• Survivors and families of victims of the New Year’s terror attack in New Orleans are suing the city, police, a construction company and the French Quarter Management District for failing to protect the crowds. The lawsuit represents 21 plaintiffs impacted by the terror attack.
• The plaintiffs argue the city was aware of safety risks and failed to install permanent bollards to protect pedestrians.
• NOLA officials previously said the area is susceptible to a mass casualty event because of how busy it is.

Survivors and families of victims affected by a deadly truck rampage in New Orleans on New Year’s are taking legal action against city leaders. The lawsuit accuses them of failing to implement safety measures that could have prevented the tragedy.

The attack, which killed 14 people and injured 57 others, occurred when Shamsud-Din Jabbar allegedly drove his truck through crowds celebrating in the French Quarter.

Lawsuit names 21 plaintiffs

Two New Orleans-based law firms have teamed up to represent 21 plaintiffs, including the families of those who were killed or severely injured in the Jan. 1 attack. The lawsuit, filed last week, names the City of New Orleans, the New Orleans Police Department, a construction company, and the French Quarter Management District as defendants.

The plaintiffs argue city leaders and private companies acted negligently when they failed to provide adequate safety systems in the French Quarter despite knowing the area was vulnerable to attacks.

“They always knew they had actual notice. They knew those people were vulnerable and exposed to anybody who had the intent of driving around a lone police cruiser to cause mass carnage on that night,” said attorney Antonio Romanucci.

Among the plaintiffs are Antoinette Klima, who lost her son’s father, Reggie Hunter, in the attack. Klima said she received a call on New Year’s informing her that Hunter had not survived.

Survivors of the attack said they now live in fear of large public gatherings. They blame the city for not doing enough to protect those celebrating in the French Quarter.

Call for accountability

The lawsuit claims the safety measures, such as permanent bollards to protect pedestrians from vehicles, should have been in place before the celebrations, which included the annual Sugar Bowl college football game. The plaintiffs argue city officials were focused on completing construction in time for the upcoming Super Bowl.

The French Quarter is one of the busiest areas in New Orleans, hosting up to 20,000 pedestrians in eight hours. It makes it a prime target for mass casualty events.

City officials previously discussed safety upgrades

New Orleans officials had acknowledged the need for safety upgrades in the French Quarter, citing the potential for mass casualty events like acts of terrorism. A report in 2017 highlighted the area’s vulnerability due to its high pedestrian traffic.

The lawsuit argues New Orleans failed to prioritize the installation of permanent bollards. The lawsuit states without it left the area exposed when police say Jabbar carried out his attack.

• President Donald Trump said he will cut U.S. aid to South Africa. Although the country receives little in U.S. aid, Trump said a law allowing the government to buy and take over unused land represented anti-white racism.
• South Africa’s government said the law is similar to eminent domain in the U.S. and applies regardless of the landowner’s race.
• Over the past three decades, South Africa has been working to address inequality caused by apartheid, which required discrimination against Black South Africans.

President Donald Trump said Sunday, Feb. 2, that he plans to cut off all U.S. aid to South Africa. The president is accusing the country of confiscating land and “treating certain classes of people very badly.”

South Africa’s president said the country receives very little aid from the U.S. government. The president says the only significant program is meant to combat HIV and AIDS. However, South Africa relies on the U.S. as a trade partner, something Trump’s move would not directly affect.

South Africa is a little more than 30 years removed from its first democratic presidential election. Nelson Mandela became the country’s first Black president in 1994.

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The country previously limited voting to its white minority. It was part of a policy known as apartheid –– a set of strict segregation laws that paralleled Jim Crow laws in the American South.

But unlike the U.S., South Africa’s apartheid laws applied nationwide and, instead of targeting minority groups, blocked the majority-Black population from exercising its rights, keeping the small white population in charge.

In the aftermath of apartheid, the South African government has worked to even the distribution of land ownership. Despite its progress toward making land ownership more representative, white South Africans own roughly half of the country’s land while making up only 7% of the population.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a law allowing the government to take over land regardless of the owner’s race. This law only allows if it is not being used and would be in the public interest to acquire it.

The new law has not led to any land takeovers yet. However, most of the land the government has acquired since the end of apartheid has been the result of government purchases from willing white sellers.

South Africa’s foreign minister echoed Ramaphosa’s statement that the law is not a land grab but more closely parallels eminent domain laws in the U.S.

President Trump spoke out against South Africa during his first term. He exaggerated the effects of the land deals and said the government regularly seized land from white South Africans. He also pointed to incidents in which white farmers were killed as evidence of discrimination.

While white farmers in South Africa have been murdered, the country’s local media have concluded the claims Trump echoed were false.

Instead, they note, the killings are part of the country’s difficulty in controlling crime. Official government data shows there are 70 homicides per day and that most victims are Black.

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But there’s also one major tie to South Africa in Trump’s second administration. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and leader of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency organization, was born and raised in South Africa.

Like Trump, Musk echoed claims South African media have concluded are false. Musk has used the killings of white farmers as evidence of a genocide against white people in South Africa.

On Monday, Feb. 3, Musk quote-tweeted a post on X by Ramaphosa and asked, “Why do you have openly racist ownership laws?”

Musk lived in the country during apartheid, which lasted from 1948 to 1994. He left in 1989, when he was 17 years old, near the end of the apartheid era. In a 2017 Musk biography, author Ashlee Vance said Musk left to avoid mandatory military service under the apartheid regime.

• A Louisiana grand jury indicted Dr. Margaret Carpenter, a New York doctor, for allegedly prescribing abortion pills online to a Louisiana minor. The child’s mother also faces charges.
• Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill vows to hold those breaking abortion laws accountable.
• Meanwhile, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul opposes the extradition of Carpenter, citing the state’s shield laws.

A Louisiana grand jury has indicted a New York doctor for allegedly prescribing mifepristone online to a patient in the Bayou State. The pill that terminates a pregnancy of less than 70 days. Louisiana has some of the most restrictive abortion laws in the country.

According to Louisiana prosecutors, a mother in the state ordered the pill for her daughter, who is a minor.

“The young child was told by the mother that she had to take the pill or else, and the child took the pill,” District Attorney Tony Clayton said.

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Dr. Margaret Carpenter and her company, Nightingale Medical — along with the child’s mother — are charged with criminal abortion by means of abortion-inducing drugs, which is a felony in Louisiana.

Clayton said Friday, Jan. 31, that the mother was arrested and booked into jail, but she has since bonded out.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill posted to X on Friday, “It is illegal to send abortion pills into this state, and it’s illegal to coerce another into having an abortion. I have said it before, and I will say it again: We will hold individuals accountable for breaking the law.”

The state of New York has shield laws in place. Those laws protect doctors who prescribe abortion pills using telehealth for patients in states that ban the procedure.

In a Facebook video Friday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she would not allow Louisiana to extradite Dr. Carpenter to face the charges.

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“And I want to also say this: This is exactly what we feared,” Hochul said in the video. “Republicans are fighting to have a national abortion ban that’ll deny reproductive freedom to women not just in our state, but all across America. We must stand firm and fight this, and I’ll do everything I can to protect this doctor and allow her to continue the work that she’s doing that is so essential.”

In a separate lawsuit, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is also suing Dr. Carpenter. He argues she unlawfully provided abortion drugs to Texas residents.