LLike others who lived in New Orleans at the time, the then-New Aaron Miller, the former Orleans Homeland Security director, was also horrified. Many more people were injured in the terrorist attack claimed by the Islamic State (IS).
Similar car attacks in Berlin, London, New York and Barcelona left him worried about the safety of his city.
“I just said… it’s too dangerous right now” not to enhance New Orleans’ most famous thoroughfare, the world-famous and festive Bourbon Street. “God forbid someone should do something like this (here).”
By the end of 2017, Miller had installed roads known as bollards designed to prevent terrorists from driving into revelers who descended on Bourbon Street for one of the city’s many celebrations. Oversaw the city’s acquisition of blocking cylindrical columns and other barriers.
The barrier was part of a broader $40 million public safety plan announced by Miller’s boss at the time, Mayor Mitch Landrieu. Mayor Landrieu retired in 2018 and most recently served as co-chair of Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.
Some of the most visible elements of that plan were early Wednesday when a former U.S. Army veteran drove his rented pickup truck to the bottom of Bourbon Street with an Islamic State flag attached to a pole in the back. Police shot him dead after driving around a police barricade and plowing into a crowd of people celebrating the New Year, killing 14 people and injuring more than 30 others.
Some of these elements include ubiquitous street surveillance cameras with bright flashing lights and strategically placed cameras to alert authorities to the comings and goings of motorists if they come to the attention of investigators. This included a number plate reader.
But 11 of the 16 bollards, including the one at the foot of Bourbon Street where the attack began, were shut down Wednesday for repairs, and officials said ahead of New Orleans that the bollards had become “unreliable. It stopped working,” he said. He will host the National Football League’s Super Bowl on February 9th.
One of the factors they cited was that beads thrown during the city’s famous Carnival parade had become stuck in the barrier system.
Surveillance video from the attack shows the veteran driving his car over another type of obstacle (known as a wedge barrier and implemented as part of a 2017 safety plan) on the first block of Bourbon Street. The situation was visible. Obstacles were left facing downwards. Officials said the wedge-shaped fence was intentionally left down on the day of the attack to allow emergency vehicles to pass if necessary.
However, that lockdown was seen again on Thursday.
And a third type of lockdown previously deployed by New Orleans public safety officials simply didn’t exist. The portable, 700-pound L-shaped Archer Barriers are typically installed in groups of three or four on roadways and sidewalks to stop even speeding drivers. If it is hit, it will tilt backwards and be pushed under the car.
One such barrier stopped an incoming motorist and protected the crowd at the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, on January 1, 2024, NBC News reported.
Ann Kirkpatrick, who will be the New Orleans Police Superintendent starting in November 2023, admitted to reporters Thursday that she didn’t even know her agency had Archer Barrier as part of its toolkit, and told reporters on TV It surprised the viewers.
As New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome prepares to host the football teams in the postponed Sugar Bowl showdown between Notre Dame and the University of Georgia, ask about Thursday’s game against the Archers. “Actually, we had them,” Kirkpatrick said when asked. “I didn’t know about them, but we have them.”
Miller, who has moved on to other professional roles since incumbent New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell took over from Landrieu, who is term-limited, will help the city stop vehicular attacks on Bourbon Street. He said he is using an alternative, more temporary “solution” designed to. He cited portable gates at the base of famous streets, parked dump trucks and police cars with flashers blocking roads.
But the gunman simply drove around the front of the police car, scaled an unobstructed sidewalk, and sped onto Bourbon Street, a busy street filled with people partying at bars, clubs, eateries and other establishments.
The massacre only stopped after the assailant’s pickup truck crashed into a construction elevator about three blocks away from the disabled police car, resulting in his death in a shootout with police.
How many more people would have been injured or killed if the gunman had been able to locate and activate the controls for two pipe bombs left in an ice chest several blocks away from Bourbon Street in his truck? I have no idea if I could have done that.
Miller, a deputy county commissioner in Arlington, Virginia, and an adjunct assistant professor at Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, said he did not criticize or blame anyone in local government for the attack. He emphasized that he would not. .
Earlier Thursday, Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser publicly criticized New Orleans officials on local CBS affiliate WWL Louisiana. “It’s inconceivable that someone in the city wasn’t involved in this,” Nungesser said, adding that “New Orleans … will not be distracted by outside commentary.” I encouraged them to respond.
Javed Ali, a University of Michigan professor and counter-terrorism expert, told the BBC he wondered if the Bourbon Street attacker was traveling too fast to be stopped by a traffic stop.
Separately, despite receiving a multi-million dollar security package, Bourbon Street has been rocked intermittently by deadly violence, including mass shootings, which are often deliberate and random attacks. Instead, it is often a fight that spirals out of control, sometimes trapping bystanders.
Nevertheless, Miller said he was disappointed that some of the conservation investments New Orleans made in 2017 were not implemented when they were perhaps needed most. As one example, a report commissioned by the city government determined that the French Quarter was at risk of becoming a terrorist target, a concern that city officials “must address.”
He recalled that he and several local law enforcement officials were simulating an attack a few years ago that was eerily similar to the one by Shamsuddin Jabbar, 42, of Houston, Texas. Ta. Miller said the exercise included a garbage truck deliberately driving into a crowd.
Miller declined to comment when asked if the city could have better maintained the missing bollards. He declined to comment on the wedge barriers, which were left down at the time of the attack, but were put up again the next day and installed archer barriers on both sides of the adjacent sidewalk.
It also notes Kirkpatrick’s comments that he was not initially aware that his agency owned Archer Barrier as authorities continue to work to identify Jabbar’s victims. I refused.
“This is one of the worst-case scenarios that we’ve been training and training for,” Miller said. “These are the things that keep us up at night.”
