Month: July 2022

by Travis Mateer

If we’re going to continue utilizing a hiearchal approach to managing our institutions and branches of government, a better range of choices when it comes to leadership sure would be nice.

While we’re being told the Mayoral leader of Zoom Town is handling pancreatic cancer treatment just fine, the young African immigrant who challenged him last election cycle got issued a no-contact order last month with the woman he has a baby with.

Even though the choices were shitty, at least there was an option for Mayor besides John Engen. That’s not the case with the Sheriff’s Office this election cycle.

Before we get to the problems, let’s first take a look at the role of the Sheriff. Here’s something from Wikipedia:

In the United States, a sheriff is an official in a county or independent city responsible for keeping the peace and enforcing the law.[1] Unlike most officials in law enforcement in the United States, sheriffs are usually elected, although some states have laws requiring certain law enforcement qualifications of candidates. Elected sheriffs are accountable directly to the citizens of their county, the constitution of their state, and ultimately the United States Constitution.[2]

The responsibilities of sheriffs and their agencies vary considerably by county. Many sheriffs have the role of a police chief, though some lead agencies with limited law enforcement duties. Sheriffs are also often responsible for managing county jails and security at local government buildings.

Yes, the role of the Sheriff often extends to things like managing jails and providing coroner services. It’s a VERY important position, as people learned during the plandemic.

Before Missoula elected T.J. McDermott, our Sheriff was Carl Ibsen, and the most impressive thing about this man was his mustache. I mean, just look at this manly epitome of law enforcement:

While Ibsen looks good in this pic, he looked LESS good in this article about how he conducted himself during his tenure. From the link:

On the first day of a sparsely-attended session, now-retired Sheriff Carl Ibsen testified on behalf of his former Undersheriff, Josh Clark. Counsel for the County of Missoula, Steve Carey, asked Ibsen about a domestic violence case regarding former Deputy Paige Pavalone in 2014.

Ibsen testified that a friend of Pavalone’s had called him regarding the incident, and that he responded to the residence ‘only as a friend, not a cop’. Carey then probed Ibsen about a report that was published in the Missoulian newspaper from the Department of Criminal Investigations at the Montana Department of Justice by investigator Brant Light, that was critical of Ibsen’s behavior in the matter, calling it ‘egregious’. Ibsen said no one even attempted to contact him about the investigation.

“One of the things we do as cops is we investigate everything,” Ibsen said. “Doesn’t matter if you want to talk to the people involved or not, you talk to everybody. By the wording of the letter (from the AG’s office) I would assume I was a prime player in it. I was maybe even the prime focus of it. Nobody from the Attorney General’s office or the investigators even talked to me. Nobody tried to get hold of me, and I’m not that hard to find.”

The emphasized quote from Sheriff Ibsen seems like common sense when it comes to law enforcement, but that was before I became familiar with Mike Toth, the utterly worthless Sheriff of Mineral County.

When leaders aren’t modeling good behavior, it’s easy for morale to suffer. And if leaders aren’t dedicated to ensuring their subordinates are good people doing honest work, then the opposite might happen.

One of my sources, who is pretty damn familiar with the Sheriff’s Department, told me about a Deputy he was familiar with. After getting the name, I looked up the incident that got him fired. Here’s the Missoulian story detailing the lengths Missoula County Sheriff Deputy, Larry Schwindt, went to in order to have sexual contact with a 17 year old boy.

Larry Schwindt was fired from the department in January during an investigation into a complaint that he had engaged in an inappropriate and possibly unlawful relationship with a 17-year-old minor.

Schwindt’s plea Tuesday in Missoula Justice Court before John Odlin was based on events that led up to and ensued from a sexual encounter he had with a 17-year-old male in a parking lot in Alberton in the spring of 2012, according to court records.

Schwindt pleaded guilty to one count of official misconduct and one count of attempted unlawful transactions with children, first offense. Both are misdemeanors.

A third charge of high misdemeanor prostitution was dismissed. It was based on Schwindt’s admitted use of a digital alter ego on Craigslist, “Sarah Richardson,” to initially engage the boy.

This incident was adjudicated around the same time Missoula transitioned from Ibsen’s leadership to McDermott’s. For some more context on the supposed bonafides of T.J. McDermott, here’s some info from the County website:

T.J. McDermott began his law enforcement career with the Anaconda Police Department in 1995. In 1998, he joined the Missoula City Police Department. While assigned to the uniform patrol division, he was selected to be a member of ‘Target Enforcement Unit’, today known as the ‘Street Crimes Unit’, and worked proactively to identify and apprehend subjects with gang affiliation or membership who were involved in street crime activity. He also served as a Field Training Officer (FTO) with the police department’s Field Training and Evaluation Program (FTEP) for new recruits.

In 2003, became a deputy with the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office. In 2006, he was selected as a detective and was assigned to both the Burglary Theft Division and Person Crimes Division, where he became a key member of the Montana Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force.

In 2011, T.J. McDermott was selected by the National Association of Police Organizations (NAPO) as one of the nation’s ‘Top Cops’ for his work on a ‘Cold Case’ homicide. He traveled to Washington D.C. and met with President Obama along with other ‘Top Cops’ during the awards ceremony.

The highlights that pique my interest include gang activity, crimes against children, and going to Washington D.C. to meet Obama.

If you think shitty Sheriffs have a negative impact on the county in which you reside, here’s a slightly positive thought: there’s only 4 more months left to endure the current “leadership” of T.J. McDermott and Mike Toth. And, if you live in Mineral County, you actually HAVE A CHOICE!

Thanks for reading, and have a safe weekend!

by Travis Mateer

I so enjoy my morning coffee runs, especially now that I’ve incorporated rollerblades into my routine. That’s what I was doing yesterday when I was stopped from rolling down the sidewalk on Main Street, near the Union Club, by three Missoula police officers.

I was stopped for my safety, they told me. Ahead was piles of equipment for the production of Kevin Costner’s depiction of gangsters in cowboy hats, Yellowstone, and these helpful officers of the law didn’t want to see me injure myself, so they suggested I go into the street.

Before I took them up on their suggested detour, I expressed my desire to see their time better spent addressing things like the 8 year old flower girl I think was being trafficked last week (I’ll be telling that story at a later date). The cops assured me the production was paying for their time, and that they REALLY LIKED the economic impact of their overtime pay.

I recorded a brief clip as I rollerbladed away, but the part about “Dimitri” and the flower girl might not make a lot sense. Yet.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/727620764?h=11606f2a0d&badge=0&autopause=0&player_id=0&app_id=58479

So, because Yellowstone pays for it, the show gets three whole cops, while a dangerously under-resourced Guy Baker does his best (I’m being generous) to raise awareness, like in this brief clip where he tells you about looking right at something and NOT seeing it.

So what am I looking at here? Is it an unfortunate lack of resources, or a strategic one? Maybe an anecdotal story about a flower girl will help answer these questions.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

The other day I was at a playground swinging and climbing around with my kid when some of the other kids saw me and started trying to get my attention. “Watch me climb this!” One kid exclaimed. Another one implored me to see how far he could jump.

I imagine whoever is using a local business and my phone number to trigger several calls I got yesterday from Customer Service Intelligence (CSI) is a sad, little child inside lashing out for whatever reason.

Unlike the kids at the playground, who I paid just enough attention to to be polite, I’m going to risk giving this attention-seeking child what he/she is looking for because I think it’s important, for educational purposes, to see how these tactics work.

I didn’t pay the first call from CSI much thought. Sure, the name Alen Roach sounded familiar, but that wasn’t me, so I ended the call. The second call from CSI came 3 minutes later and was for a James. Huh?

Though annoyed, I still wasn’t seeing intent. A few hours later ANOTHER missed call from CSI. Now I’m getting curious, so I call back and get a nice woman on the phone who gives me some interesting perspective to consider.

Since I’m having a difficult time trusting our local investigative capacity, I’m taking more active steps to document what I’m experiencing, like my call with the CSI person (in whatever state they reside).

If you listen to the audio clip, you will hear me state I’m familiar with Alen Roach. That’s because by this time I’ve recalled why his name is familiar: I wrote about his long-gun antics just two months ago.

The other name wasn’t familiar to me, but his story certainly has a certain ring to it:

A man accused of stealing an ATV and selling methamphetamine pleaded not guilty in Missoula County District Court on Tuesday.

James Allen Garrison, 43, was arrested Jan. 28 on North Russell Street with a stolen ATV in the back of his pickup truck.

According to an affidavit, investigators found about 5.5 grams of methamphetamine, a bag of hallucinogenic mushrooms, four handguns and a machete in his truck. He later admitted to stealing the ATV and selling meth, the affidavit stated.

Sounds like a fun guy, ha ha ha.

After the cowardly use of another man’s name last February, and the impersonation of someone in Mineral County just over a week ago, I’m starting to see a pattern here.

I hope you’re following along because I think it may get bumpy from here.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

No, the title of this post is not a joke.

In this hilarious Missoulian article about the Roxy Theater needing to raise $100K due to “higher operating costs”, Russia is actually referenced as a contributing factor to the cost of their organic popcorn.

Here’s how the pesky problem of inflation is supposedly being made worse by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (emphasis mine):

Inflation has played a role, too. Their organic popcorn has become more expensive to produce as oil and butter prices have increased, the former likely due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“That safflower oil that we use is almost three times as much as it was a year and a half ago,” he said.

With those bad, bad Russians jacking up safflower oil, how is a local theater jonesing for CARES Act cash supposed to raise revenue?

If Mike Steinberg was running a private sector business, he’d have to deal with something called “reality”, but since The Roxy is a non-profit, Mike can just panhandle the Missoula community for $100K instead.

Here’s the opening of the article where that distinction is explicitly stated (emphasis mine):

Tickets stay the same price, but expenses have gone up for the Roxy Theater.

The nonprofit community cinema’s operating costs in its budget for fiscal year of 2022-23 have increased by $100,000. Drivers included the higher cost of goods and energy, plus paying competitive wages for their employees in Missoula, where the cost of housing has spiked.

“We also don’t want to pass the expense on to the paying customers, because we like keeping movies affordable, we like keeping our concessions affordable as part of our model,” said Mike Steinberg, Roxy executive director. Because it’s a nonprofit, the Roxy seeks community support for the $100,000 difference.

If this panhandling pisses you off, imagine making a documentary and having this “non-profit” screw you from the use of a theater.

For a little comparison of financial aspirations, the $10,000 dollar GoFundMe page I created to recoup costs for Engen’s Missoula has received $303 dollars. Just $9,697 dollars to go!

Really though, how do private businesses feel about this?

After vaccinations became widely available in the summer of 2021, the Roxy reopened for public screenings. Prior to that, they rented out individual theaters for private parties so people could watch a movie with their chosen “pod.” They also screened films in the garden and Ogren Park with the Paddleheads.

The efforts were recognized with the 2022 Missoula Downtown Assocation’s award for Downtown Business of the Year, which cited its “extreme creativity in programming through the pandemic as well as its powerful return to in-person movies.”

I emphasized the word “business” in the above quote because, well, is it?

Without CARES Act money–and now a panhandling campaign–the Roxy wouldn’t be anything because it would have ceased to exist. Thankfully for Mike Steinberg, government intervention saved his “business”. I hope he remembers who butters his bread when it comes time to vote.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Do I really think this 4th of July is America’s last? No, but the writing is on the wall, and the dividing lines are more prevalent than ever.

Cognitive dissonance is everywhere I look, along with institutional decay. And I mean ALL institutions. Nothing is exempt.

Instead of focusing on the notion of America’s last birthday, I’m going to remind myself that two years ago today I declared the 4th of July would be my last day of drinking alcohol, and it was.

Here’s to NOT making this 4th of July America’s last birthday.