Quit asking New Orleans to be resilient. We just want accountability. • Louisiana Illuminator

This one just feels different.

It’s the best way I can summarize what’s going through my head and heart after Wednesday’s early morning terror attack on Bourbon Street where at least 14 people were killed, 37 more were injured and an untold number of witnesses were likely forever traumatized. That’s to speak nothing of the indelible mark left on the family and loved ones of the victims.

After working and living in New Orleans for 20 years now, I’ve been through my share of tragic events. Hurricane Katrina, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, too many mass shootings and other horrendous acts of violence to count.

But this one feels different.

To me, it’s like a new kind of numbness. I can’t decide whether I’m emotionally callused or frustrated to the point of hopelessness. Fear hasn’t really entered my mind, and I’m honestly a little worried about that.

Toby Lefort, a New Orleans native and bartender at Bourbon Pub, explained it well when he shared his thoughts Thursday afternoon with Illuminator reporter Wes Muller. Lefort’s workplace is just a block from where Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Texas native, left a homemade bomb inside an ice chest. The device was not detonated, as Jabbar died in a shootout with police further up Bourbon Street, adding to the carnage.

“The city that we all love is devastated — again,” Lefort said. “It’s true that New Orleans is a very resilient place, but how long do we have to keep being resilient?”

Good question. 

Words such as “resiliency” and “recovery” already elicit groans and eye rolls here because we so frequently have to deal with setbacks. What’s more discouraging is that so many of these traumatic events were preventable or the result of extreme indifference.

This one feels different.

For one thing, there’s the apparent negligence from New Orleans officials who failed to take backup measures after they removed portable steel posts, or bollards, on Bourbon Street. The barriers are designed to deter vehicles but allow pedestrian access. 

It’s baffling why the timeline to install new bollards didn’t require them to be in place before the end of the year, instead of before Super Bowl LIX in February.  

Dozens of archers, metal barrier sheets, could have been deployed in place of the bollards, but they sat stacked together on a city lot untouched until Thursday when they were moved to the French Quarter. Worse yet, New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick, who was hired in November 2023, said she was unaware the city even had archers on hand. 

But the police chief and Mayor LaToya Cantrell certainly knew, or should have known, that streets in the heart of the city’s tourism district were left vulnerable. It also shouldn’t have escaped the eye of Louisiana State Police, which now has a New Orleans-based troop to supplement the NOPD. We’re told some 400 law enforcement personnel from various agencies were in the French Quarter for New Year’s Eve.

Adding to my mood of disheartened disgust is the response so far from political leaders to the terror attack. All officials involved should be given some degree of forbearance given the unprecedented nature of the event.

But when U.S. Sen. John Kennedy used Thursday’s news conference to launch zingers at a journalist, it’s clear that his focus wasn’t on the victims or people in the community who wanted assurance their safety was his priority. Instead, Kennedy chose instead to provide more of his typical, faux-yokel idioms, at one point man-spreading his way to the podium to displace an FBI special agent at the microphone. 

It was also poor timing for Attorney General Liz Murrill to declare on social media late Wednesday that, “In Louisiana we have the death penalty and we will carry it out!” Her post rang hollow just hours later when the FBI declared Jabbar acted alone in planning and carrying out his attack.

There’s no question that Gov. Jeff Landry has taken the helm of the official response to the terror attack. That’s probably a good thing, given Cantrell’s struggles with an ongoing federal investigation and the city’s mishandling of street security.

But the governor’s boosterism for the Sugar Bowl, the upcoming Super Bowl and his desire for a quick return to business as usual in New Orleans comes off as dismissive of legitimate concerns about public safety. At best, it was a questionable decision for Landry to post a photo of himself and his wife outside an expensive Central Business District restaurant less than 24 hours after Jabbar went on his killing spree a half-mile away.

“Proud to be a part of this incredibly resilient city,” the governor wrote on X.

There’s that word again.

Some might consider my commentary the work of a disgruntled journalist taking potshots. While I can’t take off that reporter’s hat, these feelings come more from my standing as a New Orleans resident who’s seen far more tragic events unfold than I want to recall.

But this one feels different, and I hope our leaders would realize that and respond appropriately.