Tuesday was apparently cop day for this citizen journalist who once sympathized with the challenges law enforcement faces as society breaks down in real time. After experiencing the high priority law enforcement has for vehicles with only one functioning headlight, combined with their odd lack of curiosity about what objective video footage would tell them about the Toyota Tundra that tried to take me out on my bike last week, I decided the Transportation Policy Board should hear about what cops are doing and NOT doing.
That’s right, I made yesterday’s public comment in person because I’ve only been legally forbidden from attending Monday and Wednesday City Council meetings, not Tuesday Transportation meetings. I’m sure church crashers like Danny Tenenbaum and Ukrainian train lovers like Dave Strohmaier were REALLY HAPPY to see me!
Later in the day I was biking to Flippers when I saw a significant police response at the Babs, an idyllically situated property on the Hip Strip that’s now mostly short-term rentals. I was able to get VERY close to the action with my phone and my presence went completely undetected by our boys and girls in blue. That’s pretty shitty “op-sec” (operational security) if you ask me.
After the excitement settled down I spoke with the woman who triggered this response. Apparently she was mistaken about what unit was hers and, because the man who was rightfully in his own unit got up and locked the door on her, she called 911 to report what she assumed was an intruder.
Is an overwhelming response for a tourist and an underwhelming response for a reluctant multi-modal citizen journalist the kind of priorities we can expect from the cops who just got a raise recently?
The new contract will raise police wages by 13.5% in fiscal year 2025, 10.5% in 2026, and 7.5% in 2027. Four percent is the standard base increase that would have been given regardless of negotiations.
“These wages are reasonable and they align with market rates,” Missoula’s Chief HR Officer Angela Simonson said.
Before I get to my final piece of video content there’s a rumor that Missoula’s most famous Detective might be retiring, so I sent an email yesterday to the Public Information Officer who generally give me the most useless responses to see if I could confirm this rumor. If true, I have a pretty good idea what his next move is, so I’ll be doing what I can to help with the transition.
Now, the last piece of content I’d like to share for this mid-week post is the song version of the little history lesson I included in Monday’s post about the history of the Sheriff role in America. Why read about history when you can listen to a shit-talking song about it?
On Saturday I capped off a long week by doing some community awareness work at the Clark Fork Market with my Lego sign, the one that puts my Marijuana DUI up against Missoula’s State Senator, Ellie Boldman’s, alcohol DUI.
Did I learn anything? Yes, I learned it’s definitely not the quantity of people I talk to that can be so impactful, it’s the quality, like shit-talking Detective Guy Baker to the retired police chief who hired Baker in the first place. How’s THAT for a quality audience!
Did I know I was talking to retired police chief, Pete Lawrenson, when the conversation started? No, he didn’t give me that context until I was three or four anecdotes in, anecdotes that compelled Lawrenson to finally assess that my informed opinion sounded “exaggerated” and “judgmental” to him.
“I hope you’re right and I’m wrong,” I said after telling Lawrenson stories like the time I shamed Detective Baker into investigating the “flower girl” who turned out to be just an innocent little Russian girl, according to Baker, who I assume is an expert on little Russian girls.
Earlier in the week I attempted to schedule a mental health assessment in order to check off the last box for my court-mandated attitude adjustment program. Could Partnership Health Center help me? No, after I went in person to their main facility to get this simple task done I was given a phone number so the poorly-trained woman at the other end of the phone could give me the brush off.
When I told my probation officer about this she was confused. None of her other clients had ever had trouble getting this requirement taken care through this “health” recipient of LOTS of federal funds, dollars earmarked to specifically help poor crazy assholes like me.
On Tuesday I was nearly run off the road by a man in a brown Toyota Tundra. After veering into the bike lane and nearly hitting me, I called 911 and reported this incident. Nothing happened.
The next day I saw the same exact truck at a stop light on Front street, so I took a picture of the license plate and called 911 again to see if THIS time something would happen. Did something happen? Yes, the cop assigned to this incident contacted the man, and the man said he wasn’t on that side of town the previous day. Since I hadn’t contacted any local businesses to do the cop’s job for him and get video footage to back up my claim that this asshole tried to hit me, or was driving recklessly at the very least, the cop said that was the extent of what he could do.
When I realized this cop was going to give me the I’d-rather-be-eating-a-donut routine, I hung up on him and went down to the station to get the incident number. If I’m being targeted with a more serious level of harassment, I’m going to document the shit out of it.
The incident some Missoulians think expedited the departure of Pete Lawrenson–the “Hell’s Angels” riot– happened the year I moved to Missoula, though Lawrenson contested this rationale for his departure in this Missoulian article:
At least 200 people came to say farewell and shake hands with the man who led the Missoula Police Department for the past six years until his retirement Dec. 31. After serving nearly 25 years on the Missoula force, Lawrenson is taking a new job as chief of security for Montana Rail Link.
“I’m not here to thank him for being police chief,” said Carousel Foundation Board Chairman Paul Johannsen. “I’m here to thank Pete for being Pete Lawrenson. His folks always treat people with respect, and that’s because Pete leads by example. That’s not always an easy thing to lead or be an example for, but Pete’s been willing to do that.”
Missoula County Sheriff Doug Chase added that Lawrenson’s dedication to the United Way, Youth for Christ and the Blizzard Ball Foundation, among others, kept him high in the public eye.
“I have never known Pete to duck an issue,” Chase said. “He has excellent emotional stability, especially under stress. Everything that community policing is supposed to be, you did it, Pete.”
Rock ‘n’ Roll Daze promoter Chuck Rose credited Lawrenson with helping make his event a regular occurrence in Missoula, and added he was frustrated and saddened to see his departure. He called it a “tremendous injustice inflicted on you by a few city officials” that Lawrenson’s retirement came after a controversial clash between police and citizens during a national Hells Angels Motorcycle Club gathering in Missoula last July.
By Thursday other simmering issues started metastasizing on me so, when Friday finally arrived, I was more than a little ready to engage in ecstatic religious testimony where our loose-knit gathering of musicians, artists and homeless people perform. When the cops arrived it was with a renewed vigor, we discovered, to shut us down.
Was this just another regular response to local noise complaints, or is something more directed brewing? Let’s say the lead CRIMINAL prosecutor for the city is involved–Keithi Worthington–my first question would be why her and not the lead CIVIL attorney, Ryan Sudbury?
For more context on the different jurisdictions I regularly make fun of for being incredibly duplicitous and corrupt–like when Keithi Worthington LIED in her closing statement in her one successful prosecution of me for violating a restraining order (the other one in her jurisdiction was dropped because it wasn’t a credible case, just a stacking strategy)–check out this post.
To finish this post off, here’s a KGVO article I read last week that raised a BIG red flag for me. I’ll expound why after the quote:
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen announced on the KGVO Talk Back show on Wednesday that he is proudly introducing the new Chaplaincy Program for the entire Montana Department of Justice.
He said the program is of great importance to him and his staff.
“Probably the most important thing I’ve got going right now, and this is actually on the positive side, right?” began Knudsen. “A lot of times at the Department of Justice, we deal with crime, we deal with drugs, some of the not-so-fun things in life, but we just rolled out a new program yesterday that I’m really proud of and I’m really excited about, and that is our Department of Justice Chaplain program.”
…
Knudsen said former Missoula County Sheriff’s Office Undersheriff Jason Johnson is heading up the volunteer program.
“I can’t thank Jason Johnson enough,” he said. “I don’t have to tell you folks in Missoula who he is. Jason is your former Undersheriff. When I got here to Helena and got this job, he was an investigator at Gambling Control, and Jason’s a guy that I identified pretty early, and he’s now joined my leadership team…
Jason is the PERFECT selection for this narrative control job. Like a priest gathering dirt in confession, Jason will now be privy to statewide skeletons instead of just the shit our Missoula County Sheriff Deputies get up to. For anyone paying attention to what I’ve pieced together over the years regarding the Chaplain for Missoula County Sheriff skeletons, what does it say that AG Knudsen had “identified pretty early” Johnson for this role?
I don’t know, but I’d like to find out, so stay tuned to see if I do.
Today’s post is a sampling of my scope as an artist and citizen journalist, so please enjoy.
To begin this self-aggrandizing journey into my super ego, here’s my comment from yesterday’s committee hearing where the 100 million dollar hotel was discussed. If you’re new to my local effort to expose corruption and hypocrisy, my history with the committee chair, Gwen Jones, goes all the way back to the sidewalk controversy of 2018, which you can read about here.
Before we get to the comment, which is mostly a warning about cancel culture, let me point out the extreme hypocrisy of Gwen Jones interrupting me because I wasn’t strictly adhering to their compartmentalized framework for making public comments. Our city leaders, like Bozeman, are currently FLOUTING STATE LAW with their dumb flag war, so expecting ME not to be the public-commenting-superman that I am by getting the show started at the very beginning of this charade is just adorable.
To highlight my skills as a citizen journalist I’m continuing to keep a close eye on the former Missoulian building where once Aaron Wagner’s dreams of condo towers were being pitched to Missoula as inevitable. That’s of course BEFORE the FBI arrested Wagner for being an alleged fiscally insolvent conman, something I was saying MANY MONTHS before that arrest went down. If you want to see one of the stories I got to first, this late 2024 post is my victory lap on that story.
What’s happening now besides blight? When I saw firetrucks in the parking lot of this former newspaper producing facility yesterday I stopped to inquire if it was a training or if transient had retaken the interior spaces. The answer? Training. I’m glad SOMEONE is enjoying this vacant eyesore!
Ok, now that we’ve got the news part out of the way, let’s get to the ELMO part of the post.
If you haven’t heard about Elmo’s anti-semitism, congratulations, you are probably a more stable, better adjusted person than a struggling Lego artist like myself who positions Elmo and his two special Lego friends for a special songwriting performance. I don’t think ANYONE is doing Legos the way I am. Here it is! I suggest watching it before it’s inevitably taken down.
What more can I say after THAT amazing performance? How about what I usually say to sign off?
Don’t let the snarl of the bear fool you, Mr. Fox, the Sheriff is just a bitch for the king and, if you don’t believe me, here’s a little history lesson for you:
Sheriffs have served and protected the English-speaking peoples for a thousand years. The Office of Sheriff and the law enforcement, judicial and correctional functions he performs are more than 1000 years old. The Office of Sheriff dates back at least to the reign of Alfred the Great of England, and some scholars even argue that the Office of Sheriff was first created during the Roman occupation of England.
Around 500 AD, Germanic tribes from Europe (called the Anglo-Saxons) began an invasion of Celtic England which eventually led over the centuries to the consolidation of Anglo-Saxon England as a unified kingdom under Alfred the Great late in the 9th Century. Alfred divided England into geographic units called “shires”, or counties.
In 1066, William the Conqueror defeated the Anglo-Saxons and instituted his own Norman government in England. Both under the Anglo-Saxons and under the Normans, the King of England appointed a representative called a “reeve” to act on behalf of the king in each shire or county. The “shire-reeve” or King’s representative in each county became the “Sheriff” as the English language changed over the years. The shire-reeve, or Sheriff, was the chief law enforcement officer of each county in the year 1000 AD. He will still have the same function in the United States in the year 2000 AD.
Who is the King in Madison County? Definitely not rotten outsiders from North Carolina, like the 12 year old child of a Christian missionary who was held at gun point when a confrontation with a local went south. After meeting Josiah in person outside of Bernice’s Bakery and testifying to this trio how the Sheriff of Missoula can euthanize and execute black men with zero consequences, he air-dropped me this image of what the “men” with badges in Madison County did before using Child Protective Services to kidnap him from his father.
The virtue-signalers in Bozeman who recently duplicated Missoula’s legalistically dubious adoption of the PRIDE flag had conservatives fretting online about how to stop local leaders when they feel entitled to flout state law. Here’s an example:
When I called in my public comment today to the committee tasked with talking about 100 million dollar hotels I had to deal with several distractions, including being interrupted by the committee chair because my general comment about the idiocy of reactionary virtue signaling veered into specifically referencing Averill Hospitality LLC. Since the meeting is still going on as I write this, I’ll wait until my next post to clip my constructive contribution to council’s performative “discussion”.
While Averill Hospitality moves forward with their BIG financial investment in Missoula, someone was just shot this morning about a mile or two from where they will soon be breaking ground. If that doesn’t inspire investor confidence, check out how Missoulians were recently reminded that our city can’t even water trees without making thinly-veiled threats to local property owners about their responsibilities:
Just like people need more water in the hotter months of summer, so do Missoula’s trees, which is why the city is asking for help watering them.
“We don’t have enough annual precipitation and also our soil doesn’t have water-holding capacity like other places do,” said Marie Ducharme, City of Missoula’s urban forestry specialist.
Even though the city may own the trees you see along sidewalks and throughout neighborhoods, Ducharme said being a resident includes pitching in to support leafy neighbors.
“They’re a community asset, and that’s why the code has been written as such to encourage and require adjacent property owners to water the trees because they are direct beneficiaries of the shade and that cooling,” Ducharme said.
This wishy-washy bullshit reported on by morons allows the city to pussyfoot around the fact it’s apparently a REQUIREMENT IN CITY CODE for property owners to water the trees. And in case you’re not angry enough about that dumb shit, remember that the city CHARGES MONEY for water usage, which they definitely need after spending about as much money as a fancy hotel costs to build for the eminent domain acquisition of our decrepit water infrastructure.
Is there any other entity you can think of that is able to coerce unpaid labor in order to use a monopoly-controlled product because that product creates the alleged benefit of “shade”? Unless you’re talking about a prison or a concentration camp, the scenario above, as described, seems almost intentionally offensive. But hey, you voted for this, right?
If your reaction is to declare NO, I DID NOT VOTE FOR THIS then let me ask a follow up question: who are you talking to? Are you talking to your online echo-chamber? Because, if that’s all you’re doing, I should probably ask myself why I’m doing what I’m doing, and if it’s still worth it.
After a summer festival that resulted in a lawsuit for Missoula County, this post will be taking a look at the music scene recently highlighted by CNN as part of its PR boost to market Missoula to the rest of the nation. Under the title There’s world-class wilderness in every direction, but Missoula is far more than a gateway, CNN frames our mountain town like this:
The American West is full of towns that serve as gateways into the natural world. Launching points, if you will, that sit on the edge of the wilderness and offer the infamous three Bs — a beer, a burger and a bed — to those seeking refuge.
But Missoula, Montana, is way more than a launching pad. Better to call it a basecamp, as one young college student working in a coffee shop put it, withplenty to do and see before you set out on your next outdoor adventure.
This article is structured in the way you would expect, depicting the past as all bad when juxtaposed to the all-good modern day opportunities of Missoula. But who will be the lucky spokesperson for this modern day Missoula?
Described as “fairly alternative,” “eclectic,” and “quirky” by various locals, Missoula is home to about 80,000 residents and a large student population attending the University of Montana. With world-class wilderness in every direction, there are endless opportunities for outdoor recreation, especially when it comes to river activities, like fishing and boating, as well as hiking and mountain biking.
Missoula was oncean industrial lumber town, its ambiance haunted by black smoke and the buzz of saws. But today, things are different. Modern-day Missoula is outdoorsy, artistic and musical, with university roots that bring energy to its downtown.
The spokesperson introduced a few paragraphs later is someone our local elite can trust to tell the right story about the right people, and that’s because the owner of the Trailhead, Todd Frank, took his public $50,000 Tax Increment Financing payout, making him, in my humble estimation, MRA’s bitch. This was evident when the Missoulian tapped Frank to be a hilarious victim for the Russian/Ukraine war.
After introducing CNN readers to this unlikely victim of Putin’s aggression, they allow Todd Frank to give a figurative handjob to Nick Checota, giving this CNN audience the impression our “stagnant” music scene needed a nepo-savior.
When Nick Checota moved to Missoula about 20 years ago, the historic Top Hat Lounge had seen better days. Nearby, The Wilma theater was not much better off — it, too, was rundown and lacked the musical infrastructure (i.e. stage equipment) to consistently attract artists.
Where many saw stagnation, Checota saw opportunity. He went on to buy and restore the Top Hat as a “passion project,” then later, in 2015, he bought and renovated The Wilma. Then, in 2017, he created something brand new: the KettleHouse Amphitheater, a 4,000-person capacity, outdoor venue on the Blackfoot River, built on a property that was originally the Bonner Mill, another former timber processing plant.
“Nick was a game changer in our community,” Frank said. “He has done a number of things in the community in the music scene that have really changed the face of what we have available to us.”
While I don’t put much stock in what Frank has to say about Checota, I agree that Nick was a “game changer” because love of music, under the influence of Checota, has become love of money, with the recent Zootown Festival lawsuit offering the perfect example of what music means to modern day Missoula.
The litigation, filed by The Rhino, got a response from Missoula County and, wouldn’t you know, a Checota property is involved. According to the County’s response, The Rhino needed permission to work with a subcontractor, like the Top Hat, owned by Checota, but they didn’t ask for it, thus breaching the contract.
Attorneys for Missoula County have filed a denial of certain claims made by the Rhino bar in a civil lawsuit that alleged a breach of contract over alcohol sales at the Zootown Festival.
Missoula County filed an “Answer to Plaintiff’s Complaint” in Missoula County District Court this week. In that document, Missoula County denies many of the legal conclusions or factual assertions made by the Rhino.
In particular, Missoula County claims that the Rhino breached its obligations to seek and obtain Missoula County’s consent for retaining the Top Hat as a subcontractor to help with alcohol catering.
Though the festival promoter, Always On LLC, objected to the Top Hat being used as a subcontractor, one worker I spoke with who worked at the festival WAS a Top Hat subcontractor. Hmmm. Here’s the quote from the article showing that Always On is the entity that made issue of who the subcontractor was:
Missoula County says the catering agreement the Rhino had with the County requires any subcontract to be agreed to by both parties.
“The Rhino did not seek or obtain written consent for its proposed subcontractor,” Missoula County’s legal filing states. “Always On expressed its objection to Missoula County and the Rhino regarding use of this subcontractor. The Rhino persisted in its assertion that it could use the subcontractor to fulfill its obligations. The Rhino breached its obligations to seek and obtain Missoula County’s consent for any subcontract under the Catering Agreement.”
While the first Zootown Festival will continue determining the value of its production in court, another venue/watering-hole in Missoula is busy determining the value of continuing to host punk shows.
In a mostly worthless article from The Pulp spotlighting the VFW’s decision to facilitate women watching a dating show (Love Island), I caught the REAL story hidden in the pathetic PR pitch. See if you can spot it in the following excerpt:
The unlikely event represents a shift in programming at the VFW, which has long hosted arts and music to support its nonprofit mission to serve veterans. House Committee Member Jared Perkins says the organization is moving away from hosting late-night local punk shows to offer more sedate events such as the popular Tuesday night trivia contest. “We’re looking for new ideas to showcase our little dive bar,” Perkins says.
Though the article doesn’t say it, another more “sedate” activity the VFW now emphasizes on their own website is gambling, specifically live poker. Who wants to gamble for a cause?
I’m not much of a gambling fan, or even all that knowledgeable about the game, but a little chat I had over the weekend (at a FREE music event at Kiwanis Park) gave me some insight into WHY the VFW might be interested in live poker–they allegedly allow their own members to play, which some might see as “the house” getting directly involved in the game, and you know what they say about the frequency of the house when it comes to winning, right?
Going back to the CNN article, the venues highlighted in the article are all Nick Checota venues. Here’s more about our alleged musical savior:
Today, visitors to Missoula can enjoy the town’s excellent music scene by bopping around these venues, plus occasional stadium shows held at the University of Montana. The KettleHouse has been especially beloved by visitors for its scenic, sun-soaked riverside vibes. Checota said that 67% of ticket sales in summer come from out-of-state zip codes, an admirable feat given Missoula’s remote location.
The ability to attract national acts is one obvious reason for the influx of visitors, Checota said, but he also thinks Missoula is becoming a destination for music lovers because of the deliberately and reasonably priced tickets. Lawn seats at the KettleHouse, for example, can be had for less than $50 for most shows — sometimes as low as $29.50.
Attracting (read booking) musical acts for non-Missoula guests is something Nick Checota appears proud of, considering he chose to highlight how 67% of ticket sales supposedly come from out-of-state, but a conversation I had recently with a friend who is a serious concert-enthusiast got me thinking about which musical acts are going where in Montana, and why. Remember, in addition to the “passion project” of purchasing and renovating the Top Hat, Checota ALSO has a venue in Bozeman called The Elm–a venue, I am told, where plenty of bands play instead of coming HERE, bands my friend thinks would be plenty popular if they were booked at a Nick Checota venue in Missoula.
My buddy’s theory, which tracks with Checota’s personality, is that due to feeling rejected by a wide swath of Missoula’s non-wealthy public, Nick Checota goes out of his way to musically cock-block shows out of pure pettiness. Could this be true?
While the truthiness of that theory is difficult to prove, it’s not difficult to prove the fact housing costs in Missoula have skyrocketed, and there’s no greater pressure on a local music scene being capable of generating its own stable of musical talent to play venues during non-tourist months than NOT being able to afford rent.
The timing of the CNN article coming out shortly before the announcement of a 100 million dollar hotel project launching for the site Checota once eyed, along with Mayor Engen, is just a little too convenient, but maybe that’s just because I’m old and jaded about almost everything. Thankfully that jaded disposition doesn’t stop me from showing up where the powerbrokers are circling-jerking themselves while ignoring the distinct possibility that our conspicuous lack of competent killer-catchers has created a covert thrill-kill industry that caters to the proliferation of psychopaths our culture creates, by design.
If you didn’t catch my somewhat rambling performance last week in the Hal Fraser boardroom of Missoula’s shadow government, the Missoula Redevelopment Agency, here it is again for your viewing pleasure:
While I introduced myself as a Lego Master and citizen journalist to our local elite, that doesn’t encompass the true scope of my talents, so let me end this post with my own song. This one is an apology of sorts to Tinkerbell for my obscene depiction insinuating an oral servicing of our President in my previous song.
Since I’m aware enough to realize a working-class barista doesn’t want to be subjected to my creativity every time I make something hilarious, I am dedicating this tune to the two bean-slingers who had to endure my warped sense of humor last week. I hope they accept my apology!
Thanks for reading!
P.S.-if you want free music that diametrically stands in opposition to the money whores pimping music for monetary gain in this town, Fridays at the XXXXs will continue showcasing the untamed heart of creative output that breathes life into the adjectives used in weak PR pitches on CNN.
