Just when you thought the world couldn't get any dumber.
The zoo said they made the decision to cancel the event because of pressure from people, "outside the community."
After drawing up plans to offer discounts to anyone wearing blue to show support for the New Orleans Police Department, the Audubon Nature Institute announced Tuesday it was canceling the six-day promotion, citing feedback that “this event could be unintentionally divisive.”
A statement from a spokesperson for the Audubon Zoo and Audubon Aquarium of the Americas said the purpose of hosting Blue at the Zoo from May 11 to May 16, alongside the New Orleans Police & Justice Foundation, was to “promote and foster positive interactive experiences” with the Police Department. But an announcement last week of the promotion as well as a planned news conference triggered “feedback … from members of our community and from persons outside of our community” which convinced Audubon to scrap the idea, the statement said.
The cancelation comes less than a year after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis by a police officer who’s since been convicted of murder. Floyd’s killing, recorded on video, prompted widespread protests and calls to reform U.S. law enforcement.
Locally, the New Orleans police leadership has repeatedly said the agency years ago adopted many of the reforms that protesters in other cities are demanding, such as use-of-force restrictions and transparency mandates. Many of those policies were embedded in a federal consent decree that has ruled the Police Department since 2012, although some were undertaken voluntarily.