Vegas mayor threatens NYT columnist with baseball bat

Monday, 10 September 2007 19:00

New York Times columnist Bob Herbert gave Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman free space to express his views on legalized prostitution recently, but he didn't get much thanks for it.

In a column entitled, "City as Predator," Herbert wroted that Goodman wants to see "a series of 'magnificent brothels'... to cater to johns from across the country and the world." Mayor Goodman's response to the column? "I'll take a baseball bat and break his head if he ever comes here."

Herbert has been talking with activist Mellisa Farley of Prostitution Research and Education, who has just published a new book, Prostitution & Trafficking in Nevada: Making the Connections (link). Herbert writes he has "lost patience" with the"empowerment fantasies of prostitution proponents," saying that "most prostitutes are pushed into the trade in their early teens by grown men. A large percentage are victims of incest or other forms of sexual abuse."

Former Las Vegas Mayor Jan Jones, now an executive with casino giant Harrah's, says Goodman "makes us look like idiots.... Magnificent. That's what he said the downtown brothels could be. Magnificent."

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