Some costumed buskers have frightened the public
Las Vegas is considering a crackdown on street performers known as buskers in the Fremont Street vicinity. Some are just panhandlers in disguise.
“We’ve gotten a lot of feedback as well from buskers who follow the rules that it’s becoming a serious issue to the point that some people were actually frightened,” said Captain Shawn Anderson of the metro police.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada once sued the city over the rights of buskers, performers and others to solicit donations at the Fremont Street Experience, saying it was a free-speech issue. But in a June interview with Las Vegas Review-Journal, Tod Story, ACLU executive director, acknowledged that the Fremont Street Experience has become so crowded with street performers it’s “a bit overwhelming.”
Even so, he said, the organization is prepared to fight a “blanket ban.”
“You can’t just ban people you don’t like from going into a public space,” Story said. “They have a right to be there, to associate and to speak or, in this case, perform.”
Michael Duran, who often dresses as Superman and performs for pedestrians, says reducing the number of entertainers would make it easier for him to make a living. It also would help keep out panhandlers masquerading as performers, he said.
“You watch these bums get out of hand, grab parents, grab kids,” said Duran. “If you want to be out here, we need to know who is under your mask.”
