Vegas Anger At All-Star Crowd
February 22, 2007 | 4:06
pm
The stories about the crowds in town for All-Star weekend continue to be draw-dropping. And, locals don't seem ready to move on yet. Let me preface this by saying the resorts take a lot of pride in customer service. Frontline workers on the Strip are not minimum wage workers but highly compensated professionals offering a mix of obsequiousness and hard work that is meant to give every tourist the VIP experience. So, Vegas workers will put up with a lot from tourists without complaining. Casino workers rarely confront troublesome customers rather they try to soothe things over. The sad truth is that the more obnoxious tourists can often bully their way into comps and other treats meant to keep everyone happy.
But the over-the-top "thug" behavior of the All-Star NBA crowd has left in its wake a boiling fury among cocktail waitresses, bartenders, security and other jaded pros of the Strip. Among the nightclubs where incidents seem to have taken place on the Strip are hot spots at Wynn, Mandalay Bay and freestanding Empire Ballroom. Off Strip, the topless bars proved a center for problems, too. The stories range from bottles being thrown at employees to guns being confiscated. An employee at Empire told me about having to hide in the back with other workers when a melee broke out shortly after reports that a gun had found its way into the club. For the entire weekend this person reported that female bartenders and cocktail servers at Empire were routinely addressed by customers with obscenities the nicest of which rhymes with witch. I have heard similar treatment was meted out by customers to servers at Pure. Even the usually mellow Peppermill seems to have been the scene of hassles.
Of course, the incident so far getting press attention is the shooting at the strip club Minxx. That incident combines many of the factors that workers blame for the problems elsewhere: outside promoters, celebrities with large entourages and irresponsible behavior by everyone involved. The Review-Journal reports police have talked to NFL player Adam "Pacman" Jones who may have known the shooter.
In all the uproar over the tourists who came here last weekend, particularly disconcerting to the servers I interviewed was the question if race played a part in their perception of the crowd. All denied it. One worker at Empire told me: "These were thugs. It was mostly black people, yes, but this had nothing to do with race. I also got called 'slut' by a white guy with a grill. It was thug culture."
In all Las Vegas seems traumatized by the entire experience of All-Star weekend.
I was there and witnessed the same nonsense. I concur with the write-up and sincerely apologize for my race. It was thugs, and want a be rich folks. I did not enjoy myself not one bit. It was terrible. Sorry for the poor display of humanity.
Posted by: Jackson | February 22, 2007 at 04:22 PM
The "Thug Culture" is synonymous with low-class gutter trash. During the All-Star weekend, I witnessed the ill-mannered, bad-tempered and verbal abusiveness by these pathetic losers. What happened to maintaining a modicum or semblance of decorum? Unfortunately, these ignorant and arrogant fools feel compelled to routinely demonstrate and perpetuate this type of behavior in the presence of others. It's deplorable and it's unappreciated. I sincerely hope that Las Vegas never again bids to host another All-Star weekend…EVER.
Posted by: D Kinzler | February 22, 2007 at 09:21 PM
Congratulations Mayor Goodman, you finally have succeeded in bringing a part of the NBA and the thug culture to our city, I hope you are proud of yourself.
Posted by: tucker | February 22, 2007 at 09:37 PM
Back home in New Orleans we've got the Essence festival and the Southern Classic.
There is never a time when a person that works for tips hates their life more than when one of these events blows in to town.
Posted by: C-low | February 23, 2007 at 02:57 AM
Of course 'Race' played a part in the bad behavior. When a group acts out as a group the identity of that group is a factor. Black thugs love the NBA becasue NBA basketball is a thug, steroid, HGH, gangsta game. In how many other sports do the players attack the fans? And regularly.
'He told my wife to sit her fat arse down' one black NBA thug said as his excuse for attackng a fan half his size. That the dwarf commissioner, David Stern, makes excuses all day long for his way rich and spoiled subdized league and that ex mob flak Mayor Goodman makes excuses and lies does not alter facts.
The real fact is that when you see gansta black folk with bling and gold chains head for he hills cause the monkey's have de dynamite and they is a gonna use it. If you don't know that you are a liberragl about to be mugged a punk like da Mayor or an ultrarich putz like Stern.
Posted by: David Brown | February 23, 2007 at 05:49 AM
David Brown,
Your comments indicate that you have roughly the same mental capacity as a North American warthog. You honestly sound like you barely made it out of the 7th grade.
Posted by: Obasanjou | February 23, 2007 at 06:32 AM
The Movers and Shakers that publicize Las Vegas must be in cahoots with the media; the story was absent from the newspapers and radio in the Los Angeles area.
Posted by: Edward Padgett | February 23, 2007 at 07:57 AM
Obasanjou,
I checked with my 7th grader, she told me warthogs are indigenous to the continent of Africa, not North America.
This in no way apologizes for mr brown's comments, but challenge with truth, not rhetoric.
Posted by: Hardball | February 23, 2007 at 08:10 AM
I'm white, and old enough to have the eight year old twin granchildren their mother and I took to the Circus Circus midway, over the past weekend.
The children had a blast, playing all the midway sucker games, and not at all intimidated by the crowds of mostly black, blinged and slightly gangsta'ed-up teenagers and twenty-somethings.
At one point, one of these came up to us; slightly older than the rest of the crowd, the crotch of his pants at his knees, wearing a jacket many sizes too large, and with his billed cap turned sideways.
"Excuse me," he said, "Would the little girl like this?" "This" was a huge stuffed animal, a beautiful horse. "I won it, but I don't want it," he explained, "And I thought she might enjoy it."
The young man's English wasn't quite as well-spoken as I've indicated, but he was certainly as -- dare I use the word -- gentlemanly, as indicated.
We thanked him profusely, and then we parted.
That was my experience with one member of our town's unruly visitors last weekend.
Posted by: David Kramer | February 23, 2007 at 08:27 AM
Interesting that you added the Mandalay as one of the trouble spots. They employ ex-pro basketball players who I know are "in" with the pro crowd.
I'd like to know what that staff was up to during that tumultuous weekend.
And it doesn't surprise me that such houliganism wasn't in the LVRJ. It's bloggers who need to tell the real Vegas story... the story hidden from tourists. The RJ wouldn't talk about all the leapers off buildings when I worked in Vegas, including one off the Stratosphere, which made top billing on the Drudgereport.
Posted by: n.l. belardes | February 23, 2007 at 10:50 AM
Belardes:
Google stratosphere suicide norm clarke and you'll quickly find you have a memory problem.
The first two grafs read:
A TV producer in town to film an Elvis impersonator show leaped to her death from the 109th floor of the Stratosphere last week, days after asking Elvis, "Has anyone jumped off that before?"
Melanie Bell, 36, of Birmingham, Ala., was found dead Friday on a third-floor rooftop above the hotel's main entrance, Clark County assistant coroner John Fudenberg said.
Posted by: norm clarke | February 23, 2007 at 01:28 PM
Its a sad thing, I really feel bad for the servers who had to put up with this disgusting thug mentality. Perhaps Vegas will be more weary the next time they consider holding an event that could draw crowds like this. Glad I was not there that weekend instead going in 3 weeks to meet up with some old friends.
http://www.casinotripreports.com/vegas/
Mike
Posted by: Mike | February 23, 2007 at 04:16 PM
I too was there and will certainly not visit Vegas again at the same time the NBA All-Stars is going on. While I have no problems with mixing w/ any race whatsoever we found the streets not safe to be on.
Vegas also couldn't quite handle the non-NBA people in moving them to and from any place in Vegas to the airports early Sunday. Apparently we weren't important enough.
We started the night before looking for a cab or any ride to the airport (from off strip at a private residence) and were told we were on our own. Others in our group stayed at the Mirage and were almost stranded with no shuttles taking "unreserved" seats to the airport. The party didn't know they had to reserve a seat, they never saw anything posted at the Mirage.
I've been to Vegas many times and have never felt unsafe while out and around the strip, but I sure did this time. It was a mess!
Posted by: C Schrader | February 23, 2007 at 04:57 PM
I find it amusing, in a sort of disgusted, yet not at all surprising way, that certain white people in Las Vegas actually bemoan the behavior of blacks who came to the city for the All-Star weekend.
Anyone who works in EMS, Fire or Police knows the extent of drug abuse, violence, fraud, philandering and general antisocial behavior that is practiced by the majority white population in Las Vegas. It appears that with those people, whites get a free pass while blacks are simply dehumanized and branded as "Thugs."
Yeah, the more some things change, the more they stay the rotten same.
Posted by: Lakerman | February 23, 2007 at 06:33 PM
I was there this weekend and didn't have any problems with thugs. We kept hearing from taxi drivers and others that they were "ready for this weekend to be over" because of all the trouble, but I guess we got lucky because we didn't experience any of that nonsense. We did play it pretty low-key on this trip though, just in case...mostly sitting at the blackjack table instead of partying all night. I am 28, hispanic by the way (in case my demographics are relevant to this topic) and I LOVE this blog. Thanks for all the great vegas tips!
Posted by: Patty | February 23, 2007 at 06:52 PM
We can only hope they DONT bring an NBA team to Las Vegas.
Posted by: Trent | February 23, 2007 at 10:49 PM
The black thug culture is still going, though certainly not as fiercly as during the crack wars of the early nineties.
As the average black IQ hovers around 85-90, in national standardized IQ tests, it's wrong to expect too much more from them.
Look at Africa, and any other country were blacks are left to themselves to try to create a coherent society.
They fail on their own.
Americans should just get used to the idea that we shipped them in to exploit for cheap labor, and now we're paying the price.
Much like we are exploiting mexican labor now.
It will be interesting to see how that pans out.
One day, americans might finally understand that "cheap labor" is never cheap. The bill just gets passed down thorough generations.
Posted by: John Taylor | February 24, 2007 at 09:39 AM
I doubt if the NBA and its overpaid executive Mr Stern will allow Las Vegas to have its own NBA team. It seems that the NBA is dictating that Las Vegas sports books not allow betting on any NBA games. Who do they think they are? Las Vegas would be better off having some other professional sports team. I think that the All Star team will not be back in Las Vegas for a long, long time. Goodbye Mr. Stern.
Posted by: Ron | February 24, 2007 at 11:28 AM
Many of the employees are T&M were not asked to work that weekend because the NBA had their own staff. And it's not like they could use the time off to see the game because the tickets were not exactly economical.
Posted by: Polli | February 24, 2007 at 11:53 AM
I was also in Vegas last weekend and stayed at the Riviera. Basically, "fearing for my life" is code for "black people scare me." My friends and I, 6 white gays and lesbians, didn't exactly hide our sexuality and weren't harassed once. I had a great time and feel that these stories are seriously overblown and smack of racism.
So what if guys wear their pants around their ankles? Chances are, they aren't carrying guns, and chances are, they're just there to have a good time with friends, albeit while wearing an alternative wardrobe. David Kramer hit it on the head...there were plenty of guys in thug wear (and women wearing far too few clothes for a brisk Vegas weekend) but I saw no reason to be afraid of any of them.
I ate at the Wynn buffet on Saturday, and our waitress told us that a group of 10-12 WASP-y types had taken one of her large tables for 4 hours and left no tip. With that kind of behavior, I'd be fed up, too.
Posted by: Dunner | February 24, 2007 at 12:29 PM
I spent 4 days starting from sunday till Thursday. I respect your opinion. Thats what makes USA the best country in the world. Iam an Asian Indian who has been here for the past 18+ years in USA, think that the only reason people like you compain is because of the race. if there was a soccer game and the fans of European origin went wild and caused incidents , you won't complain. Race has got everything to do with your opinion. Anything else you are just insulting dark people's common sense and intelligence. This shows how hollow our morality has become in the 21st century. I guess the evolution is still going on.
Posted by: Kanan K | February 24, 2007 at 01:52 PM
To hear of filthy minded people taking advantage
of employees, (and everyone not of their type)
is just another sign of the times.And what really makes me ill is that our current federal government has the exact same mind-set; do what you want,say what want.And to hell with anybody
that doesn't like it.
Posted by: Jim S. | February 25, 2007 at 02:24 PM
I'm constantly amazed at how we put on a violent 'action' video at night and siphon off the raw passion of the street then get disgusted and amazed when it happens for real. The street hassle stories go on way back in Vegas.It's not a race issue thing at all.
Posted by: bec-www.audiobookgiftshop.com | February 25, 2007 at 03:56 PM
Norm:
The Stratosphere suicide you mentioned is scary for sure, and reported. But that was 2005. I lived in Vegas from 1998-2001. I think the suicide during that time from the Stratosphere Hotel Tower was a guy in a pirate costume who landed in a bush. It was on the Drudgereport...
There were a few suicides from downtown hotels or parking structures that went unreported. I think one guy was someone in cuffs... I think most suicides in most cities aren't reported, or considered newsworthy... Maybe one of the journalist experts can come on here and say why. That would be cool.
Posted by: n.l. belardes | February 25, 2007 at 04:04 PM
Shame on the NBA. You will not see me in town when an NBA or so called "All-Star" game is in town. I will not bring my class, maners and most important, my money to a place where is appears a gansta-rap video has come to life. Is this the crowd Vegas wants? This is not a race issue, this is crooks and thugs. no class....
Posted by: Steven Hill | February 25, 2007 at 05:40 PM