by Travis Mateer
This morning, on my way to the studio, I noticed several police cars rushing to Reserve Street. I changed my trajectory to see what was going on, parking at the Pawn Shop on the Northwest side of the bridge.
I went under the bridge, where I know one of the campers, and when I emerged on the other side a female officer with a long gun commanded me to stop and identify myself, which I immediately did. I stood there with my arms up while she radioed in my name and I was only allowed to leave when it came back that I didn’t match the description of whoever they were looking for.
At this time I can’t say anything more because it could be relevant to whatever happened at the Reserve Street camps. Stay tuned for further updates if there is more I can share.
UPDATE: according to NBC Montana, police were responding to a report of shots fired.
JC
The NBC Montana report seems to go out of its way to ignore the fact that “this area” is an open-air homeless encampment. I will give them credit for mentioning that “this area” has received dozens of calls all summer including multiple calls last week. Maybe the ten-year plan isn’t about addressing homelessness, maybe the ten-year plan is about institutionalizing it.
I think institutionalizing this area is definitely on the table, with one piece being some kind of buyout of the private plot of this jurisdictional patchwork.
And welcome to the Montana blogosphere, Roy. I’m going to be re-tooling the links on the sidebar to ensure the fresh energy developing is being properly highlighted.