As promised, New Orleans police are cracking down on Mardi Gras flashers and some revelers at the kickoff of Mardi Gras festivities this year got free accommodations behind bars courtesy of the Orleans Parish Police have been warning visitors and locals that flashing in public would not be tolerated this year --- and they say their actions show they were not kidding.
Police arrested 51 individuals over the weekend, all on Bourbon Street, on charges of lewd conduct in public, said Lt. Marlon Defillo, spokesman for the New Orleans Police Department. They were taken to the 8th District police station and then transported to Orleans Parish Central Lockup. Those arrested were arraigned at first appearance hearings in Orleans Parish Magistrate Court over the weekend.
"Our focus in this enforcement is not a crackdown but a effort to enforce the laws and dispel the rumor across America that it's legal to come to New Orleans and commit lewd conduct." Defillo said that police are aggressively enforcing the law to prevent problems within the crowds of he Quarter. He said there was a sexual assault in the last day or so in the Quarter. "A young woman was found being sexually assaulted on Bourbon Street at 1 a.m," Defillo said. "She was reportedly chanting for beads prior to the assault."
"We are enforcing this law to keep the young women safe and to prevent fisticuffs from occurring within the crowds," Defillo said.
Additionally, police are working with property owners in the Quarter to prevent beads and other Mardi Gras throws from being tossed from balconies to the crowds below.
"The stopping of throwing objects from balconies is really a public safety management issue," Defillo said. "Once you get people throwing beads to people below, the crowds around those balconies really increase in size and then it becomes a crowd management issue for us." Defillo also said police are handling the long working hours and the crowds well. "We're used to this," he said. "It's nothing unusual."
In Jefferson Parish, a suburb of New Orleans, police are hoping to cut down on the hijinks of the carnival season by using high-tech electronics to spot trouble and record it for later prosecutions. They have deployed several elevated video camera platforms with high-length zoom Canon digital camcorders to record the spectators along the parade routes.
Deputies on the ground will radio camera operators -- a deputy manning the camera and a spotter -- to trouble spots along the parade routes so they can zoom in and capture the offenders on videotape. Police said videotaping came in response to a fight at a parade in 1999 when people claimed police acted too harshly in responding to an "officer needs assistance call." A spokesman said deputies were trying to break up a fight caused by "hoodlums."
