On October 1, 2017, Las Vegas became the scene of the worst massacre in Modern American History. From the first moment somebody realized there was a story there, the people with the tinfoil hats got busy creating conspiracy stories. A second shooter, a massive government cover-up. Aliens coming in at the last minute and mind-melding the shooter and melting the Mandalay Bay stairwell doors closed. And that’s just from the Main Stream Media.
Watching all of this, I started to have a great appreciation for our Sheriff Lombard. The awkward position he must be in and yet he can keep it all going after all this time without going postal. As Sheriff, he is in a place no other Clark County Sheriff has had to be in since maybe Sheriff Lamb back in the 1960’s.
Not only does he have to deal with the fact that this tragedy happened here, on his watch. He has to deal with all the media people wanting instant answers to questions he has no immediate answer for. Even if Las Vegas was a normal city, you would not get those answers as fast as they want. There’s a lot of information to process and sources to review. So when he doesn’t give them the answers they want, they go off and fill in the blanks as they wish.
On top of all that, the Sheriff has to deal with the FBI wanting his office to gather things from MGM that a Las Vegas Sheriff just can’t ask the MGM for and expect to stay employed. What I am saying is that Las Vegas is not a normal town. Las Vegas is a company town. Well, actually a two company town and MGM owns the grounds where the festival was staged as well as Mandalay Bay.
Getting The Facts
One of the first things you learn when you move here is that you bookmark the LA Times Travel Section and The UK Daily Mail. This is where you will get any real information on what’s going down on the Las Vegas Strip. The local news media outlets usually need to wait and see what the Gods at MGM and Caesar will tell them and they run with that story. No need for fact checking because that would insult the company bosses and could kill the advertising revenue.
The Sheriff needs to look good in front of the FBI while having to walk very softly while asking the Gods at MGM for a lot of evidence that is normally off limits to anyone outside the Ivory Towers. He’s having to do something you normally don’t do if you want to stay in your elected position. Nobody tells MGM what they need to provide. You just put in a nicely worded request and see what they let you have and be happy with that. Well, the FBI doesn’t exactly work that way, especially when you have this kind of a tragic event in an international tourist destination.
So when I am watching the Sheriff and his press conferences, I see a man that is running blind here because there probably is no actual procedure on how to tell MGM that they need to give you “this” and expect them to just give it to you. FBI or not, there are some things you just don’t do in Las Vegas and stay employed!
If you need a reference to what I am talking about, just rent the movie “Walking Tall” The original is better, but the remake will do the job in this case. (Walking Tall on Amazon)
On Vacation, Please Leave a Message
The tinfoil hat people are all pointing to the fact that MGM/Mandalay Bay employees that had direct contact with the gunman or the security officers when the shooting started, had vanished or are suddenly on vacation.
Really? If that surprises anyone in Las Vegas, they have not lived here very long. It’s actually from the Harrah’s (now Caesars) playbook 2007. When building inspectors suddenly vanished and were found to be on vacations just as the news hit that the Rio (owned by Harrah’s/Caesars) had remodeled an entire tower without the proper permits or inspections. See: the Rio without the proper permits.
And let’s not forget the Harmon Tower disaster. MGM learned a lot from that incident on how to handle damage control and the securing(?) of evidence for future litigation. See: Demolition of Vegas’ never-opened Harmon Hotel
Give the Guy A Break
Any tragedy like this would require a long time to digest all the data even if it weren’t Las Vegas. You have people work with the witnesses and to find those who suddenly had a vacation come up. They have evidence that was once not available suddenly being found (or not). This being Vegas, the event is under an international media microscope. The Sheriff will need to back off previously made statements as stories and evidence files are washed out, investigated and determined to be real or false.
When people who went after their 15 minutes of fame, suddenly have to put that story down on a legal document, things begin to change. Certain bits of information is suddenly remembered or forgotten. As time goes on and MGM starts to give the law enforcement people what they ask for and give it all without delay or compromise and it matches what is already known, you will see the full story start to develop.
So if you’re wondering why the Sherriff is not telling us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, maybe this post helps give you a clearer picture of how things work here in Las Vegas and give the guy a break. He is trying to keep the FBI happy while still wanting to work in Las Vegas long after they leave. Certain bridges need not be burned.
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