It is understood that politicians on all sides of the bench and in any race have the tendency to distort the truth and tell the constituents
whatever they want them to know or whatever they think the audience wants to know.
Case in point is the reality that we see every day in our community when we read about — and even watch on the news — the daily shootings,
the officer-involved shootings, the many robberies, home invasions, casino robberies, and the many other crimes committed in our city.
During the last election, the winner of the sheriff race, Joseph Lombardo, perhaps won by telling the voters that he was going to be the White Knight of the modern world — fighting crime like no one else has ever done before.
Of course, Sheriff Lombardo was already “elected” by the elite of local politics in the community, and he knew very well that regardless of what he would tell the voters he would be re-elected, so he did not have to lie, but it has become a habit among politicians that they lie.
We have learned that the morale in the police department is very low if we listen to the rank and file and trust their opinions, which we do.
We have a very capable police force; our police department is way above the national average, but the officers may not have the backing and support of the political police administration, giving them instead a sense of instability and possibly a sense of personal and mental insecurity.
It is time for Sheriff Lombardo to stop playing politics, to stop trying to please those big campaign donors in the gaming world, and start playing cops and robbers to give the community the safe and protected feeling they need and deserve.
It is a reality that we are no longer a small community, that the population has grown tremendously, and with that growth, the crime rate has risen as well; the community is well aware that as the population grows, the crime rate goes up as well, and the police department has to grow to keep up with all that growth. And while in the old days the sheriff’s office had only a small amount of officers, it has since grown to accommodate that extra big spurt in the population, while the budget has gone up astronomically in keeping with that growth.
Who ever heard of one of our casinos being robbed at gunpoint before; now, unfortunately, no one is shocked when that happens; nor are they
shocked when hearing about a shootout — like at the OK Corral — in the middle of the Strip, since that already has happened on several occasions.
People no longer feel safe in their own home, being scared to open the front door and be surprised by someone pushing their way in to take
whatever they can find at gunpoint.
Business owners never know what they are going to find inside their place when they arrive in the morning; some places have been robbed
twice in just one weekend. That shows a lot of nerve, or… they are counting on the inability of the police officers to respond in a timely manner.
The police administration must learn that the casinos and their big wigs are not the only citizens who need protection and the security of a safe environment.
Is Sheriff Lombardo perhaps believing that the job is too big for him? He could think of leaving office; but if his ego is too much, he could create a plan to go back to the old days when there was a police department for Las Vegas and a Sheriff’s Department for the county — after all, Clark County is a very big county for such a big department.
Mesquite is under the jurisdiction of Clark County, but the city has its own police department; North Las Vegas, Henderson and Boulder City
are also in Clark County’s jurisdiction, but each of them has its own police department as well. Why not Las Vegas?
Why does Las Vegas have to be the stepchild in this city classification order? The Sheriff will then have the prestige of being the Clark County Sheriff on the world-famous Strip, and Las Vegans could take their city back.
It may seem a little too radical; it may seem a little out of context, but in reality it is not too bad of an idea because if we look back at the sheriff’s race, with the exception of John McCarthy, all the sheriffs have been appointed by their predecessors, and if that is the case, it means that if Lombardo could not handle the job, none of those under him could handle the job either.
Las Vegas is no longer a town, Las Vegas is a cosmopolitan city and its residents need to live like they are in a cosmopolitan city. We deserve it.
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