Residents Say Their Daily Struggles Are Sidelined in Coverage of NOLA Attack

NEW ORLEANS – Mark Whitaker sells chicken and hot links in New Orleans’ historic French Quarter every New Year’s Eve as fireworks paint the sky along the Mississippi River. He pulls his cooler and barbecue pit through the crowded streets to maximize his profits as the city attracts up to 150,000 tourists on New Year’s Eve and Day.

Sometimes, he sells into the wee hours of 3 or 4 a.m. on New Year’s, but this year shortly after 1 a.m he decided to close up early after a long night of selling. The decision might just have saved his life.

On Wednesday morning, he woke up to the news that a driver rammed through a crowd of revelers in a rented pickup truck around 3 a.m before opening fire, killing at least 14 people and injuring around 30 others in what is being described as one of the nation’s worst terror attacks.

In the wake of the devastating attack on one of America’s largest majority-Black cities, a familiar sense of neglect hangs heavy over residents like Whitaker. As federal, state, and local authorities have mobilized extensive resources, including bringing in hundreds of government officials and increasing the police presence, Black residents worry about the consequences in a city with a long history of police brutality backdropped against the nation’s highest murder rate for two consecutive years.

Beneath the outpouring of official support lies a deeper unease: it’s taken a tragedy of this scale to ignite action in a city that has long grappled with racism, poverty, and gun violence. Some Black residents also told Capital B that they’re tired of being praised for their “resilience” when they’re never offered the proactive resources before a tragedy ever happens.

“If you step outside the Quarter right now, there is literally a list of thousands of names on a wall — all the people that have been killed in this city since Katrina,” Whitaker said. “If you go back in the paper, you’re gonna see two, three incidents in recent years where 11, 12, 13, people were killed in one day, but they treat that like a nothing burger, but because this is in the wealthy French Quarter and on Bourbon [Street], that’s the only problem because it’s costing them dollars because the tours might not come here for a few days.”

The Quarter is nearly 90% white, while New Orleans as a whole is just 30% white. Residents who live there also have an average income of $82,000, which is more than double the city’s average. The area’s New Year’s celebrations typically bring hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue through the city. The Sugar Bowl, which is held annually in New Orleans on New Year’s Day, is one of the premier college football games and the biggest draw for tourists. It alone brings in nearly $250 million every year, as tourism is responsible for about 40% of the city’s economy and annual budget. Next month, the city will host the Super Bowl.

Immediately after the attack, the city was put under state of emergency orders, which allow a greater police response and gives officials the ability to do things like commandeer buildings and stores or suspend certain laws and ordinances. Black residents who lived through Hurricane Katrina told Capital B that this has brought up fears and trauma related to the historic storm. In the weeks after the hurricane, as police swarmed the city and residents struggled to get basic necessities, police shot at least 11 residents, killing five.

“When we see more police, it doesn’t usually turn out OK, but we hope for the best — that’s what we always do,” said Lucine Flores, a New Orleans native who was in line to donate blood Thursday at a local blood drive for victims.

A few miles outside the Quarter, around 11 a.m., she joined dozens of other residents gathered to donate blood. Around the corner, college students in the city for the Sugar Bowl partied and drank liquor on the sidewalk. After deliberation, the game was moved from New Year’s Day to Jan. 2.

That same afternoon, as Bourbon Street reopened for business, tourists donning jerseys drank outside the street’s historic bars. The area remained flaked with police vehicles and officers, but for a brief moment it regained its spirit as faith and city leaders, including Mayor LaToya Cantrell, Percy Miller (Master P), and pastor Gregory Manning held a second line parade down Bourbon Street. Throughout the day, locals could be seen passing out food and water, and several community organizations offered grief counseling.

Locals Grow Wary of Media Coverage

The collision of tragedy and inequity on Bourbon Street has left parts of the city reeling, with grief spilling out into Congo Square, homes, and across social media timelines. For many Black residents, the aftermath has become yet another glaring example of how their pain is sidelined and made invisible while the mechanisms of power spring to life when the city’s most lucrative spaces are under threat.

Kadreal Hebert, a school teacher who sometimes works at a restaurant in the Quarter, said the response to the attack has “been scary as hell,” particularly as she thought about her students who she believes may be wary of increased interactions with police. She said the situation has been disheartening because it has made clear whose lives are prioritized.

“I teach Black and brown students and I’ve had students lose their lives to gun violence, and it’s a whispered conversation, but this is being yelled from the rooftops because you know they have to protect their baby — the tourism hub,” she said.

On social media, residents lamented about elected officials praising residents’ “resiliency,” a word that has long been associated with the city because of its constant need to rebuild after disasters. The residents said they would much rather have proactive support through the form of investing in community resources such as housing support, mental health care, and job programs that aren’t geared toward tourism, rather than always having to pick themselves up in the aftermath of tragedy.

Black New Orleans residents between the ages of 15 and 44 die at rates that are roughly two times higher than white residents of the same age. In some majority-Black neighborhoods across the city, the life expectancy is just 62 years old, which is 15 years less than the national average. (New Orleans’ homicide rates dropped significantly in 2024 compared to previous years, although Black residents in the city continue to face a public health crisis related to several diseases.)

Hebert believes the coverage from local and national media has focused too much on the murky details of the situation “that sell,” like the alleged attacker’s racial and religious identity rather than the victims, many of whom were New Orleans’ residents facing these kinds of life-or-death issues every day. She warned that such coverage risks stoking anti-Islam sentiment while reinforcing anti-Black stereotypes.

Federal authorities have identified Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar as the person who rammed a rented pickup truck through the crowd of partiers. Jabbar, a native of Beaumont, Texas, who served in the U.S. Army and recently converted to Islam, was a self-proclaimed supporter of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIS. The exact motives behind the act are not yet clear, nor are all the details around his identity.

The attack’s victims include residents and tourists like 18-year-old Nikyra Dedeaux, an aspiring nurse from Gulfport, Mississippi; a single mother striving to support her young son; a former Princeton football player pursuing a financial career; and a local father of two enjoying a rare night out. Officials continue to withhold victims’ names pending autopsies and notification of next of kin.

As Whitaker, the barbecue cook who barely missed the mayhem, took a break from riding his bike through the Quarter on Thursday, he reflected on the past 18 hours.

“It’s so unfortunate that this happened, but we’ve been getting this. Our city is always hurting and now y’all finally see it,” Whitaker said. “How quickly resources, funding, and elected officials have come out shows us that this could be possible all the time.

“Hopefully this is not all just a show, but it’s starting to feel like it.”