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Brooklyn Fireworks: Keeping People Awake At Night

Victory

Justified & Ancient
Joined
Jan 15, 2017
Messages
2,268
Location
London
I know that in New York they let off fireworks (and shoot their guns) on 4th July and New Years Eve.

But the last two weeks has seen a nightly mass of fireworks let off by members of the public, especially in Brooklyn around the Crown Heights neighbourhood.

https://www.npr.org/2020/06/28/8839...ying-nerves-and-disrupting-sl?t=1593567290400

So much so that there was an vehicular convoy protest to the city Mayor's residence, Gracie Mansion, by people who complained they could not sleep

https://nypost.com/2020/06/23/firew...rns-near-gracie-mansion-to-wake-up-de-blasio/

In London, teenagers let off fireworks at night in parks out of sheer boredom...it happens near me even at 4am.

So I was wondering if this was boredom-busting thing for the Brooklyn kids; hot summer nights, with some regular hang-outs closed because of lockdown, a few drinks a bit of weed thrown in too?
A trite craze with serious side-effects.
Any New Yorkers here know anything?

And fireworks can be used by drug dealers to let users know a new supply of drugs has arrived at the trap houses.
 
I know that in New York they let off fireworks (and shoot their guns) on 4th July and New Years Eve.

But the last two weeks has seen a nightly mass of fireworks let off by members of the public, especially in Brooklyn around the Crown Heights neighbourhood.

https://www.npr.org/2020/06/28/8839...ying-nerves-and-disrupting-sl?t=1593567290400

So much so that there was an vehicular convoy protest to the city Mayor's residence, Gracie Mansion, by people who complained they could not sleep

https://nypost.com/2020/06/23/firew...rns-near-gracie-mansion-to-wake-up-de-blasio/

In London, teenagers let off fireworks at night in parks out of sheer boredom...it happens near me even at 4am.

So I was wondering if this was boredom-busting thing for the Brooklyn kids; hot summer nights, with some regular hang-outs closed because of lockdown, a few drinks a bit of weed thrown in too?
A trite craze with serious side-effects.
Any New Yorkers here know anything?

And fireworks can be used by drug dealers to let users know a new supply of drugs has arrived at the trap houses.
I do have to correct this - it's Chicago that has the long tradition of shooting off personal fireworks and well just shooting for personal or general holidays. In NYC I occasionally heard a few sparkler pops on New Years Eve, but until the pause it was rare. Now I gather people are going all out with the fireworks, which are of course illegal. The State is starting to stop and inspect cars coming in from Pennsylvania, which is where most of them come from. There has been for many years a HUGE licensed professional fireworks display in one of the rivers sponsored by Macy's on the 4th that everyone who can get to gets to. It affects real estate prices near the river being used at the time.
 
I'm in Massachusetts and the fireworks have been off the wall. They've been going on daily for seven weeks now, til 4am :pop: I also read about the UL thing on Reddit but have no idea if it is true.
 
I'm not sure it's much of a mystery. After warning my idiot neighbors I'd be calling the police, again, because of the 150' distance limitation from structures, they flipped me off. They want to blow up money and have fun watching things go boom. One person is dead in PA already and it's not even the big day (Saturday, July 4th).
 
I'm not sure it's much of a mystery. After warning my idiot neighbors I'd be calling the police, again, because of the 150' distance limitation from structures, they flipped me off. They want to blow up money and have fun watching things go boom. One person is dead in PA already and it's not even the big day (Saturday, July 4th).
I used to make fireworks when I was a kid --from scratch from chemicals; now I hate them, because they remind me of weapons.
 
@Lb8535

Noted re fireworks.
I have been in mid townManhattan a few blocks from Macys for 4 July....it's a big display.

@Sharon Hill

Not sure about USA, but in London and some British towns dealers do let off fireworks when a new stash comes in.
Not all dealers, not all the time, but it happens round here.

The police are understaffed and so a fair bit of low level crime goes unpunished - so if someone is selling weed or even a small amount of crack they let it go on until local or even national political pressure compels them to act.
 
@Lb8535


Not sure about USA, but in London and some British towns dealers do let off fireworks when a new stash comes in.
Not all dealers, not all the time, but it happens round here.

How do you know this, and as a crackhead, how would I know it's my particular crackden that's letting the fireworks off?

Sounds like urban legend..
 
I'm not sure it's much of a mystery. After warning my idiot neighbors I'd be calling the police, again, because of the 150' distance limitation from structures, they flipped me off. They want to blow up money and have fun watching things go boom. One person is dead in PA already and it's not even the big day (Saturday, July 4th).
A house in the next town over had a fire due to fireworks. It's been crazy here (and everywhere as evidenced by news coverage). The police in my city formed a task force because there have been so many complaints and people have been arrested recently here in the last couple of weeks. Take a pandemic, no sports, events, school is over, etc and throw a bunch of bored people into the mix...plus there are several Phantom Fireworks locations nearby. I've never looked forward to colder weather more.
 
A house in the next town over had a fire due to fireworks. It's been crazy here (and everywhere as evidenced by news coverage). The police in my city formed a task force because there have been so many complaints and people have been arrested recently here in the last couple of weeks. Take a pandemic, no sports, events, school is over, etc and throw a bunch of bored people into the mix...plus there are several Phantom Fireworks locations nearby. I've never looked forward to colder weather more.
:freak:
After the PA law changed and residents can buy the fireworks here, they are sold at Costco and at roadside tents. You don't even have to go to the close-to-the-border stores. So, the availability is increased and people will spend $1000-2000 easy on a load. From what I understand, 46 states and Wash, D.C. already allow these consumer-grade fireworks but not the professional-grade shells. Seriously, this Independence Day will be a very vulgar display of "freedom" (freedom to be awful and endanger others). I wish I was Canadian.
 
:freak:
After the PA law changed and residents can buy the fireworks here, they are sold at Costco and at roadside tents. You don't even have to go to the close-to-the-border stores. So, the availability is increased and people will spend $1000-2000 easy on a load. From what I understand, 46 states and Wash, D.C. already allow these consumer-grade fireworks but not the professional-grade shells. Seriously, this Independence Day will be a very vulgar display of "freedom" (freedom to be awful and endanger others). I wish I was Canadian.
I'm dreading the noise on the Fourth and truly hope this is not the new "normal" :(
 
How do you know this, and as a crackhead, how would I know it's my particular crackden that's letting the fireworks off?

Sounds like urban legend..

Seen local dealers do it in my road.
Frequently at night.

Yes, the police would be aware...if they were around.
The local police have not been visible, and there are hardly any on patrol at night in my area.
And the dealers sit by their cars...gold chains on...with re-up couriers arriving and departing swiftly on motor scooters and e scooters.

That said, the police might have been on surveillance, it has been a lot quieter the last three weeks.
The police have a motive for letting dealers deal for period of time, so that they can monitor them, record activities, build a case....then swoop....

.......as seen by July 2nd's Operation Venetic/Encrochat announcement.

https://news.sky.com/story/operatio...ret-criminal-lives-by-cracking-codes-12019558

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EncroChat

Of course, many reasons for fireworks, and have also seen local teenagers let them off for fun during the evening.
 
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Seen local dealers do it in my road.
Frequently at night.

Yes, the police would be aware...if they were around.
The local police have not been visible, and there are hardly any on patrol at night in my area.
And the dealers sit by their cars...gold chains on...with re-up couriers arriving and departing swiftly on motor scooters and e scooters.

That said, the police might have been on surveillance, it has been a lot quieter the last three weeks.
The police have a motive for letting dealers deal for period of time, so that they can monitor them, record activities, build a case....then swoop....

.......as seen by July 2nd's Operation Venetic/Encrochat announcement.

https://news.sky.com/story/operatio...ret-criminal-lives-by-cracking-codes-12019558

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EncroChat

Of course, many reasons for fireworks, and have also seen local teenagers let them off for fun during the evening.

Where are the fireworks figuring in this set-up? OK, dealers are in cars with gold chains - are they also letting fireworks off? Or are the fireworks let off somewhere else prior to this? In which case how does the customer know who's let them off?

No-one's disputing drug deals happen, I'm just wondering where the fireworks come in to it. That part still sounds like UL..

The linked story has nothing to do with fireworks.
 
Plenty of conspiracy theories on Twitter that the fireworks are given to black youths by police to disrupt the peace and quiet of their neighbourhoods. Usually a few tweets down (often by the same person in the thread) it will be suggested that police and firefighters are setting off the fireworks.
 
For your dog, maybe hash cookies for yourself.

The Toledo Hemp Dispensary in Ohio is offering free CBD dog treats this week to help reduce animal anxiety triggered by fireworks. Every treat contains 10 milligrams of CBD. Good for the dogs and for the business, it seems.

"Most people come back every year and tell their friends so they come and try it," dispensary manager Payton De Moe told 13ABC. "Most people if they try it on the first, come back and get a bag for the next few days because with it on the weekend people are going to be doing (fireworks) the whole weekend."

https://boingboing.net/2020/07/02/cannabis-dispensary-giving-fre.html
 
Mother Jones magazine thinks cops supplying the fireworks is just a conspiracy theory but gives context as why it's believed.

For the last several weeks, city dwellers all over the United States have posted on social media about hearing and seeing unprecedented displays of fireworks.

Reporting has backed up the claims. One fireworks wholesale retailer told the Atlantic that there were 60 percent more orders than normal, and that those customers were spending up to 40 percent more than usual. The president of the American Pyrotechnics Association told CNBC that some sellers have seen a 200 to 300 percent sales jump.

As posts about the fireworks went viral, suspicious that something unexplained was underway began to crop up. “Too many ppl from major cities sayin this,” rapper Wale tweeted on June 20. “Something is afoot.” More elaborate stories and conspiracies started popping up soon after his post.

“We think this is psychological warfare, the first wave before whatever the next stage of the attack is,” novelist Robert Jones Jr. wrote on June 20, in a Twitter thread about the fireworks that would go viral. “There is NO WAY IN THE WORLD that young Black and Brown people would otherwise have access to these PROFESSIONAL fireworks.” ...

Since these theories took off, reporters have dug into the fireworks and found a simpler explanation. Legal fireworks sales are up, and the fireworks black market also appears to be thriving. Resellers have imported fireworks across state lines into areas where they’re illegal and sold them on the streets. Bored kids who had been pent up at home under coronavirus lockdown without anything to do are taking advantage of readily available fireworks to pass the time.

Despite all the counterfactual evidence to the fireworks as a psyop conspiracy, a lot of people thought that there was something to it. ...

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/07/fireworks-conspiracies/
 
Where are the fireworks figuring in this set-up? OK, dealers are in cars with gold chains - are they also letting fireworks off? Or are the fireworks let off somewhere else prior to this? In which case how does the customer know who's let them off?

No-one's disputing drug deals happen, I'm just wondering where the fireworks come in to it. That part still sounds like UL..

The linked story has nothing to do with fireworks.

I don't know where you live @hunck

The link between fireworks and drug dealers was a comment by me in the opening post, that such a thing happens.

Where I live is North West London, United Kingdom.
My road has drug dealers...it's a spot, so is the road across a park from me.
Not every night though, they move around.

In the UK, fireworks are traditionally set off on 5th November (Guy Fawkes Night) and New Years Eve.
In addition people from the populous local Hindu community set them off for Diwali, which tends to be at a similar time of year as Guy Fawkes night...we tend to get a lot of fireworks in late October/early November.

Outside of those times, people might have a party and set off fireworks for their birthday..

But not usually from 1am - 5am, which is when they get set off here.
In my road or just a hundred yards away in the park.
When the dealers are by their cars, hoods up, waiting for customers.

And then along come the crackheads and the potheads and they buy their stuff.

Fireworks in my area outside of Guy Fawkes/New Years Eve/Diwali were a real rarity back in the 80's and 90's, but they have been a feature of the last few years, coinciding with when the street dealers appeared.
I have lived in my road over 15 years, and in this area for about 35 years, and there were not dealers in my road 15 years ago.
There were drugs, but they tended to be sold from someone's house, not on the street.
 
Fireworks in my area outside of Guy Fawkes/New Years Eve/Diwali were a real rarity back in the 80's and 90's...

I don't think most native Britons had even heard of Diwali back in the 80s and 90s. Maybe London was different.

Perhaps, you had, but I definitely hadn't.
 
I don't think most native Britons had even heard of Diwali back in the 80s and 90s. Maybe London was different.

Perhaps, you had, but I definitely hadn't.
I was in London and I certainly knew about Diwali back then.
 
I don't know where you live @hunck

The link between fireworks and drug dealers was a comment by me in the opening post, that such a thing happens.

Where I live is North West London, United Kingdom.
My road has drug dealers...it's a spot, so is the road across a park from me.
Not every night though, they move around.

In the UK, fireworks are traditionally set off on 5th November (Guy Fawkes Night) and New Years Eve.
In addition people from the populous local Hindu community set them off for Diwali, which tends to be at a similar time of year as Guy Fawkes night...we tend to get a lot of fireworks in late October/early November.

Outside of those times, people might have a party and set off fireworks for their birthday..

But not usually from 1am - 5am, which is when they get set off here.
In my road or just a hundred yards away in the park.
When the dealers are by their cars, hoods up, waiting for customers.

And then along come the crackheads and the potheads and they buy their stuff.

Fireworks in my area outside of Guy Fawkes/New Years Eve/Diwali were a real rarity back in the 80's and 90's, but they have been a feature of the last few years, coinciding with when the street dealers appeared.
I have lived in my road over 15 years, and in this area for about 35 years, and there were not dealers in my road 15 years ago.
There were drugs, but they tended to be sold from someone's house, not on the street.

I'm in Norf London, plenty of crack round here so I believe. I'm just dubious about dealers letting fireworks off in the small hours as an alert but if you say they are round your way then I take it onboard.

Have you tried complaining vociferously to the police? If enough locals do, they may be forced to do something about it. Putting aside drug dealing, fireworks in the middle of the night is pretty antisocial.

Re dealing: In Columbia Rd, locals took it on themselves to paint fake signs on the road.

Arrests followed.

DSC_4901-e1537352106803-1024x684.jpg


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img-3.jpg
 
I'm in Norf London, plenty of crack round here so I believe. I'm just dubious about dealers letting fireworks off in the small hours as an alert but if you say they are round your way then I take it onboard.

.

Ah so you are not far.

It's well organised round here, three crews of dealers.
They let off what we used to call "Bangers" mainly, noise but not visual....sometimes right opposite my flat.
And some rockets too.

And it's well organised round Columbia Road too...one night I was there on something (not drug related), and I watched a whole operation...the main dealer, the runners, the car that re supplied...the lot.
But I did not hear fireworks there.

Wondered how come the police had not spotted it but perhaps they had, and were building evidence?

Yes, I have complained many times about what happens here.
It's linked to a crime family nearby - they sell smuggled cigarettes and run a brothel too.

I guess the police are building evidence, or have been paid off.

@Yithian

My primary school in the 1970's and 80's was very multicultural - mix of White British, Gujaratis, Jews and a lot of British kids of Italian and Irish descent, a few mixed race and Black kids too.

Fairly typical for this part of London, but perhaps not so for some other parts.

We had Religious Education classes - covered the three Abrahamic faiths plus Hindusim.
Kids would bring in their traditional food from home to share.
 
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Fairly typical for this part of London, but perhaps not so for some other parts.

Funnily enough, I had a photograph of my class (at age 8) sent to me the other day and it's amazing how the names and characters came flooding back. This was the mid-80s, twenty two of us and and the only non-white faces were an Indian boy and an Iranian girl, whose family, if I recall correctly, had fled Iran in 1979. She sticks in my mind not only for her exotic name, but also for the fact that she was fantastically tall: almost half as tall again as the next child in the class.

Not especially cosmopolitan down in Kent in those days.
 
Fireworks are illegal here, though as a child we had a great time with them until some ruined the fun for everyone by blinding themselves or others and blowing off hands and fingers.
Back on topic, I sympathize with @Victory as although this is not Brooklyn, I did see this Twitter clip of L.A by night. How does anyone sleep through this?
 
Fireworks are illegal here, though as a child we had a great time with them until some ruined the fun for everyone by blinding themselves or others and blowing off hands and fingers.
Back on topic, I sympathize with @Victory as although this is not Brooklyn, I did see this Twitter clip of L.A by night. How does anyone sleep through this?
This is the normal Hollywood Hills photo (cf Terminator) fog and all. I don't see any fireworks. If you mean the ambient light, you get used to it.
 
This is the normal Hollywood Hills photo (cf Terminator) fog and all. I don't see any fireworks. If you mean the ambient light, you get used to it.

Do you not see a video which you can play? The video pans across the scene, showing myriad fireworks exploding across the valley.
 
Do you not see a video which you can play? The video pans across the scene, showing myriad fireworks exploding across the valley.
Oh yeah. I spent many years with no bandwidth and I've learned as a default to live without watching videos. Will try.
 
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