First lawsuit over 'foreseeable and preventable' attack on New Orleans announced against city, police

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: The Independent

Sunday 05 January 2025 04:27 GMT


The first lawsuit over the terror attack in New Orleans is set to be filed and targets police for its “negligence” leading to the New Year’s Day rampage that left 14 dead and dozens injured.

Law firm Maples & Connick, LLC announced Saturday its plans to file a lawsuit against the city and NOPD “for their failure to implement basic safety precautions for citizens and visitors” that “paved the way” for the attack. The suit will be filed at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, the firm claims.

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. citizen from Texas, “intentionally” drove a rented Ford pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street mere hours into the new year, the FBI has said. Fourteen people were killed and 35 people were injured in the terror attack. The suspect had also planned to detonate two explosives that he had planted on Bourbon Street hours before he plowed into the crowd, authorities said. Police killed Jabbar while exchanging gunfire.

The law firm’s evidence will demonstrate that the attack was “both foreseeable and preventable,” the release said. No further details were provided.

Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/new-orleans-attack-police-lawsuit-b2673891.html

[displacedvermoter]

1. "You don't believe in letting the grass grow under your feet" Scrooge to the Undertaker

"Ours is a very competitive business" The Undertaker

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Funny, how this suit can be filed, but we can't sue gun manufacturers and sellers.

[IronLionZion]

4. If you don't think about it, gun manufacturers and sellers are the real victims here

since libruls want to take away the guns

[Igel]

6. They're not obviously suing Ford.

I could see the same suit if there was a game or something that was high profile and they didn't screen for weapons--because the usual screening devices were off to the side for preventive maintenance.

One thing I haven't noticed stated anywhere is that the Ford-150 Lightning that was used in the attack, for a given speed, will be a lot harder to stop. The EV Ford-150 weighs 30-35% more than the ICE model. At a given speed, more mass, means more momentum (by definition). The choice helped maximize the carnage.

[Joinfortmill]

3. Wow.

[progree]

5. Given that the city decision-makers knew that 10 mph crash barriers were worthless for this kind of attack

and given that they didn't even protect for a vehicle driving on the 8 foot wide sidewalk

such a lawsuit has a 100% chance of succeeding, or would in a rational country.

Exclusive: New Orleans' planned new Bourbon Street barriers only crash-rated to 10 mph, Reuters, 1/4/2025
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143367188
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/new-orleans-planned-new-bourbon-street-barriers-only-crash-rated-10-mph-2025-01-04/

Edit - Clarification - the old bollard system wasn't in place the night of the attack because it was removed and scheduled to be replaced by the new 10mph bollard system by February 9. So on the night of the attack, a police vehicle was acting as the bollard at the location the attacker used. The attacker squeezed his vehicle onto the sidewalk between the police vehicle and a drug store.

The article doesn't say what the crash resistance of the old bollard system was (FWIW), other than it wouldn't have protected against this attack either.

[sinkingfeeling]

7. I certainly wouldn't vote against the city nor the police department. Sue the person's estate that was solely

responsible for his actions. This is a frivolous a suit as attempting to sue a city or county snowing failure to clear ice and snow from a road.

[LudwigPastorius]

8. It's not that simple.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/new-orleans-officials-warned-2019-bourbon-street-vulnerable/story?id=117309921

New Orleans city leaders were warned in a 2019 confidential physical security assessment that tourist-packed Bourbon Street was vulnerable to a vehicle-ramming attack because some of the existing blockade mechanisms were inoperable.

New Orleans first installed metal security barriers on Bourbon Street in 2017 following the 2016 truck terror attack on Bastille Day in Nice, France. That same year, a report prepared by the infrastructure consulting firm AECOM noted that Bourbon Street "is often densely packed with pedestrians," presenting "a risk and target for terrorism."

Two years later, a security assessment prepared for the French Quarter Management District by the security firm Interfor International faulted the bollards that had been installed.

"Some of the bollards were inoperable for a number of reasons," Don Aviv, president of Interfor International, said. "Some were broken and some were kept down for ease of use."

[sinkingfeeling]

9. Doesn't change my mind. Then why not be able to sue every city/PD that has a homicide because the city council

didn't have enough police officers or because a street was dark without street lights?

[LudwigPastorius]

10. "Then why not be able to sue every city/PD..."

You can sue a city for negligence in a homicide case.

The legal concept of sovereign immunity doesn’t apply to municipalities.

[sinkingfeeling]

11. Yes, suits can be brought, but few are won unless it was a police or city employee that killed the person.

[LudwigPastorius]

12. If I had to bet, I would bet that NOLA will...

settle with the victim’s families rather than risk a nine-figure judgment from a jury.

$15 million is a lot easier to swallow than $150 million.

[SouthBayDem]

13. "Maples Connick"?

https://www.maplesconnick.com/brendan-connick

I couldn’t find any info indicating if he’s related to Harry.