Slog

News & Arts

The Stranger Suggests

Critics' Best Bets
Music Arts & Food


Line Out

Music & the City
at Night

Monday, June 11, 2012

Poaching on Mudede Territory

Posted by on Mon, Jun 11, 2012 at 5:59 PM

A guy hitchhiking and taking pictures across America, with his book project entitled "The Kindness of America," gets shot.

Not in a city. "Poaching," by the by, meant in a total non-shooting-people way.

 

Comments (31) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment
Supreme Ruler Of The Universe 1
Suggestion.

Take LINK light rail to Columbia City station, arriving around 12:30 am.

Bring a camera.

Do a photo essay on anyone wearing a black and red jacket.

If they ask, tell them, "it's an urban thing".
Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe http://www.you-read-it-here-first.com on June 11, 2012 at 6:12 PM
Cato the Younger Younger 2
One of the Retardicans running to be Gov. of Montana posted on his Facebook how friendly Montanans are and how the big city folks (think it was New York he was complaining about specifically) are rude mean and generally assholes.

Montana, great place to die, both mentally, and physically.
Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on June 11, 2012 at 6:18 PM
OuterCow 3
You always know how to cheer me up, Cato.
Posted by OuterCow on June 11, 2012 at 6:21 PM
emma's bee 4
@2: the shooter was actually from Washington.
Posted by emma's bee on June 11, 2012 at 6:21 PM
5
Yeah, he was from Olympia.
Posted by Joe Glibmoron on June 11, 2012 at 7:09 PM
COMTE 6
@4:

So the Governor of MT claims his state is really friendly, after a guy from WA shoots a guy from W VA, outside a town less than 10 miles from ND and maybe 50 miles from the Canadian border.

And your point is?
Posted by COMTE http://www.chriscomte.com on June 11, 2012 at 7:10 PM
Matt from Denver 7
@ 6, it's like how everyone says the Northwest is full of polite people but then you meet them on Slog.
Posted by Matt from Denver on June 11, 2012 at 7:19 PM
8
Eastern Montana can be rough at times (especially in the far northeast), but with the oil boom in North Dakota, it has become somewhat like the Wild West. A lot of crooks are getting jobs with the oil fields and then letting their aggression out on random people.

You have small farming towns where someone stealing a cow would be big news now having to deal with their populations tripling overnight, thousands of people sleeping in tents and campers, prostitution and drug rings, and random acts of violence. It is starting to get scary over there.
Posted by delirian on June 11, 2012 at 7:27 PM
Supreme Ruler Of The Universe 9
On another note, why did I ever think that I would be able to watch the documentary "How Seattle Invented The Future" on public tv...the first time I have watched pbs in more than a year.

It started great, but then it launched into the fundraising drive and its been 10 minutes of commemorative cocktail napkins ever since!
Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe http://www.you-read-it-here-first.com on June 11, 2012 at 7:28 PM
--MC 10
Whew! For a second there I was afraid it was John Waters.
Posted by --MC on June 11, 2012 at 7:53 PM
11
John Waters would never shoot anyone, and he is not from Olympia.
Posted by PaulBarwick on June 11, 2012 at 7:59 PM
gloomy gus 12
@10, he finished his cross-country hitchhike a couple weeks ago. He's going to use it as a springboard for a book just like the poor murder victim wanted to. Apparently it's a thing.
Posted by gloomy gus on June 11, 2012 at 8:04 PM
gloomy gus 13
(and @11, you win Loudest Whoosh of the Week.)
Posted by gloomy gus on June 11, 2012 at 8:06 PM
Will in Seattle 14
Olympia ftw!
Posted by Will in Seattle http://www.facebook.com/WillSeattle on June 11, 2012 at 8:06 PM
Chelydra_serpentina 15
Gus - He's not a murder victim, just an attempted murder victim; he was hit in the arm and will be okay.

And, um, yeah. Not feeling too proud of my adopted hometown right about now.
Posted by Chelydra_serpentina on June 11, 2012 at 8:20 PM
Urgutha Forka 16
I wonder what the sequel will be titled?
Posted by Urgutha Forka on June 11, 2012 at 8:23 PM
Gern Blanston 17
A stranger is just a friend you've never met!
Posted by Gern Blanston on June 11, 2012 at 8:46 PM
Zebes 18
@17

"A stranger is just a friend you haven't shot!"

fixed that for you
Posted by Zebes http://www.badrap.org/rescue/index.html on June 11, 2012 at 9:07 PM
Fnarf 19
@8, it's ironic, considering that far northeastern Montana (Sheridan County, two over from where this shooting took place) was once a hotbed of Communism -- one of the few places in the country where almost every elected official was a member of the Communist Party, back in the 20s and 30s. Commies are a bit thin on the ground out there today -- actually anyone to the left of John Birch is.
Posted by Fnarf http://www.facebook.com/fnarf on June 11, 2012 at 9:21 PM
bedipped 20
@16
If You Meet The Buddha On The Road, Wing Him.
Zen and the Aim of Motorcycle Maniacs.
The Bullet Whisperer.
and for NW flair...
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Target.
Posted by bedipped on June 11, 2012 at 9:40 PM
gloomy gus 21
@15, thank you - it says something about my jadedness that I decided the magnitude of the fuss meant it couldn't be a mere wounding, no matter that I did read the damn article too....
Posted by gloomy gus on June 11, 2012 at 9:52 PM
22
@1 You're boring and stupid. Fuck off.
Posted by shabadoo on June 11, 2012 at 10:22 PM
mikethehammer 23
I was recently re-reading David Sedaris' wonderful collection Naked, which features a couple wonderful takes on hitchhiking. Highly recommended to anyone who hasn't read it (or read it recently. I'd completely forgotten how much it rules. Wonderful!)
Posted by mikethehammer on June 11, 2012 at 11:14 PM
24 Comment Pulled (Spam) Comment Policy
Karlheinz Arschbomber 25
Of course there was a reason - cows were out of season!
Posted by Karlheinz Arschbomber http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arschbombe on June 12, 2012 at 3:52 AM
26
This was near the Bakken oil patch. Guy who did it was not from the area. Yes, crime in the area has surged but it is unfair to say it is rural crime. It is because people have been drawn to the area by oil jobs. This is hardly normal rural living. It is an unnatural society built by the companies with people that are only there temporarily committing crimes.
Posted by gwj on June 12, 2012 at 6:42 AM
Max Solomon 27
My SIL is from out there, and my brother calls it "Montucky". Gives me a little bit of NW pride in that our crazies have a subconscious sense of irony.
Posted by Max Solomon on June 12, 2012 at 6:52 AM
28
@8 and @26-- it's not really oil workers per se who are the troublemakers. They're generally skilled or semi-skilled and they really have to keep their noses clean to keep their jobs. The instigators in the high-profile crimes out here have been basically transients who are trying to cash in on higher paying service jobs-- for instance the Wal-Mart in Williston starts at $13/hr-- although the lack of housing basically means there's a lot of well paid homeless people living in their cars.

However, it is wrong that the crime rate has skyrocketed since the boom. The violent crime and violent death rates in eastern Montana and western ND have always been astronomical for as small as the population is, and remain so in places unaffected by the boom. In the boomtowns, the populations have gone way up, but my some estimates the violent crime rate and things like dui fatalities and suicides have actually gone down quite a lot. There's more of the
Posted by Jk on June 12, 2012 at 8:35 AM
29
Oops, stupid phone. ... There's more deaths and crimes numerically because of the population growth, but the actual rate has gone down. The locals who claim they had idyllic little towns before the boom are guilty of wishful thinking.
Posted by Jk on June 12, 2012 at 8:39 AM
30
I'm shocked to learn that someone from WA with a criminal record for violence has a gun.
Posted by madcap on June 12, 2012 at 2:03 PM
emma's bee 31
It was all a hoax!!! Even though this thread is dead, I feel compelled to post the link: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/0…
Posted by emma's bee on June 15, 2012 at 3:01 PM

Add a comment

Advertisement
 

Want great deals and a chance to win tickets to the best shows in Seattle? Join The Stranger Presents email list!


All contents © Index Newspapers, LLC
1535 11th Ave (Third Floor), Seattle, WA 98122
Contact Info | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Takedown Policy