Do You Really Want A Jermain Charlo Update, Reddit?

by Travis Mateer

When I saw Jermain Charlo’s name pop up as a Reddit notification, I went to take a look, since the anonymous crowd-sourcing capabilities of Reddit are capabilities I have given credit to in the past. I’ve also been the SUBJECT of Reddit speculation myself, which I still find pretty funny.

I don’t normally comment on Reddit threads, but when I saw Detective Baker getting roasted, I had to offer the Reddit crowd this link that features my text exchange with Guy Baker. Here are three curated comments–none of which, I will add, are mine:

The commenters were reacting to the mention of a podcast called Stolen, which I’ve referenced in critical posts like this one. Why critical? Because, as I’m about to lay out, Jermain Charlo has increasing value, but this value relies on her NOT becoming a solved case. Ever.

For the sake of this speculative value scale, let us say that Jermain Charlo enjoyed letting loose with MORE than just alcohol. As a consumer of drugs, she would have value to those selling drugs and, before her disappearance, her family would be incentivized to help stop any illicit drug use.

While the conventional thinking about the night of Jermain’s disappearance still focuses on the boyfriend, darker lines of thinking could imagine drug debts being settled, or sex trafficking scenarios developing. As the Chaplain of the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office crassly put it in the podcast, Jermain really knew how to apply makeup, meaning her natural beauty really got attention when amplified. Right, Lowell?

The value of Jermain Charlo, though, really gets into serious numbers when you understand state appropriations and narrative control. That’s why it’s important to track things like “task forces”. Not because of their ability to actually improve situations for missing and murdered indigenous people, but because of their ability to CONTROL the questions and community outrage.

Here’s what’s being proposed during THIS legislative session (emphasis mine):

Supporters of a bill that would create a special revenue account to fund the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples Task Force say it is necessary to keep the program going.

The task force was created in 2019 and the 2023 Legislature extended its authorization for ten years. According to the Montana Department of Justice, the group’s mission is to identify barriers to jurisdiction on tribal land and increase reporting and investigation into cases of missing and murdered indigenous people. Now, some lawmakers are advocating for creating a way for the task force to raise the money it needs.

Those of us concerned about homeless camps in 2021 didn’t wait around for someone to give us money, we did the work necessary because if not us, then who? And back then, four years ago now, I explicitly made the connection between camps and missing people. Since then my concerns have only expanded.

On a larger narrative control level I’ll end today’s post with a link to this fascinating video casting some curious suspicion on Joe Rogan. I may have more to say in a later post about this.

If you’d like to support my local citizen journalism, Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF) is one way to do it.

Thanks for reading!