In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

188 The Word on the Street prey on you. They don’t want you lingering, they’ll do anything to keep your ass from mingling with the tourist. The trespassing citations Hank refers to in the previous statement are indeed given out at public parks near the homeless corridor, but because the parks had at that time been recently redesignated as “children ’s parks.” In August 1999, the Las Vegas Sun ran an article on the development of new ordinances redesignating what were once three public parks into children’s parks in the city. The article quoted one neighborhood resident who said she was keeping her children away from Ethel Pearson Park on Washington and D Street because “I don’t want them near people drinking” (Neff 1999). The article then said that the City Council had recently approved a resolution to make Pearson, James Gay, and Fitzgerald Tot Lot parks in West Las Vegas children’s parks, a designation that allowed only children and their adult companions on park grounds. The article quoted civil libertarians , who said that the redesignations seemed a convenient way for local leaders to remove homeless men from public space without seeming to violate their civil rights.1 At another point in the above group interview, these homeless men also discussed their belief that, in Las Vegas, homeless men might be the focus of a form of “profiling” by police as well as local people involved in the tourist industry. The men contended that anyone who does not look like a tourist is subject to harassment: Ken: The worst part of it too is out there on those streets you’re subject to harassment, not only by the cops. It’s like, one of the things I’ve understood about Vegas is profile. Like a lot of people like to [think of profiling based on racial characteristics such as being] black, white, or whatever. I tell you, man, if you don’t look like a tourist, act like a tourist, they don’t want you in this fucking town. Even the people who work here. They don’t want you here. What they want you to do is come in this town, bring a suitcase full of money, leave it and get the fuck out. That’s what they want. That’s the name of the game here. Chris: The name of the game here is you bring a suitcase of money and you win, they’ll comp you to death; you lose it all, Crime, Violence, and the Police 189 “Get the fuck out and don’t come back until you have another suitcase full.” Ken: That’s right. Until you have another suitcase. Exactly. So what happen[s] is that if you take someone from here [a local shelter], and there’s a group of guys—and you see them. They look like tourists, they get up in the morning, they shave, they look like tourists, they walk uptown, and they do fine. They rob the fucking machines blind. Come back here and sleep. All right. You walk up there and you’re dirty and you’re a little stinking and you need a haircut and you need a shave, you’re probably on your way to jail. . . . Eighty-five percent chance. Kurt: Have you been approached for that? Ken: No, because I know the game. What I usually do is, I got my little shirt on, my little shorts on, got my little thing, got my little case on. [I look like] Joe Tourist. Kurt: Uh-huh. Ken: All right? And I do okay. But everybody does not have the ability to do that. And when a cop approaches homeless guys, they get arrested for messing with a pigeon. People think that’s a joke, but that’s the truth. Adam: Shoo a pigeon away and they’ll take you to jail. Chris: No, impeding the flight of a pigeon. Ken: Exactly. My roommate got arrested—we lived across the street from a Circle K. He got up in the middle of the night, 10:00 or 11:00 at night, decided he was going to walk over and get a pack of cigarettes and a beer. He’s got his flappers on and shorts on. They stopped him. I have no idea why they stopped Walter. He didn’t have any id. He went to jail. He says, “But I live right there. There is my window.” Walter...

Share