County commissioners listened to two hours of often fervent testimony Wednesday, most of it opposing a ban on camping, then quickly passed a resolution that makes it criminal trespass to sleep overnight on county property without a permit.

The statute, which also prohibits the placement or erection of structures unless the county says it’s OK, took effect immediately.

So, if this old resolution ”makes it criminal trespass to sleep overnight on county property without a permit”, why is another law needed to address this?

The second reason this story baffles me is this: why can’t already existing laws, like laws against littering and broad misdemeanor statues, like disorderly conduct, be effective tools for law enforcement? Cite these people for littering, or for disorderly conduct, then when they don’t show up to court, or pay their fine, a bench warrant will be issued.

I’m not actually all that confused about this situation. To address this very small percentage of “transients” (a term I hate) who display aggressive, anti-social behavior, the criminal justice system needs to have a strong stick/carrot approach. The carrot of help, whether treatment or even just case management, was not adequate to begin with, and still hasn’t rebounded from the cruel cuts imposed by cruel politicians. That’s a problem.

The other problem is the consequential stick of the criminal justice system has also transformed, and doesn’t really impact this small transient population. For most of us fines are pretty effective for changing behavior. If we don’t pay the fine, we could have credit issues or a bench warrant for our arrest.

But what if you don’t care whether or not you end up in jail? And what if you have nothing left, financially, to take or ruin? Then, instead of the stick hurting you, the anti-social transient with mental health and/or addiction issues, you become the stick hurting and clogging up the criminal justice system.

Because this is the reality on the ground, and because decision makers and purse-string pullers don’t want to deal with this difficult reality, what we are seeing is a classic move called “passing the buck”. In this case it’s the Missoula County Sheriff’s Department passing the buck to the County Commissioners.

The Commissioners can pass all the new laws they want, it won’t change the fundamental reality that carrots to create positive incentive to change are virtually non-existent, and sticks to create negative consequences to deter bad behavior have been greatly diminished by issues like jail overcrowding.

My suggestion to those dealing with aggressive, threatening behavior in this area of Missoula is to carry a big can of pepper spray and be prepared to use it. Because of the dynamics described in this post I believe the trend is for law enforcement to be more and more hands-off because the financial cost of intervening in every situation where an unstable person is acting threatening is not a cost we, as a community, apparently can afford.