Tag: Decatur Street

30-foot pop-up inflatable poo emoji appears in the French Quarter

(Photo: Imgur)
A 30-foot-tall inflatable poo emoji popped up in the French Quarter on Friday and was placed there by a company trying to bring brand awareness to a product that masks the smell of feces.

The Addison, Texas-based company Poo-Pourri brought its inflatable pile of poo to the 500 Decatur St. parking lot, where it attracted dozens of onlookers who snapped selfies in front of the emoji over the weekend.

The inflatable pile was a part of a cross-country Giant Poo tour that started in Dallas in October 2019 and made its way to New Orleans for a three-day stop.

For 12-hours each day between Feb. 28 and March 1, participants entered the inflatable poo house where they encountered a “transformative” video production experience of shit and dropping the “negative shit you’ve been holding on to.”

More information can be found at giantpoo.com.

Rare Finds on Decatur Street has stopped selling Nazi, KKK novelties at request of the Anti-Defamation League

Peyton Rose via Google

The Rare Finds antique store on Decatur Street has stopped selling Ku Klux Klan, Nazi and other memorabilia deemed racist following a request by the New Orleans chapter of the Anti-Defamation League.

Owner Susan Saucier agreed to remove the items — which also reportedly included Jim Crow-era merchandise with caricatures of black people — at the request of the Anti-Defamation League South Central, nola.com reported.

Some of the items included at Nazi flag and a statuette of a Ku Klux Klansman with reported price tags of $1,695 and $1,295, respectively, according to the newspaper.

The business, which is located at 1231 Decatur Street, opened in 1997 and also sells Saints and Mardi Gras-themed items.

Woman convicted in fatal 2017 stabbing on Decatur Street sentenced to weekends in jail, probation

Dannisha Green

A woman was sentenced by a Orleans Parish judge on Wednesday to serve probation and nearly a year’s worth of weekends in jail after pleading guilty to the fatal stabbing of her friend on Decatur Street in 2017, according to court records.

Dannisha Green, 22, pleaded guilty in August to manslaughter and aggravated battery in the killing of Brittany Seymour following an altercation on June 15, 2017.

Green and Seymour were arguing in the 200 block of Decatur Street shortly after 1 a.m. when the fight turned physical and shifted to the 300 block, according to the New Orleans Police Department.

Onlookers eventually separated the two but noticed that Seymour was suffering from a stab would, the NOPD said.

Seymour, who was reportedly out celebrating her 22nd birthday, later died at a local hospital.

Green turned herself in less than a week later, the NOPD said.

The original indictment filed against against Green in 2017 included a second-degree murder charge, but that was dropped by prosecutors on August 26, according to court records.

Green pleaded guilty to her remaining charges on that same day, records show.

Then on Jan. 8, Green appeared before Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Camille Buras to be sentenced.

Before Green’s sentence was handed down, court records show, several victim impact statements were read in open court, including from the victim’s mother, Kimi Seymour.

Buras then ordered Green to serve five years of probation, 200 hours of community service and 49 weekends in the Orleans Parish Justice Center starting on Jan. 24, according to court records.

Additionally, court records show, Green has to submit to one year of drug and alcohol screening, attend anger management counseling and observe a curfew from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.

The judge also gave Green a 10-year suspended prison sentence, meaning that she could serve the entire term if she fails to report to jail on the weekend.

Buras accounted for Green’s lack of a criminal record and a video turned over to NOPD that allegedly showed bystanders failing to intervene in the fight, according to nola.com

Hit-and-run death of French Quarter tourist Josh Woodruff unsolved 4 years later

NOPD released a camera image of the dark-colored sedan suspected of hitting and killing Joshua Woodruff on New Year’s Day 2016.

The death of a French Quarter tourist who was struck and killed by a car as he celebrated the New Year’s holiday in 2016 remains unsolved four years later.

New Orleans police believe that Joshua Woodruff was struck by a car at the corner of Dumaine and Decatur streets at approximately 3 a.m. on New Year’s Day in 2016.

Woodruff became stuck under the car and was dragged throughout the French Quarter before the driver entered the U.S. Highway 90 expressway, said New Orleans Police Department Detective Robert Barrere.

The driver drove across the Mississippi River bridge before Woodruff was dislodged along the Westbank Expressway approximately six miles away near the General de Gaulle exit, said Barrere.

Barrere added that the car exited the expressway at the Algiers exit at approximately 3:30 a.m.

The tail light pattern of the car that allegedly struck Joshua Woodruff in the French Quarter on New Year’s Day 2016. Courtesy of the NOPD.

Several dozen more images of the vehicle suspected of hitting Woodruff were obtained from nearby surveillance cameras were released nearly two years after his death.

Despite their blurriness, Barrere said the images that were released are some of the better images police were able to capture of the car.

The car is described as a dark-colored sedan with a silver windshield trim and distinctive headlight and tail light patterns, Barrere said.

“I believe someone knows who did this,” said Barrere at a press conference in 2017. “The person who did knows he did this.”

Crimestoppers is offering up to $5,000 that leads to the arrest and indictment of the suspect.

Anyone with information on this incident is encouraged to contact detective Barrere at 504-658-5300. Anonymous callers may call Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111 or 877-903-7867.

Krewe de Jeanne d’Arc rolls through French Quarter on Jan. 6

Margarita Bergen via Facebook.

The Krewe de Jeanne d’Arc, a Mardi Gras parade inspired by France’s Joan of Arc, will usher in the beginning of the Carnival season on the evening of Jan. 6 in the French Quarter.

This year, the Krewe de Jeanne d’Arc will begin its procession at 7 p.m. sharp at Bienville and N. Front streets.

Read: Mardi Gras season begins Jan. 6 with Phunny Phorty Phellows street car ride from Uptown to the French Quarter

The krewe commemorates Joan of Arc, also known as the Maid of Orleans, a peasant woman whose divine visions inspired a French victory over the English for control of France during the Hundred Years’ War in the Middle Ages.

Claiming to be guided by divine visions, Joan of Arc convinced a desperate King Charles VII of France to allow her to tag along with a relief army to the besieged city of Orleans in April 1429, according to historians.

Her mere presence is often credited for inspiring the liberation of the city from the English a week later and subsequently helping the French win several more battles.

The 2020 Krewe de Jeanne d’Arc parade starts 7 p.m. sharp at the corner of Bienville and North Front streets | joanofarchparade.org.

The teenage Joan of Arc was captured by the English at the Siege of Compiegne in May 1430, tried for heresy and eventually executed by getting burned at the stake one year later.

Shortly before the krewe begins its walk, New Orleans City Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer will read a proclamation at the parade’s starting point at 6:45 p.m.

Recognizing its connection to New Orleans, France gifted the city with a gilded statute of Joan of Arc at the intersection of Decatur and North Peters streets in 1972.

The first Joan of Arc krewe paraded in 2009.

The Joan of Arc parade route will proceed northwest down Bienville Street before hooking a right on Chartres Street. A brief stop will be made between The Historic New Orleans Collection and Vincent Sciama, Consul General of France in New Orleans, on the balcony of the Williams Research Center at 400 Chartres Street.

Three blocks later, a sword blessing will occur at Saint Louis Cathedral by the Very Reverend Father Philip G. Landry.

The parade continues three blocks later before making a right at Ursulines Street, then another right one block later at Decatur Street.

One half block later, the parade will pause briefly at the Joan of Arc statue to sing happy birthday before continuing down Decatur Street to Washington Artillery Park where there will be a crowning of the king of the krewe along a king cake ceremony.

Individuals are encouraged to bring their own king cakes to share with others in the parade.