According To Reports

(According To Reports. . .)

Professor Gordon Prange is perhaps the foremost authority on the Attack on Pearl Harbor. Fundamentally, Army and Navy commanders in Hawaii were not prepared. The same could be said for the authorities in New Orleans. Fourteen people were killed when that pick-up slammed into that crowd. There was a cascade failure in first identifying the threat and then failing in mitigation measures.

The perpetrator, Shamsud-din Jabbar had been able to commit this act but traffic barriers were not fully deployed. There was the Sugar Bowl to be played in the New Orleans Superdome and the Super Bowl itself in a few weeks. Like on O'ahu in 1941, there had been a lack of understanding of the threat.

It was a question of priority, but the priority might have white supremacy. Or it could have been New Orleans Police Chief Kirpatrick, a possible DEI hire. Ms. Kirpatrick might or might not be such an acquisition. However, her standing she along with federal authorities proved ill equipped to deal with what has been the worse case of terrorism in some time.

It is easy to make decisions to protect any number of people. However, what happens when those in charge are not equipped to manage crises like Jabbar's truck ride ? Who fond themselves so distracted as to not even anticipate possibilities. There was clearly complacency. And that is the problem, Because mass casualty events are rare, at some point, possibilities still need to be considered.

In the end it is called contingency planning. The New Year's festivities should have had better security in addition to preparations for the Sugar Bowl. For that however, one would need the ability to multi-task. Unfortunately, those in chage that morning were experiencing myopia.