I recently moved to Vegas and I witnessed New Year’s and All Star Week. I can say without a doubt that All Star Week was mild in comparison. During New Years, complete strangers were passing marijuana joints out and smoking in plain view of the police. After the New Year countdown, the crowd was so wired and out of control that I was surprised that a full out riot didn’t break out. On New Years Eve, people were passed out on damn near every street corner before 6pm. There were: fights, people throwing up all over the interior of the casinos, pimps, prostitution, and indiscrimate drug use. I assure you. All Star Weekend was off the hook as well, but mild in comparison to New Years. City officials were complaining about the damage that “gang bangers” would do two weeks before all-star week even got here. The problem is the way the term “gang banger” is used to categorize the mass majority of blacks coming to town. It is also very powerful and disconcerting that CITY OFFICIALS would make such a blatantly racist but generally accepted generalization.
Did Vegas lose money during All Star Weekend?!!?!?
Hell No!!!
The hotel room rates were nearly quintuple the norm. During All Star, Hotel rates were MORE expensive than New Years. Regardless of this fact, most hotels had no vacancies. Travel, as well as entry to clubs and parties, was more expensive than New Years. Being in Vegas, for New Years and All Star Weekend, it was clear to me that the discrimination was outright blatant. My friends that traveled, 7 total, spent an average of $1400 each on travel and accommodations alone. This did not include food, drink, clothes, and partying. When the “high rollers” come to town (Asian and other) they don’t pay for shit. On your average Vegas weekend the hotels rates are infinitely cheaper and they are at less than half of their total capacity. The thought that Vegas lost money is an outright lie. And yes, black folk were lined up around the corner to get into overpriced clubs and buying overpriced drinks. And it is another lie that black folk weren’t gambling. It is true that the majority wasn’t gambling, but a significant amount was. But fuck it, if you spend $1400 on travel and accommodations and still need to eat, drink, play…. you already spent enough money. It’s greedy for the casinos to overcharge you to stay then whine when you don’t gamble. FUCK THEM!!!! As a new resident to Vegas, I intentionally didn’t spend any money during All Star. This is because I saw how the casinos were raping my people with dramatically inflated prices. Like I said, I was here for New Years and All Stars. I was also here for Nascar and several other events. And what I witnessed was an anomaly.
Crime
Despite all the rumors, the only VERIFIED casualty I found was a jaywalker that was struck by an automobile. Yes there were many fights. No less than new years from my observation. This is the difference. During New Years, security intervened immediately. (Vegas security is no fucking joke) During All Stars, this simply wasn’t the case. I witnessed one brother get beat nearly to death right in front of security. I watched the aggressor put the guy in a sleeper hold. It was clear that the guy was in trouble and I watched the security guards just stand there and watch. I finally intervened and tried to break the guy from the sleeper hold. Guess whom security jumped on? They pulled me off and told me not to get involved. I told them that someone needed to. They ignored me and continued to watch.
During All Star Week, the 3 skirmishes I witness ended in all parties being arrested. This did not happen during New Years. The fights were broken up and the folk were allowed to go about their business after they calmed down. Ironically enough, of all of the depravity I witnessed during New Years, the only person I witnessed in hand cuffs was a brother. And we were outnumbered at least 100 to 1 (go figure). Statistics reveals that most of the arrests during All Star were prostitution related and petty crimes. Allow me to put this into perspective, when I first got to Vegas a few months ago. I went to a lounge to check out a band. A pimp was parading his prostitutes around the lounge and literally propositioning folk in plain view of security. When the band went on break, most of the members went straight to him to see whom he had with him. I was dumbfounded. While prostitution isn’t “legal” in Vegas, those who been here know that the law make very little if any effort to stop it. The fact that there were so many prostitution related arrests during All Star Weekend speaks volumes about the disparity of law enforcement during All Star weekend and business as usual. But in the history of this country, the law has always been enforced more rigorously when broken by black folk. Now on a crazy note. I do some photography and was hired by an escort to do the pics for her site. She was telling me that some of her associates were locked up during all star week and the price of bail was higher that week. I haven’t verified this statement. But when I look at everything else that was inflated, I didn’t question that she wasn’t bull shitting.
In short,
Hell Yeah a small minority of our brothers and sisters came to Vegas with bad intentions during all star weekend. But to imply that it was the masses is just not true. It was no worse then any other event I’ve witnessed since I’ve been here. The only difference was the color of the majority of the people.
...keep dropping it on them bro...
