The pandemic was kind of a dirty joke played on Las Vegas, don't you think? It's as if it was a clear signal for them to cool their greedy, lawless jets. The virus left the city with no choice but to shut down, which in turn, stopped the flow of billions of dollars, above board and below.
I understand that Covid has been a massive financial hit on the city but Vegas wasn't alone during Covid. It was a hit on the entire world and every city is suffering massive loss. So what makes Vegas so special?
I will never, ever forget watching Anderson Cooper call mayor Goodman ignorant on national television because her answer to the pandemic was purely money-driven. "Let's sacrifice the citizens for the money," was basically her message.
That seems to be Vegas's entire mission statement.
The point is, if snuffing people out is going to be a regular occurrence you need to make sure you're snuffing out the right ones for the right reasons. The ones doing the wrong things.
But when you have a police force driven solely by money followed by cover-ups to make themselves look proficient, you have a problem.
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
Las Vegas was pretty much founded by the mob back in the 1950s.
Southern Nevada history professor, Michael Green quotes,
“You might say it was a perfect storm in a good way for Las Vegas. There were people running casinos who weren’t in the mob but didn’t have the money to expand, and there were people in the mob who had the money but didn’t know how to run a casino.”
This created cohesion within the early days...something Las Vegas no longer has because it is largely controlled by mega-resort money and a police force that will do anything to protect that money.
The city will go SO far to protect its financial assets that it will even attempt to cover up facts behind the deadliest mass shooting in American history, on October 1, 2017.
Not only will they cover it up but they will actively campaign to raise even more money from do-gooders around the world in order to line their own pockets. The #VegasStrong GoFundMe relief money never reached the victims of the shooting.
The city used the massacre as a publicity stunt to capitalize on this horrific event. #VegasStrong was an effort to entice tourists to keep coming to Las Vegas, claiming it was still safe to do so. It was never intended to help the victims of the incident.
Adding insult to injury, MGM who owns the Mandalay resort where the shooter set up his deadly bunker, actually attempted to sue the shooting victims in an effort to silence them from holding the resort liable.
The closest thing Vegas had to anyone maintaining order in recent years was Larry Burns, who served as the Captain of the Bolden Area Command.
Burns had a real relationship with the community he served. Citizens trusted him because he made it his business to get to know them. He encouraged people to want to be honest and maintain order and when this happens, chances of lawless behavior decreases. Crime rates decrease. Order has a chance of being restored.
Larry Burns ran against Joe Lombardo - king of modern-day LVMPD cover-ups, but regrettably was unsuccessful by a mere 2% margin in votes, and of course, less money raised. Lombardo benefited from an almost 2-to-1 fundraising advantage.
Again, it all came back to money over lives.
So, let's compare the way Vegas is now to when it was founded. Was life really better when the mob was in charge?
Gaming lawyer, Mike Sloan, contributes,
“They (the mob) wanted to be engaged in the community because they came to a place that allowed them to operate legally, and they appreciated that.”
That can be translated into giving back. They recognized what they had and in turn, they gave back to the community. Something that surely isn't happening in current Vegas. Sure, the city now provides a shit-ton of jobs due to tourism but is anyone in power truly involved in the community?
Don't ask the family of Trevon Cole, a man who was unarmed and shot in his own bathroom during an unwarranted raid.
Also, don't ask the father of Erik Scott, an unarmed man shot to death with empty his hands up, outside a Las Vegas Costco store. An incident that occurred in front of several eyewitnesses confirming the man was unarmed. Yet the officer who shot him was actually promoted.
Back in the 1930s, the local police were primarily concerned with keeping traditional criminals out of town. In modern days they ARE the criminals.
When the mob took someone out back in the day, there was a reason for it and the reason was not just for being a random dude in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I don't know about the people of Las Vegas but I'd rather take my chances with a mafia that knows exactly who they're targeting rather than a police force and officials who will target anyone who happens to be walking by.