Yes. That episode of "CSI" was based on a couple of well-publicized attacks in the Las Vegas tourist corridor by roving teenage gangs in April 2006.
The Easter weekend crime spree involved about 10 to 15 teens. Their rampage included beatings of at least five people, two of them at the MGM Grand, and other crimes around the valley. The first assault was on a 24-year-old MGM landscaper; the second was on an MGM security guard. The third was on a man up the Strip who apparently got in the gang's way. One attack at MGM was captured on surveillance video, then broadcast repeatedly on CNN and other national news programs.
Most of the gangbangers were caught and pleaded guilty.
This, however, is an extremely rare event in the history of Las Vegas. To the best of our knowledge, it was a somewhat disorganized group of teenagers who went on a random violent spree.
Of course, like anywhere else (and sometimes particularly or even only in Vegas, whose foundation rests on a highly unstable amalgam of greed, booze, sex, and cash), predators, malefactors, and other public enemies certainly victimize individual visitors, locals, and other unlucky souls who inadvertently wind up in the wrong place at the wrong time.
But the bottom line is that, though certain Las Vegas neighborhoods near the tourist corridor are worse for random crime than others, and taking into account the events of April 2006, organized mayhem in the downtown core and along the Las Vegas Strip is so rare as to be nearly non-existent.
