RENO, Nev. (Nov. 3) - Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has suggested that those who deface freeways with graffiti should have their thumbs cut off on television.

Goodman, appearing Wednesday on the "Nevada Newsmakers" television show, said, "In the old days in France, they had beheading of people who commit heinous crimes.

"You know, we have a beautiful highway landscaping redevelopment in our downtown. We have desert tortoises and beautiful paintings of flora and fauna. These punks come along and deface it.

"I'm saying maybe you put them on TV and cut off a thumb," the mayor added. "That may be the right thing to do."

Goodman also suggested that whippings or canings should be brought back for children who get into trouble.

"I also believe in a little bit of corporal punishment going back to the days of yore, where examples have to be shown," Goodman said.

"I'm dead serious," said Goodman, adding, "Some of these (children) don't learn. You have got to teach them a lesson, and this is coming from a criminal defense lawyer."

"They would get a trial first," he added.

Another panelist on the show, Howard Rosenberg, a state university system regent, responded by saying that cutting off the thumbs of taggers won't solve the problem and Goodman should "use his head for something other than a hat rack."


This mayor is getting a bit carried away. I think that when young kids deface property, or do something illegal like this, the punishment should be xxx amount of hours doing community service. Have them clean up the city.
To seriously say that they should cut a kids thumb off for writing grafitti is really stupid.


DS

DS, This is, quite frankly, a rather disturbing viewpoint. What is this man thinking?? Beating children and televised amputations?? I agree with you. If a teenager is caught defacing property in some way, then they should be held responsible for cleaning it up.

It all falls down to what is referred to as The Broken Windows Theory. If a kid passes a vacant building, and that building has a broken window, it is very easy to pick up a rock and break another. Quality of life crimes are rather easy to fix. NYC found that out when they decided to pay attention to graffiti artists and squeegee men. The best part was, when these small time criminals were arrested for jaywalking and such, it was often found that they had outstanding warrants for other, more serious crimes, and NY was able to get them off the street.

BTW, Oscar Goodman, in addition to being mayor of Vegas, is a famous criminal lawyer. He appeared, as himself, in "Casino." In real life, he defended Anthony (the Ant) Spilotro, the character on whom Nicky (Joe Pesci) is based; as well as Lefty Rosenthal, the DeNiro character base.

Ahh, some psychiatrist will say that he was abused in his childhood and is not responsible for saying these things.

I've always believed, very strongly, that any kid caught defacing property or vandalizing any type of structure should, as punishment, be made to clean graffiti off of buildings, clean up city parks, and be made to volunteer so many hours in an old age home or a childrens ward of a hospital. Some kids just need a reality check to make them wake up. Surely they don't need their thumbs cut off. :rolleyes:

I wonder if this guy has any children or grandchildren of his own?


Don Cardi

Now we know how he came up with the "Thumb" theory!

TB, I wonder why he is not in the famous Las Vegas "BlackBook?"


Don Cardi

You must be mellowing with old age, Don Smitty.

As I read the story and got closer to the bottom, I couldn't wait to read your comment in favor of Goodman's proposal, or perhaps something even worse. :p

Maybe Double-J will chime in and assuage my disappointment.

If you're going to be that harsh over graffitti, then punishments for other crimes should increase too.

Sounds to me like the mayor had a few before the show.

To be honest DS, when I got to the bottom of your post, I figured that you were going to say that cutting their thumbs off was a bit too harsh and that just breaking them would be ok!

Don Cardi

You do come up with a good one every now and then, DC.