"We gave it [road rage] a name and therefore gave it an identity," Cassell says. "What's the difference between an angry incident on the street and an angry incident in a parking lot? One more turn." True. But, Cassell admits, "We've certainly had issues in the last few months."
Actually, in the last few years, parking lots have been the scene of some high-profile crimes:
• Nearly three weeks ago, Kureem Jabbar Glenn fatally shot Sergio Rosales-Cuello in the parking lot of the Choices drug treatment center. Rosales-Cuello allegedly pulled a knife. Police say a dispute over a parking space prompted the skirmish.
• Last month, police nabbed Robert Farabee and Theresa Crow, alleged ringmasters behind the heists of moving trucks from casino parking lots throughout the Valley.
• Shots were fired in the MGM Grand's parking garage during the last night of All-Star Weekend festivities. Also during All-Star: Three people were shot (one was paralyzed) when a gunman stepped outside the Minxx strip club and began firing. Tennessee Titans cornerback/hothead Adam "Pac Man" Jones is alleged to have ties with the shooter.
• In January 2006, a robber shot a Gold Coast security guard when the guard tried to prevent his escape. Months earlier, in October 2005, 16-year-old Frederick Martinez gunned down Allon Iny in the parking lot of a hip-hop retail store.
• Bullets flew in the Aladdin parking lot after a May 2005 Nelly concert.
I ask Cassell if the problem isn't two-fold. One, that people feel parking lots are safe zones, outside the prying eyes of security and many surveillance cameras. And two, that this town's massive retail growth has expanded the pool of potential crime scenes.
Can't tell on the first topic, he says. The proliferation of shopping venues isn't the problem, he says, but rather our expanding population "and the frustrations that come along with that and with life in general. In a rural community, you wouldn't have these incidents because you have fewer people and fewer cars coming together."
Chris McGoey is a highly touted LA-based security expert who's run his own practice for 22 years and been in the security business for 37. Parking lots, he says, are a function of what they're attached to, meaning that ones attached to flower shops have different problems and concerns than those appended to bars or Strip casinos. He says most parking-lot crimes occur at retail centers.
"Where you have high traffic counts and high density, your criminal incidents are going to go up, although the ratio of crimes might not be higher," he says. "A multilevel parking lot may have 10 incidents a month, but it has thousands of cars. A small lot may have few incidents and fewer cars, but the ratio is the same."
Design goes a long way in mitigating parking-lot crimes, McGoey says. Facilities should be well-lit. Speed bumps can prevent quick escapes. Access control, or charging a fee, restricts pedestrian traffic flow, as do fences and curbs that restrict. Security patrols and cameras add layers of protection. "The best-designed lots are flat and allow motorists an unfettered view in all directions," McGoey says.
But even the best-designed parking lots aren't crime-proof. And if someone has riff-raff on his mind, experts say, and there's a parking lot nearby, then ...
Says McGoey: "People fight over many things: gas pumps, mean stares, women."
As for both road rage and parking-lot crimes, Cassell says a small bit of chivalry could defuse potentially deadly situations. If you realize you and someone else are pulling into the same parking spot, smile and wave, then go on down the road.
"If parents have road rage, their kids will have even more, and their grandkids have even more," Cassell says. "We have a feeling of empowerment and a false feeling of entitlement."