NEW ORLEANS — The second invention began before the bodies were cleared from the remains of the dead Bourbon Street Truck Attack.
A law firm signed survivors of the “predictable and preventable” tragedy. Politicians deflected blame for the latest mass shooting at New Orleans’ famous adult park. And research focused on removing street bollards, steel posts designed to limit vehicle access.
But as the city looks to recover and beef up security ahead of next month’s Super Bowl and Carnival season, law enforcement and community leaders are grappling with an existential question as old as the entertainment district: Can Bourbon Street be protected in a way that preserves its uniqueness. , party around the clock?
“When we start hearing what it will take to secure the French Quarter and the Mardi Gras parade route, I don’t know if this city is going to be willing to do all that,” said former prosecutor Rafael Goyeneche. who is chairman of the Metropolitan Crime Commission watchdog.
“If we try to make New Orleans as safe as an airport, people won’t like it,” he said. “This is not Disney World.”
Shock and grief have stopped pointing fingers at how extra security could have stopped or mitigated the Islamic State group-inspired attack that killed 14 people. Shamsud-Din Jabbar led a pickup through a New Year’s crowd.
During the difficult days of that time, there have been proposals for new security measures to prohibit vehicle traffic in the French Quarter, to the point of turning the historic district into a state park.
Many citizens who depend on tourism agree that something has to give.
“It’s too open. It’s too reliable down here,” said native Bryan Casey, 53, who has worked on Bourbon Street since the late 1990s and waits tables at Galatoire’s, an upscale restaurant that opened in 1905. Casey and his colleagues cleaned the blood from the wall. after the attack, the bodies were mutilated in front of the establishment.
Bourbon Street should have been pedestrianized a long time ago, Casey said: “People are watching and they’re going to catch you, so you have to be careful.”
It has focused much of the immediate attention lack of bollardswhich stopped working reliably and were being replaced before the Super Bowl.
City leaders have criticized the timing of that project and the failure to implement adequate replacements during repairs. The case filed on Thursday On behalf of the victims, he complained that the city had “years of options” to fix the vulnerabilities.
But half a dozen current and former Louisiana law enforcement officials described the bollard issue as a red herring, saying that even if it had worked, it might not have prevented the attack, given how Jabbar appeared bent over the carnage as it unfolded.
The wider safety conundrum is more complex, they say, in the 18th century, built for horse-drawn buggies. Policing here is even more difficult in a city with remarkably high crime, a chronic shortage of officers and a new state law allowing concealed carry of firearms without a permit.
“I don’t know of any other place that has the same challenges to protect people,” said Ronnie Jones, a public safety consultant who served with the Louisiana State Police for 32 years, including as superintendent.
“A lot of public safety people don’t want to talk about it, but we can’t guarantee that everyone going to the French Quarter will be safe,” Jones said. “There’s a trade-off here, and we’ve never, ever found that balance.”
of the city newly hired security consultantFormer New York Police Commissioner William J. Bratton said he recognizes the importance of maintaining a festive atmosphere during the carnival, even as he works with the city police to beef up security in the coming months.
“One of the things I’ve talked about is developing safety provisions that don’t change Mardi Gras, that don’t change the flavor, the excitement, the character of it,” Bratton said at a news conference this week. “Developing security protocols that become less intrusive, less disruptive.”
The New Year’s attack was far from the first vehicular fatality on Bourbon Street.
In 1972, one person was killed and 18 injured when a teenager fleeing police in a stolen car crashed through metal barricades and went down the road at 70 mph (about 113 km/h). Ten years later a man broke through steel barricades and fell nearly seven blocks, injuring at least 11. And in 1995, a drunken 63-year-old man drove a beer van through a crowd of people attending a St. Patrick’s Day parade, killing one. and 38 injured.
The Bourbon Street tragedies have involved gun violence, including several fatal shootings last year. In 2014, a mass shooting killed a 21-year-old woman and injured nine others, including a bystander who shot her in the cheek. Two years later, one person was killed and nine others were injured in a shooting.
Many of those incidents prompted similar calls for change and accountability, raising questions about civil liberties and, if anything, what the city is willing to sacrifice in the name of public safety. City, state and federal regulatory authorities have offered a variety of solutions that critics say are stopgaps, likening it to putting a Band-Aid on a wound that never heals.
“I was part of those conversations when we wanted to create a very robust security package, including metal detectors and infrared technology that could alert someone if there was metal on their clothing – that never happened,” said Michael Harrison, the former chief. of the New Orleans police who later became commissioner in Baltimore. “There are ways to prevent hornet attacks. There’s still no way to prevent people from walking down Borboi Street and doing bad things.”
Pedicab driver Jody “Cajun Queen” Boudreaux, 65, said Bourbon Street has always had New Orleans’ laissez-faire charm and isn’t sure if the city has the will to protect its lax security.
“We are a target, it’s clear. They know we have potholes, they know we’re all messing around and they know our vibe is ‘Laissez les bons temps rouler,'” he said, the famous Cajun French for “Let the good times roll.” “I think it can be balanced, I really do.” .
Andrew Monteverde, vice president of the New Orleans Firefighters Association, said first responders and law enforcement deal with many emergencies, from putting out fires to saving people in cardiac arrest. The more limited resources you devote to one part of the city, the less there is to address elsewhere.
“Would the French Quarter be so safe you couldn’t even spit on the sidewalk?” he said “Maybe, but then what would you trade for it?”
At the Bourbon Street Beach, where employees screen clubgoers with hand-held metal detectors at every entrance, general manager Woody Ryder has gotten used to frequent shootings after working there for seven years. “It’s crazy out there,” he said.
But the latest attack has created unrest. Ryder and his staff are still recovering from what he and others compared to a “war zone.”
“The city has already failed us,” he said. “I doubt it as soon as Bourbon Street turns around.”
___ Mustian reported from New York, and Cline reported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Associated Press reporter Michael Kunzelman in Washington contributed.
