by Travis Mateer
Did I restrain myself during my public comment on Wednesday at the Public Safety Committee? I certainly tried to restrain myself because I want our elected officials to understand that without a functioning criminal justice system and local media, public safety is just an illusion. Here’s the comment, which clocked in at slightly over 3 minutes:
In my comment I mentioned the indigenous journalist, Connie Walker, and how I think she got CONNED by the pretense that we have a functioning criminal justice system in Montana. Connie Walker’s journalistic product was a podcast series called Stolen, but, sadly, that product has been discontinued by Spotify.
From the link:
Canadian journalist Connie Walker says she’d love to find a new home for her Pulitzer Prize-winning podcast after Spotify decided not to renew it.
“Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s” began as an investigation into the abuse her father suffered at a residential school.
It took home the Pulitzer’s audio reporting award and the Peabody’s podcast award earlier this year.
A Spotify spokesperson says in a statement that “Stolen” will complete its current season and the audio streaming platform will work with the podcast team to “ensure a smooth transition for wherever the series goes next.”
This series BEGAN with the story of the disappearance of Jermain Charlo, but there’s no mention of that podcast in recent reporting on Spotify’s decision to dump the series. Instead I went to Wikipedia and found some context on this podcast, including the woman who told Connie Walker about this case in the first place. From the link (emphasis mine):
The podcast is hosted by journalist Connie Walker, who previously hosted Missing and Murdered.[1] In 2019, Connie Walker left CBC to work at Gimlet Media.[2] The Search for Jermain is an eight episode season.[3] There is a bonus episode containing updates related to the case in addition to the standard eight episodes.[4] The podcast debuted on March 1, 2021.[5] While Walker’s previous reporting focused on missing persons cases in Canada The Search for Jermain focused on a case in the United States.[6] The podcast investigates the missing persons case of Jermain Charlo, a 23-year-old woman who has been missing since 2018.[7] This missing persons case received very little media attention.[8] Walker heard about the case from Lauren Small Rodriguez who works with human trafficking survivors in Missoula.[9]
I hadn’t heard about this individual and her work in the human trafficking arena, so I did a quick search and found an article from 2020 talking about some money to help survivors of human trafficking. From the link:
Lauren Small Rodriguez has spent years raising awareness about missing and murdered Indigenous women — and she’s not letting up anytime soon.
“I feel like this year is where we’re going to get a lot of work done,” she predicted last week, in her office at the Missoula Urban Indian Health Center. Here, Rodriguez is administering a $450,000 effort, the Missoula Beacon project, to better help Native American survivors of sex trafficking.
“We are going to be working with tribal nations within Montana, and we are going to be addressing and training for the indicators” of human trafficking, she explained. They’ll also be building “understanding of why human trafficking exists. What are the factors that play into it? Why is it more prominent in women of color?”
Yes, let’s understand why human trafficking exists at the level it does, but in doing so we might have a problem: what if understanding human trafficking entails understanding how members of law enforcement can be corrupted by this societal scourge?
Later in the article, a member of law enforcement who gives me GREAT PAUSE is mentioned. Are you ready for your close up, Detective Baker?
From the link:
“Dealing with trafficking victims is more difficult than most people think, because they have experienced a trauma that they have (had) repeated for days or weeks or months or years,” said Missoula Police Detective Guy Baker, who has investigated many trafficking and missing persons cases, and worked with Small Rodriguez.
“I think she’s committed and determined. Those are two very important attributes (for) someone who wants to make a difference and help these victims. … I think she’s a great person (and) a great choice for that position.”
If I was Small Rodriguez I would spend some time reflecting on this glowing endorsement from Detective Baker, but maybe that’s because my conversations don’t turn up the same kind of confidence in this Detective that he apparently has in the women he gives criminal justice access to.
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Thanks for reading!
A 57 year old woman died last night in her trailer home at Hollywood Trailer Courts according to recordings from public scanner traffic. No reporting on it today. Is there an investigation ongoing? Is it suspicious? Guess we will never know.
I strike that previous comment and commend KPAX-TV for covering this news. Feel free to delete these if you see fit.