Express News Service
LAS VEGAS: Stephen Paddock had about 10 weapons, several of them high-powered automatic ones,
in his hotel room at Mandalay Bay. Clark county Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said he did not know how such an attack could have been prevented. But for an Indian who came to Vegas a week back, the lapses in security measures were as plain as day.
We were able to walk in and out of any luxury hotel on the Strip without as much as a look from the staff at any of the hotels. When we checked into Planet Hollywood, down the Strip from Mandalay Bay, there was no screening of our bags. This was surprising for our group from India as we are used to every bag being screened, apart from our very person being frisked, back at home.
This made one of our group members exclaim: “Arre, yeh log hum ko check nahi karte (Hey, these people aren’t checking us).” The next day, when we visited Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay, from where the
attack happened, there was no frisking there either.
Las Vegas, being the entertainment capital of the world, gets a huge influx of people over the weekends, and in several places like Fremont, another party destination away from the Las Vegas Boulevard, it would be impossible to have any sort of security as the whole place is just an open street. But at a hotel like Mandalay Bay, where a lot of conventions are held, a strict screening process could have saved the day.
During our visit, none of the crowded destinations like Caesars Palace, Bellagio, Paris or the Venetian had any form of scanning or luggage scrutiny. Clark county resident Richard Nathan says, “There was a time when cars would get checked at self-parking lots. This was soon after a US school shooting, but that practice was soon given up.”
