A car may have plowed into a crowd on Bourbon Street early on Wednesday, the New Orleans Police Department reported, according to ABC News affiliate WGNO.
10 dead, 30 injured after car intentionally plows into crowds in New Orleans
Yet another fucking exculpatory headline minimizing the agency of the assailant because his weapon of choice happened to be a car. No, headline writer, the car didn't do a goddamn thing; its driver did. Even putting "intentionally" in there, while better than nothing, still fails to make up for using the wrong subject!
Better version:
10 dead, 30 injured after assailant intentionally rams car into crowd in New Orleans
This is basically the same type of shit as minimizing police responsibility with headlines like "bystander struck by bullet during officer-involved shooting" (as opposed to "police officer shoots bystander"), and just as systematic and egregious. The only difference is that it's done in service of car-supremacy rather than the abusive police state. I am really sick and tired of it, in both contexts.
Bollards save lives. All pedestrian areas should be protected from cars by some kind of physical barrier. This protects against intentional attacks and drunk driving incidents.
The French Quarter has retractable bollards in that area. They had been temporarily removed for upgrades ahead of the Super Bowl. At least that's the story circulating here.
I agree with you that bollards save lives, but this appears to be a situation where normally drivable streets are closed off for a street party. Is there a feasible way to temporarily block those streets with something that would stop these incidents and also not damage the road (and also not cost taxpayers a ridiculous amount, obviously)?
For street parties in my city, they have used concrete "Jersey barriers" or other off the shelf large concrete blocks to temporarily block the ends of the street.
Bollards that can raise/lower aren't that expensive and they don't need to be mechanized. Back at my university, they'd raise them when they'd close off driveable areas for events and there's just a hook to lift them up and secure at a higher height with a lock. They were made of solid metal and concrete so I assume they had some sort of counterweight underneath to help raise them.
In Austin they commonly block off all roads to 6th Street with at least a cop car, if not two or three. I think this was something overlooked by whoever planned the event, leaving an unprotected street.
I've seen moveable anti car barricades. I think they work the same as those anti tank things. If someone runs into it the car is lifted off the ground. Something like this https://barriers.miframsecurity.com/products/
I don’t know how the roads were not blocked. After a similar attack many years ago, all streets with events I have been to are blocked with garbage trucks, police cars or huge concrete blocks to prevent attacks like this.
Edit: read that there was a police car blockade and the he drove around it on the side walk.
the suspect allegedly got out of the truck wielding an assault rifle and opened fire on police officers, law enforcement officials briefed on the incident told ABC News. Officers returned fire, killing the suspect who was not immediately identified, sources said.
But a concerning thing to me is that there has been a lot of crossover between some white nationalists and extreme islamist terror orgs over the last decade or so.
They have very similar (conservative) values and goals (accelerationism). One WN group that was recently busted up was called The Base, which is also the English meaning of Al Qaeda.
Though the American government is much more quick to label Islamic adjacent attackers terrorists than any white attacker.
More details of what happened in Bourbon Street are beginning to emerge.
According to reports on the ground from US network CBS, the white truck crashed into the victims at high speed while they were celebrating the New Year.
The driver, according to witnesses who spoke to CBS, then got out and began firing a weapon. Police then returned fire.
Alethea Duncan, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s New Orleans field office, said officials were investigating the discovery of at least one suspected improvised explosive device at the scene.
I'm going to laugh if it turns out that those aren't actual IEDs planted by a terrorist, but just fireworks hid on the scene earlier by revelers. They were hoping to sneak them past the guards before the event even started.
One day I called the elevator in my condo building. When the doors opened, the interior was covered in blood. There was a guy who was semiconcious leaning there. He was beat to hell. So, I decided to take the stairs. On the way down, I called 911. When I got down to the security gate, there was a NOPD car. I explained what I had seen. The cop explained that he had given the guy a ride to my building. Now, I don't know what kind of ride it was, but it was obvious he didn't give a fuck.
“We have information to a certain degree of the demographics of those who are in the hospital right now,” New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said in a news briefing Wednesday morning. “We do not know at this point how many could be tourists versus locals, but from the information I have right now, it seems the majority are locals.”
“We do know that the city of New Orleans was impacted by a terrorist attack,” Cantrell said, noting the incident is still under investigation.
Shortly later, an FBI agent told reporters, “This is not a terrorist event.” It was not immediately clear why the mayor and the FBI had differing information.
US government: We need to distablize Syria to ensure Israel safety, best recommendations is to support sunni group to topple the government.
US, Israel: create ISIS
ISIS: attack US bases
US: ISIS is terrorist organization
ISIS start gaining ground in Syria.
Israel, US and Turkey: start support ISIS again.
ISIS take over Syria government.
US: they are no longer ISIS and leader is no longer on hit list
ISIS: sucider attack US citizen
US: TERRORIST ATTACK, ISIS FLAG
the United States government will gave ISIS nuclear weapons if ISRAEL are happy regardless of effect on threats in American soils and the implications of US soldiers and citizens abroad.
Same to what they did with drug, environment, and health care. Citizen of the United States is the least of the government interest.
So he got away from the police, and the FBI says they don't consider it a terrorist thing. Which means he is white. And he probably ran his car into PoC.
There were initial reports that he got away. But it looks like he didn't now, and even the FBI upgraded him to "Terrorist". In contrast to some guy currently in a New York prison, I would say that this label does apply.