Month: March 2024

by Travis Mateer

I’m going to do my best with this post to NOT engage in petty name-calling because I don’t think Council members like Kristen Jordan are actually retarded, but if the focus of City Council remains fixated on language, like the word SWEEPS, and depicting temperatures of 32 degrees as EXTREME WEATHER, then my resolve could be impacted.

Since our city is almost totally incapable of holding chronic homeless individuals accountable, other institutions and agencies must pay the cost, and the bill for the most recent damage is upwards of $20,000 thousand dollars. From the link:

When NBC Montana started reporting on trash cleanups in the West Broadway Street area, we learned about holes dug into the bank of the Clark Fork River.

After removing some of the retaining wall, individuals dug underneath the sidewalk, creating nooks for belongings. According to sources, if not handled the holes could cause structural damage.

…

The street and sidewalk are property of MDT. Felix said the cost of the repairs could be as much as $20,000.

He added that the repairs along the banks of the Clark Fork should be finished by next week.

The funniest part of this brief article is MDOT’s request made to Missoula law enforcement for more patrols. I guess they’re hoping that our POLICE department is more responsive than our SHERIFF’S office when it comes to NOT allowing no-go zones to develop around Missoula.

An official with MDT said they’ve requested a higher police presence in the area to make sure this doesn’t happen again.

Good luck with your appeal to law enforcement, MDOT, though I am somewhat encouraged that ONE problematic individual might be starting to experience the consequences of his actions.

Is this the guy I wrote about last December who tried a write-in campaign for Sheriff in Whatcom County in Washington State? Yes it is, and I’ve gotten some new insights into this man’s presence in Missoula, so I’ll be extra curious about his continued attempts to advocate for his fellow homeless friends who benefit from our ignorant officials constantly playing the victim card for them.

For a glaring example of how ignorance continues to paralyze the local conversation surrounding “urban camping”, here’s an article about the EXTREME WEATHER ordinance that Councilors started debating on Wednesday (emphasis mine):

Missoula City Council committee held off from making a decision Wednesday on an ordinance change that would stop city cleanup of homeless camps or relocation sweeps during extreme weather, which one councilor said has happened several times in the last year.

Some councilors opposed the change, saying the city is already addressing the issue through the recently formed, multi-partner Urban Camping Working Group. Missoula Mayor Andrea Davis said in a statement that the city already limits any cleanups or sweeps during extreme cold or heat. 

Ward 6 city councilor Kristen Jordan proposed stopping all camp sweeps or cleanups when the temperature dips below 32 degrees or gets higher than 100 degrees. She said people are subject to health concerns in those conditions, and those living outside are more vulnerable to frostbite or heatstroke.

If Kristen Jordan is actually worried about the “health concerns” of chronically homeless drug addicts, how about focusing on the unhealthy action of GOBBLING DANGEROUS DRUGS instead of the fucking weather? Why doesn’t that form of virtue signaling ever occur from woke complainers like Jordan?

Maybe the answer is because Kristen Jordan now assumes she knows what’s happening on the streets because she’s witnessed actions taken by the city with HER OWN EYES.

“I’ve observed the forced removal of people and disposal of private property with my own eyes,” Jordan said, adding later, “Hiding tents is not what we are trying to protect. Requiring people to collect their home and move during these events are what we are trying to mitigate.”

Getting mired in the details of Missoula’s triage approach to this intractable problem is just one of the barriers to officials like Jordan actually understanding the bigger picture dynamics at play here. Thankfully this town has a kick-ass journalist (me) with sources who help me understand what’s REALLY happening on the streets, including how ignorant virtue-signalers are easy marks for the criminal element lurking behind chronic drug abuse.

I’m looking forward to helping our officials understand why this latest ordinance is a stupid waste of time, and why the idiotic focus on language, like SWEEPS, is going to result in a poet (me) writing MORE poems with language that will ensure the virtue-signalers are paying attention.

Speaking of language, if I confirm a venue this week, next month could feature a poetry reading unlike any poetry reading you have ever attended, so stay tuned. And don’t forget that funding my efforts is as easy as a few clicks, starting here.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

After getting her marching orders from Harvard, Mayor Davis paid Susan Hay Patrick for a photo-op, but I suspect Mayor Davis will be getting MUCH MORE from this “donation” of excess campaign funds than a mere image because, in my opinion, this photo signals Davis’ willingness to work with Missoula’s cabal of NON-elected influencers.

Crossing this cabal is not advisable because they LOVE using asymmetrical methods of retaliation, like when Susan Hay Patrick told a NBC Montana reporter that I was mentally unstable because she didn’t want that reporter getting too close to the PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP enjoyed by another influential entity, and that’s Blue Line Development, a business I recently compared to a cancerous growth.

What did Susan Hay Patrick know about the LifeGuard Group in September of 2022? Did she know about specific concerns related to their activities? Hell yes she did, but schmoozing opportunities, like this Chamber of Commerce event featuring BOTH the LifeGuard Group and the United Way, appeared to take priority. Here are some screenshots from the link (emphasis mine)

I wrote about the “Sentinel Project” and the absurd plan to transform alcohol distributors into some ridiculous first line of defense against human traffickers, but what I did NOT write about is how Susan Hay Patrick was given VERY specific information about the LifeGuard Group around this time and, for a short minute, she even pretended like she was going to do something about it. When I started realizing it might be a set-up to ensnare me in something, I shifted away from doing anything disruptive at the Chamber event.

I took my TOLD YOU SO tour to the Chamber yesterday and showed off the Missoulian article about Lowell’s family-run “non-profit” to some nice folks who were careful to say that they aren’t a political organization, and so have no official comment, but they DID seem to enjoy LISTENING because I can be quite entertaining, especially when I’m feeling cautiously optimistic that a shift is happening toward transparency and exposure after years of sounding like a crazy person when I describe local corruption in direct conversations.

Today the Public Safety Committee is meeting, so I might take my TOLD YOU SO TOUR out for a three minute public comment. Last week I entertained the committee with the beginning of my Libtard/Lawcuck poem, but today I think I’ll take a less poetic approach, since this bullshit is being discussed today:

Yes, we don’t want to disturb chronic addicts and their cartel-supplied dealers from their liberally-enabled destiny of living in meth-fueled outdoor drug colonies when it’s raining. Right, Missoula?

Do our elected leaders need another reminder that nature abhors a vacuum, meaning vigilantism WILL FILL THE VOID left by the slow-motion collapse of our criminal justice system? I think maybe they do, and I am happy to oblige.

Stay tuned for more local perspective from a zero-fuck giving journalist with 23 years of living and working in Zoom Town as I look to help this shift along with a few strategic shoves in the right places.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Last night, while I waited for the new format that places public comment on NON-agenda items near the end of City Council business on Monday evenings, I read about the “mysterious” man cleaning up homeless trash along West Broadway.

The mysterious identity of who is doing an unauthorized cleanup is only a mystery to the Missoulian’s David Erickson, who got embarrassingly shown up by NBC Montana on the same day his reporting posted.

First, the Missoulian (emphasis mine):

There aren’t a lot of facts about the situation available, but apparently a mysterious private group or solitary citizen spent the last few days removing trash and people’s valued belongings from the West Broadway island area and piling it on the public sidewalk nearby.

That has caused a headache for the city, because it has pre-empted an official city cleanup scheduled for this Thursday, created a hazardous situation for city workers and robbed community members living unsheltered of their private property in some instances.

Facts aren’t available? Isn’t your job to GO OUT AND GET THEM, Dave? Because NBC Montana didn’t seem to have any trouble finding the individual and–GASP!–interviewing him! And here’s his resolve to KEEP DOING what he’s doing, even if it results in citations and fines (emphasis mine):

Tollefson grew up in Missoula, and he’s never seen it like this before, so he did what he thought was right.

In late February, he took it upon himself to start cleaning the bank of the river — spending his time off from work to tidy up the place he loves.

“There has to be a solution, man,” Tollefson said. “I just don’t think that giving them syringes and clothing and food and watching it all end up in the river is the solution.”

When he started cleaning, he placed the trash where everyone could see it — on the sidewalk — reminding others that just because it’s out of sight doesn’t mean it should be out of mind. That’s when he got in a little trouble.

In early March, Tollefson received a citation from the city for blocking the sidewalks. He said police showed up and questioned his motives.

“I said, ‘Are you going to take me to jail for picking up garbage?’” Tollefson said.

But the citation didn’t deter him. Now he’s just strategic about where he’s placing the debris.

Isn’t this something? It’s especially galling to read about this police response when you realize that Missoula police were much less concerned about issuing citations when an open fire pit of burning homeless trash started exploding in January.

Before making my comment, I had to listen to a couple who have been complaining about their sidewalk assessment since 2018, when they used their relationship with Mayor John Engen to stop the first attempt to bring sidewalks to their neighborhood. For some context about this sidewalk controversy, check out the following posts:

Political Retaliation (December 8th, 2019)

Shoving Sidewalk Costs On Homeowners While Rewarding Engen Loyalists With TIF Handouts Gives Daniel Carlino Cover To Keep Going (March 30th, 2022)

Who Is Gonna Care About Your Sidewalk Complaining Now? (November 29th, 2023)

Since I know BOTH these complainers, I can say they BOTH deserve to eat this cost. Why? Because Kathleen Kimble got her paychecks (when she worked) from the narrative controllers at the Missoulian, and William Fleischman, aka “Problembear“, got his paychecks from driving a public bus (when he worked), and he’s STILL working on electing Democrats in Montana, so my suggestion to them is this: pay for the policies your party is pushing on the rest of us and SHUT THE FUCK UP!

Around 7:30pm, after this couple used up more than 6 minutes of combined time for their complain campaign, I finally got my opportunity to comment, though I did so over the phone. Here it is:

https://vimeo.com/922453798?share=copy

In my comment I encourage our officials to KEEP IT UP because their actions will ensure a vigorous swing of the pendulum as the public slowly realizes how absurd and corrosive our leadership has become.

Last spring I launched Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) to specifically address the negative community impact of “urban camping” because I don’t just complain, I take action, and I do so even if it costs my modest bank account four figures to accomplish. The result? See for yourself:

AA#1-Travis’ Impact Fund’s First Report! (March 29th, 2023)

AA#2-From North Russell To Camper Fire (March 31st, 2023)

AA#3-From Kim Williams Trail To North Hellgate (April 6th, 2023)

AA#4-From West Broadway Island To Silver Park (April 10th, 2023)

AA#5-Houseless Contact Conversations Plus Bonner And East Broadway (April 12th, 2023)

AA#6-Yoke’s To Southside Road And More (April 14th, 2023)

AA#7-The Meth Den Clean-Up That Synchronistically Culminated With A Press Conference On Homeless Camps (April 27th, 2023)

The Meth Den, Homeless Camp Clean Up Video I Spent $1,200 Dollars To Make Because Someone Needs To Step Up And Get Shit Done! (April 27th, 2023)

Stupid Trash Wars, A Political Non-Profit Pretender, And Me Showing Everyone How To Actually Get Shit Done! (June 21st, 2023)

https://vimeo.com/821448479

That’s right, my efforts removed 2.84 tons of trash from JUST ONE SITE before spring runoff put this disgusting mess into our prized river. You’re welcome.

Is it frustrating to warn about shit happening, then having to watch what I’ve been warning about materialize? Fuck yes it’s frustrating, but I can tell you from direct experience that TAKING ACTION is very gratifying, and the grassroots collaborating that emerged last spring looks like it might continue.

If you’re tired of watching the bullshit, stay tuned here for opportunities to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. We might even manage to have some fun!

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

I have developed a unique approach to understanding local power dynamics that the above image brilliantly encapsulates. How does my shit-talking echo-location methodology work? It’s simple. I go around town, talking shit, and what bounces back at me when a certain name is included gets added to the pile.

In the summer of 2022 the incoming call on my phone said FBI, but it was really Detective Guy Baker. Why was Baker calling me? Well, the way a young girl was selling flowers didn’t sit right with me and the woman I was with, so I did something about it, then I wrote about it because that’s what I do.

The call was a result of all the preliminary work I had done, including emailing my disappointment to the County Commissioners after my attempt to utilize 911 proved to be worthless. Here’s what I wrote at the time about how my concerns were handled by Baker:

The follow up call came a few days later, and I guess it was intended to put my concerns to rest. I was told by Detective Baker that a vigorous 6-8 hour investigation revealed the man was indeed a Russian out-of-stater traveling with his “family” from western Washington. There were two boys and a woman who appeared to be the “mother”. This family’s behavior had caused another bystander to call 911 two days after I did, and this concerned citizen took pictures, something Guy Baker suggested I could have done to make his job easier.

Yes, instead of saying THANK YOU, Detective Baker gave me tips on how I could have gotten MORE involved in order to make his job easier. For some reasons that makes me think of Colton Peterson, the young 21 year old man Missoula authorities pushed into committing suicide, despite the clearly articulated concerns of his parents before he went to O’Brien Creek and shot himself.

Police say Peterson got on the wrong side of the law in July working as a medical marijuana caregiver. He was licensed by the state to grow six marijuana plants for a single patient, and six plants for himself, but a tip to law enforcement from an informant allegedly revealed a larger grow operation at his apartment.

That tip led to a raid on July 26 and an eventual agreement between Peterson and detectives on Missoula’s High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas task force – he would work as a “cooperative defendant,” gathering string on potentially more serious drug dealers in the area, and in exchange police would tell prosecutors he had cooperated with the investigation.

While I have no direct knowledge of Baker’s involvement with THIS case, there is other knowledge I have, including how the use of a very potent word might be used to get certain results, and that word is SNITCH. Unfortunately, there is knowledge that I will never have, like knowing what Sean Stevenson and Johnny Lee Perry could have known about local power dynamics before they died.

Before I lost my last studio space and considered going on a Good Samaritan Gone Bad Tour, I did that shit-talking thing when an old man came out of his massage session. The result? He knew Baker as a little kid because they lived on the same street. Did I know his dad was cop, the man asked? Yes, I said, and I even know the infamous nickname.

Before I disclose this closely kept piece of information, let me string together some other interesting data points worth noting, like another conversation I had at that same studio space with a man about his dog. If you don’t think my shit-talking echo-location methodology is an effective tool, then listen to what my roommate witnessed as he helped me move shit out of my studio.

The man approached the building with a working dog (a real one, not some emotional support con job), and it was because of the breed that I asked the man if he knew David Barsotti. At first the answer was no, but when I described how David Barsotti supposedly shot and killed one of his BELGIAN MALINOIS dogs for biting him, the man realized that YES, he actually had been cold-called on the phone by someone he thinks was probably Barsotti about the business of breeding Belgian Malinois.

Did I forget to mention David’s wife, Rebekah, ALSO ended up dead, along with one of their Belgian Malinois dogs?

On July 26, Sheriff Toth announced on social media that Rebekah’s dog, Cerberus, had been found dead in the Clark Fork River by the Mineral County Search and Rescue team, about 10 miles downriver from where authorities believe Rebekah and the dog went into the water.

What do these kind of dogs have to do with Detective Guy Baker? Well, some of the shit-talking I like to do involves criticizing Baker’s use of dogs in the Jermain Charlo case, like implying with my charming cynicism that FOUR MONTHS to get FBI dogs onto the property of the ex-boyfriend sure seems like an “unintentional” gift to the ex-boyfriend, since the blood on the clothes they found were admissible due to how long they were out in the elements.

The Jermain Charlo case got Guy Baker plenty of mainstream media attention (something he may have acquired a habit for after his experience with KRAKauer), and it got the host of the podcast, Stolen, inteviews with Rolling Stone, where Connie Walker had this to say about the jurisdictional maze she entered (bold is the question):

I know reservations have different law enforcement separate from the rest of the state or town. Does that make your work difficult? It’s interesting for me because I feel like I’m getting an education about all of the jurisdictional mazes that exist for indigenous people in the United States. But Jermain’s reservation, the Flathead Reservation, they have tribal police, but they also have county oversight. So the local counties are also working in collaboration with tribal law enforcement, and in Jermain’s case, as well. And Jermain’s case is also unique in that she’s a tribal member, she’s a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes. And she was reported missing to tribal police by her mother. But she also was last seen in Missoula, so her family also reported her missing to the Missoula’s city police. I think, there are, actually, four or five different counties that have jurisdiction on the reservation. So depending on where you are on the reservation, a different sheriff’s office might respond to your call.

While Connie moves on to exploit other communities for “true crime” dollars, I’m still here, wondering if I should call it a coincidence or trolling that the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office just got some new pups. Can you guess the breed?

From the link (emphasis mine):

The Missoula County Sheriff’s Office announced on Facebook that they are welcoming a dual purpose K9 named Django.

Django is a 15-months-old Belgian Malinois/Dutch Sheperd mix who was born in Hungary.

He is trained in detecting narcotics, evidence searches, tracking, building searches and apprehension.

Throwing out data points, while definitely a part of my methodology for weaving together these amazing posts I offer for free, is not how I came across Detective Baker’s nickname, and I wouldn’t be sharing this nickname now if I hadn’t heard it multiple times, like at a downtown location that shall remain nameless.

This shop-owner, who knows shit, was actually there with no one else around, and I had my copy of the Missoulian to show him Lowell’s funny face on the cover, so after doing some shit-talking he asked me, as if testing me, if I knew Detective Guy Baker’s nickname.

YES I DO, was my reply…GAY BIKER!

Juvenile? Sure, because I think it came from juveniles twenty years ago, but for some reason it stuck. And it makes me smile every time I think about it.

If you enjoy the fruits of my mutha fukin methodology, a little support would be most appreciated.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

On Friday, the Missoulian article you see me holding up for the camera posted online and, after the shock of seeing a story I’ve spent over two years laying the foundation for wore off, I compiled all the coverage from Zoom Chron I could find and unleashed this post, which officially kicked off the I TOLD YOU SO TOUR.

The sting of paying EIGHT DOLLARS for two hard copies of the Missoulian was offset by a generous donation I recently received of $60 dollars at my GoFundMe page. Besides the occasional donation, my local reporting efforts have been entirely self-funded since I left the non-profit sector 4 years ago to pursue creating content full time. Is this sustainable? My bank account says no, so I will continue asking readers to help out, when possible, because things are REALLY starting to heat up.

Obtaining copies of the Missoulian turned out to be more difficult than I expected. Wordens downtown no longer carries our local newspaper, nor does the Good Food Store. The guy behind the counter of the GFS said delivery had become too inconsistent, so they just stopped. Great job, Lee Enterprises!

While I was at the grocery store I noticed a delivery truck picking up food, so I went over to include these good Christians from RIVER OF LIFE in my tour. Did they appreciate knowing my unfiltered opinion on the type of man I think Lowell Hocchalter is? Is sure hope they did!

The Missoula County Sheriff’s connection to River of Life is Jason Johnson, the former under-Sheriff who got the litigation party started about a decade ago with his use of the VICTIM CARD when he and pal, T.J., decided to go political. From the link:

County Sheriff Carl Ibsen discriminated against former public information officer Jason Johnson for his political beliefs.

Investigator Dennis Unsworth completed his report Thursday, affirming Johnson’s complaint that he was demoted from the PIO position after Detective Sgt. T.J. McDermott and Johnson announced their plans to run as sheriff and undersheriff, respectively.

It also upholds Johnson’s belief that Ibsen retaliated against him after he complained of the discrimination.

Johnson, now a detective, alleged he lost part of his pay, was required to use his own vacation time to attend official grievance meetings and was forced to work in a noisy area commonly called “the pit.”

This law enforcement drama that arrived in force with the ascendency of former Sheriff, T.J. McDermott, reminds me of something, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Maybe this image will help focus my thinking:

If you think I’m being unfair with this characterization, well, let me offer a video clip of Lowell Hochhalter, the chaplain of the Sheriff’s Office, begging God to kill his enemies. Should Lowell win some kind of award for this performance?

https://vimeo.com/749826840?share=copy

Are you beginning to see why I’m wearing a clown nose up top? This is clearly a fucking clown show, so putting on a round red nose feels more than appropriate.

My tour on Friday took me to campus, where the photo-ops were more plentiful than the conversations, but I expect that to change next week when I return to all the fancy places in academia where some education is needed about the recent developments in our failed state of Montana.

Also, I’ve got a fundraiser event I’m trying to put together for next month, so stay tuned for details about a fun way to support my work. This fundraiser will feature me reading some poems I’ve been working on, like my O Chaplain! My Chaplain! ode to Lowell Hochhalter, modeled after the famous poem by Walt Whitman. Will the University of Montana come to regret the education I received? I hope so!

I think that will do it for today’s SPRING FORWARD Sunday post. Now I need more coffee because last night was a LATE night, and the shit I learned from the streets was significant.

Thanks for reading!