Month: January 2023

by Travis Mateer

It’s been 8 long years since Caitlin Copple quit her Missoula City Council gig to join Hilltop Solutions, then she left Missoula altogether for the state of Idaho. Copple was the quintessential privileged white woman on City Council, using her platform to try and BAN SITTING on downtown sidewalks after one of her privilege white women friends was chased by a homeless man. When a fellow Missoulian (with a penis) pointed out her privileged skin color, Copple got VERY offended. Here’s a quote from a Missoulian article about the spat:

A perennial political candidate’s insistence on the resignation of Missoula City Councilwoman Caitlin Copple after Copple’s reference to “those of us who don’t have penises” has gone unheeded – so Kandi Matthew-Jenkins has filed a “hate crime and bias” report at City Hall.

“Since Missoula passed the diversity/anti-discrimination code I would think that a city council person would refrain from this kind of statement, considering the implications full of gender bias against men,” wrote Matthew-Jenkins in her complaint.

In a legal opinion, however, the city attorney disagreed the allegations constitute discrimination.

Copple made the remark in question at a meeting where the Missoula City Council discussed ordinance amendments dealing with pedestrian safety in the city center: “When we hear from opponents that we’re just a bunch of privileged white people, those of us who don’t have penises may have a little bit of a different experience.”

Despite abandoning her same-sex sexual orientation, Caitlin Copple is STILL promoting her misandry and racism under the guise of the WOKE realignment people like her are pimping for financial compensation. Before she blocked me on Twitter, I took a screenshot of a reply I made to one of her racist/sexist tweets. Here it is:

I’m not just bringing all this old stuff up to be an asshole. There are actual policy conversations happening in Helena RIGHT NOW that will impact how things like searches for missing persons are conducted, and if the WOKE cult had their unfettered way, I suspect they’d try to institute some kind of social credit system to prioritize limited resources. Think reparations in the form of DE-prioritizing the allocation of resources for missing white women.

You probably think that sounds crazy, but the case of Rebekah Barsotti is what I am specifically thinking about here, since this missing white woman NEVER HAD her domestic abuse history with her husband taken into consideration by local authorities when she went missing in July of 2021.

Here is a screenshot from Rebekah’s Legacy Facebook page to provide some context to the legislative conversation happening in Helena right now:

And here is an excerpt from an article that makes this unnecessarily about race (emphasis mine):

When a loved one goes missing, Native families often get tangled in a web of criminal jurisdictions shared among state, federal and tribal law enforcement entities. Frustrated with law enforcement response and a general lack of media coverage and public outcry, Indigenous families often turn to their communities for immediate assistance in finding loved ones.

Their searches rarely get the attention and public assistance that missing white people receive, to the point sociologists have a special term for the difference. “Missing White Woman Syndrome” refers to the idea that young white women — and especially those who adhere to common beauty standards and who come from wealthy backgrounds — are overrepresented in media coverage, when compared with women of other demographics. A new Columbia Journalism Review tool estimates a 21-year-old missing Native woman in Montana would receive about 35 news stories, where as a missing white woman in her early 20s would receive at least 120 articles.

Righting the wrongs of history shouldn’t entail creating NEW wrongs as some sort of fucked up balancing act, but too often that is what’s happening, especially as privileged white woman obtain and wield more power. I’m thinking of privileged white ladies like Barbara Koostra, who is suing the University while simultaneously wielding LANDLORD POWER to attack an uppity white man who forgot his place in the new normal of Democratic power politics.

If this is how privileged white woman interpret equity, I want no part of it. And neither should you.

If you appreciate this content, please consider making a financial donation at my about page.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

About three hours before I started writing this post a heavy police response was noted by the Missoulian at Hawthorne and Toole Avenue, just one block north of the Poverello Center’s main facility for homeless individuals on West Broadway. Here’s the witness account of what could be discerned during this pre-dawn raid:

Witnesses said they could see more than 10 law enforcement vehicles in the area. Officers went door to door warning residents to shelter in place on the north side of their homes along Toole.

A witness heard two loud “bangs” shortly after 5:30, followed by two more at 6:05 a.m. The officers appeared to be surrounding a parked recreational vehicle on Hawthorn Street.

On the other side of the river, at the Poverello’s Johnson Street congregate shelter, the nice fellow pictured below was arrested over the weekend for punching a pregnant woman in the stomach.

From the link:

The officer asked Doe to explain what happened. She told the officer that she was inside one of the port-a-potties and had hit the door with either her foot or her knee. Whitedirt was outside and yelled to her “are you f*****g trying to start s**t with me inside there?” Doe said that she responded with “no” and explained that she didn’t even know who Whitedirt was. 

Whitedirt responded by forcing open the door to the port-a-pottie and attacking Doe. Doe explained that Whitedirt entered the port-a-pottie and used two hands to grab either side of the collar of her sweatshirt. Whitedirt then pulled up on the collar and lifted Doe off the toilet. Doe said that this caused her sweatshirt to strangle her. She explained that she had difficulty breathing and saw stars. When she called 911, she said that she may have lost consciousness. 

After Whitedirt lifted Doe by her collar, he shoved her back down into the corner of the port-a-pottie. According to court documents, Doe said that when she tried to get up Whitedirt punched her in her belly. Doe pointed to the top center of her belly just below her ribs indicating that’s where she was punched.

Who is this Whitedirt? Is he a local, or did he come to Missoula for the liberal-enabled, target-rich environment? Looks like it could be the latter, since he was in Idaho a decade ago getting arrested before relocating to Missoula.

It’s with this backdrop in mind that I read the letter signed by Flathead County Commissioners asking their community to stop enabling the homeless. The outraged reaction to this letter from ignorant do-gooders who can’t think critically about the homeless industrial complex that compensates them is what THIS former homeless service provider is going to break down. Let’s begin.

Dear Flathead County residents,

We, the Flathead County Board of Commissioners, are addressing the community after receiving numerous complaints of an increasing and distressing problem in our valley. The Flathead Beacon recently reported that Kalispell has the second highest number of homeless in the state. If we continue to enable the homeless population, then those numbers will increase.

The simple truth is that providing homeless infrastructure has the predictable consequence of attracting more homeless individuals to our community. When a low-barrier shelter opened in our community, we saw a dramatic increase in homeless individuals. Using social media and smartphones, these wanderers are well-networked and eager to share that Kalispell has “services” to serve their lifestyle. Make no mistake, it is a lifestyle choice for some. In fact, many of the homeless encountered in our parks, streets, and alleys consist of a progressive networked community who have made the decision to reject help and live unmoored. Although well intended, facilities that offer only shelter, and no accountability, exacerbate the problem.

What is so controversial about the assertion that increasing homeless infrastructure will lead to an increase in the number of people looking for services? Not only do I find this statement to be accurate, I can even think of a particular individual who is what I consider a professional shelter-hopper. Here is the portrait the Pov took of him for their marketing/fundraising efforts:

I ran into Dane years ago while on vacation in Livingston. When I asked him what he was up to, he excitedly told me about going to Butte to check out the donated FEMA trailers Butte providers were going to use for homeless services. It shouldn’t come as any surprise that some people choose this type of living as a lifestyle. Ever hear of the Rainbow Family?

Let’s continue with the letter:

Therefore, it is our hope that our community will be unified in rejecting all things that empower the homeless lifestyle. Many times, that spare change that you give to the homeless individual standing at the intersection is used for drugs and alcohol. We are asking our peers serving on city councils to not permit or expand warming shelters that bring more of these homeless individuals to our community.

We believe that hard conversations solve hard problems. We ask members of our community to speak out about their experiences with the homeless. Only together can we make it clear to this networked homeless community that “enough is enough.”

That’s it, that’s the letter.

I don’t begrudge these Commissioners up north for wanting to put their foot down on the services that function as an attractant to increasingly violent elements of the drug culture fueling the proliferation of marginal living in Montana, which people see as “homelessness”. If I have any criticism, it’s the fact that focusing on “homelessness” puts other factors, like drug and sex trafficking, on the back-burner, where its connection to the higher end of the socio-economic spectrum (known as customers of sex/drug services) can be properly ignored.

Now, how about I say something NICE about homeless services? Because, thanks to a recent appearance from a PR person from the company Pallet, I actually DO have something nice to say, which is a surprise to me.

The woman who gave the presentation (with a nice-sounding English accent) clearly understands the dynamics of their TRANSITIONAL housing units because she emphasized that they are NOT homes and should only be used as transitional housing. The benefit of having a private space that can be locked is tremendous for people who are trying to climb out of bad situations, but infrastructure won’t matter if the human side of service delivery isn’t competent and tied to trustworthy institutions of accountability, like law enforcement. I don’t think either exist in the ways we need them to for the programs to work as intended.

The local homeless coalition in Missoula that formed last year before the crisis mill levy was voted down came up with a response to the Flathead County Commissioners. Here it is (the image might be difficult to read):

Yesterday I spoke with several businesses and one person who lost services from the congregate shelter and no one thinks what’s happening with homeless services is safe or sustainable, but this reality isn’t making it into conventional media headlines. And that’s a problem. What does make the cut is our placeholder, multi-modal Mayor condemning the Flathead Commissioners.

From the link:

“This statement lacks compassion and demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of the root causes of homelessness,” said Hess Monday night.

He added the Flathead commissioners’ assumption that social support draws homeless people into the community flies in the face of well-established evidence. Data demonstrates, “people do not generally relocate to access services at any appreciable level.”

Sure, Hessinator, I’m sure you have some data to back up your claim, but I’m willing to bet it won’t stack up to my decade of non-profit experience working the frontlines.

In my own small way I’m trying to address the problem of an uninformed public, but I’m just one person with a blog and a no-fuck-giving attitude when it comes to exposing what I know about the homeless industrial complex, and those who profit from hiding the extent of what’s happening. If you would like to help my effort, please consider making a donation at my about page.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Today I listened and watched some of the most awful testimony I’ve ever heard. The girl who took the stand in the coroner’s inquest was only 17 on November 7th, 2020, when a fight between her mother and dad escalated to physical violence. She called 911 and within seconds of arriving on scene, the responding officer, Tyler Swartz, had a chair and knife thrown at him by Jesse James Kale Brown. After deploying a taser to no effect, Swartz used lethal force, striking Brown twice in the chest. Brown died at the scene.

When this officer-involved shooting occurred, there was an immediate response from University protest culture. Protestors like Andi Hoelzel showed up outside the police station with protest signs. Remember, this was the November after the BLACK LIVES MATTER movement erupted. It must have been very exciting for these woke protestors to be out on the street PROTESTING police brutality!

See that quote above? Hoelzel was showing up to PUT PRESSURE on the chief of police and the county attorney. So, was this protestor in the gallery yesterday listening to the young woman describe jumping on her father’s back while he was strangling her mother? Was she there to hear the 911 call and the terrible cries that came in spasms as this young woman heard the shots that ended her father’s life?

Two years and two months ago, the demands coming from Missoula’s protest culture were clear:

Protesters first stopped by the corner of Ryman and Spruce Street on Nov. 8, and came back with a larger crowd Nov. 9. Signs read “MPD killed someone last night, demand justice and end police brutality,” as well as “His name was Kale Brown.”

Hoelzel said protesters understand there is an ongoing investigation from the Montana Department of Justice, which makes it difficult to release information on the case. That being said, protesters asked MPD to give more details, like the officers involved and any body camera footage.

Well, that information has now been presented in court, and guess what? The officer has been cleared of any wrong doing, which is absolutely no surprise. The structure of a coroner’s inquest places a county attorney in the position of having to examine an officer-involved death for CRIMINAL intent, and with that threshold to meet, I don’t think an officer has ever been found criminally liable for a death at the hands of law enforcement.

For more information on coroner’s inquests, this New York Time article from 2015 is worth reading, and claims Montana is the only state to require a coroner’s inquest in officer involved shootings. Despite this public process (instead of a more murky process, like grand juries in other states), the criticism from the article rings true with what I’ve seen. From the link:

Echoing criticisms of grand juries, detractors say inquests are also biased toward the police. In Montana, for example, at least 12 men have been killed in confrontations with law enforcement officers in the past two years — some of them shootouts, others cases in which the slain men were unarmed. Coroners’ juries have not sided against law enforcement in any of them.

Critics say the scales are tipped because local prosecutors, who often have working relationships with the police and sheriff’s officers, choose the witnesses and ask the questions. Victims or their lawyers can submit questions from a public gallery, but they have no power to question witnesses themselves. And the coroners are often closely aligned with law enforcement.

I don’t think someone like Andi Hoelzel actually gives a shit about this kind of criminal justice system nuance, though. And why not? Because her protesting is just an extension of her politics, which this article from 2019 clued me into. Here is Hoelzel complaining about not being able to ask Steve Daines a question alongside her DSA “comrade”, Josh Decker. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because he’s the obnoxious husband of Grace Decker, an equally obnoxious person who plays politics from her School Board/United Way positions. From the first link:

A few members of the Western Montana chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America don’t think it was a coincidence that City Club Missoula moderators did not select them to pose a question to Montana’s Republican Sen. Steve Daines at a Monday forum, but event organizers say it was.

“I think there was some direct avoidance of the table that contained predominately Democratic Socialists of America,” said Josh Decker, one of the organization’s members.

…

Decker and Western Montana DSA co-chair Andi Hoelzel believe that Jim Royan, a former chair of the local Republican Party and a former board member for City Club Missoula, purposely didn’t bring one of the microphones to the Socialists’ table. That’s because, they say, Royan and others recognized them from when they were arrested for criminal trespass for staging a sit-in at the Missoula GOP office last October to protest the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Seeing that Hoelzel is connected to disgusting political opportunists who depicted parents like me as Trump-worshipping white supremacists for being RIGHT about unnecessary overreach under the guise of “HEALTH” makes sense. Also, fuck these people. They exacerbate divisions within our community when it’s politically convenient for THEM, then ghost the actual victims of addiction and desperation because some other shiny object has captured their attention.

My favorite part about the article is how Hoelzel and Grace Decker’s obnoxious husband, Josh, got up and yelled at Steve Daines at a City Club event. I find this particularly hilarious, considering MY yelling into a megaphone across the street from where Grace Decker works at United Way resulted in Grace Decker leaving work in terror for the rest of the day, while the remaining staff were apparently directed to call the cops if I returned to the neighborhood with my terrible megaphone. From the link:

After City Club organizers told the crowd of about 200 that there would be no more questions, Hoelzel and Decker stood up and shouted at Daines that the world is in a “climate crisis.” They both quickly stopped after clapping had subsided and others told them to stop.

Daines met privately with several people in attendance after the question-and-answer session ended, and those conversations lasted about 15 minutes each. Hoelzel and Decker were not able to reach Daines to speak with him before others crowded around.

Yes, while these unfunny jokers play political games, the LONG work of the criminal justice system grinds on, and the REAL person with REAL courage in this story is the young woman who did what her own mother couldn’t do, and that’s SHOW UP and tell the jury what happened on that terrible day.

If the protestors had stuck with this case, they might have learned that Officer Swartz arrived BEFORE the two “primary” officers, and that protocol in domestic disturbance calls is for two officers to respond, so Swartz wasn’t following Missoula PD protocol when he entered the apartment. Attending this inquest would also have allowed the protestors to hear the only point of criticism Swartz received from a fellow officer, which was criticism that Swartz didn’t shoot FAST ENOUGH.

If you appreciate this content–which you can read five days a week with a wrap-up podcast episode on Sundays–please consider making a financial donation at my about page.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Have you ever been at a party with a personal supply of cocaine that gets used up by other partygoers at an alarming rate even though you suspect they have their OWN supply? This selfish behavior by fellow users of the white powder can lead a jumpy brain with dwindling supply to get agitated and dangerous. Does this drug analogy apply to the following story from the Missoula Current? I dunno, you tell me. From the link:

Lacking a guarantee from City Council, the Missoula Redevelopment Agency this week tabled a decision on funding a costly ventilation project at a city shop with toxic air without first knowing whether elected officials will approve plans for a larger revenue bond that’s needed to fund vital infrastructure work in the Scott Street district.

Yeah, screw this costly ventilation thing if it means too much TIF loot from this particular urban renewal district has to be used. Doing the heavy lifting to protect Ellen Buchanan’s crack TIF money is Tasha ‘I LIKE TO WIN‘ Jones, someone who didn’t mind raking in public money to obtain Missoula’s water company.

From the first link:

“I’m personally opposed to this at this time,” said MRA board member Tasha Jones. “There’s too many variables, and I’m uncomfortable with bringing our contingency fund down to that level with so much uncertainty around what we can count on for approvals when deciding bond measures for the great needs in this district.”

If MRA funded the air exchange for the city, it would draw its contingency fund in the Scott Street Urban Renewal District down to around $300,000. Infrastructure in the area also is needed as development picks up pace and other projects may emerge, but MRA wouldn’t have the capacity to address them.

While I don’t doubt the numbers, Zoom Chron has come across an EXCLUSIVE IMAGE of a secret vault where Ellen Buchanan takes stock of her reserve funds. HERE IT IS!

On a more serious note, awards were recently bestowed upon local Missoula influencers by the Missoula Downtown Association at their annual banquet. Here is a screenshot of what Ellen Buchanan got honored for:

I can only speculate from afar on the potent combination of MASTER planning, committee work, and BEER that goes into gentrifying this humble valley because non-believers are kept far away from the real sausage making. By the time something makes it before our City Council critters, the decision has already been made.

I look forward to finding creative ways to discover and disrupt the plans of our local elites as they continue to act terminally stricken over the denial of their crisis mill levy. That panic they are feeling is the worry of an addict that intuitively understands the party can’t last forever. Because, no, it can’t.

If you appreciate this content, please consider making a financial contribution at my about page. Any little bit helps.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Before recording this week’s wrap up of the Lee Nelson murder trial, I stopped in a local pawn shop to take a picture of their memorial for the well-known homeless man. Here it is:

If you only read local media’s brief account of the trial’s conclusion, like NBC Montana’s regurgitation of the press release, you’d be forgiven for thinking the state did a fantastic job investigating and prosecuting this horrific crime. History is written by the victor, after all.

“This case investigation was led by Detective Guy Baker and involved all of the resources the Missoula Police Department had to offer. This includes the patrol division, additional detectives, and the crime scene investigators. This case was successfully prosecuted due to a lot of hard work by Deputy County Attorney Mac Bloom and Deputy County Attorney Caitlin Creighton ,” according to a release from Missoula County.

While I hope justice was served by this trial, there are questions that possibly the sentencing portion of this process may illuminate. From the KGVO article (emphasis mine):

Bloom said now that the trial is over, the sentencing phase will take several months.

“The sentence will be determined in April, and I believe sentencing was set for April 17 at 9:00 a.m,” he said. “The court is going to set a special setting to allow the parties more time to argue for what they believe to be an appropriate sentence. We have to look at a lot of things including criminal history, background, and other information. At this point, the Department of Corrections starts preparing what’s called a pre-sentence investigation report, and that just goes through and outlines every aspect of a person’s life, their education, history, their work history, their family history, their criminal history, and prepares a report so that all the parties and the court know exactly what kind of a person we’re working with and then can tailor a sentence appropriately.”

Yes, more work for the criminal justice system means more opportunity for me to bring peeks and insights, and you can help! Just go to my about page and make a contribution today!

Next week there’s a coroner’s inquest I’ll be in court to watch, and then there’s getting back to Helena at some point to either observe or provide comment, because that sounds like fun! But not as much fun as the OUTRO to the podcast episode above, which begins at the 1 hour 13 minute mark and features a pairing of two audio clips you’ll just have to check out!

Thanks for reading/listening!