All week I’ve been receiving press releases related to All-Star weekend and parties surrounding it.

I haven’t written much about it because not much of it—parties at the AMPM lounge and such—particularly applies to our neighborhood or our readership.

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But this thought does—All-Star Weekend might mean all-out mayhem for the Dallas area.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are some awesome events happening around the city—Mary J. Blige at the Majestic, Magic Johnson and his 8-Ball Challenge, Shaq at the Nokia, and a bunch of charity events—but this glitzy extravaganza could have a slimy underbelly.

A few years back, following the 2007 All-Star weekend in Vegas, sports writer Jason Whitlock came out with this story about the criminal activity that transpired during a weekend that was supposed to showcase the best the NBA had to offer (yeah the Hardliners were discussing it on 1310 yesterday). The gist of what Whitlock witnessed: “All-Star Weekend revelers have transformed the league’s midseason exhibition into the new millennium Freaknik, an out-of-control street party that features gunplay, violence, non-stop weed smoke and general mayhem.” He adds that "this was not a byproduct of the game being held in Vegas. All-Star Weekend has been on this path for the past five or six years. Every year the event becomes more and more a destination for troublemakers."

Give it a read (it’s short and to the point) and you might decide All-Star Weekend 2010 is a good weekend to get out of town.