Welcome and thanks for starting your week with The Western Word. Here are the topics for today’s column:
- Two Critical Incidents
- Trump Coming To Montana?
- 2026 Ballot Initiatives
- One More Thing
TWO CRITICAL INCIDENTS:
On the Great Falls Police Department (GFPD) Facebook page, they posted a statement about “two critical incidents” that happened in Great Falls on Friday night.
According to GFPD:
At approximately 9:45PM (10/2/26), officers were dispatched to 20th St S and 2nd Ave S for a disturbance. Officers found one male suffering from a stab wound after he attempted to break up an altercation between a male and a female.
At approximately 11:25PM (10/2/26), Officers were dispatched to a residence in the 3800 block of 7th St NE for a disturbance. Officers found five people with stab wounds, including an infant. A male suspect was taken into custody as he attempted to flee the scene.
Later, they announced that the infant had succumbed to her injuries and died.
These are truly shocking incidents, and my deepest condolences go out to the victims and their families.
Unsurprisingly, some are already using these two incidents to beat the drum for more public safety funding. It seems there is a vocal crowd ready to demand a bigger budget every single time a significant crime occurs in Great Falls. Frankly, it feels entirely opportunistic.
For example, Great Falls City Commissioner Rick Tryon posted these comments:
Some of us have been raising the alarm for quite some time now. Our local public safety folks are underfunded, overwhelmed, and at the point of triage when it comes to providing public safety.
The GFPD is even getting into the spirit:
Both incidents stretched response capabilities causing GFPD to prioritize an “emergency only” response for the remainder of the night. We’re grateful for the 911 dispatchers who did an outstanding job managing the response of law enforcement and emergency medical personnel. And, we’d like to thank Cascade County Sheriff/Coroner’s Office for their ongoing partnership, as their deputies filled in and responded to other calls, when no Great Falls MT Police Department officers were available.
Look for more of this “lobbying” in the future.
Experience demonstrates that department leaders are rarely satisfied with their allocated budgets. Consequently, elected representatives must act as a check on spending, while citizens retain the final authority at the ballot box.
TRUMP COMING TO MONTANA?
According to Politico, President Donald Trump is expected to travel to at least 10 states in the final four weeks of the campaign, according to a senior White House official and another person with direct knowledge of the president’s travel schedule.
Politico says the blitz will include traditional Senate battlegrounds — Michigan, North Carolina and Georgia — as well as red states the president won by double-digits in 2024: Texas, Iowa, Alaska, Ohio and Kansas. He’s also expected to travel to Montana and Pennsylvania, which have competitive House races, said the people, who were granted anonymity to preview Trump’s travel plans.
According to a text message I received last week from the Flint Leadership PAC, “The polls are tied and we are being buried in false negative attacks from every liberal special interest group you can imagine!”
With the race between Flint and Forstag being close, that has to be the main reason President Trump is coming to Montana. Will Trump help Flint? Gas prices are high, diesel prices are at a record high, groceries are very expensive, and there’s a war going on that we don’t seem to have an end date.
The easy answer is we are not better off than we were two years ago. It’s time for change. We need to elect people who will not be a rubber stamp for Trump.
2026 BALLOT INITIATIVES:
I happened to see a post on Facebook from the Montana Republican Party telling people to vote “No” on CI-132, CI-133, and CI-194.
That means you should vote “Yes” on all three initiatives. It’s that simple.
Many of the people commenting on the post say they are voting “Yes” also.
ONE MORE THING:
I enjoy a glass of wine each night for its health benefits. The other glasses are for my witty comebacks and flawless dance moves.
## HAVE A GREAT WEEK ##
The real question is, would the presence of more police officers in Great Falls have actually prevented those two crimes from happening. The answer is probably not. So what we’re being asked for is a whole wad more money on a yearly basis to guard against the possibility of occasionally being placed in “emergency only” mode.
But I could possibly support a reasonable public safety levy if they would first conduct an independent outside study like they did for Parks, to see if the department could be allocating personnel and money in a better fashion. For some reason GFPD seems off limits to this type of scrutiny.
And also if they would tell us exactly what could expect for our money in the line of tangible results. The courts and fire depts did that last go round but the police chief would not commit. If you’re going to ask for a bunch more money you should be accountable.
I see the need for a new fire station since the city has spread out some. That’s about as far as I would go with the cost of just trying to live these days.
The lobbying that is done every time there is an incident is getting old. I hope by writing about it, people will see the spin from the city. -JmB
it’s worth remembering that the ‘war’ that is going on is illegal
It’s too bad our elected officials are cowards when it comes to holding Trump accountable. -JmB
Trump will have to borrow $1.5 trillion to give each of us $5,000. We are running a deficit now so any voter pay off will have to borrowed. Makes no sense! As usual.
True! Spend, spend, spend!
I’ve never worked a job where we weren’t understaffed at one time or another. Also I never worked a job that was less dangerous than a police officers. The population here hasn’t change significantly in over 50 years, I don’t see the need for more law enforcement.
I expect the pro safety levy people to get it on the ballot in 2027. We’ll see the promotion for the need of more safety personnel crank up more and more. -JmB