Missy Wilkinson
The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate
NEW ORLEANS — No news is good news when it comes to Carnival parades and public safety, and the sophomore year of a partnership of 18 partner law enforcement agencies saw a welcome absence of the parade shootings that have marred routes in recent years, officials with Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson’s office said.
The partnership also presaged the return of Louisiana State Police to New Orleans and drew kudos from Gov. Jeff Landry.
“It’s great to see true teamwork with Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Louisiana State Police and New Orleans Police Department working to make the city of New Orleans safe,” Landry said in a statement.
Those and other agencies made 383 arrests in New Orleans and removed 143 guns from the French Quarter and Downtown Development District during a 12-day period that included the two weekends leading up to Fat Tuesday.
That’s a slight increase from last year, when the operation logged 358 arrests, according to OPSO, and at least 112 firearms removed over the same span. Last year’s arrests on Mardi Gras brewed controversy after a prosecutor at the Orleans district attorney’s office dismissed 15 of those cases in Magistrate Court, a decision that District Attorney Jason Williams called improper.
New Orleans Emergency Medical Services, meanwhile, experienced a 41% increase in calls this year over the same 12 days. Last year, medics received 2,236 calls for service, 466 of which were parade-related. This year, they fielded 3,173 calls in the city, 567 of which were parade-related.
In addition to seizing one pet opossum whose plight to get home went viral, LDWF agents also confiscated three pythons and cited a person for selling turtles without a license.
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