Deescalatory protest facilitation from NOPD is no an accident - this is the result of intentional policing policy reforms that were demanded by dedicated activists for years & precipitated by a public fed up with tragic incidences of police violence. https://twitter.com/NOLAnews/status/1266807365594210307

The people of New Orleans voted to add the Office of the Independent Police Monitor to the City Charter - and fund the office - back in 2008.

Demands for a Federal investigation from the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division (back when that was a thing) followed in 2011.

The Department of Justice Civil Rights Division report on the NOPD is what led to the Consent Decree, which required critical review of NOPD policies, installation of substantive reforms, and compliance assessments. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-releases-investigative-findings-involving-new-orleans-police-department

NOPD & local political leadership could have resisted these efforts (so many other cities have, as has the Orleans Parish Prison which is also under consent decree), but the *public demand for policing reform* created the necessary space for those reforms to move forward.

Is it perfect? Hell no. It is a robustly functioning framework for Constitutional policing & citizen engagement with NOPD. Substantive reforms have been won through hard work, lives have been saved, and our community quality of life is better as a result.