Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Tourism driver or community hub? Mob Museum is both

Nissa Tzun

Christopher DeVargas

Nissa Tzun, co-founder of the Forced Trajectory Project, holds up a photo of Rafael Olivas during a panel on police de-escalation and the use of force November 12 at the Mob Museum. Olivas was fatally shot by Metro Police officers in July 2011.

Although Downtown Las Vegas has no shortage of entertainment options, community-oriented educational spaces are harder to come by. An unlikely player has been quietly filling that void: the Mob Museum.

Housed in a historic former post office and courthouse steps from Fremont Street, the Mob Museum was initially touted as a unique attraction to lure tourists Downtown, featuring three stories of exhibits on the history of organized crime. But the museum also offers an event and discussion space for anyone who cares about Las Vegas’ past, present and future—including those who might not normally have access to such a venue.

Click to enlarge photo

Rick Smith, founder and CEO of Axon Enterprises, shoots a target with a TASER 7 during a program on the future of technology in law enforcement at the Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas Saturday June 1, 2019. Smith also signed copies of his new book, "The End of Killing: Using Technology to End Violence."

The museum’s diverse events and programs, many of which are free, line up with its overall goal: to not only educate the public about history but also convene important conversations about public safety and ongoing issues facing Las Vegas.

“We decided a long time ago, back when we were defining our mission and crafting our core values, how important it was for us to be a gathering place for the community,” says museum president and CEO Jonathan Ullman. “Museums need to be relevant to people, and museums need to be accessible.”

This year, the Mob Museum has staged free monthly community safety forums in partnership with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, discussions on modern-day law enforcement technologies, live music three nights a week at its Underground speakeasy and more. Twice since August, the museum opened its doors for free to K-12 students and families from designated majority-low-income Title I schools as part of a new program called Family Nights, Ullman says. It also regularly brings the museum out to the community, giving educational lectures in local public schools and presentations at senior centers, particularly in underserved neighborhoods.

The historical programming for seniors, which centers on the history of the mob in Las Vegas, Las Vegas entertainers and African Americans in the city, provides an opportunity for older residents to discuss and reminisce on the past, Ullman says. “It’s really a terrific experience, and for us, too,” he says. “Our educators will often come back energized after those conversations.”

More than 400 people have attended the museum’s presentations for seniors this year, while presentations and other events in schools have reached more than 15,000 Clark County students total, according to Ullman.

Meanwhile, monthly community safety forum topics have ranged from how to avoid a car accident to sexual assault prevention to human trafficking in Las Vegas. Anyone who attends one of the forums can also tour the museum for free that evening, says Geoff Schumacher, senior director of content for the museum.

While Metro is the Mob Museum’s most consistent partner, the museum has also partnered with the Clark County School District Police Department, the District Attorney’s Office and the UNLV Boyd School of Law, Ullman says.

A recent event with the Boyd School of Law focused on police use of force and reaching common ground to curb officer-involved fatalities. Held on November 13, that event featured a panel discussion with representatives from Metro, social justice organizations and interested residents. At one point, a grieving mother whose son was killed by a Metro officer in 2011 confronted Metro Capt. Nichole Splinter about officer-involved shootings in an emotional exchange.

“I’m painfully aware of the history of policing practices in this country, which have led to a disproportionate attention to minority communities,” Splinter told the mother, Alma Chavez. “That’s a scar that we all have to live with, and it’s not OK.”

That event perhaps most strongly exemplified the Mob Museum’s goal of bringing people together to engage in difficult, relevant discussions, especially about law enforcement and public safety, Schumacher says. “It was a really interesting conversation to try to bridge the gap between the police point of view and the point of view of the community.”

On the docket for next year: February programming themed around Black History Month, a series of events on modern-day incarceration and an evening with the oldest living granddaughter of famed late mobster Al Capone, Schumacher says. The museum hopes to host an additional six to eight family nights this school year, and to bring more low-income families and young people to the museum, Ullman says.

Ullman encourages schools to reach out if they’re interested in partnering with the museum to teach students more about organized crime and Las Vegas history. “If there’s a school out there … craving a program, particularly if they have access challenges, we want to be able to help and provide the museum experience,” Ullman says.

The upcoming series on incarceration will touch on reintegration for the formerly incarcerated and the challenges they face after prison, Schumacher says. As an employer of numerous formerly incarcerated people, the Mob Museum is intimately familiar with some of those challenges. “For us, it has been very good, and there are other employers who hire as well,” Schumacher says. “We want to learn from them and sort of try to create a dialogue where maybe other employers become comfortable hiring people.”

Other planned programming includes educational events on human trafficking in the region and free movie screenings on criminal justice topics, Ullman says. The museum frequently updates its online calendar with newly announced community events, so he encourages interested residents to check it out.

“We’re going to keep expanding what we do,” he says. “I know we want to do more next year.”

This story appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.