Early Saturday morning, Las Vegas Metro police answered a call at 4:15 a.m. of multiple stabbings on the pedestrian bridge between the MGM Grand and New York-New York. The Las Vegas Review Journal reports when Metro police arrived they found two men bleeding from multiple stab wounds. The two men, transported to UMC, were not identified. One man died and the other is in critical condition.
Two other men apprehended near the stabbing scene underwent interrogation by Metro police officers. The stabbing has brought to light the seedy side of the Las Vegas Strip. The overhead pedestrian bridge system above the Las Vegas Strip has become a hangout for transients, unlicensed peddlers, street performers, drug dealers and prostitution solicitors.
Many Las Vegas visitors avoid the bridges because of the unsavory element and with good reason. Accessing a casino via the bridges is an adventure. First you must dodge the unlicensed peddlers selling water, counterfeited T-shirts and an assortment of wares.
Next there are the aggressive panhandlers who have set up camp every five to ten feet of the bridge and then one must deal with the endless line of smut peddlers forcing prostitute's business cards into visitors hands. The intrusions a visitor must endure walking across these bridges are endless.
The pedestrian bridges exist to ease traffic issues with pedestrians and cut down on pedestrian versus car accidents along one of the world's busiest boulevards. The bridges are successful in that regard but there have been rumblings that if this situation goes unchecked for much longer it will damage the valuable Las Vegas tourism industry.
The Las Vegas Business Press featured an op-ed by David G. Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Schwartz laid out a plan to license all street performers and peddlers who are on the Las Vegas Strip.
The plan is the perfect solution to run out any potential criminals from occupying space on the Las Vegas Strip and it can clean up the situation in a matter of weeks. Most of the solicitors handing out business cards for prostitutes receive cash from the pimps that employ them as casual labor and there are no records of the social security numbers or sheriff's cards.
Prostitution is illegal in Las Vegas and all of Clark County but one would never know by the thousands of solicitors handing out business cards for prostitutes. Many Las Vegas visitors actually believe prostitution is legal based on the enormous amount of advertising dollars spent on illegal prostitution on the Las Vegas Strip.




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