No surprise after living near there for 10 years...
2010 census put population at 63.9% black, 48,815 total, down from 53,000+ in 2000.
From the wiki page
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monroe,_Louisiana
Being southern, cotton country, there is quite a bit of racial animosity in the general area. Town I lived in was 74% black 25 miles from Monroe. Many of them openy hostile toward whites. 3 or 4 tried to start fights with me for little or no reason.
The younger generation, now leaving high school, will walk in the middle of the street, line of cars crawling along behind them and refuse to move. Honk your horn, they will simply flip you the finger and keep strolling along. This is what 3 high school girls, maybe age 14, did to me one day when I forgot school just let out...less than a block from the high school. I saw this happen at least a dozen times. Honk or say anything, they want to fight. When the 3 finally did move, they laughed, made faces and flipped us all the finger as we drove by.
Cops have a really tough job there. One very large black neighborhood (my town, not Monroe) they get calls of shootings or stabbings literally every night. Nobody saw a thing...cop who files the paperwork told me about that. Guy with blood all over his pants saw nothing...
Cops are not allowed to go there alone, 2 to a car, preferably 2 cars, bullet proof vest required. I’d be willing to bet Monroe has a similar area.
Not a safe place to live, especially now, glad I got out in 2012...
I had a similar experience in Natchitoches. I pulled into a gas station and there were 6 obama yutes at the entrance. Protecting their turf I guess. Moved on.