new orleans — Locals and visitors in New Orleans are wondering why a temporary barrier intended to prevent cars from entering Bourbon Street was erected A terrorist killed 14 people By driving a truck through a New Year's crowd in the early morning hours of January 1, it was parked rather than on top, allowing vehicles to pass.
Temporary metal barriers have been installed on Bourbon Street and Other areas of the French Quarter in mid-November as the city was in the process of removing old barriers and replacing them with stainless steel bollards. This work was expected to continue until January.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Morell directed Fox News to the New Orleans Police Department with questions about the barriers but said her office “will be evaluating everything over the next few weeks in preparation for the Super Bowl.”
“Local law enforcement was the lead agency in preparations leading up to the Sugar Bowl incident,” Morrell said. “These questions should be directed to the New Orleans Police Department. We can assure you that we will be evaluating everything over the next few weeks in preparation for the Super Bowl.”
The New Orleans Police Department could not immediately be reached for comment.
A black flag with white letters on the ground is draped behind a pickup truck that a man drove into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing and wounding several people Wednesday morning. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Official recommendations for security measures in New Orleans in the French Quarter, as part of a $2.3 billion infrastructure project that began in 2017, included installing new bollards on Bourbon Street to prevent mass casualty events that the FBI has identified as a potential threat in the popular neighborhood. Tourist area.
“The French Quarter is often densely populated with pedestrians and represents an area where a mass casualty incident could occur.” says the 2017 report. “This area also represents a terrorism risk and target area that the FBI has identified as a concern that the city must address. In the wake of the attacks in Nice, France; in London, England; and the recent Times Square incident in New York that cited salvaged columns, it has become clear How can popular tourist areas be threatened by attackers with vehicles and weapons.”
The report recommended closing Bourbon Street to near vehicular traffic, “except for emergency vehicles, at specified times as a risk mitigation measure.”
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Authorities patrol Bourbon Street as it reopens in New Orleans on Thursday. (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)
Security recommendations for the area included street cameras, a central command center, better lighting, and high-quality bollards also used by the US government near its official buildings.
“When closed, the barriers will prevent access to Bourbon Street by uncontrolled vehicle, free Bourbon Street refugee zones for pedestrian traffic while maintaining cross-street access to Bourbon Street for emergency responders, and eliminate the need for law enforcement personnel to… “They erect barriers, which frees up more resources to prevent crime.”
The suspect in the truck attack in New Orleans at the behest of the Islamic State terrorist group
Authorities patrol Bourbon Street as it reopens in New Orleans on Thursday. (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)
Former FBI official Bill Daly The “weak point” in the January 1 tragedy was that the temporary measures used on New Year's Eve did not provide the same level of protection that was previously intended, designed and envisioned, the security and risk management consultant told Fox News Digital. In the 2017 report.
“Temporary barriers are being used extensively,” Daly said. “They are used, for example, by the New York City Police Department in Times Square, to block all side streets leading into Times Square.” “They use cement blocks that they actually put on the sidewalk and in the middle of the street as temporary barriers, and in some places vehicles. They use garbage trucks, they use trash trucks, they use all kinds of heavy vehicles, and sometimes the police just block the road but it's also important to block off the sidewalk.”
A barricade on Bourbon Street in New Orleans (right) was rebuilt on Thursday, the day after the terrorist attack, while a barricade on another street in the French Quarter appeared lowered. (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)
Several business employees located near the Bourbon Street entrance told Fox News Digital that authorities installed temporary barriers to block traffic at entrances to certain streets in the French Quarter around Christmas time as the city planned to repair and upgrade its permanent barriers.
However, the barrier at the intersection of Canal and Bourbon Streets was not upright on New Year's Eve, meaning vehicles could have driven over the flat barrier and onto Bourbon Street from Canal Street. Video shows Jabbar driving the rented pickup truck off Canal Street and around the police car barricade at the Bourbon Street entrance before that. Plowing in revelers.
Fox News has learned since the Jan. 1 attack that New Orleans has had more barriers available that could have prevented or limited the scope of the terrorist attack, though New Orleans Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick said in a press conference afterward She was not aware of the barriers. .
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Tourists walk through makeshift barriers on Orleans and Bourbon streets in New Orleans on Thursday. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
“Actually, we have them,” she said of the barriers. “I didn't know about them, but we have them, so now we've been able to put them out.”
The CEO of Meridian Rapid Defense Group confirmed to Fox News that his company sold 48 Archer barriers to New Orleans in 2017 — the same barriers the city installed on sidewalks around the French Quarter before reopening Bourbon Street on Thursday after federal officials finished evaluating Crime scene. .
Pedestrians walk down Bourbon Street as it reopens in New Orleans on Thursday. (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)
The 700-pound L-shaped steel barriers are “the world's strongest mobile barriers,” and are designed to prevent a 5,500-pound truck from traveling at 60 mph, Peter Whitford said.
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“Not only did they not know they had them, they didn't even know how to describe them,” Whitford said of New Orleans officials who described the barriers. “So far, in the pictures I've seen, the barriers are not positioned correctly because the wheels are still down.”
The defense company is trying to contact city officials to explain how to erect the barriers, which are still installed incorrectly.
