Month: July 2024

by Travis Mateer

I was getting coffee at one of my favorite coffee shops when the barista asked me if the downtown police officer had talked to me. No, I replied, then I continued by explaining to the barista that I’m not really interested in communicating with active law enforcement, especially someone who supposedly told a downtown business owner that I’m a schizophrenic.

The job our Dedicated Downtown Police Officer has is described here at the Missoula Downtown Business Association website. From the link (emphasis mine):

The Downtown Business Improvement District focuses on improving the cleanliness, safety and economic health of Downtown Missoula. Funded by property owners within a defined boundary, the BID provides and supports a suite of programs with a finite focus on safety. The Dedicated Downtown Police Officer (DDPO) has been in place since 2009.

By state law, BIDs cannot replace services provided by the local municipality. The DDPO program is a partnership that places one selected officer to patrol Downtown Missoula specifically to focus on getting to know the inhabitants of the district, including business owners, employees, residents and the general consumers. Through connections, collaboration, and problem solving, the Downtown Police Officer focuses on building trust and relationships with the Downtown community, crime prevention, improving response times and action, and directing those in need to services.

Do I trust the downtown police officer? Before January 3rd, 2020, the answer might have been yes, but the more I have learned about how a black man can be euthanized in a liberal community like Missoula, the less inclined I am to blindly trust people wearing badges.

According to a police interview I saw with the man who allegedly choked out Sean Stevenson on that January 3rd evening inside the Poverello Center, the previous Downtown Police Officer, Bob Franke, was in the hospital room before the Sheriff’s Office pulled the plug on Sean. Why?

When I was asked by the downtown cop how I was doing last week, my response (before coffee) was honest and direct. Not that great, I said, then I asked the cop if she had read the text exchange I had with Detective Guy Baker. No, she said, then added that she doesn’t work that closely with Baker. Ok then.

The reason I decided to publish these texts is because a friend told me I was depicted as schizophrenic by this police officer, which she denied saying when I asked her. Where would a police office hear such a thing about me? The two probable answers to that question are Ellie Boldman and/or Susan Hay Patrick.

If I were to talk to someone in law enforcement I would start with Mike Colyer, our police chief, who claims that TRUST IS THE FOUNDATION of local police work. If that’s true, Mike, then you might want to chat with me about that gun incident at Sha-Ron.

I’d also consider talking to the FBI, but just for shits and giggles, since one of my sources claims that they are aware of issues with the Sheriff’s Office, but haven’t done anything about it. Maybe that’s because our local corruption goes straight up to the ladder to the state, where our Governor has backed up the Sheriff’s Chaplain in an anti-trafficking scheme that stinks to high heaven.

If Mike Colyer wants to talk, I’m available. We could discuss the history of the dedicated downtown police officer program, like how this program expanded to 7 days a week and featured cops from two VERY corrupt jurisdictions–Lake County, Montana, and Baltimore, Maryland. From the link:

Following renewal of the Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) for another 10 years, the Downtown BID and the Missoula Police Department have partnered together to provide a Dedicated Downtown Police Officer seven days a week, beginning October 20. Officer Jay Gillhouse will join officer Randy Krastel to patrol Downtown Missoula year-round on foot and on bike.

Gillhouse joined the Missoula Police Department in 2018, following nine years of service with the Lake County Sheriff’s Office. A native of Ronan, Mont., Gillhouse served seven years in the U.S. Coast Guard.

Krastel has been on the Downtown beat for 2 ½ years and has been with the Missoula Police Department since 2004. Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, he earned a B.S. in sociology and criminology from the University of Montana in 2003. Krastel was named the Downtown Employee of the Year in January for his contributions to the Downtown community in 2019.

Or, we could discuss my concern about Detective Baker and his connection to the woman who got shot in the stomach at Sha-Ron by her brother in the van I sold her so that she could get out of Montana.

As you can see, dear reader, there are serious things developing in Zoom Town, and I’m right in the middle of it all, trying to figure out what the hell is actually going on. If you’d like to assist me in this effort, donating to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is one way to help me out.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

Did I know there would be Legos?

No, when I checked out “Palestine in the Park” on Saturday the last thing I expected to find was a table featuring the colors of the Palestinian flag done up in toy bricks, but there it is.

I also didn’t expect to see the Israeli flag, but now that I’ve had a chance to chat with Rupert, who I first took notice of while representing time-travelers for Trump on campus during this protest reported by the Kaimin, I expect to see his gap-toothed smile at any future event supporting Palestine.

Rupert is a Missoulian, and so am I, and that is where I kept our conversation located–in the local dynamics where voting for Trump or Biden means nothing. Of course, since I am a bit of an absurdist agitator, I couldn’t help using a “sign” to show the gathering of well-meaning pawns what kind of topics interest me.

This image has water damage, which is why it looks the way it does, but since I consider myself a TRUE Detective, I determined I had a leak and used a little caulk to take care of it. That’s right, I’m a PROBLEM SOLVER!

On Friday I had a great conversation with Monica Perez about Grants Pass and the Supreme Court, so next week I’ll put up a link to that chat when I see it, and I’ll continue being HYPER-LOCAL with my journalism with a little bit meta with my culture-war coverage, when needed.

If you appreciate this unique blend of coverage then please consider donating to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF). The recent, and very generous, $300 donation came just in time for addressing the oil light that came on the day after my bike got stolen. Wheels, man.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

This young asshole wanted some attention on the 4th of July, so to get it he threw his skateboard at me while I was talking on the phone. I quickly ended the conversation and used the camera function to document my lovely start to the explosive commemoration of revolutionaries ending one form of tyranny in order to begin a new form.

Before we get to the video clip of this apparently intoxicated Native who conveniently pulled out the HOMELESS card as I called him out on his anti-social behavior, here’s the link to my piece for Western Montana News, titled From Local Ordinance to Supreme Court: Unpacking Missoula’s Urban Camping Debate. Check it out!

Now, here’s the clip:

I needed a drunk Native to remind me of reality because, the previous evening, I started getting that TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE feeling after a gorgeous woman listened intently to my Lego street presentation and a $300 dollar donation came in. Now, on this 4th of July morning, I was pulled into a fight-or-flight response after realizing my $1,000 dollar REI Co-op bike was just stolen, lock be damned.

Happy birthday, America!

It’s cool, I had way too many wheels anyways, what with my rollerblades and TWO vehicles. Also, my latest challenge gave me some insight into where stolen bikes might end up when a street woman heard my lament and told me the camps across from Yoke’s are where some bike thieves reside. I this the same area where I found and removed the homeless sex swing? Yes. Yes it is.

Will the sex swing come up in my conversation with Monica Perez later this morning? It might, along with other homeless related insights I’ll be providing when the live stream starts in a few hours. If you’d like to hear other interviews I’ve done, this post about my “fame” has some links.

I started unpacking the national conversation about homelessness in yesterday’s post after two major publications used Missoula as an example. I will continue all that unpacking soon, so stay tuned!

If you’d like to assist my local efforts, you don’t need to drop $300 bucks like that recent anonymous donor to put a smile on my face. I’m happy to see ANY amount trickle in to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) because I know how financially squeezed most people are these days. Thank you to EVERYONE who has pitched in so far, it’s a tremendous boost to my bank account AND my butthurt-prone ego.

Next week I’ll be covering the most detailed piece of propaganda I have ever seen about Tax Increment Financing, which also has me smiling. Why? Because I know our local narrative controllers have to put lots of energy into controlling this particular narrative because that pesky documentary, ENGEN’S MISSOULA, hit their control valve and hit it HARD.

And that makes me happy.

Thanks for reading!

by Travis Mateer

The picture you are looking at is the very first “H.O.T. call” I received after launching the Homeless Outreach Team program in 2011 for the Poverello Center. The idea was to offer the Missoula community an alternative to 911 for NUISANCE issues related to chronic homelessness. Here’s how the program was recently described by The Pulp (emphasis mine):

The organization’s Homeless Outreach Team — which has grown from one to five people since 2011 — builds relationships with people living on the street and provides food, gear, support and connection to services. The team also works with businesses to help them understand the issues and better interact with unhoused people.

About five years ago, the team found a man who broke his hip by the river and got him to medical treatment, Border Patton said.

“They’re kind of the only ones going out to these camps and making sure folks are OK,” she said. “Just checking in with them, having relationships has been really good.”

Yes, that ONE person the program began with was me, and the work I did to establish the credibility of this new program was monumental, especially with law enforcement. This difficult work is one reason I find the politicizing of the program I started so disgusting.

The national media has been getting more and more interested in what Missoula is doing about homelessness. For example, last September it was the Wall Street Journal examining our little mountain town.

And now Bloomberg is getting in on the action, but are they reporting ACCURATELY about what’s happening in Missoula? Let’s take a look and see.

From the link:

The city of Missoula says it is trying to balance public safety, health and conservation concerns with scarce resources. But some advocates say the law is so broad that it’s still effectively a ban.

“All they’re trying to do is find a way to get back to punishing people,” said William Knight, decriminalization director at the National Homelessness Law Center. “If all of these restrictions are so broad that they are creating, essentially a de facto categorical ban, then it’s no different than what Grants Pass was doing.”

Hey William, I think there’s a word for what you’re shoveling to the Bloomberg readership and that word is BULLSHIT!

How do I know that William Knight is peddling bullshit about our local officials just wanting to “get back to punishing people”? Well, I’m basing this assertion on the description of a term used recently by the director of Parks and Red, Donna Gaukler, as she was describing the challenges of cleaning up after urban crisis campers. The term I got clarification on earlier this week is NEEDLE TRAP and you won’t believe the explanation I received explaining why needle traps are NOT booby traps.

Here’s the email from Becky Goodrich that exemplifies how excuses are still being made for homeless camper behavior that I think sounds pretty dangerous and aggressive:

Here’s more from the Bloomberg article that requires unpacking from a knowledgeable former insider like myself (emphasis mine):

The new law is an 180-degree pivot from where the city was in 2022. Wanting to respond compassionately to visible homelessness while maintaining public order, officials initiated a different sort of response: They set up a homeless encampment that was overtly sanctioned by the city and could be regulated.

Many campers saw the city-sanctioned site as a potential solution. But the city shut down the experiment after just 10 months over concerns about safety, sanitation, overcrowding and fire. People displaced from the site ended up camping in more visible parts of town. 

“You guys keep telling us where we can’t be, but you’re not telling us where we can go,” said Tully Sanem, a member of the Unhoused Neighbors Union, which formed last summer to give unhoused residents a voice in local debate.

When I see Tully’s name pop up again lamenting about having no where to go I think about how two years ago he was spending money to build his little shanty because, like other crisis campers, he was under the impression he could do whatever he wanted at the “Authorized Camping Site”.

Here’s a quote I selected when I wrote about this shit-show two years ago. The emphasis is still mine:

The destruction of the structures presented a significant financial loss to campers like Sanem, who invested almost $800 into pallets, nails and tools to build a sturdy apparatus.

“I wanted a structure because I don’t want to be huddling up in five blankets when it’s 15 degrees outside,” he said. “I go out, and I work, and I contribute, and I engage in commerce and I help so many people out. I should not have to live in squalor.”

Beyond the immediate security a structure provided to Sanem, he wanted to use the stability of the building to build a foundation for a better life.

“That’s what you need, a foundation,” he said.

He hoped to build up the structure and use it as a base of operations to potentially start a small business or nonprofit building crafts with the other residents of the Authorized Camping Site.

“I wanted to make it a home because everybody wants a home,” he said.

The situation is especially frustrating, Sanem noted, because he checked with authorities at the camp before moving in about six weeks ago.

“We all had the understanding we could do whatever we wanted to do,” he said.

Sorry, Tully, but you are wrong about being able to build favela-style living structures because this isn’t Brazil. Yet.

Another contributing factor to the Authorized Camping Site closing down two years ago was the fallout after Griffin Smith, a reporter, was “invited” to the site by a camper and just happened to capture the security staff wearing masks.

I got suckered by this reporting because of limited information, but after quite a few insightful conversations with the head of Rogers International, David Pritchard, I have a VERY different impression of what went down two years ago, and why. If Griffen Smith would like to interview me about it, he has my number.

To help set the record straight I’ll be doing a live interview with Monica Perez tomorrow, starting at 9am Pacific Standard Time. Monica’s audience will get treated to an insider perspective exposing the Homeless Industrial Complex in Missoula and why the “suite of homeless services” reported by Bloomberg are destined to fail (emphasis mine):

Since 2021, the city has deployed a new suite of homeless services using pandemic-era relief funds. It opened a new shelter, expanded an existing temporary outdoor safe space, mobilized a new street outreach team and created the city-run authorized camping site. It added 165 emergency shelter beds since 2020, according to homelessness services providers, including opening a year-round low-barrier shelter, which doesn’t require eligibility applications or sobriety for entry.

But there isn’t the housing or the services to match the need, advocates say, especially when large congregate shelters are not the best fit for everyone, and high rents expand the ranks of households on the brink. “Shelter is not the answer to solving homelessness,” said Carlson.

I reached out to the author of this article, Patrick Spauster, about this “new street outreach team”, but so far haven’t heard anything back. If I do, I’ll make sure to report on what I find out.

Later today my article on this topic will post at Western Montana News, so stay tuned for more insights only a former insider can provide.

If you appreciate learning more than what national media can ascertain about homelessness in Missoula, then please consider donating to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF). I just checked my account and was VERY happy to see a new $300 dollar anonymous donation come in. Thank you anonymous donor!

And, as always, thank you for reading!

by Travis Mateer

For those unfamiliar with the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office, the man on the left is the former Sheriff, T.J. McDermott, and the man on the right is our current Sheriff, Jeremiah Petersen. Both men were elected by the public to be Sheriff, and both men need to be reminded who they work for.

The County raises in compensation reported by Gomer’s rag make Sheriff Petersen the second highest paid employee of the County. Matt Jennings, our lead County Attorney, is number one.

“We comparatively look at other counties across the state to determine compensation,” said county CAO Chris Lounsbury. “They were looking at a 3% cost-of-living adjustment for elected officials. It’s in keeping with what’s happening for our non-union personnel staff.”

The Missoula County attorney remains the highest paid elected official with a total salary now set at $148,865, followed by the Missoula County sheriff at $147,748.

With human remains found in the Deep Creek area over the weekend, I did my own legwork by making calls to the crime lab, the funeral home, then driving out to the area to see what I could see (nothing much). Turns out, all I really needed to do was check out Reddit.

My call to the funeral home was worth it, though, because the guy on the phone said a couple noteworthy things, like the likelihood of remains being taken directly to the crime lab by the Sheriff’s Office if the remains were just bones.

The other notable comment from the funeral home supervisor? In response to my comment about the powerful role of the Sheriff’s Office when combined with the duties of the Coroner, he said “Yep, the Sheriff is the most powerful law enforcement in the state”.

The reason I visited the Reddit thread is because I noticed an overnight spike in my stats. The post getting the attention was this one about Joey Thompson, and it was linked in the thread to back up a commenter making the claims I had written about. When I read the following comment, I immediately screen-shot it. Here it is:

Another comment clarified that “beat the body” meant Kasen wanted to get downstream to find the body before anyone else did. To this day the individual who found Joey Thompson’s body in the Clark Fork river hasn’t been publicly identified.

For more information on this particular example of the Sheriff’s Office capabilities, or lack thereof, here are the posts I’ve written about the disappearance and death of Joey Thompson:

Some Curious Things NOT Happening In The Joey Thompson Missing Person Case (May 5th, 2023)

Who Knows What Happened to Joey Thompson? (May 15th, 2023)

We Adults Are Failing The Friends Of Joey Thompson (May 20th, 2023)

Why Are Two Sheriff Offices Now Failing To Call Me Back Or Acknowledge Any Investigation In The Death Of Joey Thompson? (May 28th, 2023)

Who Found Joey Thompson’s Body In The Clark Fork River, And Where? (June 19th, 2023)

Joey Thompson’s Death Certificate Information Has Finally Been Released, Now What? (June 29th, 2023)

If you appreciate an open-source citizen journalist like myself using tools like Reddit to show how pathetic the “real” investigators are in this town, then consider donating to Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF). No one else is doing the kind of work I’m doing in this town, and the retaliation I’ve earned from the narrative controllers is a good indicator I’m over the target.

Thanks for reading!