I understand that humans are fallible and make mistakes. Earlier this year, for example, I mistakingly assumed a relationship existed between two people with the same last name and, when it was pointed out to me, I acknowledged the mistake and moved on.
While those aware of my mistake had a nice chuckle, no one is laughing over the tweet Allison Franz, Communication Coordinator for Missoula County, had to recently delete because the subject matter dealt with a young child who supposedly died from Covid.
Before getting to the apology tweet, I’d like to know if communications specialists like Allison Franz receive any training on how to use social media, because someone who labels herself MissoulaAF, with the AF standing for AS FUCK, is a little hard to take seriously sometimes.
Also, are there any requirements for being Missoula As Fuck, like having to be born in Missoula? I can’t imagine being Missoula As Fuck WITHOUT having been born here.
Anyway, Allison Franz is one of those former journalists who transitioned into providing communication cover for government shenanigans, like our County Commissioners use of public/private partnerships and non-profit partners to hide their conversations from the public.
Here is how Franz describes her work in her Twitter bio:
Now that I am seeing this bio in front of me on my screen, I think I’ll give Franz the benefit of my doubt regarding what the AF stands for, considering those letters are also A.F.’s initials, because what AF means to Franz is not the focus of this post, the rush to ascribe a young child’s death to Covid is, and here is the apology tweet:
Since the Health Department AND Missoula County’s Communication Coordinator had to issue mea culpas, it might be worth asking WHY they felt the need to rush out this information about a dead child before medical professionals could more conclusively determine the cause of death.
Is it because FEAR is a great motivator for all those hesitant bio-medical terrorist threats who continue exhibiting dangerous levels of reluctance toward accepting the clear awesomeness of an experimental drug made by the convicted felons of Big Pharma into their bodies?
Allison Franz and the Missoula City/County Health Department SHOULD feel awful about quickly disseminating the news of a dead child to further their experimental gene therapy agenda.
Maybe Twitter should suspend Allison Franz’s account to protect Missoula citizens from the kind of medical misinformation she dispersed.
Or maybe we can start seeing these communication professionals for what they really are: propagandists for state power using private sector platforms that only censor the wrong-think of the serfs and peasants.
As I do this citizen journalist thing I’d like to share some tips about stuff I’m learning along the way, like what kind of information might be useful to better understand local power dynamics.
For example, when you’re talking with someone who has been burned by a local influencer to the point they don’t want to publicly risk more retaliation, avoid frustration by looking for information that might help you understand the situation better.
One of the pieces of information I have found helpful is name changes. Why? Because it helps to be specific when you’re searching online for information. I’ll use the Executive Director of United Way, Susan Hay Patrick, as an example.
When Susan Hay Patrick moved to Missoula her last name was CRAMER. Searching online under that name produced for me, earlier this morning, a VERY interesting Rotarian article by Tom Clynes from January, 2007, titled Big Sky City: Montana’s Cultural Hometown.
Here is a cute little excerpt from this Connecticut transplant describing her RIGHT SIZE town:
A native of the Northeast, Cramer moved to Missoula five years ago and set up her own business as a consultant to non-profits. Rotary became a big part of her life and she was named a Paul Harris Fellow in April.
“This town is just the right size for me,” she says. “I love running into people I know in the street every day. There’s a big sense of community.”
If it’s not obvious why I am bolding Susan Hay Cramer/Patrick’s comment from 2007 from the vantage point of our rapidly gentrifying city which has, with Susan’s help, adopted the failed policies of our western cities with reckless abandon, then let me ask a question of our non-profit influencer: is Missoula STILL the “right” size for you, Susan?
Directly after the above quote, Susan takes Tom Clynes to City Hall to meet Mayor Engen. Then she jaunts to the Poverello Center, where I believe she was a board member at the time of Ellie Hill’s arrival in Missoula.
Later in the article we run into Ellen Buchanan, but if my timeline is correct, this is BEFORE Buchanan became the Director of Engen’s slush fund at the Missoula Redevelopment Agency. From the link:
We stop by to say hello to a friend of Cramer’s who makes homemade sausages and another who runs a local restaurant. Then, we run into Ellen Buchanan, who is organizing an upcoming jazz festival that will features blues, jazz and bluegrass music.
“This town loves its festivals,” says Cramer, checking her watch. “Speaking of which…”
It’s all just casual and lovely and NEVER a conflict of interest, right?
Another local influencer who can be challenging to track due to name changes is Democrat State Senator, Ellie Boldman. I don’t say this as a point of criticism. I say this as a generous citizen journalist describing the challenges that can arise when understanding networks, like the Missoula nexus of non-profits and politics.
For example, let’s say you want to figure out the many hats worn by a school board member like Grace Decker, who ALSO is a paid staff member of United Way under Susan Hay Patrick and ALSO shows up in news articles with Ellie Hill Smith. From the link:
Ellie Hill Smith of Missoula will launch her campaign for Montana Senate District 45 on Friday in what she’s billing as a “tribute to activists.”
Friday’s campaign kick-off, planned in the Old Post parking lot at 6:30 p.m., includes a number of musicians, including Tom Catmull, Jeff Medley, Meg Hänsen and the Cigarette Girls Burlesque. It also includes Bob Wire, Guthrie and Summer Quist, Grace Decker, Josh Slotnick, Kat Hawkins, Bob Zimorino and Cash for Junkers.
This June 2019 “article” from the Missoula Current gives a nice little snapshot of how politics functions in Missoula, but you might not have come across it, as a citizen journalist, if you were only using Ellie’s latest name choice, Ellie BOLDMAN, with which to search.
And thus concludes today’s lesson for any aspiring citizen journalists.
On Monday, August 9th, around 5:45pm, I was on my way to my studio in downtown Missoula when I saw a shirtless man walking with his hands up, both pointer fingers sticking up at the sky like he was readying himself for some imaginary holdup. He was walking on the north side of West Broadway, away from the Poverello Center, which was about a block away, behind him.
I recognized this man as Johnny Lee Perry, the assailant supposedly responsible (but never formally charged) for the death of Sean Stevenson after a fight ensued in the men’s dorm at the Poverello Center.
At this early point in the mystery surrounding what happened to Sean Stevenson, I had yet to connect with any members of the Stevenson family. Because of these early details I caught in the booking history, that soon changed.
Fast forward to May, 2020. Someone I highly suspect to be Johnny B (due to the email used) made a comment on my blog that I have not released until today:
If it’s difficult to read the screen shot, here it is again: “That’s my brother we have 16 brother his not a bad Larson just mentally off“
I didn’t release this comment because I had no clue what I was dealing with and didn’t want to allow some unstable person to deter anyone reading my blog from coming forward.
On the anniversary of Sean Stevenson’s death, which was two days after Johnny B allegedly assaulted him (January 5th, 2020) and occurred as the result of Sean being removed from life support WITHOUT his family being notified, I posted my interview with two members of Sean’s family, Jejchelle and Angela.
During all this time I’d get bits and pieces of gossip from street conversations. Some good about Sean, some not so good. And mostly good impressions about Johnny B.
Would I ever get a chance to actually talk DIRECTLY to this young man?
Yes, on April 29th, 2021, I was biking near the Poverello Center when I saw someone I thought was Johnny near the side street where Montana Glass is located (business location of mayoral candidate Shawn Knopp, ironically enough). I called out his name and he responded, so I stopped my bike.
I offered to buy Johnny some food in order to separate him from his peers, who all thought I was a cop when I rolled up on them camped by their automobiles. I get this a lot, since I started taking on cop-like characteristics due to my job at the Pov, so I’m quick to dispel the obvious looks of suspicion I get.
While walking to Tia’s I made note of the cop who got out of his cruiser to watch us walk by. I’m sure he suspected a possible drug deal and not the interesting conversation I ended up having with this man from Oakland alleged to have killed another man the previous year.
I didn’t ask Johnny B anything specific during that first conversation about the evening Sean Stevenson was attacked. We talked about spiritual matters and the concept of being a TI (targeted individual). A friend of Johnny’s even rolled up and we all wished each other well upon leaving.
It was with this context in mind that I approached Johnny last Monday, but prepared this time to better document my interaction, since his behavior seemed to be somewhat escalated, though not in crisis (a distinction I am able to make from 7 years working at the homeless shelter).
What I ended up recording caused me enough concern that I left the scene and immediately called 911.
That was Monday.
During the 911 call I was VERY emphatic that law enforcement follow up with me after making contact with Johnny Lee Perry. When I heard nothing back on Monday I got frustrated, and when I heard nothing back on Tuesday I got upset. That’s when I called the Public Information Officer, Lydia Arnold, who connected me to the Sergeant shift officer.
In order to address my concerns, the Sergeant looked up my call and indicated that contact was made, but there were no notes logged about the interaction. Later in the day I spoke with the officer who made contact and got some additional context to what had been allegedly happening before my contact with Johnny Lee Perry on August 9th.
I’m not going to get into the details of all my conversations with law enforcement, but I will say I usually make a point to emphasize my respect for the near-impossible task they have interacting with people like John Skinner, who I also have had a long history with.
But Johnny Lee Perry? Who is this 29 year old black man from Oakland and why is he openly stating to some man on the street that he can KILL AT WILL?
That direct quote is NOT a portion of the video I’m willing to share at this point. The clip I’m including here is an edited portion, with title graphics added for context.
This is the man the Stevensons have been told is responsible for the death of their family member.
I think it’s worth asking anyone reading this a basic human question: how would YOU feel seeing footage of your loved one’s killer just strutting down some busy street making threats against police?
What kind of questions would you be asking yourself about WHY this man is allowed to do this?
As I’ve been thinking and talking to people about this footage, I’ve arrived at some community impacts this one man is having and NOT having that might be worth considering.
If Johnny B is NOT charged with a serious crime for his part in killing another human being, then his demographic data (29 year old black man) will obviously NOT be added to the already disproportionate representation of minorities in Montana’s prison system. Another thing that would be avoided is the COST of incarceration, which Missoula County is busy litigating the state of Montana over for short-changing the County over its rate of reimbursement for inmates.
But what about the fallout from leaving someone on the streets who appears to be struggling with drug abuse and mental health issues? Especially someone who likes to drop N-bombs all over town?
I bring up Johnny’s use of the N-word because I was aware that the use of this word may have been a contributing factor in whatever altercation is alleged to have occurred between Johnny Lee Perry and Sean Stevenson. But it wasn’t until I showed this footage to a local business owner that I understood just how quickly Johnny appears to call people, even white dudes, a n*%#@r.
Is there any conceivable benefit to allowing a person like this to roam the streets for law enforcement?
Maybe not for boots-on-the-ground cops and other first responders, who have to deal with people like this every day, but it sure makes the argument for more police funding easier, doesn’t it?
Because what do people who feel unsafe in their own community want, LESS money for cops, or MORE?
If you don’t understand that’s a rhetorical question, just rewatch Missoula’s mayoral forum and you will see how broadly supportive ALL our candidates are of more money for police.
Which brings it all back home to PUBLIC SAFETY and the questions that never went away about violent crimes not being charged in Missoula while a local activist faced years in prison for using threatening WORDS.
When I was being video taped recently during my William Skink BMM performance, I loudly proclaimed my support for BOOTS ON THE GROUND realities that the ivory towers aggressively ignore.
The same aggressive ignorance that bound Republican and Democrat presidents for over two decades to America’s longest war in Afghanistan is playing out locally among housing first advocates and harm reduction specialists.
I was skeptical just based on the title, but there are gems like this:
Victimology takes the truth that it is wrong for people to be victimized and distorts it by going a step further. Victimology asserts that victims are inherently good because they have been victimized. It robs victims of their moral agency and creates double standards that frustrate any attempt to criticize their behavior, even if they’re behaving in self-destructive, antisocial ways like smoking fentanyl and living in a tent on the sidewalk. Such reasoning is obviously faulty. It purifies victims of all badness. But by appealing to emotion, victimology overrides reason and logic.
Maybe this is the final piece. Maybe, under this cognitive fog of victimology, a demographic game is being played by the County Attorney’s office while the ensuing chaos can be leveraged by other nodes of the criminal justice system for bigger budget expenditures.
Or maybe I’m totally wrong and just unduly bothering this troubled man who simply had a bad day, which just happened to collide with another man’s bad day, and alcohol, and drugs, and one thing led to another, and WHOOPS, flatline, goodbye, sorry it was the weekend and we couldn’t reach you.
I wouldn’t accept that if it was my family member.
While parents like me are being demonized for questioning school mask mandates for our children, tens of thousands of people in Missoula crammed into a football stadium and an amphitheater on Friday night to see Guns N Roses and Sheryl Crow.
In the reporting of the GNR show I haven’t seen the word DELTA mentioned anywhere, which makes sense, considering there’s money to be made.
So, instead of pushing FEAR to manipulate public opinion in support of mask mandates, we get “reporting” like this from the Missoula Current:
“You know where you are?” said Axl Rose while rolling into Welcome to the Jungle. “You’re in Montana, baby, and you’re gonna … ”
The group was scheduled to play last summer before the tour was delayed at the height of the pandemic. Still, around 20,000 fans filled Washington Grizzly Stadium and stayed to the end, where Guns and Roses closed with hits like Nighttrain, Patience and Cold November Rain.
It opened with Mr. Brownstone and was the first stadium concert of the season in Missoula in 2021.
Across town, Sheryl Crow was playing the Kettlehouse Amphitheater, marking a busy night of music in a city working to grow its standing as a musical hub in the Pacific Northwest.
I bolded the important work our city is doing to GROW an industry that benefits wealthy transplants like Nick Checota because a year ago I was REALLY WORRIED about Nick and the implosion of his Tax Increment Financed project he named THE DRIFT.
Since Nick Checota has an ENTIRE CITY behind him AND he was picked by Governor Bullock last year to be on the task force that directed over a BILLION dollars in CARES Act funding AND he also RECEIVED over a million dollars of that money, I think Nick Checota is doing just fine.
Not only is he doing fine, Nick Checota is also protected by the “friends” he has who are willing to violate their professional boundaries with a paying tenant because that tenant’s journalistic efforts got interpreted by this ED as “attacking her friends”.
From my vantage point (making art and doing the citizen journalist thing in downtown Missoula) the alcohol is flowing like spring runoff and making the money machine go KA-CHING!
But what about PUBLIC SAFETY!
I know the contrast of a vibrant bar scene and packed stadium full of nostalgia seekers is a difficult thing to reconcile with the image of my kids in masks, but it’s only difficult because people aren’t cynical enough about the all-pervasive power of money in the PUBLIC SAFETY equation.
Today I’m going to be working on a pretty explosive post I hope to have ready tomorrow or Tuesday about public safety. It’s the culmination of a very interesting week in which different strands of my work as an artist and journalist have become entangled in ways that gave me new insights into our local power structures.
To all the people I’ve talked to this past week–both new allies AND those who have been helping me understand our murky Missoula for years–THANK YOU!
I feel incredibly encouraged by all the positive activity I see happening around me as more and more people realize they are not alone in their experiences, thoughts and feelings.
