By COLlive reporter
As deafening fireworks displays continue nightly in New York City, residents have been expressing great frustration with the lack of leadership and the lack of police interference in illegal activities.
Last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio was mocked for his clueless response to a reporter’s question as to the 80% spike in fireworks complaints this month and what kind of enforcement is being done.
“I was very surprised by this,” de Blasio responded, saying he could hear “plenty of fireworks going off” near his home at Gracie Mansion, but said, “this is definitely a phenomenon I’m not used to seeing this early… but I will be happy to find out what the heck is going on.”
Complaints to 331 about illegal fireworks have skyrocketed in recent weeks, with 1,737 recorded in the first half of June – an over 80-fold rise over the same time period last year.
“These are not your normal kids playing with fireworks,” Michael Ford, a piano teacher in Manhattan’s Inwood neighborhood told the New York Times. “These are real explosives, like Macy’s-style fireworks.”
“People scream out their windows at them, but they just laugh,” he said, adding that he and his neighbors had called 911 as well as 311, but that the police had not responded.
In Crown Heights on Friday night and Motzei Shabbos, fireworks could be seen and heard throughout the night, with frustrated residents being kept awake by the noise as well as crying, frightened children.
When the fire department arrived following a large display over a building near Montgomery Street and Schenectady Avenue, an angry person could be heard calling out, “*Expletive* Jews! You called the *expletive* cops!”
On Sunday, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams will join Council Member Robert Cornegy to demand the City address the problems facing Brooklyn residents and their quality of life.
Borough President Adams and Council Member Cornegy will hold a press conference to demand that the City allocate more resources toward addressing the drastic rise in illegal fireworks around Brooklyn.
Brooklyn led the five boroughs in the number of complaints that came in over the past two months, with complaints concentrated in areas of Central Brooklyn such as Crown Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Flatbush, Adams said.
They will call on the City to deploy Cure Violence groups to respond on the ground to fireworks complaints, while having law enforcement groups track the source of the fireworks and how they’re flowing into the city.
VIDEO:
We all need to march and take back our streets stops the violence. Impeach deblasio. Get NYPD back to work!
Maybe get the same tzadikim who were seen protesting last sunday to maybe try to protest this???? Obviously not, because first of all Black Live Matter and second of all to stop fireworks is straight up RACISM!! our black neighbors should be allowed freedom to do whatever they want!!! Y’know 400 years and stuff… welcome to a leaderless and lawless New York and especially a LEADERLESS CROWN HEIGHTS!!
This comment is ridiculous.. supporting black neighbors doesnt mean supporting vandalizing. This is straight up a very ignorant comment.
Most accurate comment yet…. where are our “woke” crown heights ppl on this maybe they can arrange another “tahlucha with their lovely BLM neighbors
and maybe our BLM neighbors should do it this time for us
It’s being reported elsewhere that no arrests can be made unless police actually see an offender light the contraption, and that since NYC has shutdown its plain clothes crime prevention unit (yes that really happened) it’s no longer possible for that to happen.
If you see Fireworks coming from the Roof of any Building, If you know forsure that it is coming from that roof, The best is to Call 911 right away, give them the address and tell them that there a people Trespassing on that building Roof (It is illegal for anyone to be on the roof of a pre war building) The Police will respond faster for a Trespassing Call which is a “more serious” crime than fireworks.
Anyone know the Location of the 1st Video of the fireworks?
It looks like Kingston Ave between Lefferts Ave and Empire Blvd.
Most (not all, but most) of the Fireworks every night here in CH is coming from the same people, by the same buildings/places All night and every night for the last 2 weeks,….
The Places are,
Crown & Schenectady
Montgomery & Schenectady
Kingston & Lefferts
Fenimore Street between Albany & Troy
Albany & Park Pl
you forgot union between new york and nostrand…..all night long
Carroll and NY
Enough is enough. New Yorkers need to be able to live in peace. The fireworks are out of control every single night.
Join Councilman Deutsch in calling for Mayor de Blasio to take control of the situation and end the madness.
Sign our petition and share:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeCJdNhBJBToXchJ4MSsjSVLnxRzxV5CCNjWkVH0jb-ZEMDKg/viewform?usp=send_form
As chassidim, especially ‘chabad’ chassidim we should be smarter than focus on symptoms.
Silencing symptoms is more dangerous, it gives a false impression of order, when in truth, the lawless are even angrier and more violent.
No. Research Broken Window Policing. You mean well but what you are advocating is ignoring small infractions. What this does is reinforce the sense of lawlessness in our community which will lead to a downward spiral in criminality. I also have no idea what ‘symptoms’ you are referring to. These are just young men doing what they find amusing. It so happens that this type of entertainment is illegal and disturbing and persistent. If it would have been one day in support of the emancipation of the blacks who did not arrive in the states in recent decades from the… Read more »
Famously effective broken windows policing, which has not been disproven at all!
What does Chabad Chassidim have to do with not focusing on Symptoms?
From the same logic, you could have said: as a carpenter, you should be smarter than focusing on symptoms!
re The second video – my boys raiding area 51 be like:
Is not real
It is soooo easy to see who is doing it
These police are just driving by and ignoring
It’s also been going on longer than just two nights!!!!
This needs to stop!!
Enough is enough. New Yorkers need to be able to live in peace. The fireworks are out of control every single night.
Join Councilman Deutsch in calling for Mayor de Blasio to take control of the situation and end the madness.
Sign our petition and share:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeCJdNhBJBToXchJ4MSsjSVLnxRzxV5CCNjWkVH0jb-ZEMDKg/viewform?usp=send_form
I’m sure the NYPD wouldn’t pay attention if people went around in cars and shot paintballs and BBs at people lighting fireworks, wouldn’t be too hard to locate them.
Mayor Giuliani, in his time, did a great job and greatly reduced the scourge of illegal fireworks, by choking off their supply/availability in the city.
To stop individual cases of lighting, once people have them in their possession and are lighting them already, is by far an inferior approach, as it requires much more effort and manpower.
The better approach by far is to cut off the supply of these illegal substances before they reach the individuals who might light them. That is what should be done.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
The police are more than capable of stopping it. They don’t want to stop it.
I’ve been told that the police are here to protect us, and we should be thankful for their existence. Doesn’t seem like they’d be the kind of people to hold a city hostage?!
https://www.change.org/NYC-end-the-firworks
He has the cops hands tied!
What an honor to live here
Greatest city in the world!
The lesson this teaches us is that unfortunately, violence works. When law abiding citizens call the cops and city leaders, nothing happens. When lowlifes burn stuff and riot, things happens and policy changes.
The lack of leadership will lead people to take the law into their own hands and cause more violence and death. It’s only a matter of time!
That place has so much dirt.
Whatever happens is hashgocha pratis and it is for a reason. The rebbe spoke about people rioting for rights in 1991 and he said its a sign of moshiach getting closer. We should be longing for moshiach as we see the golus is not the place to be. What we see is a symptom of much more. Rabbi paltiel spoke about it in the latest ask the rabbi
It is happening boldly and openly. A policeman sitting stationed in his car by any location where it is happening can see who’s doing it. They are nor afraid and don’t try to hide.they have carte blanche. The police have no support so they don’t try to identify and stop. It really wouldn’t take much to identify who is doing it.I’m sick of lack of sleep and giving in to bullies.
THIS IS WHY WE SHOULD ALL GO OUT AND VOTE!
EVERYONE SHOULD GO DEMONSTRATE IN FRONT OF HIS HOUSE!