City Council considering new rules for second lines after Sunday’s shooting

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – The New Orleans City Council is considering new rules for second lines following a deadly shooting on Sunday, but critics say the city is encroaching on their cultural traditions.

While several ideas have been proposed, many community members feel that some of the measures could infringe on their freedom of expression.

On November 20, a passionate crowd of second-tier club members gathered outside City Hall to express concern over what they saw as an attack on their culture.

“The second line arose because we were not allowed into the first line,” said one of the participants.

“All you’re going to do is criminalize our community and criminalize our skin color,” another member told council members.

RELATED STORIES

“I will not sit down and be silent for you to kill my culture and you punish us for what we pay you to work for. It’s not our fault,” said Tamika Calvin, a second-line club member.

The shooting, which occurred on Sunday, November 17, left two people dead and 11 injured on Route 2, prompting a call to action.

“It was really senseless and brazen,” Fifth District Capt. Jennifer Dupree said.

“These are hijackers. These are people who are taking advantage of a wonderful event,” added NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick.

However, Councilman Oliver Thomas expressed support for maintaining the second line tradition.

“You will no longer control the narrative. You can’t stop our traditions,” Thomas said.

Critics of the proposed rules cited broader social issues such as racial inequality, lack of investment in education, tough crime laws, gentrification and parental alienation as contributing factors to the violence.

“I thought we had 100 officers on duty,” one participant questioned.

“Do your job. Protect us. We need you to spread out in the crowd,” Calvin said.

Superintendent Kirkpatrick stressed that violence was not a secondary issue.

“We don’t see this as a second-line issue,” Kirkpatrick said. “This type of violence can happen at any large event.”

Thomas said stakeholders, including Second Line Representatives, the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Economy, the Criminal Justice Committee and the Mardi Gras Advisory Committee, are developing recommendations.

Fences Thomas mentioned as considerations:

– Duration, location, size and time of parades.

– Club fees compared to Mardi Gras krewe fees, making them fair.

– Gun handling and open carry laws.

– Community Police

– Dispersing crowds and clubs amid incidents

– Preventing violence through control of social networks.

– Social announcements

– Manpower, adding deputies and constables

– Distribution of law enforcement agencies along the route

– Establishing rules for parades of various sizes.

– Working with parades that use floats and vehicles.

“We’ve done a good job of combating violence, whether it’s the Super Bowl, Mardi Gras or Jazz Fest. When we have isolated incidents like this, we can’t allow people to stereotype us,” Thomas said.

One proposed solution is to create a second-line committee.

Calvin, like many members of the second line, opposes the city’s restrictions. She said second-tier clubs invest in the community and pay the city, which profits from the culture.

Calvin also connected this tradition to its historical roots.

“It goes back to a time when slave owners went to church on Sundays and African Americans gathered in Congo Square to sing and dance,” Calvin said. “This was our only moment of freedom, and if we put restrictions on it, we will be back where we just came from.”

She highlighted how clubs work to prevent crime through positive family activities.

“It’s so deeply ingrained in us. It’s like something just takes over my soul. You just want to let it out,” second line member Charlie Brown said.

NOPD stressed that the goal of any change is safety, not oppression.

They pointed to problems during Sunday’s chaos, including crowd members blocking emergency services.

“A lot of cars just park. They park in the middle of the street. They are blocking us. I’m trying to get there with lights and sirens and there’s a lady twitching in front of me,” Dupree said. “We were really scared that we couldn’t help (the victims).”

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Click here report this. Please include a title.

Subscribe to Fox 8 YouTube channel.

Copyright 2024. WVUE. All rights reserved.