NOLA Working to Control Mardi Gras Crowds

With Mardi Gras on the horizon, the City of New Orleans, including NOPD, are working on plans to keep large crowds that violate the city’s COVID-19 restrictions from forming. New Orleans Mayor’s Office communications director Beau Tidwell says the pandemic guidelines that the city and state have set up work best when everyone buys in to them, and they’re trying to convince the public of that. Tidwell says if they have to, law enforcement may be the last option if people just refuse to follow the rules. He says New Orleans Police Superintendent Shaun Ferguson is still coming up with the NOPD’s Mardi Gras plans, and they have discussed rolling police cars down streets to break up crowds where too many people have gathered, something that happened on occasion earlier in the pandemic.