by Travis Mateer

Dear Federal Agents,

My name is Travis Mateer and I’d like to help with your new mission, announced on October 4th by Attorney General Merrick Garland, to target any threats of violence, intimidation, and harassment by parents toward school personnel.

I’ll start with providing some key information about my past interactions with law enforcement, like the time a Federal agent stopped by the Poverello Center, where I was working, to show us a picture of a man who produced child porn and travelled around the country under the hippie-cloak of the Rainbow Family.

The next significant interaction I had relates to David Burgert, the sad extremist who disappeared into the Lolo wilderness in 2011 after shooting at deputies. I had a showdown with Burgert in the basement bathroom of the Poverello Center before he made the FBI’s most wanted list, something I was interviewed about for the Project 7 podcast.

In 2014, when a homeless man was tortured and executed by Kevin Lino, I helped get critical information confirming who was involved within 48 hours of the body being pulled from the Clark Fork River. I referenced this incident recently when a mental health advocate got worried about a bear in a homeless person’s tent.

At one point, while working at the Pov, I even gave a presentation about my work to Sheriff McDermott and a bunch of probation and parole officers, discussing how coordinating with solution-oriented programs, like the treatment courts, produced better outcomes for EVERYONE.

To confirm this I suggest speaking with judges, like Landee Holloway, Brenda Desmond and Kathleen Jenks. Or you can talk to city attorney Keithi Worthington. Or maybe even Dan Cederberg would have some positive things to say about my work with the Mayor’s Downtown Advisory Commission.

I can certainly sympathize with those who feel intimidated by people in power. In 2018, for example, I wrote a poem about sidewalks, not knowing how passionately one City Councilperson felt about improving sidewalks at great expense to property owners.

Until today I haven’t felt the need to verify this claim, but I’d like to be as forthright as possible, considering Merrick Garland’s worries about me and those like me, so here’s a portion of the apology letter the Councilperson was required to produce for me to avoid litigation:

After another year at that organization, I put in my notice to leave on January 3rd, 2020. Why? Because I realized the systemic rot wasn’t going to self-correct, a realization that was born out over the following months as local activism was deflated by the political prosecution of Brandon Bryant on felony charges he was quickly acquitted of in July of this year.

While that was playing out, I was doing my own risk mitigation work after Nick Checota took issue with my research into his Wisconsin roots, claiming that I was making shit up in the comment thread of the post. Facing an angry oligarch unhappy at criticism over his growing music monopoly, I decided to level up with an LLC and a nice chat with a quality lawyer. Nearly two years later, and I am very happy with these choices.

What I am NOT HAPPY about is other people thinking they can make medical decisions for me and my family. That concern comes from my FATHER/PROTECTOR role, something I take very seriously.

Another thing I take seriously is the risk law enforcement and first responders take every day they go to work. One way I show this is by telling the first responders I speak with how much I respect the risk they take, and that my beef is primarily with how leadership DISRESPECTS the work of the boots on the ground with the actions I think they are taking, behind the scenes.

So, with that said, if further information is needed, I would love to be of assistance…with my lawyer present, of course. And a recording device giving me that encouraging red blink that our chat will be properly documented.

Sincerely,

Travis Mateer