Barikade seharusnya menjaga keamanan orang-orang yang bersuka ria di Bourbon Street. Inilah alasan mengapa mereka tidak beroperasi | berita

Berita  —  The warning signs and safety concerns were obvious – to New Orleans residents, tourists and experts alike.

Throngs of New Year’s Day revelers packed in the city’s bustling French Quarter had no strong barriers to protect them from speeding vehicles like the 6,000-pound truck that plowed into the crowd and killed 14 people.

The tragedy came years after a private security consulting firm warned in a 2019 report that the risk of terrorism in the French Quarter – specifically mass shootings and vehicular attacks – remained “highly possible while moderately probable.” This picture taken from a balcony of the Royal Sonesta New Orleans hotel shows law enforcement gathering around the suspect pickup truck.

The image has been blurred by Berita.

Paul S.

video Related video Suspect’s truck speeds past pedestrians And just last month, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI warned law enforcement of the threat of violence from lone offenders around the holidays and the potential use of vehicle ramming, according to two internal memos obtained by Berita.

The 2019 report “strongly recommends” safety structures known as bollards –– vertical posts that can move up and down –– be fixed and improved “immediately.” But instead of sturdy bollards on New Year’s Eve, “They had the flimsy orange ones that you could just push over with your finger,” one witness said.

In addition to the missing sturdy bollards, which were under repair, the city’s portable steel barriers were in the down position during New Year’s celebrations.

New Orleans owns temporary barriers that could have blocked access to Bourbon Street – but decided not to use them, a source familiar with the report told Berita.

New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said she did not know the city owned the safety devices, known as Archer barriers.

“I didn’t know about them, but we have them,” Kirkpatrick told reporters Thursday.

“And so we have been able now to put them out.” Tourists walk past temporary barriers on Bourbon Street on January 2, one day after the attack.

George Walker IV/AP The New Orleans City Council is still trying to determine why Bourbon Street lacked permanent security bollards on the morning of the deadly attack, Councilmember Jean-Paul Morrell said Friday.

“We have had some contradictory messages internally as far as when the work was awarded and when it should have started,” Morrell told Berita.

“I know from my perspective as the incoming Council president, we are going to do our own deep-dive investigation over the coming weeks to go into that.” On New Year’s Eve, the city did park a police vehicle at the entrance to the street where more than a dozen revelers would be run over.

“This particular terrorist drove around, onto the sidewalk, and got around the hard target,” the police superintendent said.

“We did indeed have a plan,” Kirkpatrick said.

“But the terrorist defeated it.” ‘Those barricades were not up, period’ The barricades in question –– portable steel structures that can either lay flat or be raised depending on traffic –– seemed to stand out in the memories of several witnesses to the attack.

Both longtime residents and tourists who spoke with Berita and affiliates noted those barriers were not raised while recounting the deadly truck-ramming in the hours that followed.

Top row: Tiger Bech, Reggie Hunter, Drew Dauphin and Hubert Gauthreaux.

.

Bottom row: Matthew Tenedorio, Kareem Badawi and Billy DiMaio.

Obtained by Berita Related article These are some of victims of the Bourbon Street attack Indeed, surveillance footage on Bourbon Street showed the pickup truck driving over one such barrier, which was not erect at the time of the incident, and speeding away after, narrowly missing partygoers.

“Those barricades were not up, period,” Jimmy Cothran, a party’s designated driver told Berita’s Pamela Brown.

“They had the flimsy orange ones that you could just push over with your finger.

We actually thought it was kind of odd.” Jose Lieras, a tourist from Los Angeles, told Berita affiliate WDSU that the metal barricades at Bourbon and Canal Street were not raised –– instead, he saw “just the standard plastic ones.” Lieras added that though there were a lot of police stationed at Bourbon Street, cars were still driving by while pedestrians walked all over the street.

“I don’t think they should let any vehicles at all.

It should always be blocked off at nighttime because something like this could have happened.” Shortly before Bourbon Street reopened Thursday, the police chief said the city is “hardening the target” around the famous street so that “any penetration would be almost next to impossible.” That involved raising the existing barricades, bringing in heavier equipment and placing barriers that block sidewalk access, Kirkpatrick told Berita.

The police chief said she is confident officers will be able to keep people safe, especially as New Orleans prepares to host the Super Bowl next month and the Mardi Gras carnival in March.

A police officer blocks a street in the French Quarter on January 2.

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images The DHS and FBI had warned of possible vehicle attacks over the holidays A joint DHS and FBI bulletin released December 6 and a follow up “critical incident note” about a vehicle attack on a German Christmas market came days before the massacre in New Orleans.

Joint bulletins are distributed to federal, state, and local law enforcement from DHS, FBI, and National Counterterrorism Center to inform them about the threat environment.

They are shared among law enforcement when necessary, and generally ahead of the holiday season.

People react at a memorial set up on Bourbon Street on January 2, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana, the day after an attack by a man driving a truck down Bourbon street in the French Quarter.

Adrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images Related live-story The latest on the deadly New Orleans attack In the bulletin obtained by Berita, the federal agencies warned that “lone offenders pose most likely threat of violence to soft targets in the Homeland during winter holidays,” referring to individuals acting alone.

“Lone offenders have historically used simple tactics, such as edged weapons, firearms, or vehicle ramming, due to their ease of access, ability to inflict mass casualties, and lack of required training,” the bulletin reads, listing other incidents in previous years.

The bulletin said foreign terrorist organizations and online supporters “historically have disseminated holiday-themed media calling for violence against Western celebrations, prominent landmarks, and religious institutions.” “This year, FTOs began releasing winter holiday-related messaging earlier than in prior years, possibly foreshadowing an increase in FTO media production calling for violence during the winter holidays,” it said, referring to foreign terrorist organizations.

Another car-ramming incident inspired the city to install mechanical barricades In the wake of a similar vehicle ramming attack in Nice, France, in July 2016, the city of New Orleans installed several steel mechanical barricades in the French Quarter in 2017 that could move in and out of position, according to NOLA.com.

In addition to the mechanical barricades, police could also deploy portable wooden and steel barricades and use their vehicles to block roads at certain times.

Michael Guillory, who works at a hotel near the scene of the New Year’s crime, told Berita affiliate WDSU he had “never” seen those steel barricades up in seven years.

On Google Maps Streetview, images of Bourbon Street show that there are also bollard systems on the ground.

But the bollards are in the process of being repaired, Morrell said Wednesday.

The city has been working on installing new, removable stainless-steel bollards along several blocks, from Canal Street to St.

Ann Street.

Like the portable and mechanical barricades, the bollards could close the street to traffic when needed to protect pedestrians but be lowered when the street was open to vehicles.

This illustration shows what new bollards on Bourbon Street will look like when an area between Canal and St.

Ann streets are closed to vehicular traffic.

City of New Orleans This illustration shows what a stretch of Bourbon Street will look like when bollards are stored and the street is open to vehicles.

City of New Orleans Construction on that project began in November and was expected to carry on through February.

In a city council meeting on Monday, a Department of Public Works official mentioned construction crews had cleared equipment on Bourbon Street ahead of New Year’s celebrations after a councilmember mentioned local businesses being impacted by the construction.

The bollards were the subject of a 2019 report from a private security consulting firm that noted the risk of terrorism in New Orleans’ French Quarter, specifically mass shootings and vehicular attacks, remained “highly possible while moderately probable.” The report by Interfor International, reviewed by Berita, “strongly recommends” bollard mobilization to be fixed and improved “immediately.” “The current bollard system on Bourbon Street does not appear to work,” said the report.

Morrell said the barriers “were in the midst of being repaired and replaced.” The councilmember noted the use of police vehicles to block parts of the area.

Emergency services attend the scene on Bourbon Street after a vehicle drove into a crowd on New Orleans' Canal and Bourbon Street, Wednesday Jan.

1, 2025.

(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) Gerald Herbert/AP Related article New Orleans attacker discussed plans to kill his family and join ISIS in chilling recordings But “in this instance, the individual circumvented the barriers by going on the sidewalk and getting past the area where they had police vehicles,” Morrell said.

He continued, “So in this instance, even had the bollard barriers been up, the circumvention by riding on the sidewalk would have defeated them.” “This person was dead set on attacking our great community,” Lesli Harris, a Councilwoman for New Orleans’ District B said to Berita.

“Whether or not it happened at that intersection or at another intersection along Bourbon Street, I think this person was aiming for New Orleans for whatever reason.

And I don’t know that anything could have prevented this from happening.” Harris added that law enforcement was stationed at the intersection of the attack and responded immediately – taking the suspect down and killing him – preventing what she said could have been a much larger scale attack.

“Bourbon Street itself is not a pedestrian area,” she said.

“There are pedestrians, but there are also cross streets and there aren’t stations at every cross street to prevent this.” Other New Orleans officials acknowledge that existing protocols are weak and in transition.

City officials saw next month’s Super Bowl as an opportunity to make needed infrastructure improvements including the bollards.

“We’re going to fix it.

It is going to be a top priority as we go into the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras, and the solution that we’re going to come up with is going to be a permanent one,” Louisiana Gov.

Jeff Landry said Wednesday.

Experts weigh in “If you believe there is a threat that warrants blocking off the street to vehicles but allows pedestrians, then you need to do it and resource it properly,” Rodger Shanahan, a Middle East analyst and author of “Islamic State in Australia,” told Berita on Friday.

The French Quarter, near Bourbon Street is blocked off late morning with a heavy police and FBI presence after a Terrorist attack early in the morning in New Orleans, Louisiana, on January 1, 2025.

Emily Kask/AFP/Getty Images Related article A visual timeline of the New Year’s attack that left at least 14 dead in New Orleans Shanahan added that stationing a single police vehicle at the top of the street was “obviously insufficient” and authorities should have deployed a variety of security protocols, like mechanical barricades on main routes and vehicles on minor routes.

Ensuring a road like Bourbon Street is secure is a balancing act, Berita Senior Law Enforcement Analyst Charles Ramsey said Thursday.

Blocking off the street could affect businesses that need deliveries or restrict people from leaving in case of an emergency.

“It’s complicated … you have to make sure threats can’t get in, but you also have to make sure emergency responders can get out,” he said.

“They’ve got to come up with a plan that really allows for some flexibility.

You’ve got businesses there that need deliveries, it’s residential, you’ve got people that live in the area there.

And so, to permanently shut it down is something that just doesn’t make a lot of sense, but at the same time you have to very mindful that this is a target.” By Thursday afternoon, officials had cleared Bourbon Street for reopening after raising the barricades and placing new archer barriers.

This story has been updated with additional information.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story gave the incorrect name of the firm that did the 2019 report on security risks in the French Quarter.

It is Interfor International.

Berita’s Priscilla Alvarez, Evan Perez, Eric Levenson, Christina Macfarlane and Andy Rose contributed to this report.