Should Lewis & Clark’s Names & Statues Be Removed?

Rick Tryon on June 22, 2020

Once again we are seeing throngs of angry ‘protesters’ tear down, deface, and destroy publicly owned statues and monuments which memorialize national historical figures.

Personally, I think a reasonable argument can be made that it’s inappropriate and offensive to honor Confederate generals who were slave owners by placing their images in the public square.

However there is absolutely no justification for allowing mobs of angry rioters to destroy public property. Period.

The removal of symbols and statues from public property, regardless of the reason for doing so, should be carried out in a legal and orderly manner. Not by mob rule.

Furthermore, once the ‘social justice warriors’ start down the road of The Purge it’s almost impossible to stop it from getting out of hand.

One need look no further than the recent attempted vandalism and ruin of statues honoring American icons George Washington and U.S. Grant to see that common sense has fled and fools have rushed in.

But let’s bring it on home to Great Falls. Why limit the madness to big cities and political controversies in places far removed from right here in River City?

Did you know that Merriweather Lewis and William Clark were both slave owners and that Clark was “…a slave owner known to deal harshly with his slaves” and that “he brought York, one of his slaves, with him” on the expedition?

So let me ask the local gang of ‘social justice warriors’, should we abandon all references to Lewis and Clark here in Great Falls because they were slave owners?

How many statues depicting the Corps of Discovery are you willing to deface and tear down in your mission to erase history and cleanse it of it’s uncomfortable and even brutal realities.

How many plaques and monuments and buildings bearing the names of Lewis and Clark are you going to deface and destroy so you can feel all righteous in carrying out your self-appointed mission?

I don’t really expect any of the Great Falls anti-history crew to actually raise their hands and lead the charge against our L&C heritage here. They seldom, if ever, use their real names, choosing instead to make their demands and issue their manifestos from behind the curtain of anonymity.

After all, a few of them are running for the legislature or have appearances to keep up in Great Falls, so they can’t really let us know who they actually are or what they actually believe.

But they are here and they will carry out their mission if given an opportunity.

Editors note: we’re adding this poll question to Tryon’s piece.

[poll id=”24″]

Who Is Sending ‘Defund GFPD’ Emails To Commissioners?

Rick Tryon on June 9, 2020

As of this afternoon I have received 14 robo-emails addressed to each of us Great Falls City Commissioners ‘demanding’ that we ‘defund’ the Great Falls Police Department. I also got a call from a Kalispell city commissioner this morning informing me that they have been receiving the same emails.

See my response to the emails here.

I’ve been asked to publish the names of the senders of these emails, and I could do that since they are all subject to a public information request and available for anyone to see at any time.

But actually there’s not much sense in publishing the names because the email is a form email and most of the names and emails are not local or wouldn’t have any relevance to Great Falls.

Here’s a breakdown of the 14 emails:

Nine have various names with no indication as to where they are from or with an out-of-state return email indicator – for example vccs.edu, which is from Virginia I believe.

One is from Philipsburg MT and one from Billings MT.

Three say they are Great Falls residents. Checking several online resources for the names given, only one of them appears in a search and matches as a Great Falls resident, but it appears to be the persons parents who currently live here. The emailer’s age is given as “in 20’s” and an address listed online as being in Missoula.

So out of 14 robo-mails so far only one of them appears to actually be a possible current Great Falls resident.

If that person, or anyone else, would like to contact me and discuss the issue of defunding the Great Falls Police Department, I will be available to do so any time. But there are three things I would ask beforehand:

  1. You are currently a taxpaying resident of Great Falls.
  2. You use your real name and are willing to do so publicly without ‘demanding’ things.
  3. You discuss the issue using a local context and data, in the full light of objective scrutiny and without using a mass form letter containing outrageous, false, ignorant accusations against our local law enforcement.

I’m not sure why some folks think that George Floyd’s murder by a bad cop in Minneapolis means that we need to ‘defund’ the Great Falls Police Department but I’m willing to discuss it honestly and openly, not with form letters, baseless accusations against our law enforcement community in Great Falls, and anonymous demands.

By the way, one of the emailers forgot to fill in the form data on their little robo-email and I’m including a screenshot here. If the group behind this campaign to ‘defund’ police would let us know who they are, or if anyone else knows and could reveal their identity, it would be helpful.

Commissioner Responds To Demands To Defund GFPD

Rick Tryon on June 8, 2020

Here is the text of an email which all five members of the Great Falls City Commission received on Monday, demanding we defund the Great Falls Polices Department. This is apparently a form email because I received it from four different individuals.

I read it with a mixture of disbelief and, I admit, a little bit of anger. I have included my response here as well.

“Dear Great Falls City Commissioners,

I am writing to demand that the City Commission adopts a budget that prioritizes community well-being and redirects funding away from the police.

Many Montanans may be tempted to think the unique nature of such a vast, yet sparsely-populated state minimizes the likelihood of police brutality in our small city communities. However, as reported by the Billings Gazette last year, Montana ranked ninth in killings by police per capita. In 2017, the Great Falls Tribune reported Montana police killings reached a total higher than the previous six years. These figures are alarming, but don’t tell the full story. Under Montana Code § 2-6-102 and Article II, Section 10 of the Montana Constitution, police disciplinary records are exempt from disclosure if there is an “individual privacy interest that clearly exceeds the merits of public disclosure.” Montana police forces operate within a culture of impunity, and as the members of the communities they are supposed to be protecting, we can’t even begin to grasp the scope of their violence.

We are in the midst of widespread upheaval over the systemic violence of policing. Empty gestures and suggestions of “reform” are inadequate and unacceptable. I am demanding that real change be made to the way this city allocates its resources.

Support for communities in need is necessary now, more than ever. I am demanding that the City Commission meaningfully defund the Great Falls Police Department. I join the calls of those across the country to defund the police. I am demanding a budget that adequately and effectively meets the needs of at-risk Great Falls residents during this trying and uncertain time. I am demanding a budget that supports community wellbeing, rather than empowering the police forces that tear them apart.

As the City Commission, the budget proposal is in your hands. It is your duty to represent your constituents. I am urging you to completely revise the budget for the upcoming fiscal year, and to fund the social programs proven to be more effective than policing at promoting community safety and equity. Have the courage to be a leader of the change this city, state, and country desperately needs.

Thank you for your time,”

My response:

“Dear ——,

I have received and read your form-letter email and I must say that I am offended. First, because it appears to me that you don’t actually live in Great Falls (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong about that), because if you did live here you wouldn’t make ignorant and idiotic statements which suggest our Great Falls Police Department “tears apart” our community or that “we can’t begin to grasp the scope of the violence” our officers are engaged in here. What rubbish!

Secondly, because you seem to think that you can lecture us and “demand” actions when you obviously have no idea what you’re even talking about when it comes to how Great Falls citizens regard our awesome local law enforcement community. We love, respect and appreciate the officers and employees at the GFPD and the Cascade County Sheriffs Office.

No institution is perfect but our community recognizes that the overwhelming majority of our local LE personnel do their jobs responsibly with dedication and fairness. And they do it every day, faithfully and with courage.

So, no I won’t be supporting any half-baked, knee jerk, ridiculous “demands” by you or anyone else to “defund” our police department here.

As a matter of fact I will be fully supporting our local LE enforcement and I will continue to advocate for more resources to help them do their job and keep our streets safe from criminals.

I hope that’s clear enough.

Sincerely,

Commissioner Rick Tryon”

Great Falls ‘Black Lives Matter’ Rally

Rick Tryon on June 5, 2020

Friday, folks gathered in front of the Great Falls Civic Center to show their solidarity in a Black Lives Matter rally. Good for them.

In the midst of the roiling national turmoil we are all currently experiencing, and in spite of widely divergent views held on a variety of racial and social issues, there is one thing on which we should all find common ground – the right to freely express our opinions and exercise our First Amendment Rights.

And here it is in all of it’s magnificent beauty and simplicity:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

Of course the word “peaceably” is paramount. The danger of descending into chaos and violence during an assembly for protest is ever present and all too real, as we have all witnessed on our TV screens over the last nine days.

And too often too many folks overlook the meaning and import of the first phrase of the First Amendment, and therefore misinterpret the heart of our Constitution.

“Congress shall make no law…”, which points to the unmistakable intention of the Framers – our Constitution was not written to tell citizens what they are allowed to do, but rather it was written to spell out precisely what our government is NOT ALLOWED TO DO.

So though we may disagree, even about fundamentals, let’s ALL celebrate our precious God given rights to say so freely. Peaceably.

Massages At The Great Falls Tribune?

Rick Tryon on May 28, 2020

Back in the Stone Age (12-14 years ago?) I was a member of the Great Falls Tribune Readers Panel, which met on a monthly basis to discuss local issues, newspaper content, and ideas for making our local newspaper more relevant and interesting.

I recall going into the relatively new Tribune HQ down on River Drive South for my first Readers Panel meeting.

Wow. It was kind of like going into the Daily Planet; there was Jimmy Olsen pecking away at his typewriter, and over there was Lois Lane getting ready to go out on the street for a big interview. Where’s Clark Kent?

Or maybe like the newspaper office from Hollywood’s ‘All The Presidents Men’, a bustling, busy place full of chatter and lots of activity. Dustin Hoffman and whats-his-name from ‘A River Runs Through It’ getting ready to break the Big Story.

Well, not quite. But it was a busy place with lots of employees and desks on different floors and in various departments.

And they even had a special room where employees could get a massage. They had a massage room, I kid you not.

I’m not sure if the masseuse was on staff or they brought someone in, but yep, those busy journalistic poobahs could get a little back and shoulder rub without having to run down to Tokyo Massage.

Oh how the mighty have fallen. From massages in the newsroom and a 2000 Pulitzer Prize to an empty building with less than a skeleton crew to service what was at one time the biggest city in Montana.

News came last week that the final vestige of the old Great Falls Tribune will soon be gone. All of the Tribune’s print operation will be relocated to Helena starting July 1, 2020. That means 21 local jobs will be lost.

Oh, we’ll still have something called “the Great Falls Tribune” here, but in reality it will continue to just be another small town propaganda appendage for USA Today and their political/social agenda.

In fact if the infotainment economic model continues to hold true, it probably won’t be long until the goings-on in Great Falls becomes a sidebar note along with the other little communities in a larger regional or statewide newspaper produced in Helena or Bozeman etc.

Either that or the GF Tribune will be a bi-weekly or weekly publication. Wednesdays and Sundays featuring grocery coupons.

Let’s face it, the Great Falls Tribune hasn’t really been a local newspaper for quite awhile now. And the 2000 Pulitzer on alcoholism notwithstanding, they’ve never really done any local investigative journalism.

Like all of the other local mainstream media in Great Falls, the Trib specializes in frothy fluff pieces, little police blotter nose-pickers, high school sports, and cheer-leading for the local status quo establishment, many of whom also happen to be advertisers.

There are several reasons that print media all over the country is going through a crisis and our hometown paper isn’t immune to the trend. I get it. It’s been sad to watch the decline and fall of the Great Falls Tribune empire, truly.

But let me leave you with one question to ponder and hopefully answer: Why has Great Falls’ hometown newspaper gone all but under while other Montana daily papers have not?

When Can Great Falls Get Back To Work?

Rick Tryon on March 24, 2020

Editors Note: Just minutes after posting this piece we learned that Governor Bullock has extended restrictions and closures statewide until April 10.

Yesterday, Monday 3/23, in a special meeting of the Great Falls City Commission we voted on the following two matters:

Resolution 10341, Affirming a Local Emergency and Acknowledging and Defining the City Manager’s Power to Declare an Emergency and The City Manager’s Exercise of that Authority. Action: Adopt or deny Res. 10341.

Ordinance 3217, Granting temporary authority to Approve Contracts and Expenditures in Furtherance of the Municipal Emergency Proclamation and Order and Suspending State and Local Procurement Requirements.

I voted for each and they both passed unanimously. You can find the details of both Resolution 10341 and Ordinance 3217 here.

In addition, I asked during the commission initiatives portion of the meeting that either the Mayor and/or City Manager reach out to both Governor Bullock and the city county health officer to get clarification on the criteria or conditions that would need to exist in order to either extend or, hopefully, end the state and county orders closing and restricting Great Falls businesses.

I intend to follow up until we get those answers. Because Great Falls needs to get back to work as soon as possible and local business owners and their employees need to have some certainty and some concrete benchmarks as to what to expect in that regard.

I also asked the City Manager to put together a draft resolution suspending city sanitation and water fees for the duration of the orders to close or restrict business for those businesses and their employees who are directly impacted.

We all need to do everything we can to help get through this situation. Together.


Questions About Cascade County COVID-19 Order Answered

Rick Tryon on March 19, 2020

Here is a FAQ sheet from the City County Health Department answering question concerning today’s COVID-19 Order closing and restricting services for businesses in Cascade County.

The Order begins on Friday, March 20 at 6:00 AM and extend through 8:00 AM Friday, March 27.

You can also view or download the FAQ PDF here.

Are Refugee Resettlement & Climate Change Great Falls Issues?

Rick Tryon on January 30, 2020

Great Falls Mayor Bob Kelly deserves kudos for stepping up and apologizing to the public for signing an online letter, as Mayor of Great Falls, to President Trump asking for refugees to be relocated to “our communities”. I appreciate his willingness to take responsibility for his actions.

More importantly, the citizens of Great Falls deserve major congratulations and kudos here.

According to E-City Beat, which was the first to break the story, they got a tip from an alert local reader about the letter posted on welcomingrefugees2020.org, did the research, asked the questions, and then wrote and posted the story, which went viral.

But it was, and is, the citizens of Great Falls that made their voices heard and pressed the issue so that the Mayor was compelled to reconsider his actions in signing the letter and to apologize, admitting that it was not appropriate.

I’ve been involved in and have observed several controversial local issues over the years but I have never seen such rapid, voluminous and passionate public response to a single local issue. Ever. My own phone, email and social media page were buzzing.

This kind of public response is good, very good. Our local public officials, and that includes yours truly, need more public scrutiny, not less. More demands for accountability and transparency, not fewer.

Continue paying attention and being engaged in our city/county governments, Great Falls. We need citizen magnifying glasses, not blindfolds or endless rah-rah-rah media stories.

Our Great Falls public officials should be focused like a laser beam on local bread and butter issues, not caviar and chardonnay politically correct or ideological national issues.

For instance, at a recent Great Falls City Commission visioning session to lay out potential priorities for the coming year, a few of my colleagues on the commission identified “responding to climate change” as one of our top-three priorities.

I’ll be asking many questions and challenging notions like the one that claims that “climate change/resiliency” should be our focus here.

We have urgent issues that MUST be addressed first – like local crime, lack of economic opportunity, and the need for more transparent and responsive city government.

Stay tuned, stay engaged, and stay salty, Great Falls.

Great Falls Top Employers And Taxpayers

Rick Tryon on December 9, 2019

As I was going through the 2020 Annual Adopted Budget for the City of Great Falls recently, I thought that E-City Beat readers and local citizens in general would find the following statistics of interest.

On page 45 of the Budget in Brief is this chart listing past and current major employers in Great Falls.

And on page 46 we find the principal local taxpayers, past and present.

There are a number of interesting things folks could learn and conclude from these two charts. I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts in the comments section.