#VEGASSTRONG IS #VEGASWRONG

              You would have to think that the largest shooting massacre in the history of the United States would bring the country together but it hasn’t.  Director Ramsey Denison revisits the night of terrorism from Stephen Paddock who unleashed hell on thousands of fans of a country music festival right in the heart of  Las Vegas.  Many perished and many were injured but to think that the victims of that night would be compensated by the city or Mandalay Bay would be the right thing to do?  Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

              The documentary Money Machine focuses on the victims of the night as they tell their story of what happened that night and how the city of Las Vegas and the LVMPD handled their traumatic situation.  The concept of #VegasStrong which occupied the whole country to donate their monies to these victims was given but was brought to the wrong hands as it was skimmed from the top.    Maybe one of the most terrifying events in US History was easily forgotten but we speak to director Ramsey Denison here on FERNTV as to why that is and if there is political and police corruption behind it all.  Who would have thought?

Ramsey:  I have several friends who were retired LVMPD officers who called me shortly after 1 October and told me that Sheriff Lombardo was hiding information from the public and not telling the whole truth. For example, there was an accidental discharge… an officer’s gun went off as the

LVMPD breached the door and entered Stephen Paddock’s room… a fact that Sheriff Lombardo neglected to mention in his press conferences.

He also hid the fact that an LVMPD officer who was in a position to do something to stop Paddock while the shots were going on instead stood in the hallway, cowering. That officer, Cordell Hendrix, was later fired by the department (and later rehired).

Ramsey:   #VegasStrong was a con. It was never about the victims. In the first 5 months, less than $20,000 of the over $10 million raised made it’s way to the 1 October victims. It was an election year and #VegasStrong was an opportunity for politicians like Steve Sisolak to get national face time,

but he was too busy jumping in front of cameras to make sure the money made it’s way to the people who needed it most and even today there’s still a lot of questions and very little transparency about where the funds went.

Ramsey:  Several 1 October victims approached me to tell their story. They felt like it was a story that wouldn’t be told and needed to be.

Ramsey:  What security? The bottom line is over 200 cameras were not working at Mandalay Bay on the night of 1 October and Stephen Paddock was able to bring over 20 guns to his room and fire on a crowd of over 20,000 people uninterrupted for 10 minutes. I believe that both

the LVMPD and MGM Resorts International worked together to minimize MGM’s legal liability and they got help from a sell-out lawyer named

Robert Eglet who represented around 2500 of the 1 October victims and was supposed to be on their side. Eglet will walk away with over

$100 million… without even having to take the case to trial, so… the lawyers won… MGM Resorts won… but the victims lost. This case should have been in the billions… and would have been… if a corrupt police department didn’t work with MGM to minimize their legal liability.

Ramsey:   Eric knew his brother Stephen Paddock better than anyone else in the world did. I think he wanted the truth out there and the truth is that MGM Resorts and their selfish and deceitful behaviour are part of the reason Stephen Paddock did this. To be clear, there’s nothing rational or reasonable or justified about what Stephen Paddock did. He’s a lunatic, but even lunatics have motives.   There’s a reason why he did what he did where he did it (from an MGM property). He wanted to leave them liable… and he did.

Ramsey:   I think Vegas made a concerted effort and used massive resources to help America forget. Vegas is a money machine and anything

that gets in the way of the cash gets shoved out of the way real quick.

Ramsey:   Because it fit the theme of the film perfectly. The fact that Mayor Carolyn Goodman was so desperate to get the register’s ringing in Vegas that she was willing to offer up tourists to be a COVID-19 control group shows how incredibly myopic she is and that the only thing she cares about is money. If tourists from Omaha… or Miami… or Pittsburgh get COVID-19 in the casinos and take it back home with them, it doesn’t matter… as long as they leave their money in Vegas. Cash, cash, cash. Money money money.

Ramsey:  I’m no pilgrim. I’ve done plenty of gambling in my life and had fun doing it, but the idea put out there in those Vegas ads… that you are going to roll into the casino and walk out of it rich with 2 hot blondes on your arm that’s not the way it usually goes. It’s an illusion… like most things in Vegas.