Safest to just avoid the Quarter

For years I disagreed with the trope that real New Orleanians will advise visitors to avoid the quarter. I've probably spent more time in the bars there than I have in any other part of town. It helps to have worked down there, I guess. But I'm sure I'm not an exception.  Locals hang out in the Quarter. There's nothing wrong with that.

Or, at least, there wasn't until we started policing it with all these oddball semi-private and/or political goon squads the latest of which serves at the command of the Attorney General.

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry on Thursday (Jan. 4) touted the work of a special task force in his office that made 11 arrests in New Orleans in the last quarter of 2016 - in messages to news organizations and on social media that highlighted violent crime in the city.

The move, and Landry's other recent messages about New Orleans crime, elicited a sharp response from the New Orleans Police Department accusing the attorney general of playing politics and vowing that the department would not be used as a "prop in political agendas."

Many political observers believe Landry may run for governor in 2019. Landry, in announcing the arrests, insisted the task force's work was about public safety and "not about politics."

Nine of the six arrests made by the "Violent Crime Task Force" were for marijuana possession.  Heckuva job.  On any given night, visitors can find themselves accosted by Aspiring Governor Landry's campaign props. That doesn't sound very safe. Maybe people should avoid the area.