Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill issued a statement Tuesday warning the New Orleans Police Department that it should not try to declare much of the upper French Quarter a “gun free zone” by claiming the Eighth District police station is a vocational/technical school.
“You cannot just ‘designate’ yourself a vo-tech school,” said Murrill.
Murrill said that a vo/tech school would fall under the jurisdiction of the board of supervisors for higher education and would be subject to other oversight.
“I have no specific plans yet, but would caution the NOPD that it will likely be subject to civil rights lawsuits under Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act” if it arrests people for gun-free zone violations within 1,000 feet of the 8th District station.
“I certainly hope the NOPD isn’t violating people’s rights by making up their own rules, which is why the Department is under a federal consent decree,” Murrill concluded.