Today, January 6th, is King’s Day and the first official day of the 2025 Mardi Gras season; but there is a sense of anxiety over Mardi Gras this year following the terrorist attack on Bourbon Street. Fourteen innocent people died and over 30 others were injured, some very seriously.
The question is: How could this have happened?
While no one can predict the maniacal mind of a terrorist, it is obvious that the city of New Orleans left people exposed to the threat of an attack by a speeding vehicle.
For years, I have been talking about the incompetence of the city of New Orleans and the problem of politics getting in the way of doing what is right. I have also condemned our leaders territorial behavior and the fighting over control of power and money.
Now, CNN has gotten ahold of the confidential part of a 2019 report showing that what I have been talking about for years is, indeed, a reality. Please know that I take no pleasure in being right. I take no pleasure in the criticism I have received from the city and tourist leaders for my honesty about New Orleans. But what this report shows is that what was obvious to me was actually reality.
Interfor International, a private security firm, was commissioned by the French Quarter Management District to investigate security risks in New Orleans and the basic message from that report is shocking, but not surprising. Interfor International determined that politics and arguing between law enforcement, security companies, the city of New Orleans exposed that the French Quarter was vulnerable to attack and that a mass shooting and vehicular attacks were “highly possible while moderately probable.” It was the city and other agencies involved in securing the French Quarter that allowed arguing over money and power to stand in the way of better securing the French Quarter.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell is now saying the city and the French Quarter are safe and that the city is in the process of improving the bollard system, which was timed to be ready for the Super Bowl. But why wasn’t it ready for New Year’s Eve and the Sugar Bowl? Why were available steel barriers not up and in position? Isn’t it interesting that the city and NOPD immediately had the steel barriers up and in position the day after the terrorist attack. The new police chief, Anne Kirkpatrick, said she didn’t even know the city had the barriers.
DHS and the FBI issued a warning on December 6th about the vehicle attack on a German Christmas market. This warning came out before the holiday and seems to have been ignored by the city of New Orleans.
Today, Mayor Cantrell is saying “This is a work in progress and we’re committed to doing everything necessary to ensure public safety measures.” Why would anyone be assured by Cantrell’s words? She is the leader of this city, and since her re-election she has been occupied using a city-owned apartment in the French Quarter to spend private hours with an NOPD officer with whom she appeared to have a very personal relationship with, in addition to flying all over the globe to attend conferences with no after-action reporting on what she learned and how it could benefit the citizens who paid for her trips. Mayor Cantrell has been an arrogant, entitled leader of this city who has shown that her biggest concern is taking advantage of every opportunity to better her own personal life. Put simply, Cantrell has been a globe-trotting mayor who has neglected the city of New Orleans and that contributed to the terrorist attack on New Year’s Day. This terrorist attack in New Orleans will forever scar the legacy of Mayor LaToya Cantrell.
The city of New Orleans has a history of tolerance for mediocrity and the petty politics and territorialism were an integral part of the terrorist attack that killed 14 innocent people who were just here in New Orleans celebrating the arrival of a New Year.
What further exposes the problem with petty politics in New Orleans getting in the way of competence is the fact that after the Interfor International report was sent to the city, the city did not attempt to get back to the company, which suggested further review and consultations about security. This city has a mentality that they know how to do everything. Well, that mentality and the failures of the Cantrell Administration will lead to massive lawsuits against the city - and they will win because evidence of incompetence is plentiful.
I love this city, which is my home, but I have continued to bash the city for its tolerance of mediocrity and the political fighting that prevents this city from being as good as it can be. I hope now this city will start acting and stop the childish arguing over money and power.
It’s sad that it may have taken the deaths of 14 innocent people to make this city wake up and start doing what’s right and stop this insane tradition of doing things a certain way because “this is New Orleans and this is the way we do things here.”
To the leaders of this city and to the promoters of New Orleans as the “best place” to hold an event - wake up!
