Metro Warns Tourists of Thieves on the Las Vegas Strip

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 8 NEWS NOW (LAS VEGAS, NV)-- Metro Police are cautioning visitors to the Las Vegas Strip of increased crime in the tourist corridor.

Police Capt. Todd Fasulo said officers have noted an increase in robberies and burglaries on the Strip within the last month.

Tourists are commonly seen walking, talking, texting and snapping photos on the Strip.

The problem, Fasulo said, is that thieves are watching. He said thieves are stealing iPhones, iPad, wallets or whatever else they can get -- snatching them right out of people's hands.

"The robberies are up a little bit, the burglaries are up a little bit," Fasulo said. "Burglaries are up about 16 percent. It's still lower than what it was last year, and even our robberies, even though those are up a little bit, those are still down (over) last year as well."

Thieves are targeting vulnerable tourists such as Jason Moss.

"We were just walking, trying to have a good time out here and they just grabbed it out my hand and ran off," said Moss, whose iPhone was stolen.

Moss said he tried to chase down the thief, but he got away.

"I'm going to guard my stuff from now on," he said. "I mean, you've got to have a back-up plan."

Last week, police officers busted a large group of street thieves targeting tourists on the Strip.

Metro officers have also seized 26 firearms from people on the Strip since January. In Nevada, people who have not been convicted of a felony are allowed to openly carry a firearm or obtain a permit to carry one concealed. However, according to Metro, the firearms seized were taken from people who were either drunk, using the firearm to commit a crime or not legally permitted to carry one.

"That is 26 people that had a weapon that could have been used in a violent act and it didn't," Fasulo said.

So far, no major violent incidents have been committed on the Strip this year -- a trend Fasulo said the police department hopes will continue.

To protect yourself, Fasulo said to be cautious, aware of your surroundings and not take any unnecessary risks.

Strip businesses, including casinos, nightclubs and shopping centers, are working together with Metro Police to gather information on the street thieves.

Metro met on Thursday with the heads of security on the Strip to exchange information in an effort to keep the tourist attraction
--Lauren Rozyla

Date: 09/20/12

Las Vegas, the Gift that Keeps on Giving

Las Vegas Is Ground Zero for Child Sex Trafficking, Metro Officer Says

LAS VEGAS SUN (LAS VEGAS, NV)--The number of Nevada children dragged into prostitution is on the rise — a scary reality that will take a community effort to reverse, a Metro Police lieutenant told an interfaith group Wednesday.

The Las Vegas Valley Interfaith Sponsoring Committee hosted a discussion at the Islamic Society of Nevada about child sex trafficking.

Karen Hughes, a lieutenant in Metro Police’s vice section, asked the attendees, who represented diverse religious backgrounds, to spread the word about the existence of child sex trafficking in the valley.

“I consider Las Vegas ground zero,” Hughes said. “The landscape of Las Vegas brings those who traffic young women and boys into this hideous life to Las Vegas because there’s spending that occurs here … very discretional income.”

Last year, the department rescued 131 children in Las Vegas who had been forced into prostitution, Hughes said. Nearly three-quarters, or 74 percent, of those children were from Nevada, which Hughes said was an increase compared with previous years.

“These pimps and traffickers are recruiting out of our schools, out of our churches, out of our homes,” she said. “They’re everywhere.”

The cycle results in scores of children subjected to beatings, torture, gang rapes and sexual assaults, Hughes said. The youngest victim discovered by Metro last year was 13 years old.

One particularly brutal case involved a 15-year-old girl who suffered second- and third-degree burns across her back and arms after attempting to flee a pimp.

“These are our kids,” she said. “These are lives that are of value and need salvation.”

To that end, Hughes called on the faith community to help find safe housing for victims and to support proposed legislation that stiffens penalties for pimps.

Michon Martin, chief deputy attorney general for Nevada, said criminals have realized they often face harsher sentences for trafficking drugs than trafficking humans.

“If a pimp is turning out one of our babies, one of our children, that is the same as him raping that baby,” Martin said. “The penalty needs to be the same.”

A proposed bill addressing that issue and others related to sex trafficking will be introduced during the upcoming legislative session, Martin said.

Preventing child sex-trafficking is the interfaith group’s latest focus, said the Rev. Dennis Hutson of Advent United Methodist Church, who is on the group’s board of directors. The interfaith group meets monthly to discuss various issues plaguing the community.

“We are very concerned about child sex trafficking in particular,” he said. “As people of faith, we are mandated by our holy texts to be concerned about children.”
--Jackie Valley

Date: 09/20/12

I Love That Dirty Water

Are National Parks Becoming Crime Havens?

ABC 20/20 (LAS VEGAS, NV)--"Just about any type of crime that goes on in any urban environment happens out here," said Dale Antonich, chief ranger at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area, located in Nevada and Arizona.

"We've had rapes, we've had murders in the park, we've had bodies dumped in the park," Antonich said.

An hour outside of Las Vegas, Lake Mead is one of America's busiest parks. Rangers also considered it to be one of the top 10 most dangerous parks. <---Great, we've made yet another dubious top ten list, I love Las Vegas.

At Lake Mead, 36 rangers try to safeguard some 8 million visitors a year, policing more than 1.5 million acres of land, including historic Hoover Dam, and nearly 750 miles of shoreline.

Last year, rangers responded to more than 20,000 incidents — ranging from drunken driving, to boating accidents, to assault, to suicide. Nearly 1,400 were criminal investigations.

20/20 rode along with rangers over the busy Memorial Day weekend. In one instance, they responded to an assault call in which a man, recently on parole after serving time for carjacking, was assaulting his mother. His mother, rangers learned, is a convicted felon times two, for child molestation and kidnapping.

Family Vacation Nightmares

Elsewhere in the park, we and the rangers met the Klasing family, who came to Lake Mead looking for the serenity of nature, but wound up witnessing an ugly scene involving some other campers.

"The woman was screaming, 'You're hurting me,' and the tent was flying all over the place. … Never dreamed we'd run into that. That's why we bring our kids here," said Sue Klasing, describing the incident to the rangers.

The rangers sorted out the domestic disturbance, only to find the troubled family has other problems. They're homeless and had been staying in the park for about a month.

The vacation is one the Klasings will never forget, but not for the right reasons. "This is not how you build family memories," said Bill Klasing.

"You want to be able to come out here and camp at a beach and feel safe and we can't assure that anymore," Antonich said.

Antonich, who's been chief ranger at Lake Mead for 12 years, says crime in the parks is not new, but having fewer rangers to fight it is.

Antonich isn't alone in his assessment. An Interior Department audit from five years ago tells the whole story. It recommended a substantial increase in rangers here to fight growing crime. But since then, Lake Mead has actually lost 16 rangers, roughly a third of the ranger squad.

"You get 5 [million] to 10 million people visiting, you're going to have problems, and if you're a bad guy or you're trying to hide from the law, what better place to go?" Antonich said.

Lake Mead isn't the only major park with these kinds of policing problems, Antonich says. To varying degrees, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, the Great Smokey Mountains, and Yellowstone are all in the same boat. <---Which is insanity considering how small and insignificant Lake Mead is compared to those behemoths.

Source: ABC News
Date: 7/25/2012