Last night, millions of Americans heard Tucker Carlson say that its “justice reform” policies have made New Orleans unsafe for visitors. He played a video of gang bangers waving guns (none of which seem to have made it on NOPD’s published wanted list), along with several other pieces of video of fire fights on city streets to prove his point.

Powerful stuff to people considering a place to visit or to host a convention.

New Orleans is a city that has watched as its economic base slipped away, to be replaced by tourism jobs. Those jobs offer little in the way of prosperity potential, but they are all pretty much that is left for tens of thousands, a great many that are un- or under-educated. Even that said, those jobs are in jeopardy unless the city’s leaders stop with the “don’t blame you, don’t blame me, blame the man behind the tree” mentality and stand strong against a growing criminal sector that has no fear of the NOPD, the DA, or the courts.

So there it is, in the near term rein in crime by breaking the back of the drug dealers and gangs that have found a haven for their own version of capitalism. Send a strong signal to youth who think that the “gangsta” lifestyle is cool by locking them up in a very public way. Quit tolerating the small criminal things, they only lead to the big criminal things. Remember that laws are to ensure protection for honest people, the people who just want to live a peaceful life that allows them the opportunity to grasp the American Dream

And for God’s sake for the long term the leaders of this city must get over the liberal folly that has made us a pariah to business. They must put a growth economy first. The Mayor loves to say “Nothing stops a bullet like a job.” She’s right, but though that’s a catchy line, the only way to create decent jobs is to attract business. For decades the policies of this city, policies like failed justice reforms, have been contrary to economic growth making her words little but political rhetoric.

If there is any hope to stabilize this economy and to start down the path to recovery it must start with tough love. And that love means zero tolerance for those who of their own free will violate our laws, making our city the national posterchild of danger to visitors.