It’s Da Buzz Not Da Fuzz

Nicholls names new president
November 15, 2017
Rec board vice chair accuses councilman of foul language and more
November 16, 2017
Nicholls names new president
November 15, 2017
Rec board vice chair accuses councilman of foul language and more
November 16, 2017

It all started in 2015.


Nicole Lirette had become a bit of a social networking whiz, but she needed something more.

There were a lot of posts she made as herself — Nicole Marie — making comments about various things, mostly local events, things she cared about.

But there was that need to connect to more people, in a bigger way.


And while she is quite busy with her landscaping business there was a little spare time so what the heck.

She had been trolling around Facebook at the different pages, like the one that she has for the landscaping.

“I was mesmerized,” she said. “Pages don’t get the attention that groups do.”


So Nicole gets this idea for a group and she calls it The Buzz and people start signing up. Newspaper articles that are digital and might be of interest get posted on there by members. I will cop to being one of those people. Whenever at this newspaper we have something that I think a lot of people will find of interest, I put it up there.

The thing took off and Nicole changed the name to Da Buzz, because it was catchier and more regional. People wanted to gossip and gripe in Terrebonne and Lafourche and a few other nearby places. Because of current events going on at the time a lot of people in particular wanted to show support for law enforcement, and it became a recurring theme. After a while people were posting about stuff that happened to them, like packages getting stolen and then cars getting stolen and then about things happening to other people.

Nicole started learning a lot about people, like how they get their feelings hurt easily. Also, she learned that some people don’t act so nice. There was a woman last week who posted that if her husband was home when a deputy mistakenly knocked on her door to serve a summons — to someone who used to live there but didn’t anymore — the deputy would have been shot.


The woman got a visit from the cops. Nicole also called the woman. The woman posted an apology and took down her post.

As of Sunday night Da Buzz had 13,650 members. It’s membership only which means Nicole has to approve you and your posts.

She is tireless.


She also started noticed some trends, like people were reporting crimes.

“Over the past two years I have had maybe 500 people message me,” she said. “And stuff that called me about, the crimes started getting solved. Theft, burglaries, even a car-jacking, somebody got car-jacked and someone on Da Buzz found it. It’s mostly burglaries and thefts.”

She also started noticing that some people would tell her stuff, and not tell anyone else, like the police.


Sunday night a guy crashed his truck into a utility pole at Grand Caillou and Prospect, really badly damaging the pole, so someone videos it and posts it on Da Buzz. Someone else saw the truck and posted the tag number.

Nicole messaged them.

“Did you call the police? You need to call the police,” she said.


They complied, and HPD officers caught the guy.

Nicole posted a message to everyone after that.

“I want to make something clear,” the post began. “Da Buzz has solved many crimes (yaaaaaay) but we all have to remember. You have to make a formal complaint with local law enforcement agencies first. That is very important!”


She hopes the Buzzers will take the hint. Cops first. Then Da Buzz. It’s Da Buzz not da fuzz. Thank you very much.

So with all this going on there is, as I earlier mentioned, a Mr. Lirette. He likes to stay low profile so we’ll let him.

But what does he think of all this?


Um, Mr. Lirette doesn’t really do social media.

Nicole tells him stuff that goes on at Da Buzz.

Mr. Lirette smiles.


“That’s nice,” he says, and goes back to his newspaper.

They’ve been married 28 years, so maybe there is a lesson in it.

You won’t see that on Da Buzz.


I still don’t get scooped.

John DeSantis