New Orleans officials were warned in 2019 that Bourbon Street was vulnerable to car-ramming attack
New Orleans officials were warned in 2019 that Bourbon Street was vulnerable to car-ramming attack
New Orleans city leaders were warned in a 2019 confidential physical security assessment that Bourbon Street was vulnerable to a vehicle-ramming attack.
Summary
A vehicle-ramming and gunfire attack on New Orleans’ Bourbon Street on New Year’s Day killed 14 and injured dozens, carried out by Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who supported ISIS and was killed by police.
A 2019 security report had warned that inoperable bollards made the area vulnerable to such attacks.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell stated the city was renovating these barriers ahead of the Super Bowl, but they were incomplete.
Critics argue systemic traffic control measures are needed, as current plans failed to prevent the attack.
Authorities warn of potential copycat incidents.
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Considering the number of car ramming attacks in the past decade or so, every city in the world should have been taking steps to protect heavy pedestrian areas years ago.
Just a complete top-down failure here.
New Orleans absolutely would be low hanging fruit to fix that. They can install some automated bollards. And they absolutely should. But then protests, marches, parades. At some point we're going to need to stop public gathering in unprotected areas. This will come to a head when it comes down to spending serious amounts of money for infrastructure changes to protect protesters vs enacting laws that seem to quell free speech.
For real. I was there a while back, and I was surprised at how much traffic there was in the Quarter. There's very little relative cost to a delivery-only bollard system. Many other cities have the same systems up.
They apparently had one and it's been "under maintenance" for years according to something else I read. There were also steel barriers they've supposedly never once put up since they've had them.
Just total incompetence.
Languid incompetence, no less. "It probably won't happen while I'm in charge..."