The National Guard could be deployed in several Louisiana cities to assist local law enforcement in time for the Thanksgiving holiday.
In an interview on Thursday with WGMB-TV in Baton Rouge, Landry said he expects the Department of Defense to approve his request for troops. Landry said possible locations for deployment include New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Alexandria.
“We're going to determine that based upon the amount of violence that we see in those cities,” Landry said.
Landry formally asked for 1,000 guardsmen to be paid for with federal funds to assist local law enforcement on September 30. The request came after President Donald Trump publicly floated the idea of sending the National Guard to a city with a governor who would welcome them earlier that month. The statement was made in the wake of pushback for his attempt to deploy troops in Chicago, as he had in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.
“We have a great governor, Jeff Landry, who wants us to come in and straighten out a very nice section of this country that's become quite, you know, quite tough. Quite bad," Trump said during an interview in the Oval Office.
Landry signaled his willingness to accept the deployment almost immediately online in a post on X, and again during an interview with political talk show host Sean Hannity on Fox News.
The purpose of the request is to help law enforcement fight crime and offset the shortage of police officers in cities like New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
“What we're hoping to do is augment that shortage with the National Guard and then also use them in other cities that seem to have a very violent crime rate,” Landry said.
The governor said he saw the value the National Guard provided on New Year’s Day in securing the crime scene of the terrorist attack in the French Quarter.
“There's no doubt that the City of New Orleans has had a crime problem for quite some time,” he said. “We're trying to stabilize the law enforcement component of that.”
In the interview, the governor questioned the local justice system’s part they possibly play in crime in the Crescent City.
“We've got some questions on whether or not judges are doing their job or the DA's doing his job,” he said. “We want the criminal justice system in the City of New Orleans to be working for the citizens of New Orleans and Louisiana and the guests that come to the city.”
State Treasurer John Fleming also supports the use of National Guardsmen to fight crime. In a press release, he referred to a recent shooting during LSU’s Homecoming game, where two people were injured.
“We must get serious about dealing with violent crime in Louisiana,” he said. “Otherwise, the negative consequences will be catastrophic for our state.”
