EXTERNAL Re_ Concern for our teenagers Public Comment from Eric & Sally BeckerFYI - Our son just let us know tonight that as he was walking out of work this weekend, this same homeless man that shouldered him last week tried to hit him with his bike. He described
him as approximately in his 40’s and fit. His friend may have a photo. Clearly this person is not thinking reasonably. Our son reported the incident to his manager along with his friends
who witnessed it.
Obviously, we have legitimate concerns about our teenager working downtown around the homeless. This is not something he should have to deal with in Kalispell. We will encourage him
to report another incident immediately to the police if it happens again. But, the intent of this person seems to be that he wants to have a physical encounter with our son. We do
not want this to happen.
We just want you all to know that there is an escalation in negative behavior being exhibited regularly by the homeless at Super 1 in downtown Kalispell, extremely close to the park.
We do not want residents to be bullied in our town, especially youth. Please try to imagine a person assaulting one of your kids like this and treat the problem with the same concern.
Let us know what we can do.
Eric & Sally Becker
406-261-9165
On Jun 2, 2023, at 8:51 AM, Eric & Sally Becker <thebeckers@gorge.net <mailto:thebeckers@gorge.net> > wrote:
Mayor, City Council Members, & Police Chief Doverman,
We are contacting you out of concern for our son and other youth in the city of Kalispell. Our son has worked at Super 1 for approximately a year now. In the past few months he has
reported to us, and his managers, more and more disregard for the law by the homeless. He has witnessed more aggressive fighting amongst the homeless, keys being stolen out of motorcycles,
people being chased with drugs, and most recently an adult drunk homeless man physically confronted him while he was getting carts.
This man came up to our son and shouldered him as he was gathering carts then said words to our son trying to agitate him. Our son then tried to ignore him and continue with his work
and the man stood in front of his carts and tried to confront him again in an effort to start a fight. Our teenage son, a junior in high school, is being confronted by a grown drunk
homeless man. He was able to go on about his work and reported this activity to the manager, but we are not sure anything was actually done.
This physical encounter is very disturbing. The downtown is becoming so overrun with homeless that we are worried more and more incidents like this will happen not only to our son but
to others as well. We are wondering if more patrolling can be done in that area? The area around the park and Super 1. We don’t want people to get accustomed to this behavior and
start to normalize it, which may lead to more abusive incidents in the future.
How can we help? We’ve been looking up what has been successful in other cities to deter camps or group homeless activities. You have probably already seen this but some stores have
used classical or Christian music (not played too loudly) to effectively scatter homeless groups from organizing in certain areas. Supposedly, the neuroscience is, this music doesn’t
appeal to a lot of individuals so they leave the area where it is being played because their brains don’t like that particular type of music. Here are a couple links below. We are just
brainstorming ideas. We noticed the other day that there were at least at least 30 gathered in the city park.
https://www.police1.com/bizarre/articles/5-things-to-know-about-fighting-crime-with-classical-music-wKqDTRPjOjgxtxx3/ <https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.police1.c
om%2Fbizarre%2Farticles%2F5-things-to-know-about-fighting-crime-with-classical-music-wKqDTRPjOjgxtxx3%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cabrunckhorst%40kalispell.com%7C4664f495c91d48c88f7f08db658278f6%7C6219d736f7114
6359cbaff616a81b398%7C1%7C0%7C638215383334980957%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=tw1agY03M3oKnuKm0%2B2r%2Bxxantj8ej%2F
hqb37NX1cDkk%3D&reserved=0>
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-09-06/homeless-7-eleven-franchise-classical-music <https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fcalifornia%2Fstor
y%2F2019-09-06%2Fhomeless-7-eleven-franchise-classical-music&data=05%7C01%7Cabrunckhorst%40kalispell.com%7C4664f495c91d48c88f7f08db658278f6%7C6219d736f71146359cbaff616a81b398%7C1%7C0%7C63821538333498
0957%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=kuWrRfl84cqF%2FmqhOF%2BWzD8dchJrZpoIZCoyPrAKKos%3D&reserved=0>
The point of this email is to let you know that we have taught our son to respect people older than him. However, we have also taught him to defend himself. If he is assaulted more
aggressively in the future and feels threatened, then he may be forced to defend himself. We don’t want that to happen. Please let us know what we can do to help mentor our son and
to protect others.
Eric & Sally Becker
406-261-9165
ople is going to have a physical altercation and hurt innocent people.
While you’re thinking about this at the very least this summer can a policeman be spared to walk the Main Street ? We need to know we are safe in our own shops.
Karlene Khor
Manager
La Lark Llc
Sent from my iPhone
저麞»뒈≙砰≘a=iIG7uRMxMA0fpvCSnyrvdb%2Bi5brXUpXPyg3GjAAKvDo
%3D&reserved=0>
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-09-06/homeless-7-eleven-franchise-classical-music <https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fcalifornia%2Fstory
%2F2019-09-06%2Fhomeless-7-eleven-franchise-classical-music&data=05%7C01%7Cjfunk%40kalispell.com%7C62aaa197022f45d0a70b08db6378ccd9%7C6219d736f71146359cbaff616a81b398%7C1%7C0%7C638213143267308047%7CU
nknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=dg5uvpUupTWachBgrF1AXgxPQs9IIXtyyb1Z4JH6%2Fkk%3D&reserved=0>
The point of this email is to let you know that we have taught our son to respect people older than him. However, we have also taught him to defend himself. If he is assaulted more
aggressively in the future and feels threatened, then he may be forced to defend himself. We don’t want that to happen. Please let us know what we can do to help mentor our son and
to protect others.
Eric & Sally Becker
406-261-9165
Chҽ뤀鳬»튠≚㔸≖rman,
We are contacting you out of concern for our son and other youth in the city of Kalispell. Our son has worked at Super 1 for approximately a year now. In the past few months he has
reported to us, and his managers, more and more disregard for the law by the homeless. He has witnessed more aggressive fighting amongst the homeless, keys being stolen out of motorcycles,
people being chased with drugs, and most recently an adult drunk homeless man physically confronted him while he was getting carts.
This man came up to our son and shouldered him as he was gathering carts then said words to our son trying to agitate him. Our son then tried to ignore him and continue with his work
and the man stood in front of his carts and tried to confront him again in an effort to start a fight. Our teenage son, a junior in high school, is being confronted by a grown drunk
homeless man. He was able to go on about his work and reported this activity to the manager, but we are not sure anything was actually done.
This physical encounter is very disturbing. The downtown is becoming so overrun with homeless that we are worried more and more incidents like this will happen not only to our son but
to others as well. We are wondering if more patrolling can be done in that area? The area around the park and Super 1. We don’t want people to get accustomed to this behavior and
start to normalize it, which may lead to more abusive incidents in the future.
How can we help? We’ve been looking up what has been successful in other cities to deter camps or group homeless activities. You have probably already seen this but some stores have
used classical or Christian music (not played too loudly) to effectively scatter homeless groups from organizing in certain areas. Supposedly, the neuroscience is, this music doesn’t
appeal to a lot of individuals so they leave the area where it is being played because their brains don’t like that particular type of music. Here are a couple links below. We are just
brainstorming ideas. We noticed the other day that there were at least at least 30 gathered in the city park.
https://www.police1.com/bizarre/articles/5-things-to-know-about-fighting-crime-with-classical-music-wKqDTRPjOjgxtxx3/ <https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.police1.co
m%2Fbizarre%2Farticles%2F5-things-to-know-about-fighting-crime-with-classical-music-wKqDTRPjOjgxtxx3%2F&data=05%7C01%7Cjfunk%40kalispell.com%7C62aaa197022f45d0a70b08db6378ccd9%7C6219d736f71146359cbaf
f616a81b398%7C1%7C0%7C638213143267308047%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=iIG7uRMxMA0fpvCSnyrvdb%2Bi5brXUpXPyg3GjAAKvDo
%3D&reserved=0>
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-09-06/homeless-7-eleven-franchise-classical-music <https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.latimes.com%2Fcalifornia%2Fstory
%2F2019-09-06%2Fhomeless-7-eleven-franchise-classical-music&data=05%7C01%7Cjfunk%40kalispell.com%7C62aaa197022f45d0a70b08db6378ccd9%7C6219d736f71146359cbaff616a81b398%7C1%7C0%7C638213143267308047%7CU
nknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C2000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=dg5uvpUupTWachBgrF1AXgxPQs9IIXtyyb1Z4JH6%2Fkk%3D&reserved=0>
The point of this email is to let you know that we have taught our son to respect people older than him. However, we have also taught him to defend himself. If he is assaulted more
aggressively in the future and feels threatened, then he may be forced to defend himself. We don’t want that to happen. Please let us know what we can do to help mentor our son and
to protect others.
Eric & Sally Becker
406-261-9165