As part of a general Western vacation my wife and I spent a few days in Las Vegas. Actually we used a travel packet from a casino offering rooms as a way to get better airline tickets. From Vegas we met my son and his family and had some great experiences such as climbing Mt Humphrey, 1270 ft elevation or so in Northern Arizona (and at nearly 60 years learned I need to stop these sort of endeavors). Especially amazing were the spectacular panoramic views at Zion Park in Southern Utah.
However, I believe what is relevant to the topic and what my fellow conservatives will find useful or interesting are my observations of people in this Democratic stronghold and why I shall not return (anti-sentiment of MacArthur’s famous statement).
First and foremost, the homeless and dysfunctional misfits. They are everywhere and in a plethora of numbers not seen before in my last visit 10 years ago. They shamble about, sullenly stare at you and often beg. Louisville, my home city, has about 1000. Las Vegas (according to a web search) claims a ridiculously low number of about 5000, this in my opinion has to be a lie. Comparing to what I’ve seen in Louisville I think there are double what Las Vegas claims and possibly more. I was near the Casinos Strat and Sahara and they are thick there. I would estimate dozens within a few block area. We walked about (yes stupid and more on that soon) quite a bit getting some training for Mt Humphrey. I bet I walked by probably a hundred streets, nearly every single street had multiple homeless in view and who knows how many not. My Uber driver, who drove us to the airport later, said many hundreds stay much of their time in the city's sewer and drain systems. Even on Fremont Street, Las Vegas pride and joy, there was a 40ish looking woman with one leg amputated so recently it still had many scabs. She was passed out, slumped in her wheelchair and sprawled on the street as hundreds of people walked by.
Pic 1, a sad image of a youngish woman passed out on busy Fremont Street
The next day we decided to hike to a good Chinese restaurant called Gourmet China 2 Bistro, about 2-3 miles East of the Strat/Sahara. Nearing it a homeless dark complected young woman was walking towards us with a large Styrofoam container of Chinese food. As she walked, she was casually throwing out the pieces of General Tsao Chicken on the sidewalk, quite large pieces. I could literally have trailed her by the food and trash she was littering. I would never waste my money by throwing large amounts of freshly cooked food away and I wondered how a homeless woman could afford to do so? As we passed, I turned around and looked at her and she was wearing dirty sweatpants which she had pulled so low most of her bare buttocks and underwear was showing. On the way back we decided to make a short cut and crossed an empty parking lot between East Karen and Sahara Streets. As far as I can make out from maps it was near the Historic Commercial District most of which is closed down and boarded up. Near here we came across about 4 homeless. An older white woman was rummaging in a dumpster, she was standing on an old empty container so she could reach the contents, another person (Hispanic if I recall) shuffling around but what caught our attention quickly was a black man and woman. They apparently were a couple and very homeless looking engaged in arguing. We were walking about 50 yards away when the man started yelling incoherently and from his large backpack pulled out a machete I would reasonably guess was at least three feet long and quite wide! Still yelling garbled screamed words, he started to hack anything around his woman. Trees, garbage cans, the ground apparently trying to decide between homicide and intimidation tactics with her. She remained unfazed and weirdly at that point she pointed at us and screamed (to the best of my recollection and not in an effort to dramatize or denigrate her speech nor stereotype): “Look at dem white folks! Dey just got here, and you be tryin' to show off n’ shit”. He then took his attention away from her and started staring at us, still slicing the air with his blade it’s sharp edge glinting in the sun (this was all in broad daylight about 3-4 pm) and making threatening motions. We continued walking quickly across the lot away from then and then accessed Sahara Avenue which at that point he resumed screaming at his woman. I honestly can’t remember one coherent thing he said, it was all garbled words and yells. On the way back towards the Strat I saw another homeless man in the distance in front of us stand in traffic blocking it and waving his arms about wildly. We had to go by him to reach the safety of the Strat so we crossed East St Louis street to the other side and I started looking about for a 2x4 or something to use in defense of which I could find nothing significant. Yet thankfully when we got to that point he had suddenly disappeared. Needless to say, we were relieved to be back and agreed to not go far from the “safety” of the 2 Casinos again.
Pic of the Residential and Commercial area and the rough path our hike took. 1=homeless young woman (nearly) exposing herself and littering, 2=homeless wild man waving a machete, 3=homeless man blocking traffic and acting erratic.
The very next morning we walked across the street to drink coffee at McDonalds (the casinos no longer offer it free …!!), went in and ordered from the apparently non-English speaking entire staff, discounting the manager. Just as we started on our first cup, I noticed action through the window to my side and looked out. Just 5 feet from me a woman was confronting an obviously homeless woman and accusing her of stealing her purse. The very next second the taller women threw a fairly proficient and surprising strong haymaker right cross and punched the homeless woman fully on her eye area. She said something like “ahhhh!” stumbled and grabbed her face in pain. The tall woman then started slapping and punching. The homeless one screamed and ran directly into McDs with the enraged taller woman hot in hot pursuit! They ran 2 full circles around the interior within about 2 feet of me and my wife both times and as they ran the tall woman kept yelling “you bitch, you stole my purse out of my car and I’m going to whip your ass!” The homeless woman for her part, guilty I guess, only kept crying “I’m sorry…I’m SOOORRRRYYY”. They ran out the door and the homeless woman, apparently realizing she was marginally safer in McDs, turned in a circle and started to run back inside. To her dismay the manager, who had been watching the entire thing wordlessly, stepped up and grabbed the door handle! About as fast as you can say “meth” the tall women then caught her prey again and for about a minute made good on her promise and delivered a nearly uninterrupted combination of punches, kicks and slaps to the homeless woman who I don’t believe ever got in more than 1-2 ineffective slaps in return. At some point the beaten woman’s bladder let go and in plain view of all the McDonalds patrons, still holding coffee cups like me and others with Egg McMuffins or Apple Turnovers with open wide and empty mouths saw an obviously dark wet stain appear. It quickly spread down from her crotch clear to both knees. At this point the taller woman apparently felt she had achieved justice, retrieved her purse (I think), got in her hot pink car and left. Mind you this all happened directly across the street from the Sahara, I could have easily hit the sign with a rock.
Pic 3. Woman in the white shirt and tail like hair attachment beat the homeless woman in and outside the McDonalds across the street from the Sahara who allegedly stole her purse. If I recall correctly this was before the homeless woman made the poorly fated decision to run back in McDonald’s only to find the manager barring the door.
Never once in any of these incidents did I see a police officer appear. About 3 days later I heard about the mass stabbing. My wife and I will never, ever return to Las Vegas. -----------------------
This is already longer than I predicted so I will skip the rest of my observations of trash, high prices, democratic political commercials flooding the local TV shows etc.
Every single thing I mentioned happened as I best I can recall it.
PS I forgot to add a day or 2 days before the fight my wife and I went to the same McDonalds and witnessed a young Hispanic homeless man take a complete shower. He drove a bike up to a fire hydrant, used some tool to loosen up a valve which released a stream of water. He then stripped down to his shorts, took out a bar of soap and washed every inch of his body. When finished he rinsed off in the stream, took out the tool again and tightened the valve down, put his clothes on and left (After some random male tourists apparently feeling sorry for him gave him what appeared to be a 6 pack of beer). This was also in full view of the McD patrons and on the open street.