With Liberty and Justice For All
November 25, 2009
4:47am: “Did you see new neon sign at ccd and gass?”
4:51am: “no”
4:52am: “You should check out it’s sum kind liquor store thing”.
4:53am: “ok tx”
Welcome to my world.
Even though I am frequently mistaken for God, the fact is that my power is lacking. I can only hear ten million people praying simultaneously, which is vastly inferior to that of Jesus who, legend has it — can hear the prayers of all humans, dogs, and aquatic mammals … all while listening to Badmotorfinger on his iPod.
What can I say, homey has mad skills.
Instead of omnipotence, I am often kept abreast of the minute and mundane goings-on in Las Vegas with a series of cryptic and oft-misspelled text messages.
This is also why I rarely sleep.
Case in point, 11/20 3:03am: “there is a strange smell in the palms bathroom”
Yeah, I’m going to jump out of bed to investigate that.
“Hello, public relations? My name is Vegas Rex and I received a report of a strange smell in one of your bathrooms. Yeah. 10 minutes ago. I don’t know, just said strange -click-”
I digress.
I didn’t exactly snort three lines of meth and Run, Forest, Run to the neon sign when I got the message this morning, but I got around to it eventually.
Downtown Las Vegas - 5th Liquor Store Neon Sign on Convention Center Drive
After getting some shots and talking to the workers installing the ACE station (who knew little more than was already on the transit website), I headed back and noticed that police officers were starting to take up positions up and down The Boulevard.
“I told you I shouldn’t post live shots”, I told my companion, “the cops are tired of me giving them shit and they are coming to Rodney King my ass.”
“No, remember, the police departments are having a funeral parade today”, he said.
At that point, I remembered.
Las Vegas Police waiting on parade route on Las Vegas Boulevard
Las Vegas Police waiting on parade route on Las Vegas Boulevard
Las Vegas Police waiting on parade route on Las Vegas Boulevard
Now, I was going to steer clear of this topic for a number of reasons.
First of all, it’s tragic.
Second of all, outside of Las Vegas, it’s not news.
Third of all, I don’t want the cops to Rodney King my ass.
When I got home and pulled up the news, however, I realized that the story had gone semi-national, and that I had what appeared to be the only dissenting opinion on the planet.
For those who are unaware, a Las Vegas Police Officer was shot earlier this month after a group of men attempted to rob him in his garage. He had just gotten home from work, was off-duty, and was in the wrong place at the wrong time as so many other victims are.
The bad guys did not know that he was a cop. It was a crime of opportunity that has befallen over a thousand other Las Vegans in this decade alone.
The officer left behind a wife and two children.
As part of the funeral, the Police Department shut down streets for a procession (including Las Vegas Boulevard), and a bank account in the officer’s name has been opened so that the public can donate to the officer’s family.
Of course, this story is tragic, and reading the details is like a punch in the gut.
It’s no huge secret that I do not agree with the manner in which Las Vegas is policed, but that’s a procedural opinion. For the love of god, I would do anything possible to save a fellow human being from meeting this fate. If I was nearby with any chance of intervening on his behalf, I probably would have been shot trying to do so.
It is my opinion that the people who do these kinds of things are insane, because this type of crime is not within the normal deviation of human behavior. As such, I would be reticent to call them “human” at all.
This, however, is where my agreement with the status-quo ends and where my “evil” opinion rears its ugly head.
You see, I have had two friends violently killed during my lifetime. One of them had a family of his own, the other left behind his parents and a sibling.
Neither of these people got a parade. Their family members got whatever insurance or social security that was left … but no special accounts were asked for or advocated, and they certainly did not receive a public pension.
They got a paragraph or two in the newspaper and neither perpetrator was ever caught. In both instances, the crimes were ruled to be random in nature, and robbery was the alleged motive.
I cannot for the life of me figure out why the life of my friends deserve lessor attention, or a lessor investigation than that of any other human being.
Since November 19th, the Las Vegas Police Department has arrested five people in connection with the slaying of the officer, and the media has been covering the story around the clock. This would be great … if it happened each and every time someone lost a life in Las Vegas.
Law enforcement miserably failed 90 people in the Las Vegas Valley this year alone, and for that, we owe each and every one of these people, and their families not only a parade … but our deepest condolences for having failed them in life, and abandoned them in death.
I don’t think the media is serving the public well by not having the backbone to raise these issues, and I think the exaltation of one human life over another in a public place is unconscionable.
Police officers aren’t heroes, individual people are. There is not one occupation on the planet that has a monopoly on heroism. People do jobs for money, and the occupation of police officer does not even rank in the top 5 most dangerous in the USA. That distinction goes to fisherman … the people who risk their lives to make sure we have the treats we want.
Were a building to catch fire with a baby trapped inside, and both a fisherman and police officer were to be nearby … I would put an equal amount of money on either person to run inside and save the infant. I mean that with all sincerity.
How can we be certain that the other 89 victims did not deserve a parade?
Were they black, brown, poor, or lonely? Did their drug of choice not involve the almighty cigarette or bottle of beer? Were they severely flawed or just less than perfect?
Every one of those 89 people was someone’s son, daughter, husband, father … they were someone.
They were the maids that cleaned your rooms to ensure that you had a good night’s sleep, they were the cooks that prepared your food and seasoned it to taste, they were the dealers working for diminishing tips who had to listen to your drunken jokes, they were the people who picked up your garbage to make your home sanitary, they were the construction workers who risked their lives every day under harsh conditions so that you could have a building in which to play silly games of chance.
These were all our people, and they were all your people. Every single one of them as important as the next.
To all of you who have lost friends or family due to senseless violence … I hope your loved one gets a parade someday, and I hope you are getting an outpouring of condolences and financial support to help ease the pain of your hero.
I think the money spent on this parade should have been spread among the families of all murder victims, or have been put to use in a manner which would prevent crimes like this from happening in the future.
As such, I think the parade and media coverage serve as an illusion to our supposed humanity, while in reality proving that we are a soundbite society with false idols and little compassion.
And this, my friends, is exactly why I’m going to spend tomorrow alone eating cat food behind the Imperial Palace.
Written by Joe on November 25, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Well said.
Written by blueboar on November 25, 2009 at 6:44 pm
Are you saying there have been 90 homicides? Or 90 UNSOLVED homicides so far this year?
Written by Rex on November 25, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Total.
There is roughly one homicide in Las Vegas every three days.
I don’t know the solve rates for 2009. The closest thing I can find quickly is 2003 which was 52%.
In 2007, the rate for Los Angeles was 41%, so it seems the large cities here track around half.
Metro investigated slightly more homicides in 2003 than 2002 and solved 52 percent of them. The national average was 64 percent for police departments, such as Metro, with jurisdictions with populations of more than 1 million …
Metro detectives investigated 141 criminal homicides in 2003 compared with 138 in 2002. Seven homicides in 2003 and six the year before were non-criminal officer-involved shootings.
Written by blueboar on November 25, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Ok, I understand that your basic point is that random violence is unfair. And that it’s unfair that most of the victims go unrecognized by anyone other than their friends and family. That every soul deserves the recognition that this officer received by having his funeral procession down the Strip.
And I think you and I are in agreement when it comes to civil liberties, and that people in authority, such as Metro officers, have a duty to not infringe on them, and to treat people with respect. And if they abuse that authority, that is particularly egregious.
But you also say, “Law enforcement miserably failed 90 people in the Las Vegas Valley this year alone, and for that, we owe each and every one of these people, and their families not only a parade … but our deepest condolences for having failed them in life, and abandoned them in death.”
And I think that is unfair to Metro and to other law enforcement in the area.
Certainly, with more resources, changes in tactics, etc. PERHAPS they could have prevented SOME of those murders. But I fail to see how in a major city, at least in a somewhat free society, they could have prevented them all. That seems unrealistic to me to blame them for all 90 murders.
Perhaps society failed some of those people, but certainly the police did not fail them all.
Now after those 90 murders occurred, then yes, it’s the police’s responsibility to investigate and try to catch those responsible for those crimes. It seems reasonable to assume, based on those past year’s stats, that they’ve solved maybe 45-50 of them.
But that does leave about 40 unsolved murders. Certainly cause for concern, and even anguish. But are all 40 unsolved homicides the fault of the police? Probably not.
The ideals of simple justice and fairness demands that they catch all murderers, but again, that doesn’t seem totally realistic. They might not catch the breaks they need. Witnesses might not come forward and cooperate.
And budget constraints could very well play a factor. For that, yes certainly, they can be blamed if they don’t pursue an investigation with all of the vigor and diligence that they pursued this officer’s murder.
I’m sorry to read about your friends who have been murdered. Fortunately, I have not experienced that or else I might feel much differently.
But I just think it’s unfair to imply that the police failed all 90 of those murder victims. Perhaps some, but certainly not 90.
I’m sorry to pick on 1 sentence out of an entire blog post. I realize that’s not even the main point you were trying to make. But I do think that sentence detracts from your post and the point you are trying to make.
Just to finish up, I’ll give you some figures for Detroit. They don’t have anything to do with my point or your blog, but I do find them interesting. Detroit has roughly half the population that Clark County does. But it usually has over 3 times as many homicides. And although this last quarter’s closure rate was up significantly, their homicide closure rate is usually a lot less than Las Vegas’. Now those figures don’t help those 90 Vegas murder victims and their families one damn bit. But it does point out that Vegas is certainly not the worst when it comes to such things.
Written by ColinFromLasVegas on November 26, 2009 at 6:36 am
I wish the best to all of you for the holiday and hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving.
I’ll look for you behind Imperial Palace, Rex. I’ll bring some kitty crunchies with me too. Along with some hot sauce. That way it makes it a bit more palatable.
Written by Medic on November 26, 2009 at 7:18 am
We have had a total of 117 so far to the end of October.
Written by Rex on November 26, 2009 at 12:08 pm
But you also say, “Law enforcement miserably failed 90 people in the Las Vegas Valley this year alone, and for that, we owe each and every one of these people, and their families not only a parade … but our deepest condolences for having failed them in life, and abandoned them in death.”
And I think that is unfair to Metro and to other law enforcement in the area.
Well, BB, I respect your opinion, and I think this is more semantics than anything … but I wrote it, I stand by it, and I will try to explain the best I can.
In order to asses the success or failure of ANYTHING, you have to define a goal.
The de-facto goal Law Enforcement is to prevent crime. Of course, they cannot prevent 100% of all crimes, but that is nonetheless the goal. In any given year, they will both succeed and fail at that task, but a murder is absolutely a failure.
Now, does this mean that it’s Metro’s “fault” when someone is killed? Not necessarily.
Let me use another analogy.
Micheal Jordan needs to sink two free throws to win the game. He hits the first, and misses the second. MJ clearly failed … although he is by no means a failure.
Was it his fault?
Maybe, maybe not.
If he did three lines of meth in the locker room before the game and skipped practice the week before … then it probably is. If he did everything in his power to make them, and used all resources available to him to make the shots, but just fell short, then it is not his fault. Again, this is petty semantics, but you asked.
So, the question then becomes “Does the LVMPD do everything in its power to prevent violent crime?”
My opinion is that no, they do not.
I could give you a hundred examples, but I will just rattle off a a few.
It is very common to see cops pulling over unregistered scooters in this area. Why? Because DMV will not allow scooters to be registered, and cops know this. One officer said to my scooter dealer, and I quote “they are easy tickets and most of them don’t have time to go to court and fight them”. He went on to explain to her that since almost zero scooter riders are armed, it’s an easy, stress-free stop and a good way to rack up tickets.
Is this protecting and serving the public? Is it heroic? Is it something that should be admired in anyway? Should it make us appreciate the “difficult job they have to do”?
I don’t think so. The riders are breaking NO laws, but the police could not care less. They see themselves as predators and the riders are prey.
Now, how many crimes occurred while the local cops were chasing 49cc scooters? We’ll never know … but my guess is that there were at least a few. Did law enforcement fail the victims, in my opinion … yes.
About a year ago several friends of mine were being stopped on the east side at random and were being asked questions such as “do you have something to hide?”. They were never ticketed, just grilled. Apparently, the LVMPD was running a “confidence building” exercised where they stopped and inconvenienced citizens to harass the shit out of them in order to build up their interrogative skills.
Did crimes go un-prevented during this time? Almost certainly.
When the cop at the base of the Stratosphere harassed me for the high crime of asking for directions, do we know that someone was not being robbed one block away?
No, we do not – nor did he seem to care.
Here, people were harassed by local police for their bumper sticker:
http://www.infowars.com/cops-stop-and-search-vegas-couple-for-having-ron-paul-infowars-bumper-stickers/
Were any crimes committed while they were messing with these people? Again, we don’t know, but my guess is “yes”.
You claim that the LVMPD is doing the best it can with the resources it has, and I disagree with you. I do not think budget constraints are the cause of much of our failures. As a matter of fact, we may be LOSING population at this point.
I think that harassment in Las Vegas is high, and that the cops ARE the criminals in too many instances. We’ve got cops shooting out windows and firing indiscriminately onto the crowded strip because someone “exchanged words” with them. Notice how quickly that one dropped out of the news?
Actual crime prevention in Las Vegas is actually a lower priority than you may think.
Not always, of course, but how many murders, rapes, robberies, or assaults need to take place while a cop is swinging his dick and collecting revenue before it’s their fault? You agree that “some” of the murders were the fault of PD, while finding that acceptable in any way.
How many does it take before it’s a failure by definition?
1? 100? 1,000?
The concept of “Law Enforcement” was abandoned a long time ago in this town, and the orders now seem to be “go out and harass the shit out of anyone you dislike for any reason.” I do not believe that this is a good use of resources, and I do think that it contributes to a large number of real crimes not being prevented.
As such, I think that, to a degree, the LVMPD fails the people of Las Vegas.
It is admirable that detectives solve half of our homicides, but a dead guy is still dead. An ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure and all that cliche’d happiness.
Again, this was really not my point in the article. It was that people should be treated equally, regardless of if there are 1 or 100 unsolved murders. I do think the line you quote was semantic and used for more for illustrative purposes than literal purposes, but I fully stand behind it in either context.
Written by blueboar on November 29, 2009 at 5:05 pm
I don’t believe that I claim that the LVMPD is doing the best it can with the resources it has. I have no knowledge either way on that subject, except for what you tell me about the situation, and I don’t doubt you.
No, what I took issue to was that 1 sentence. And as you say, I believe our discussion is primarily semantics. I understand your position much better now that you’ve explained it.
As originally written, that sentence (to me at least) implied that LVMPD had somehow grossly failed all 90 homicide victims. And I found that statement by itself to be unfair. Even with 100% efficiency using their available resources, I do not believe that they could prevent, or even solve, every murder. And I believe you acknowledge that in your explanation.
You do however believe that there is room for vast improvement in their procedures and use of resources, and for that, they should be held accountable. And that all lives lost to violent crime have equal value and deserve to be acknowledged.
I hope that’s a fair restatement.
Written by SPRUNT on December 1, 2009 at 3:43 pm
Rex, I agree with your original intent of the article. I don’t believe there should be a parade for this unfortunate incident. Yes, it is tragic, the same as it tragic when anyone else is senselessly killed. I am sorry for his family and friends, including the police family, that has been left behind. It is a situation that pisses me off again and again, whether it is a cop or not.
In my opinion, the cops who should have the parade in their honor are the ones who are killed in the line of duty. The ones who were actively and knowingly going into danger for the sake of others. For an off-duty cop to be killed in a mugging (or whatever the case may be) with no correlation between his job and the incident, then that person should be treated as any other citizen. If the department wants to do something amongst themselves to memorialize a fallen brother, that is fine, but to do it publicly seems like more of an injustice to the rest of the people killed in the same way.