The deadly New Year’s Day truck attack in New Orleans would have been worse if city officials had installed a 700-pound barrier purchased years ago and with a proven track record of deterring intentional vehicle collisions. “The outcome would have been very different,” said the architect of the blockade. he told the Guardian.
But the city “didn’t have the accessories to help move and deploy” the steel Archer Barrier as quickly as designed — and how other authorities were able to do so. Peter Whitford, the city’s chief executive, said. Meridian Rapid Defense Group said in an interview.
The Archers had previously thwarted a relatively similar ramming attack in California just a year earlier, but in New Orleans authorities are having trouble dispatching and picking up the ramming attack, according to preliminary reporting by the Guardian. He says he has come to think that it is too much.
So New Orleans emergency officials kept them. And these are the names of the drivers who went missing in action when Islamic State (IS) supporters killed 14 people and injured about 35 others on the city’s famous Bourbon Street on January 1. It was one of three types of barriers to prevent deliberate targeting of unknown crowds. .
Whitford said late Thursday that in the wake of the attack and subsequent revelations about why New Orleans didn’t deploy the Archers, he and other members of his defense company went to the city, apparently in short supply. He said that he began personally working on providing deployed equipment to public safety facilities. .
He explained that he met with local law enforcement officials to conduct a thorough inspection of the city’s fences, while quickly developing a plan to provide maintenance and training for the fences and related accessories. Although he did not elaborate, the Archer barrier, which the city of New Orleans installed the day after the attack using equipment and methods unrelated to the manufacturer, was covered in rust, making it different from other intact barriers in other cities. It was a striking contrast.
It’s disappointing to see that “…the same pride (elsewhere)…was not reflected in the equipment we sold” in New Orleans, Whitford said. “I’ll fix that.”
Whitford added that he is unsure and concerned about whether Meridian will be paid for the work it is doing to help the city government rethink its view of Archer Barrier. said. It is a standard that needs to be reached. ”
Whitford’s comments come as New Orleans officials review the city’s security plans ahead of the NFL’s Super Bowl and the annual citywide Carnival celebration on Feb. 9, and are concerned about future attacks. The move comes after former New York City and Los Angeles police chief William Bratton was hired to strengthen the department’s defenses. Mardi Gras on March 4th.
New Orleans City Hall is on the defensive about why the Archers and two other separate barriers to deter intentional vehicle ramming were not at the Bourbon Street entrance at the time of the attack. The city government, under former Mayor Mitch Landrieu, announced in 2017 as part of a $40 million public safety package following deadly vehicular attacks targeting crowds in Nice, Berlin, London, New York and Barcelona. I got all these.
Landrieu resigned in 2019, and officials in his successor, LaToya Cantrell’s administration, have taken time to cite flaws in each barrier.
They say some type of barrier – cylindrical pillars that block the road known as bollards – were destroyed on the day of the attack after being worn down by the intensity of Bourbon Street, one of the world’s most intense party noises. It was said to be in the process of being replaced. Another barrier, a so-called wedge barrier that can be raised and lowered hydraulically in seconds, was intentionally left lowered because authorities feared it could malfunction and impede initial response. .
Some of those injured in the attack, as well as the father of one of the men who died, sued the New Orleans city government, accusing it of failing to protect New Year’s revelers that day.
In a recent interview on WWL Radio, Colin Arnold, director of homeland security and emergency preparedness for Cantrell, called Meridian’s Archer Barrier, which can be installed side by side or staggered over driveways and sidewalks, “a great product. ” was admitted. Mr Arnold hinted that if hit by a car, the vehicle would roll backwards and “become trapped under the car… into the road, causing… significant damage.”
However, he added, “Moving takes a lot of effort and has to be planned out several days in advance. And once deployed, it usually takes two to three people to move.”
However, readily accessible videos prove that it takes up to three people to move Archer’s barrier. With the appropriate trailer and equipment that Meridian calls a transport vehicle and field tow bar, a single person of any height can deploy eight Archers within 10 minutes, according to Meridian’s information and instructional video.
The day after the Bourbon Street attack, police in Santa Monica, California, posted a YouTube video showing officers deploying the same type of Archer that New Orleans purchased several years ago. At various points in the footage, individual officers can be seen effortlessly pushing a single barrier forward and pulling it back while walking backwards.
The same day the video was shot, New Orleans Police Superintendent Ann Kirkpatrick, who took office in September 2023, told reporters that this was the first time she had learned of such barriers in the city’s public safety arsenal. Ta.
Nearby, the shooter was seen using a crane truck to position the shooter at the Bourbon Street entrance, rather than the equipment used by Santa Monica police officers. Images show multiple officers working to install individual barriers.
Numerous sources in public safety and emergency management with direct knowledge of New Orleans operations say the city should lift these barriers before it completely loses upper-level support, rather than using the equipment it intended. I made sure it was one of etiquette. It was kept.
Whitford said New Orleans had at least some of the Archer Barrier’s deployment accessories. But he suggested that the city-owned carrier was the first version of a product that is now in about its eighth version. And Whitford said New Orleans essentially lacked field tow bars, suitable trailers and other accessories to reduce the time and resources required to deploy Archer Barrier. Archer Barrier has been certified by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under Congressional legislation promoting anti-terrorism. Terrorism technology.
“They didn’t have the right accessories to easily deploy this,” Whitford said. “But they will start now.”
It’s unclear why Whitford’s explanation turned out the way it did. Records cited by local New Orleans journalist Matt McBride, the city’s infrastructure watchdog, show that when the city purchased Archer Fence in 2017, it also purchased a transport vehicle, tow bar, and trailer. is shown. McBride also pointed out that aerial photos posted on the city’s property assessor’s website show: Storage yard trailers and barriers.
However, none of the many sources who spoke to the Guardian about Archer Barrier said they were familiar with such a device.
Arnold, the city’s Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness director, told Fox affiliate WVUE in New Orleans that Whitford’s company is the only security equipment company the city has negotiated with. He said Whitford “has solutions that it wants to present to city and state leaders,” but added that “no decisions have been made yet.”
Whitford said there is no doubt that the shooter, who was standing on the sidewalk at the Bourbon Street entrance, would have survived the truck attack at the speed the assailant was traveling at the time.
Meridian posted a video of the crash online, which shows the vehicle crashing into the barrier at about the same speed the suspect was trying to get through the Bourbon entrance. Dramatic footage vividly depicts people stopping people from speeding up to overtake them. The distance of the attack was much shorter than the three blocks that the New Orleans attacker (who had also planted an unexploded homemade bomb on Bourbon Street) traveled before colliding and being shot and killed by police.
“It would have turned out very differently,” Whitford said of how she believed New Year’s Day would have played out on Bourbon Street, where fencing was in place. “I can’t put it any other way.”
Whitford explained how the barrier passed its most important real-world test on New Year’s Day 2024 at the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, where Meridian is headquartered.
That day, a woman with an alleged history of mental illness attempts to drive her car over Archer’s barrier, but fails, causing the barrier to hold, disabling the car and leaving a crowd of unsuspecting spectators injured or worse. I prevented this. Police charged the woman with assault with a deadly weapon.
Whitford said 600 fences in Meridian were fortifying the 8.4-mile route of the 2025 Rose Parade just hours after the Bourbon Street attack.
When Whitford visited New Orleans in the aftermath, the traces of the Bourbon Street Massacre were visible everywhere.
There were memorials with flowers, teddy bears and photographs of the murdered victims. There was a large truck there to repair potholes all over the city that were blocking bourbon traffic. It was much larger and wider than the only police cruiser left in the same position early on New Year’s Day and briefly driven by the suspect.
Handwritten messages were also scrawled on the Archer barrier itself after it was removed from storage and placed at various intersections on the Bourbon Street entrance sidewalk and beyond.
There was also the phrase, “Please use me.” Another said: “Don’t hide me.”
By Friday, the rusty yellow fencing that remained at the Bourbon Street entrance had been replaced with clean white and green fencing.
Whitford admitted he saw commentary scrawled on the barriers his company replaced.
“We get emotional about this because we’re going through a tragedy and people want more,” Whitford said. “And they want what’s right.”
