…and it’s going to be interesting to see what happens to crime rates in the city.

Orders have been given for the Louisiana National Guard to withdraw from New Orleans.

Under the order of Gov. Jeff Landry, the National Guard was deployed to the city in December 2025, ahead of major events hosted in the city, including the Sugar Bowl and Mardi Gras.

The guards were deployed to enhance security following the deadly Jan. 1 terrorism attack on Bourbon Street, when Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove his truck down the street, striking and killing 14 people and injuring others.

According to city officials, the soldiers’ last day of operation in New Orleans will be Aug. 24 and their last day in the city will be Aug. 31.

New Orleans’s murder rate is lower now than it’s been in a very long time. Overall crime is also down this year. Most people will say that the insertion of the Louisiana State Police – Troop NOLA, as the LSP detachment is called – has had a lot more to do with the decrease than the Guard has.

Of course, there is the other factor, which is that at some point a city has been robbed, raped and murdered to such an extent that it simply can’t go on doing those things to itself. When people stop going out for fear of their lives, there are fewer targets of opportunity for the criminal class to prey upon.

Is that happening to New Orleans? People will tell you that it has. The city is one of the lower-performing economic units in a Louisiana which is otherwise showing a lot of economic life.

Be that as it may, the Guard was always a temporary solution, and an eight-month deployment is a very long deployment. It was bound to end eventually.

We’ll see if law enforcement – and specifically the New Orleans Police Department – is able to hold that ground and keep the criminals at bay, and if the relative new safety in New Orleans can generate the economic recovery the city has to have if its political class is ever to balance its budget.

Speaking of New Orleans’ political class, the mayor put this statement out about the Guard leaving…

“We are incredibly grateful to the men and women of the Louisiana National Guard as they prepare to conclude their eight-month deployment in New Orleans. While this deployment is ending, our partnership is not. The Guard has always been an integral part of major events like Mardi Gras, working alongside our public safety agencies to keep our city safe. These past eight months have only strengthened that longstanding partnership. We thank every Guard member and their families for their service and sacrifice, and we look forward to continuing to work together for years to come.”

Normally, a statement like that would also carry thanks to other governmental partners for making the Guard’s presence possible.

The governor and president, for example. And Helena Moreno’s omission was noted…

I want Louisiana to see this: @HelenaMorenoLA has thanked everyone for the National Guard’s presence in New Orleans—except the two people responsible for it: President @realDonaldTrump and me. pic.twitter.com/PXIrXnZas8

— Governor Jeff Landry (@LAGovJeffLandry) August 21, 2026

Landry’s X post set off a firestorm of nasty attacks from Moreno’s fans, which was entirely predictable. We would probably have advised against bringing this up publicly.

On the other hand, what’s coming is the city of New Orleans’ fiscal collapse owing to the $110 million hole New Orleans’ city government is in, and items like this aren’t unrelated to that.

We’ve been saying for weeks that it’s more or less inevitable that the city will have to agree to go under fiscal administration by the state, because it won’t make the changes necessary to govern itself in an efficient, effective way.

Other municipalities have gone under fiscal administration and had that work out quite well. It’s hard to see New Orleans tolerate that.

And without the National Guard in place, New Orleans is going to need to prioritize public safety in a way which was not the case before the Guard’s arrival.