I haven’t been in New Orleans in several year, but I definitely have higher caution there.
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I haven’t been to NOLA in a couple of years. My experience there was that I felt pretty comfortable in the French Quarter, the Convention Center area, and up in the Garden District.
Anywhere else, we probably did not wander into. Nor would we be out late at night. And certainly, not late at night and drunk.
I imagine a lot of tourist incidents happen as a result of alcohol consumption.
I go for the music and food. I can get all of that can be done sober and in the evening.
I went to New Orleans probably 30 years ago with a friend I worked with. My first experience on a public street in the daytime there, was that some black kid moved up on me to take my purse. There was no other reason for him to be so close, or to collide with me as he tried. I was a Correctional Sergeant at the time, and I made evading moves to avoid physical contact with him. He ran off. After that day, for the rest of the time I was in New Orleans, I carried my purse cross-wise across my body, not on my shoulder. Even back all those years ago, they were telling tourists not to travel outside the French Quarter, and not to go to any of the cemetery's alone, so I stuck to tour groups. I went back to New Orleans a couple of years later by myself. I parked my car in the French Quarter and walked around to do some shopping. I had no problems at all. Most of the trip was spent visiting the plantations on the outskirts of New Orleans anyway, so no crowds to come in contact with.
“I imagine a lot of tourist incidents happen as a result of alcohol consumption.”
You miss the point. You worry about tourists and forget the innocent citizens who are the majority of crime victims.