Where I Stand — Guest Columnist Bill Young: Mustering our strength

Friday, Aug. 13, 2004 | 5:48 a.m.

Editor's note: In August the Where I Stand column is turned over to guest writers. Today's columnist is Bill Young, Clark County sheriff. The Sun asked him to describe how his life has changed since he became sheriff.

WEEKEND EDITION

August 14 - 15, 2004

When I was a kid growing up in North Las Vegas, I spent my days at Hartke Park honing my baseball skills, or at J.D. Smith Junior High swimming pool, or playing hoops anywhere there was a game, but always doing my best to stay clear of the cops.

A lot has changed in the last 35 years, but in my wildest dreams I would have never believed I'd end up as sheriff of this county ... nor would anyone else who knew me in my youth.

Things happen for a reason and somehow I found myself at 19 driving an ambulance and hanging around police officers for the first time. A couple of years later I was a police officer, and for almost 25 years it was a way of life.

Shift work, late hours, court, missed holidays with the family, whatever it took to do the job and catch bad guys. I thought it would end around now with a retirement clock and time to fish, time with the family, and maybe find a little something to do. I found "a little something to do" all right.

Getting elected sheriff of Clark County completes a circle in law enforcement for me and in many ways has led to a new place in life I didn't know existed within me. Oh, I knew I'd like the job, but what I didn't know was how tough this job can be some days.

I had the good fortune to know some great sheriffs: Ralph Lamb, John Moran and Jerry Keller. After doing the job for 18 months that they all did for many years, my respect for them has multiplied many times over. I'm not ashamed to admit this job tests me some days, and now I know what they went through.

We've had some good sheriffs in this county over the years and because of them we have a great police department. I don't think there's a better one out there.

It's not because of the equipment we have, or the nice new academy or anything else. It's because of the men and women who wear the badge -- who walk the walk and talk the talk. They actually make my job fun and make me want to come to work. In that sense, I'm so lucky.

The tough days, well, there are those, too. Cops do stupid things occasionally -- we all do. Crime is going up and I sweat that a lot. We need more people as this town grows and I think most folks understand that.

But the real bothersome thing, the thing that only lets me sleep when I can somehow push it out of my mind, is the terrorism issue. I dwell on how to stop it.

I wonder if some terrorists are here in Las Vegas, the most visited city in America, with a dozen of the largest hotels in the world in a four-mile strip, with more than 35 million people coming here a year.

What can we do as the police to stop something from happening? And what do I, Bill Young, a kid from here, whose whole family and children are here, whose everything is here, do to make sure it doesn't happen on my watch?

That's a heavy load, this terrorism issue. Not just for me -- I see it in so many people. I don't know if life will return to the way it was before 9-11. God, I hope so for our children's sake, but I think it's here for awhile.

I've never in my lifetime seen such a deep-seated hatred for us, as Americans, as the feeling I get from al-Qaida. Their hate for us is real and it is fierce.

While I'm not a pessimist, I know we need to muster every bit of inner strength this country has to beat them, because they are an evil this world hasn't seen since World War II. They are sneaky, smart, financed and willing to die for their cause.

Life has changed for me since getting elected sheriff, but more importantly, life has changed for all of us. Keep the faith.