Firstly, we're very sorry to hear about the incident you were involved in, but happy to learn that it didn't adversely impact your future enjoyment of Las Vegas. Such things can happen on any bus, in any city, anytime, of course, but that doesn't make it okay. (As an aside, a lot of resources have been pumped into the transit system here in recent times, and it does seem as if the bus system is improving its service significantly; we can't vouch for the clientele, however, and realize that Las Vegas has at least, if not more than its fair share of drunks, tweekers, and freaks. )
As to the Forbes survey that you reference, we recall reporting about it in "Today's News" and noted with mild amusement at the time that Henderson ranked as #2 on the "Safest Cities" list, released shortly after the "Most Dangerous" list placed Las Vegas at #9. (The amusement was due only to the fact that as residents, it sometimes seems like semantics to distinguish between the so-called separate cities here, which pretty much all blur into one, albeit one with distinctly different 'hoods. But we digress...)
With all the interior and exterior surveillance cameras, in-house security, patrolling bike cops, and the sheer volume of people, we've always felt pretty safe and monitored, even to the point of Big Brotherness, on the Strip. Downtown used to be a different story, and anyone who's been visiting for the past decade or more can attest to the fact that things were pretty rough around Fremont Street until recently. The current writer recalls experiencing a blowout while filming down there back in '99 and having someone offer to help change my tire -- if I could just hold his shotgun for him!
The clean-up downtown was a long time coming and spanned various abortive attempts to find a raison d'être for the area, beyond just being a tawdry tourist trap. The emergence of a viable arts district around Fremont East finally seems to have done the trick, and the advent of lots of new cool bars, cafes, restaurants, and galleries, etc., is having a positive effect in attracting a bigger and better crowd to the neighborhood.
That's not so say that you won't still find bums and crackwhores lurking in the shadows at times, and you need to keep your head screwed on just as you do anywhere these days, but there's more parking than there was, and better street lighting, and as a 40-something female I can vouch for feeling safe enough when visiting First Friday and enjoy the Bohemian bustle that characterizes the area these days.
So, to summarize and reassure, we'd say we feel above-average safe for an urban environment, both on the Las Vegas Strip and downtown, and it's unusual to hear of violent happenings in either location, particularly the former. That's what made a string of well-publicized incidents in 2011 all the more high-profile, since such events are not the norm. Allow us to quote from a previous QoD (7/12/2011):
The 11-day period commencing June 25 turned out to be uncharacteristically violent for the Las Vegas Strip, although all three incidents that occurred were isolated events that took place between individuals with personal grievances and agendas, as opposed to being random killing sprees. That doesn't make the events any less deadly or disturbing, but it would appear that their proximity was a coincidence and not indicative of any underlying trend of escalating violence on the Strip. At least one of the incidents has already resulted in bloody repercussions, however.
It all started in the early hours of June 25, when two groups got into a fight in the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood, apparently over an offensive remark made about a girl in one of the parties. According to the police report, the initial fracas was diffused by mall security, who forced one group to leave.
However, later that same night the two groups ran into each other again, this time on the pedestrian walkway between MGM Grand and New York-New York, and another fight broke out. According to reports we've read, Victor Quijano claims that Andres Armando Elena hit his friend with a broken bottle and then threatened him with it, so he stabbed him in the side with a stiletto knife in self-defense. Elena was taken to University Medical Center's trauma unit, where he later died.
In addition to charges of both murder and attempted murder with the use of a deadly weapon in relation to Elena, Quijano is also charged with a felony count of battery with the use of a deadly weapon for allegedly stabbing a second victim during the incident. He's currently being held at the Clark County Detention Center.
The death of 21-year-old Andres Armando Elena, who had already been represented by the public defender's office no less than eight times, apparently has sparked a feud that left another seven people injured when a gunman pretending to be a mourner opened fire at Elena's funeral service, which took place at the Palm Mortuary on July 6. None of the seven gunshot victims, who included a teenager, suffered life-threatening injuries. Police are still searching for the shooter.
Meanwhile, in the early hours of Monday, July 4, Pedro Carlos Robledo, 28, was accused of stabbing 21-year-old Javier Medrano-Padilla multiple times with a kitchen knife outside The Cosmopolitan. Apparently, at first two other males were taken into custody in connection with the stabbing, but claimed that several men, including Robledo, had "jumped" them and that a fight ensued, but they denied stabbing anyone. Surveillance footage later backed up their story and Robledo was arrested on the strength of the footage and of an anonymous tip from a concerned citizen who claimed Robledo confessed to having stabbed someone on the Strip.
Robledo told detectives that he knew Medrano-Padilla and acted "in self-defense" but claimed to remember nothing because he blacked out from alcohol. He was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on a count of murder with a deadly weapon and is also being held on charges related to other pending cases against him, including battery/domestic violence and misdemeanor hit-and-run.
Perhaps the most bizarre in this string of fatal incidents took place at O'Sheas casino on July 6, when a Florida high school football coach killed a Utah man with a single blow to the jaw, apparently as the result of an argument that broke out between the two men in the restroom. Benjamin Hawkins claimed he was acting in self-defense and pleaded not guilty to murder when he appeared in court later that week. A date of July 21 has been set to hear evidence in the slaying of John Massie, who the Clark County coroner determined died of a head injury resulting from the punch and a fall to the floor.
UPDATE: 07-12-2011 There have been developments with regard to the O'Sheas incident, with a Las Vegas Justice of the Peace today setting bail at just $25,000 for Benjamin Hawkins, the lowest bail amount he's ever set in a murder case. JP William Jansen said he did not believe the facts of the case meet the level of first-degree murder.
These incidents, while all disturbing, were as random as the series of events that started on the Strip in 2006 and later inspired an episode of "CSI." The real-life Easter weekend crime spree involved about 10 to 15 teens in a rampage that included beatings of at least five people, two of them at the MGM Grand, and other crimes around the valley. Most of the gangbangers were later caught and pleaded guilty and, while highly publicized, this remains an extremely rare event in the history of Las Vegas, espeically in the tourist corridor.
As journalists, we receive multiple local daily news feeds and can attest to the fact that there are, on average, several shootings or stabbings, often fatal, on a weekly basis, it seems at times. But in almost all instances, these incidents are gang-related, or involve domestic violence, and are neither random nor directed toward tourists. The horrific recent headline-grabbing rape and murder of a mother and daughter in their home, or the fatal stabbing of a little girl by her own mother, who believed she was possessed, are the kinds of hideous random crimes that sadly could happen in any neighborhood and are not in themselves a reflection on the safety of this city, although they could well raise bigger questions that are beyond the scope of this column.
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, organized mayhem or random acts of violence in the downtown core and along the Las Vegas Strip are so rare as to be nearly non-existent. With more than 60 traffic-related deaths in the Vegas Valley to date this year, we're more concerned about safety on the roads -- and sidewalks -- to be honest.
