I took this picture yesterday on a piece of private property that will someday be condos, but right now it just has garbage everywhere because the owner, Cole Bergquist, doesn’t care enough to secure fencing or lock the gates. If you’re a homeless person this is a great spot to live, and if you’re inclined to do drugs and commit crimes, what better spot than a centralized location downtown with convenient access to the bike trial?
The $1.2 million dollars spent on implementing the “urban camping” ordinance in Missoula only addresses camping on PUBLIC land, not private. For private land it’s common to see “no trespassing” signs to message the state law that becomes more enforceable when clearly visible signage is used. That’s because that statute uses the word “knowingly”. Here’s the language of the trespassing statute (45-6-203):
Prohibits knowingly entering/remaining on private property or in structures without authorization. A conviction can result in a 24-month revocation of hunting, fishing, or trapping privileges.
Before I found that tattered Bible in a bush, I was rummaging through a nasty encampment under a walking bridge that spans one of Missoula’s irrigation ditches, also private. The Orchard Homes Ditch Company, established in 1906, is the entity that will have to clean up this mess before the irrigation water starts flowing.
Pictures of what I like to call “reality” can be annoying, especially when you just paid $1.2 million dollars for an urban camping policy that only provides a bandaid on systemic failure. Well, since using a word like “failure” has a negative connotation to it, let’s read a little about the supposed “success” of the urban camping ordinance:
Top Missoula officials described the city’s urban camping law as a “success” for reducing impacts in public spaces, although some criticized the ordinance for not providing better outcomes for homeless people.
In 2025, the Missoula Police Department cited 172 people for either sleeping on public streets or on public property under violations of the urban camping law, Police Chief Mike Colyer told the city council on Wednesday.
The law dictates when, where and how people can sleep on city property, largely restricting camps near homes, parks, shelters, schools, waterways and city trails.
“Waterways”, you say? I wonder if a privately-owned irrigation ditch can be defined as a “waterway”. Maybe I should give the Orchard Home Ditch Company a call, though my past experience is that they are notoriously non-responsive to this particular problem.
The larger problem of drug and alcohol abuse got almost totally excluded from Wednesday’s conversation about urban camping until Kevin Davis pointed out the obvious factor driving “urban camping”, which is DRUG AND ALCOHOL ABUSE. For readers unfamiliar with Davis’ work along the Reserve Street corridor, this KGVO article from 2024 highlights his experience of helping REMOVE one of Missoula’s largest encampments and KEEPING IT REMOVED.
About 20 individuals joined Kevin Davis and his Reserve Street Public Working Group on Tuesday as they celebrated Earth Day by taking a tour of the former Reserve Street Homeless Camp, both picking up leftover trash and enjoying the return of wildlife to the habitat.
I spoke to Davis on Wednesday who said it was gratifying to see the immense changes in the Reserve Street Bridge habitat since the long-time homeless camp was finally removed.
“As part of our advocacy for Missoula’s busiest corridor, the Reserve Street corridor, we do return to the Reserve Street Bridge area at least once a year, over the last six years to do a cleanup of that area,” began Davis. “Yesterday was a very successful event, and in the 30 years I’ve lived in Missoula, it’s the healthiest I’ve seen the area.”
I was very involved with the renewed energy Kevin Davis brought to this sprawling encampment terrain where lots of bad things happened–including the execution-style murder by the apparent serial killer, Kevin Lino, who I tried helping local authorities catch, which they failed to do–and the reason I was so involved is because outgoing director of United Way of Missoula, Susan Hay Patrick, did her best at the time to discourage Kevin Davis from becoming involved in cleanup efforts as a private citizen.
For an idea of how bad it was, this image represents how many campers were expressing their feelings at the time, and that was through the rampant arson of other people’s camps.
Ok, so why did I include “demons” in the title of this post?
We’re almost there, but first recall how I recently reexamined the LifeGuard Group, run by Missoula County Sheriff Chaplain, Lowell Hochhalter and family, and recall how I connected anti-trafficking efforts by this “Christian” family to things like Epstein and Charlie Kirk.
With that in mind–and when you understand the kind of things I’ve had to learn quite painfully, like why Susan Hay Patrick may have been inclined to help keep the lid on the LifeGuard Group for her pal and Missoula’s former Sheriff, T.J. McDermott–then it’s important to ask the question Candace Owens asked this week, and that’s WHO THE HELL IS VICTOR MARX?
I recommend watching the Owens episode for the primer on this guy, who is apparently running for Governor of Colorado. Just the public information available on this guy is bizarre enough, including elements of his bio straight from his campaign website:
When my mother discovered she was pregnant with me, my biological father threatened to kill her. As a child, I endured unimaginable physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. By the time I was 17, I had lived in 17 homes and attended 14 schools. But God had other plans for my life.
Joining the United States Marine Corps became one of the most profound decisions I ever made. The Marines taught me discipline, brotherhood, and, for the first time, gave me a true sense of purpose. Guided by faith, I turned trauma into mission and committed myself to rescuing and restoring others from the same darkness I once walked through.
Just last year, I built a team and led them directly into ISIS territory so we could save a group of girls who had been kidnapped. Today, as the founder of All Things Possible Ministries, I’ve led more than 150 high-stakes missions across some of the world’s most dangerous regions—delivering trauma relief, medical aid, and hope to victims of terrorism, trafficking, and violence. Our teams have served more than 45,000 women and children, many of whom were rescued from captivity and given a second chance at life.
The Christian grift I have seen up close could literally be a part of the human trafficking networks they absurdly claim they are fighting, and they could be doing this either knowingly or unknowingly.
If you’re wondering how that could possible, one of the most effective strategies for shutting down inquiry amongst curious members of the flock is for a Christian grifter to do what Victor Marx allegedly did when challenged on his plans to traffick guns for God, and that’s immediately accuse your accuser of being possessed by demons. Once you’ve been declared to be suffering from demon possession, no further talking is needed.
My hope is some day the flock will upgrade their discernment, identify the grifters, and do what needs to be done to take out the trash so the adults can get down to the serious business of ACTUALLY protecting our kids from ACTUAL demons, which I believe really do exist.
Thanks for reading!
