I’ll just preface this by saying the fireworks don’t bother me at all. I don’t have a pet or kids and I don’t have a job to wake up for. Plus, one of my roommates is generally a loud person, so I wear earplugs and turn my noise machine up — there could be an actual war going on outside and I wouldn’t know about it.
But is there a war going on outside? These aren’t normal fireworks. I’ve lived in NYC for 12 years, and ten of those have been in predominantly Black & Brown neighborhoods — Bushwick, BedStuy, Harlem — where fireworks in the summer are normal. I’ve heard them every year I’ve been here. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, people randomly shoot off cheap little fireworks.
I started pointing it out online and to my friends as a joke a couple of weeks ago, because it was genuinely funny to me. Why are so many people around the country hearing fireworks but NOBODY actually KNOWS anyone who is shooting them off? Black people across the country are very connected. If our cousin, friend, neighborhood nuisance, unemployed cookout uncle, etc. was setting off fireworks EVERY night between 10pm and 3am, we’d be talking about it. Noise complaints in New York City are up 230x the normal for this time of year, but almost no one knows an actual culprit.
Firework complaints across New York City rose by 236 times this month compared to the same time period last year, as New Yorkers question where the explosives — some of them seemingly high-grade — are coming from and who’s behind the endless evenings of pyrotechnic displays.
From June 1st to June 19th, there have been 6,385 total 311 complaints about fireworks—up from just 27 during the same time period last year. The complaints have been rising throughout June, most notably in the past week. Juneteenth saw the highest number of complaints—a day of celebrations but also protests against police brutality, concluding with fireworks overnight.
Observers have noticed it’s not just more complaints this summer, but some incidents feature high-quality displays not typically operated by casual fireworks consumers.
(cont. Gothamist)
After weeks of this every night across the country, it’s not funny anymore. A lot of people stumble across my page on a weekly basis, and only one has admitted to setting off fireworks with her kids. That’s not normal. And now we’re realizing more and more that none of this is normal.
Tell me how “effective” this response is to noise complaints. If people are calling in about loud sounds and flashing lights, you send cop cars to parade around with loud sounds and flashing lights?
In West Harlem, 3am. NYPD putting on a show with fireworks in the background. @NYGovCuomo this is what they are paid for huh? pic.twitter.com/KKOhH5xyBl
— Jeo (@fromzerotojeo) June 22, 2020
Fireworks are loud and bright and they’ve been going off for hours each night. If the cops wanted to catch them, they could absolutely do that, but a tense community on edge is a good thing to them.
So now we’re arguing with each other over the fireworks. Some people say the cops are doing it and some people answer “no I saw kids in my neighborhood doing it” and nobody believes each other instead of recognizing that multiple things can be true.
Kids and families are setting off normal summer fireworks.
Officials are setting off fireworks.
Officials and instigators are supplying high quality fireworks for people to set off.
If you know people who are setting off fireworks, either unprompted or at the suggestion and with the aid of some organization, urge them to stop. It’s the people against the police, not the people against each other calling on the police to stop it. That’s what they want and we don’t need trigger happy bullies in riot gear responding to noise complaints on our streets.
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