Back from NOLA

posted by The Vidiot @ 10:05 AM Permalink

and will be back posting in no time.

Comments on New Orleans though: While the reconstruction is moving along at a snail's pace, the crowds are getting back to normal. It was the Sugar Bowl while we were there so lots of folks came down for that. There were lines half way down the block on Decatur for Central Grocery's muffalatas and Bourbon street was very lively.

One sad note though; on Friday night, Mr. Vidiot and his wingman made their way to Bourbon Street at about 2am to see how the crowds were since, as a couple of natives, they would be able to take the hearbeat of the city and its recovery that way. Well, what they saw didn't make them all that happy. While the crowds were fine (lots of stupid drunks) the cops were out of control. Now, one of the BEST things about NOLA is the fact that the cops were so laid back. Especially on Bourbon Street. The rule "no nudity below the waist" wasn't even enforced unless someone was getting hurt. But that night, Mr. Vidiot and his wingman noticed a lot of cops, many of them on horses, pushing, shoving and abusing the drunk tourists. Other cops, on foot, were just plain yelling at people. It was all very unprofessional. Mr. Vidiot even asked one of the horse cops (who was Promenade - directly assigned to the Quarter on horseback) why he was there and he said it was because of the Sugar Bowl.

Now, I'm no genius, but if the only industry you have going on is tourism, and you need that industry to survive, wouldn't you want to make the tourist experience as pleasurable as possible?

Well, according to a retired Veux Carré cop, he said that since Katrina, the NOPD has been depleted of its good cops and the guys moving up in the ranks aren't all that great. They're the type of cops who wouldn't have even been promoted 10 years ago. The NOPD is having a hard time attracting decent college graduates and as a result, there's a lot of stupid and thuggish policing going on.

Which is sad. NOLA was the one place I felt like was free in this country. No TVs in bars and no cops on your back.

Now, even the hole in the wall neighborhood joints have flat screen TVs and the cops are assholes, just like they are everywhere else.

Katrina did more damage than you can imagine.

Update: See? I told you the cops there suck now.

A young, black man in New Orleans is dead, slain by police officers on New Year's Day, in an incident that has outraged a community and triggered protests over what family members are calling a "murder."

Labels: NOLA