Are you hearing unusual levels of fireworks?

June 21, 2020 8:26 AM

A Twitter thread about excessive amounts of fireworks being let off in urban areas all across the United States consistently overnight since the protests began -- with no police response when 911 is called. Is it "black and brown youth letting off steam with stolen high grade fireworks" or a concerted psyops campaign to destabilize troublesome populations?
posted by seanmpuckett (238 comments total)

YES.
We thought it was just our area. What is the story?

Oh. Conspiracy theory.

Yeah, I don't think it's that, at last not in SoCal. We have had firework neighbors for the last 3 years... After moving to a new area, this just seemed like the wealthier version. Can't speak to Brooklyn.
posted by ®@ at 8:38 AM on June 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

We've been hearing the normal amount of June fireworks in our diverse neighborhood.
posted by muddgirl at 8:38 AM on June 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

I could hear a ton of fireworks Friday night, and a little bit last night. It’s a bit early for them— usually it’s just the week before and after the 4th — but I figured it was for Juneteenth.
posted by nonasuch at 8:46 AM on June 21, 2020 [6 favorites]

Slate investigates
Ask Metafilter asks
posted by Huffy Puffy at 8:49 AM on June 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

We’ve been hearing them every single night since May for hours at a time. It’s far beyond the normal level of fireworks in June by us. The consistent thought I have is, “How on earth can anyone afford so many fireworks?” I assume their budgets must look like the dril candles tweet. I don’t know if this is the explanation but something is going on. I refuse to call the cops, though, so I can’t say anything about police response or lack thereof, though.
posted by brook horse at 8:49 AM on June 21, 2020 [18 favorites]

I suspect it's just that fireworks vendors have slashed their prices because of COVID.

I've lived in Brooklyn for almost 25 years and this is the worst I've ever seen — and yeah, these aren't the usual firecrackers or cherry bombs. This is the fancy stuff.
posted by Ampersand692 at 8:50 AM on June 21, 2020 [32 favorites]

We've been hearing more fireworks in rural CT, too. They're sold in gas stations and stuff, so it's not that hard to get them, and I feel like everyone is just freaking bored. A combat vet friend of mine is REALLY sensitive to fireworks, so I trust his assessment that there is a lot more going off than normal.

I don't like these long bouts of speculation being treated as fact. It's possible this is true! I wouldn't put it past police departments to do this! But there's no evidence to back it up. It's a hypothesis presented as a conclusion. It makes us sound loopy.
posted by Made of Star Stuff at 8:50 AM on June 21, 2020 [23 favorites]

We were watching Da 5 Bloods on Friday night with the windows open and during a firefight scene, there were suddenly explosions on the TV and outside at the same time. It was very disconcerting.
posted by octothorpe at 8:51 AM on June 21, 2020 [10 favorites]

We’ve heard a lot of them lately. My main problem with them is the constant reports of “gunfire” from the frightened white people app that came with my doorbell. I wish I knew where folks were getting them so I could get some for myself, you can’t buy the good ones around here legally.
posted by jordemort at 8:53 AM on June 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

Started seeing this conspiracy theory pop up two days ago. Today seems like the day that it might catch on.

My use of the phrase 'conspiracy theory' there explains how I feel about this. You have people who need to let off steam nationwide, and there's been a clear uptick in fireworks sales nationwide, so this seems to fail Occam's Razor.

Tie that with how psychological warfare from the right has worked - such things are not fireworks or things that can be explained away, it's tended to be clear threats. I don't believe it's in the interest of any such group to be subtle. They want to show power and toughness, and they want that to be on display for everyone. Fireworks won't get you there. Anything you'll see will probably be closer to the 'burning crosses' end of the spectrum. The most subtle that they will get will be the sorts of bait-the-police that happened during recent protests, and those are meant to end with a show of power as riot police run in with batons swinging.

I'm also unsure if people can tell the difference from professional firework displays from widespread displays just on noise alone. Even growing up in an exurb where people were very spread out, the volume of noise on the 4th was very loud, and the main difference in noise is just that when everyone's lighting fireworks, the noise is all around, instead of coming from one location as it would for a professional display. That's continued, now that I live in a city where fireworks are lit pretty regularly.
posted by suckerpunch at 8:55 AM on June 21, 2020 [13 favorites]

The "fireworks are cheap due to Covid" explanation makes the most sense to me.

It's frustrating because they freak out our dogs. Otherwise, not as bad here as the stuff people are describing.
posted by ®@ at 8:59 AM on June 21, 2020 [8 favorites]

Saw this earlier and...eh. I suppose this could be true, or could be true in some cases, but I feel like there were more fireworks than usual in my neighborhood starting in early May and I also don't think the types of fireworks are too different, just the frequency.

I guess I've just been assuming that people have more stress and free time than usual. And that folks recieving the $600/week supplement to UI may have more disposable income than usual. When I'm especially tired of the noise I just try to picture someone who normally works a lot having the chance to bond with their kids over the loudest fireworks they could buy.
posted by geegollygosh at 8:59 AM on June 21, 2020 [7 favorites]

I want to add in my experience it's not "youth" setting off fireworks. I think that assumption underpins this conspiracy theory and leads it off path. It's mostly adults.
posted by muddgirl at 9:01 AM on June 21, 2020 [8 favorites]

I have no theory about why but the amount of fireworks here (suburban East Bay) is orders of magnitude worse than ever before. Fireworks go off for hours every night, whereas in previous years we would never hear them at all. I can't believe this is someone having fun.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 9:02 AM on June 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

Just went and looked at the local neighborhood FB group and it's 50% people complaining about fireworks and 50% people complaining about people complaining about fireworks.
posted by octothorpe at 9:02 AM on June 21, 2020 [30 favorites]

I've noticed it every night here in Brooklyn for weeks. I looked it up because it was so obviously unusual, and found lots of reports of complaints etc. but no one knew why.

They're not just the fun ones, some of them are M80s which are loud as hades. Reminds me of 90s LES NYC.
posted by Liquidwolf at 9:02 AM on June 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

It's definitely the fancy stuff here in my corner of Brooklyn, and it's actually very beautiful, if loud and scary for dogs. Mainly Thursday, Friday, Saturday nights, since Memorial Day. It's amazing someone hasn't gotten hurt.

I don't see how fancy fireworks would fit into any psy-ops campaign.
posted by maggiemaggie at 9:02 AM on June 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Also adding that most of what we're hearing/seeing is illegal in CA.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly at 9:05 AM on June 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

Here in So CA, loud fireworks. Varying times from around dusk to maybe midnight. Not unusual even in this upscale leaning neighborhood. Far more frequently used in rougher neighborhoods, even year round.

Around here they seem to be coming from an adjoining neighborhood that's purely residential, traditionally working class, but gentrifying, with adjoining office spaces. No nightlife or businesses or police stations or anything like that. There are some city maintenance yards nearby, but that's not where they come from.

The cops conspiring somehow? I don't see it, really. I can't imagine many people getting rattled or calling 911 over this, except for maybe a few frequent flyers who call about everything.

They are the "real" kind of fireworks, too. Also not unusual. They are not sold or used legally in CA, but are widely used every year around the 4th. I used to buy them myself on road trips to NM. Usually sold on reservations.

Maybe those wacky antifa kids? Your conspiracy is as good as any.
posted by 2N2222 at 9:05 AM on June 21, 2020

It's been pretty brutal in my part of San Francisco- we're a firework heavy neighborhood during key times (The 4th- anytime the Warriors win/lose/tie/appear) but this has been non-stop. And I agree it's the heavier stuff than usual. And my neighborhood is very diverse. Ugh I hate that this makes sense but this makes sense.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 9:05 AM on June 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

Funny, I just noticed a night of fireworks (in Denver) last night for the first time this year. Hours. No idea why.
posted by kozad at 9:07 AM on June 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

There are definitely, 100%, no questions asked, a shit ton more fireworks going off on a daily basis than is normal here in Philadelphia. Thankfully the ATM bombings have stopped so the cacophony of explosions is slightly less anxiety-inducing. They're going off in every neighborhood every night of the week. I agree it is cheap product sold at volume coupled with people being cooped up and bored. People of all races are shooting them off. Hopefully there is not an uptick in house fires, because fireworks are dangerous in normal times.
posted by grumpybear69 at 9:10 AM on June 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

I'm in St. Louis - south city. Everything that's been lit has been pretty recognizable as something I've bought/lit before, especially the really loud/big artillery shells. There is definitely more than there would normally be for late June, but honestly it's not terrible for the area. This is famously what 4th of July tends to look like here.

(Think I need to stop commenting now. Something about this conspiracy theory gets me wound up. Like, just let people have fun, man.)
posted by suckerpunch at 9:12 AM on June 21, 2020 [6 favorites]

Cities are cancelling firework shows, so perhaps citizens are filling the void?
posted by oceanjesse at 9:16 AM on June 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

I'm in rural Vermont and our fireworks/gunfire level can best be described as "normal."
posted by jessamyn at 9:16 AM on June 21, 2020 [7 favorites]

we always have fireworks in the weeks leading up to july 4th in my diverse oakland neighborhood. maybe its a bit more this year? hard to say.
posted by supermedusa at 9:17 AM on June 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Like, just let people have fun, man.

When it comes to Blockbusers and other explosives, It's only fun to the person who sets it off. To everyone else it's jarring.
posted by Liquidwolf at 9:17 AM on June 21, 2020 [37 favorites]

I've noticed bit of an uptick in my north Brooklyn neighborhood, but I honestly can't tell if it's because there really is an uptick, or if I'm noticing it more because my attention has been called to it.

There's at least one instance where the FDNY was caught setting off the fireworks themselves at one stationhouse.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:33 AM on June 21, 2020 [4 favorites]

Can we say a combination of factors?
Folks have less to do and are bored and its summer in the northern hemisphere so why wait for a holiday.
Fireworks are less expensive this year.
And, everyone is stuck at home and hyper vigilant, so they get to hear ALL the fireworks their neighbors set off. That is part of what happened with the wild animals in people places conspiracy theories in April too.
posted by mutt.cyberspace at 9:37 AM on June 21, 2020 [9 favorites]

It’s been noticeably more in DC but I’m deeply skeptical that it’s due to anything other than low prices due to the pandemic and people wanting something fun they can still do.

We always have pretty epic July neighborhood displays — you know that one dad/uncle who’d find a way to have a trunk full of stuff suspiciously pushing the legal sales limit in your state? Imagine a dozen of them setting up in the park, starting around the time of the national mall display and setting stuff off continuously until 2-3am. Last year I counted 4 mortar setups at our park, at least two of which could launch multiple simultaneous shells. Dogs hate it but they always have a crowd of neighbors hanging out and watching.

This year feels like what would happen if those guys had been cooped up inside since March and took the money they weren’t spending going out and put it into fireworks.
posted by adamsc at 9:38 AM on June 21, 2020 [9 favorites]

Most of the comments I read about this issue on NextDoor are requests for the barrage to stop, because the dog gets so upset.

The local legal 'safe&sane' fireworks stands have appeared here - however, nothing's for sale yet so I can't verify the 'COVID making 'em cheaper now' theory, but that sounds unrealistic, to me.
posted by Rash at 9:40 AM on June 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

We were just talking about this last night, in San Francisco. Namely we aren't noticing *more* fireworks than usual, but *bigger* fireworks. As in there have been a few teeth-rattling explosions in the last week. I was biking from Soma to Bernal last night around midnight and passed through a much more usual scene of a bunch of kids having fun with smaller fireworks. I imagine that everyone being home because of SIP orders is helping fuel the urgency to fire this stuff off, and the slow streets closures are making it easier to get outside and do that.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 9:44 AM on June 21, 2020 [4 favorites]

My main problem with them is the constant reports of “gunfire” from the frightened white people app that came with my doorbell.

Oh, this, very, very much. It's become almost a running gag in the Minneapolis neighborhood forums I follow.

In Minnesota, anything that leaves the ground or explodes like a firecracker (or larger) is not legal. However, items that almost leave the ground and/or make loud-ish noises are purchaseable all over the place, and lots of things that are technically not allowed in Minnesota are sold in the abundant fireworks stands just across the river in Wisconsin.

It's been a gripey, unresolvable neighborhood forum subject for years. The temperature of the discussions rises to a slow boil as soon as someone mentions fireworks as being cruelty to dogs, which adds in another contentious subject to the stewpot.

I'm not seeing anything much different this year.
posted by gimonca at 9:46 AM on June 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

We haven't been hearing more fireworks than usual, but we're definitely hearing more people speculating about the fireworks. It's just East Oakland in June, folks.
posted by Lexica at 9:53 AM on June 21, 2020

I'm in mid-Michigan, not far from the capitol. Fireworks are legal in this state. There's been an uptick, but it's not like it's gone from tranquil evenings to re-enactments of Normandy beach. Someone a couple streets over has been setting off aerial star shells several times a week at about 11:00 PM, one per second, for two solid minutes. (I counted and timed.) Don't know if there's any one in the area with PTSD; the cats hide in the closet. We did our every-few-months trip to Costco yesterday, and they had a couple of pallets in the store of fireworks (not sparklers) for about $100 a box. One of the national fireworks chains is having a Buy 1, get 2 FREE promotion. Don't think it's a conspiracy, just extra time, extra money, bored, might as well do something while it lasts.
posted by a person of few words at 9:56 AM on June 21, 2020

I'm in MA, in the Merrimack Valley and about a 15-minute drive from the nearest NH fireworks store. All fireworks are illegal in MA, including even sparklers. I have heard zero fireworks so far here, although it appears Boston is having a lot. I expect our locals will start lighting 'em up soon, unless they're going into Boston to do it, which is apparently somethings some out-of-towners are doing. I'm not as triggered by fireworks as I used to be. There's a shooting range less than a mile from my house, and I mostly don't notice their activities. I don't worry about them setting said house on fire, though.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 9:57 AM on June 21, 2020

The just over the river Wisconsin firework stands are a little lonelier now that the just over the river Sunday alcohol sales places aren't as popular anymore.
posted by Ferreous at 9:59 AM on June 21, 2020 [6 favorites]

South St Louis, little more than normal by time, not quantity. Ngl, I started thinking about buying fireworks back in May just to bust up the monotony of being at home. Also, I like bottle rockets
posted by fluttering hellfire at 10:00 AM on June 21, 2020

I think the neighborhood/security cam groups amplify this. There must be a word for this sort of phenomena.
posted by geoff. at 10:06 AM on June 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

Fireworks are a very popular way to say "I don't give two shits about the mental or physical health of any living creature other than myself."

After several months of enforced awareness of our interconnectedness, I guess it's not too surprising more people than usual would be looking to reconnect with America's tradition of violent and destructive individualism.
posted by Not A Thing at 10:06 AM on June 21, 2020 [45 favorites]

I'm not shooting them off myself, btw.
posted by fluttering hellfire at 10:10 AM on June 21, 2020

In Boston, they've been going off every night since late May. "Normal" illegal fireworks season starts about a month later, a week or so before Independence day.

I don't know that I think the police are themselves setting them off, but they're 100% turning a blind eye. It's a very obvious, easy to track crime, and yet, they're doing nothing.

They also happened to completely brutalize a bunch of peaceful protesters the weekend after George Floyd died. They have nothing but contempt for us.
posted by explosion at 10:11 AM on June 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

I first noticed this when the fireworks started much earlier than in previous years - well before July 4th week - and, as others have experienced, it's bigger armaments, set off in more locations, for longer periods each evening. But considering this something that cops can easily track and stop is kinda delusional - let's not add more unfounded conspiracy theories on top of the earlier ones. As is clear from the many threads and conversations cited here, it's happening in red states and blue states, in communities of all ethnicities. It's just lots of people who have been cooped up for three months wanting to blow off steam, er, explosives.
posted by PhineasGage at 10:20 AM on June 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

We have a handful of specific Fireworks Neighbors who definitely go for it on the 4th of July and New Year's Eve (+/- 1-2 days), even though Los Angeles is pretty serious about fireworks. This isn't all those people; for one thing they aren't shooting off roman candles and whooping drunkenly at 2am, which is their hallmark. People on NextDoor have been saying - this has been for a couple weeks now - that they are seeing a group of people going down the big cross streets in the Valley setting them off in the street every few blocks. This is especially dangerous since our normal neighborhood menace is people street-racing down those streets.

I've never understood where Fireworks Neighbors even get them. The only fireworks legal for personal purchase in California (and even these are banned in some counties) are "Safe and Sane" (ugh) fireworks that "do not explode or fly", and the sale windows are very brief and very close to the holidays. There's no giant fireworks stands just over the Nevada border (not on the Interstate, anyway), and I don't recall seeing them in Arizona either; in Texas you'd get 15 stands right at the edge of the county/city lines where they weren't legal to sell, but I've never seen that in California. And there is generally a lot of tension about them in this area, as we are wildfire-vulnerable here.

We sit outside every night all evening, and have done in this neighborhood for 6 years, and then go to bed with a window open. This is unusual in frequency, location, and firepower. In other summers we definitely heard (and could see bits of) professional-ish fireworks over the local sports fields on game nights; those games aren't being played and the fireworks aren't coming from those usual spots. I'm sure it is a little bit of Fireworks Neighbors and probably Newbie Fireworks Neighbors, but it's more than that too.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:21 AM on June 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

"We know absolutely nothing about fireworks," said Judi Mucklin, who was shopping for her family ahead of a trip to visit her grandkids. "Almost everything's canceled so if you can do it with a small group of family and enjoy yourself that's all that's important."

Lovely. Also, now that I’m thinking about it, there’s a ton of middle class families that usually take vacations around this time of year, or have huge barbecues and picnics. It makes sense they’d have a bunch of extra money to blow on fireworks, if all that’s been cancelled.

I’m also right by a park, which may explain why I hear them literally every single night. It’s not necessarily the same people setting them off every time, just that the park is a convenient open place to set off fireworks. Plus, easy to ditch and run if the cops show up.
posted by brook horse at 10:29 AM on June 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

Fireworks aren't all that uncommon where I live but there's been a notable uptick as quarantine has gone on. And there are no holidays coming up here. People are just bored.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 10:30 AM on June 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

I am in Ottawa, Canada and it occurs to me that there has been a very unusual level of firework activity here which is NONE AT ALL. Normally you'd hear coordinated shows associated with the tons of festivals and whatnot that start in early May, but they have all been cancelled, and I don't remember hearing any during Victoria Day weekend when there's usually some amateur stuff too.

Canada Day is a week and a half away, so we'll see what happens then.
posted by heatherlogan at 10:36 AM on June 21, 2020

Philly legalized fireworks sales and young people are stuck home so the fireworks started a lot earlier than they usually do. Every night. Usually it starts a couple weeks later in June.
posted by Peach at 10:38 AM on June 21, 2020

I've lived in Alexandria VA for 4+ years and 2 nights ago was the first time I heard M80 level fireworks. The sale, use or possession of fireworks in Alexandria is illegal. So that was a bit weird to hear.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 10:41 AM on June 21, 2020

It's been pretty brutal in my part of San Francisco- we're a firework heavy neighborhood during key times (The 4th- anytime the Warriors win/lose/tie/appear) but this has been non-stop

I live in a pretty firework-heavy neighborhood in SF and my experience has been that the amount has increased, and the onset was earlier, than it has been in the past. I expect that the Fourth will be pretty brutal and then we'll have the typical falloff over the following week.
posted by kdar at 10:42 AM on June 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

From “urban” Vermont, I think we’ve had less than normal. Our population is also down a lot of UVM students who would normally be here. Certainly the two are connected.
posted by meinvt at 10:45 AM on June 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

In NC and team no fireworks please. But I think it’s because they were illegal most of my life and so I think of fireworks as July 4 and New Years only events and even then more of a thing you go see. I’m fine with them on other holidays like Diwali but it’s interesting reading here that there seem to be places where people just expect and are ok with loud-ass fireworks all the time. I mean in the grand scheme they’re harmless but they are pretty annoying if you aren’t expecting them. As a kid we were given sparklers to hold (kinda dangerous actually ) but that was it.
posted by freecellwizard at 10:46 AM on June 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

I thought it was originally a graduation thing and then because of so many people commenting on it, it’s caught on and is now a Thing.
posted by gt2 at 10:51 AM on June 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

In my neighborhood in the Bronx, these fireworks started two weeks ago. Last night's barrage was the longest; it started at 4 in the afternoon and went intermittently (like, every 5-10 minutes) until 4 AM.

Usually, the cheapo fireworks start towards the end of this week, and happen every other day or so for about 10 minutes late at night until the 4th, then a big burst of middling fireworks for 20-30 minutes on the 4th, and then maybe a few more times until school starts. These shenanigans started earlier this year, and yes, they got the really good stuff, and they're happening on more blocks around here than usual. Usually it was literally only on my block, but I've seen and heard them now from as far as a mile away.

I also don't think it's psy ops. The cops have never stopped them before, why would they bother now? Apparently, people on the Upper East Side haven't heard anything. I reckon it's because UES people don't do fireworks. But most of New York has heard them.
posted by droplet at 10:57 AM on June 21, 2020

In the last couple of years, fireworks have been banned where I live because of fire danger.
Unexpectedly, even the idiots with illegal fireworks imported from other states (mostly) respected the ban and it was blissfully quiet.

This year has not been dry at all, so I expect the week around the 4th of July to be intolerable.
posted by madajb at 10:58 AM on June 21, 2020

Somebody else's joke: "the clowns from summer 2016 are setting them off."

Lying awake just outside Boston, I wondered too about a conspiracy; I thought about white-supremacist covert action organized online, but Son of Baldwin is more convincing. I am willing to accept that this is true. I also think that it's possible at the same time that there are more fireworks, more boredom, and more plain foolishness out there. Maybe the cops started popping off, and all of a sudden, everyone was SOUND-MAKING BUDDIES, or perhaps vice versa. I always say "never attribute to malice what you can attribute to stupidity," but amateur fireworks are so stupid that it could go either way.

I wonder if ERs are seeing an uptick in associated injuries? If they aren't -- if idiots aren't losing fingers or eyes at a higher rate -- perhaps that suggests idiots aren't the ones using them at a higher rate.
posted by Countess Elena at 11:03 AM on June 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

It occurs to me that I *should* be hearing some here in NW ND, but I’ve heard very few. Just a data point.
posted by epj at 11:07 AM on June 21, 2020

Seattle suburb, Redmond area. No unusual firework activity at all here. Haven't heard a single firework for months and this is usually crazy town near the 4th or New Years.
posted by bz at 11:09 AM on June 21, 2020

Lived in DC for a decade. The weeks around the 4th of July are always rambunctious, and it's generally a bit worse when the 4th straddles a weekend, fireworks sales start early for whatever reason, or people are just plain bored. Seems like we've got the trifecta this year.

Generally speaking, most of the people who are setting them off are not white, and are not gentrifiers. I'm personally not a fan of playing "Fireworks or gunshots?" for 3 weeks every year, but at the same time, it's not really my place to object to any of this, and there seem to be surprisingly few reports of anybody getting injured.

These days, I'm out in the suburbs, and it seems like we're hearing slightly more early fireworks, but nothing particularly alarming.

Poverty in 2020 doesn't look like living in rags, and eating gruel for every meal. Poor people can own big TVs, have a little money left over to spend on things like fireworks, and still be legitimately poor. This year, the folks who are poor and living in cities have.... been through a lot. I don't think you need to invent a conspiracy theory to explain why more folks are setting off fireworks.

[Also, for whatever it's worth, every year seems louder/worse than the last, but in retrospect probably isn't.]
posted by schmod at 11:20 AM on June 21, 2020

Namely we aren't noticing *more* fireworks than usual, but *bigger* fireworks.

This is my experience as well, and I think it probably account for a lot of there seeming to be more. Some of the ones that went of night were *serious* mortars, the kind that sound like a transformer blowing up and set off multiple car alarms. If your local fireworks type has upgraded from a shell that can be heard from a block away to a big'un that can be heard three blocks away, that's around 10 times as many people hearing it. I'm guessing a lot of fireworks that were once destined for low-level professional venues like theme parks, ball parks, etc. have been diverted into the consumer market due to those being shut down.
posted by tavella at 11:22 AM on June 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

For this to be proper psy-ops you'd have to have both let of the fireworks, and then start some deniable online discussions about it. OMG now I'm part of it as well ...
posted by carter at 11:23 AM on June 21, 2020

What are the cops going to do? If it's an M80/M1000, the person lights it, throws it, then sneaks off. For fireworks, there's the cardboard tube but that often gets left behind. Often times they've scattered before there's even a boom. Even if it only took the cops 5 minutes to get here, they'd still arrive to an empty intersection with some cardboard trash. The more brazen groups do hang around while launching multiple fireworks, but who can tell if they're going to hang around or not.

Thankfully I'm not in which I'd call a high fireworks area (it's at a couple or so every night right now) but it's worse across the bay from me according to friends that live there. Personally protesting put me on a nervous stance, but also I'm bored and inside at home more, compared to if there wasn't a pandemic, and then because all the bars and nightlife is shut, I'm sure those with disposable income that normally would have been flushed down the drain on alcohol are finding themselves with money to burn on fireworks instead.

Helicopters hovering to monitor the streets overnight were (and still are, but thankfully less so) doing a fine job of being a psyops campaign by the man to keep us down, but my neighborhood has a long history of being a popular destination for illegal neighborhood fireworks displays for July 4th, so I'm going to go with that explanation until proven otherwise.
posted by fragmede at 11:23 AM on June 21, 2020

I just moved to West Harlem (from Morningside Heights, so only a few blocks, but that makes a difference). Maybe our place in Morningside just had the right acoustics, but I didn't hear then until after the move. I honestly don't really object to them, except that they're being set off at 2:30 on the morning. And those seem to be the loudest.

I think that maybe the cops and firefighters have set some off, but if they have it's probably more or of boredom than malice. And I'm not expecting the cops to do anything. They typically do fuck all about noise complaints and these are hard to track anyway. Couple that with the fact that I don't think many of them live in the most affected neighborhoods, they're going to keep going until people run out.

The NYPD has more direct and violent ways to screw with BIPOC, they don't need to set of fireworks to fuck with their psychological well being.
posted by Hactar at 11:34 AM on June 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

The USA does have an awful lot of ghosts of its past oppression (as in from before the founding to 1 second ago) coming back to haunt us. Maybe people are trying to ward them off. It won't work... we need to go there this time. We need to do the work.
posted by kokaku at 11:39 AM on June 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Gentrification enters into this because there are new people in the neighborhood who aren’t used to the summer fireworks (so these people might complain or call the cops or post on Nextdoor). But it also means there’s less space for setting off the fireworks which I think can concentrate them in ways that make them more noticeable even for people who are used to the neighborhood and aren’t gentrifiers (like maybe the Twitter user linked in the FPP). Places that used to be open lots or parking areas get converted to condos or retail. Every year, there are fewer empty areas to use and the space in the neighborhood is more and more filled with people and more expensive buildings. It makes everything seem more crowded.
posted by sallybrown at 11:59 AM on June 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

bz, we're neighbors and I agree that we've been blessedly quiet so far this season. I've been reading about this phenomenon online and so happy people around here haven't got the memo yet. I expect the usual racket out of Woodinville and parts north on the few days around the 4th but I'm so relieved it hasn't been a thing here so far, as one of our dogs really, really hates them.

As far as the conspiracy theory, man, who knows. I feel like my mental crackpot-theory-detector routine broke sometime in April and I now have a very hard time knowing whether I'm reading too critically or not critically enough.
posted by potrzebie at 12:02 PM on June 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

I am in Ottawa, Canada and it occurs to me that there has been a very unusual level of firework activity here which is NONE AT ALL.

Calgary here, and same. I can hear the backyard BBQs and smell the bonfires, but no fireworks all spring. (Fireworks of all kinds are illegal to sell here, but legal in a county about an hour's drive away.)
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 12:05 PM on June 21, 2020

For professional reasons, I listen to the police scanner in Boston a lot at night. And police are getting dispatched constantly to fireworks calls these days, and it started several weeks earlier than usual fireworks season here. They're also being kept busy responding to "shots fired" calls that turn out to be fireworks (which also often trigger the ShotSpotter system the city uses in several neighborhoods to "hear" gunfire).

The problem, as fragmede notes, is that most times, by the time the cops get to a scene, the fireworks people are gone, unless they pull up with a U-Haul van full of the stuff, which takes time to fire off - or, as happened a couple weeks ago in Jamaica Plain, they are flinging them at each other while drag racing down the main street and one of them gets a tad distracted and crashes into the front of a bodega (that fortunately was already closed for the night). As police were busy trying to figure out what had happened there (the driver didn't stick around), a call came in for shots fired a couple blocks away, where several people have, in fact, been shot in recent months. Turned out to be fireworks.
posted by adamg at 12:10 PM on June 21, 2020 [4 favorites]

That was my AskMe question posted earlier and I don't think this conspiracy theory is that crazy. There's clearly something going on. In my city we get the typical recreational fireworks during the typical times, and a handful outside of the normal times just for fun I guess. But this is unlike anything I've ever seen in any place I've ever lived, and the fact that it's happening all over the country and not with commonly available materials, it just sprung up with no talk in social media about it except how much everyone hates it, it just does not pass the sniff test to me. I'm glad everyone is starting to notice.
posted by bleep at 12:11 PM on June 21, 2020 [7 favorites]

I'd say it's a high-normal in Sunnyside Queens. There are brief nightly shows, some of which are followed by sirens, and rarely I'll hear a few big ones. My friend who rode through Fort Greene said he saw some pro-grade fireworks lying around. I think people are just bored, the fireworks are cheap and July 4th is rolling around after months of being cooped up.
posted by Chickenring at 12:14 PM on June 21, 2020

The fireworks are coming back to [$neighborhood].

Maybe we are the virus.
posted by chavenet at 12:16 PM on June 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

This Son of Baldwin has the same conspiracy theory on Facebook, racking up the shares and reposts. And wouldn't you know it, he's got a book for sale.

And if you disagree with him, he suggests that you're an "agent" of the "other side" that's come to report and discredit him. It's got all the classic hallmarks of a conspiracy theory, including a hazy way to swat away disbelievers that only reinforces his belief.

If you swap out a few nouns, it's the same idea as "5G causes COVID." And honestly, how does a government that can't send untainted coronavirus tests out into the field manage to pull off a conspiracy like this?
posted by chinese_fashion at 12:20 PM on June 21, 2020 [13 favorites]

I should add that, having grown up on Staten Island, then lived in Inwood/Washington Heights for 12 years, and now Queens, I can tell you.. even 20 years ago in Inwood on hot summer nights from mid-June into July, nightly firecrackers and mortars would be fired off and the cops almost never did anything about it. So... yeah, I can really understand where the gentrification angle comes from.
posted by Chickenring at 12:22 PM on June 21, 2020

If you swap out a few nouns, it's the same idea as "5G causes COVID." And honestly, how does a government that can't send untainted coronavirus tests out into the field manage to pull off a conspiracy like this?

Except we can all see & hear it happening around us, and the government is perfectly capable of doing anything as long as it's something they want to do.
posted by bleep at 12:27 PM on June 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

It wouldn't take much for the FBI or whoever to buy up a lot of fireworks and drive around handing them out. It's not some kind of genius-level heist they'd need to pull off.
posted by bleep at 12:28 PM on June 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

I mean I wouldn’t just assume the people talking about this are gentrifiers who “just aren’t used to it.” I’ve lived in this city for 8 years, in this specific apartment for 4, and it’s never been anything close to this. Fireworks a couple times a week throughout June, ranging in time and duration? Sure. Fireworks every single night since Labor Day, very loud and disruptive and always starting late in the evening and going for hours? That’s new and different and it feels kind of gaslighting to have that dismissed as “it’s just June” and basically telling people to “just deal with it” when this is legitimately psychologically distressing. Whether or not it’s the police responsible, can we believe people when they say “this is not business as usual and I find it distressing”?
posted by brook horse at 12:31 PM on June 21, 2020 [20 favorites]

chinese_fashion, American police departments can kill with impunity if they arrange to do so. I am not inclined to dismiss out of hand the idea that they may have done something slightly more subtle for once. He's not proposing a secret parallel conspiratorial society, like Q. He's suggesting a "stop hitting yourself" technique on a large scale.
posted by Countess Elena at 12:36 PM on June 21, 2020 [4 favorites]

Like maybe let’s not turn a thread about psychological harm to people of color into “it’s just white people complaining.” Even if it is just “people bored during COVID” that doesn’t erase the disruption it causes, particularly to communities with higher rates of trauma and PTSD.
posted by brook horse at 12:41 PM on June 21, 2020 [7 favorites]

I'm surprised to see everyone dismissing this out of hand. This is (allegedly) happening in predominantly black and brown neighborhoods, and there are hundreds of reports from people who live in these neighborhoods of these fireworks going off

(a) FOR MANY HOURS PER NIGHT,

(b) FOR WEEKS,

(c) LIKE CLOCKWORK AT SCHEDULED TIMES,

(d) ALL AROUND THE COUNTRY'S TOWNS AND CITIES.

Do you all really think this is normal? Do you really think it's explainable by mere COVID-related price drops? I mean, just how cheap do you believe the fireworks are, that people in poor and middle-class neighborhoods can afford to go on for weeks firing off HOURS worth of them every single night? Why would they follow a schedule?

And if you think this isn't actually happening or that it's being exaggerated, do you disbelieve all these hundreds of reports that you're seeing not just on Son Of Baldwin's Twitter and Facebook but also on the unrelated posts on Reddit and elsewhere? Why do you think they are lying? How would so many ordinary people spontaneously concoct a lie about something like this? Are you all unaware of what the US government has done in response to black people's uprisings in this country, that you would consider this type of operation unlikely?

I am genuinely mystified by the consensus on this thread. If someone can explain to me why I should disbelieve the reports of hundreds of people living in black and brown neighborhoods across the country, I would love to be convinced, because I don't want to believe in this any more than you do.
posted by MiraK at 12:43 PM on June 21, 2020 [20 favorites]

Especially given that "Buy up all kinds of bad shit, put it in a van, hand-deliver it whoever's doing shit we want them not to do, then bust them for it" is the FBI's signature move, especially when it comes to people of color demanding their god-given & constitutional rights, it'd be historically ignorant to not at least think "Well, could be."
posted by bleep at 12:46 PM on June 21, 2020 [6 favorites]

Mod note: Folks the only way this thread on a conspiracy-adjacent topic will work out here is if we mostly keep it to experiences and reports and don't start having "But maybe it IS a conspiracy, prove that it's not" talk in here. Conspiracy theories are by their very nature unproveable. Talk about it, fine. Please don't get into the weeds, we know it's a thread on a tough topic.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 12:46 PM on June 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

Except we can all see & hear it happening around us, and the government is perfectly capable of doing anything as long as it's something they want to do.

What are they capable of doing, exactly? Depends on where you live, maybe, but where I am I assume maybe one percent of the people who usually do this on the 4th get caught doing it. That's why so many people keep doing it.

I have noticed an unusual number of fireworks going off, meaning basically it sounds like the week after the 4th, before the 4th - not intense displays but scattered explosions throughout the evening. It started basically right when the protests started so I assumed people were just bringing their noisemakers to that scene. The last couple days had a lot but there were protests and Juneteenth celebrations.
posted by atoxyl at 12:51 PM on June 21, 2020

Just to be clear, I am not asking anyone to prove it's not a conspiracy. I'm asking why so many here seem to be dismissing the idea that this is happening at all: that there are fireworks going off every single night for hours, that it has been going on for weeks, that it's happening in predominantly black and brown neighborhoods, that it's been much louder than 'regular' fireworks.

My comment isn't asking anyone to prove it's not the police/FBI/CIA/etc. engaging in a targeted conspiracy. My comment is asking why you all apparently disbelieve the reports from these folks that it IS happening at all? Or is it that you think it's normal..? Or that it isn't damaging...? I don't get it.
posted by MiraK at 12:52 PM on June 21, 2020 [8 favorites]

Except, unlike most conspiracy theories, this one is potentially self-fulfilling.

White nationalist asshats on Twitter are going to see this, and get ideas. I'm not particularly happy that we're helping to amplify it.
posted by schmod at 12:53 PM on June 21, 2020

I don't see lots of people on this thread dismissing that it's happening anywhere. Most people are saying whether it's happening where they live, that's all. Of course I believe it's happening in other cities and towns, why wouldn't I?
posted by potrzebie at 12:58 PM on June 21, 2020 [8 favorites]

Could any of this be that traffic noise is still reduced due to covid, so people are able to hear more fireworks? I've felt like airplanes are shockingly loud these days, and I'm pretty sure they're not flying lower than they usually do.
posted by OverlappingElvis at 1:02 PM on June 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

I haven't seen any mention of the Chinese New Year, which involves a lot of fireworks but which was substantially reduced this year at the last minute due to the emergence of the coronavirus. Those stocks would have been manufactured but not entirely consumed; perhaps some of the reduced prices are due to that. (Perhaps even different types of fireworks as well; more loud banging ones, for instance.)
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 1:17 PM on June 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

The cops conspiring somehow? I don't see it, really.

I can definitely see police conspiring - it's not as though police conspiring isn't a matter of public record by now - but the part that I can't get behind is that the Fire department is in on it. I'm pretty sure that fire departments - leaders and line alike - are canny enough to realize that they don't share a class interest with the police at this point. As the line goes, nobody's out there writing songs called "fuck the fire department."
posted by mhoye at 1:22 PM on June 21, 2020

Are there actually reports of people seeing or hearing about vans going around handing out free fireworks? That would be another thing altogether, and I apologize if I have missed those.

But there seems to be an increase in fireworks in dozens of cities across the country. It seems like if police or some other state actors were handing out/setting off fireworks as the primary driver of the increase it would be visible at least to some degree.
posted by geegollygosh at 1:26 PM on June 21, 2020

My comment is asking why you all apparently disbelieve the reports from these folks that it IS happening at all? Or is it that you think it's normal..? Or that it isn't damaging...? I don't get it.

I'm just reporting what I've seen where I live, which is that people are setting off fireworks in an area where they often do in the summer, but earlier and more of them, some coordinated with times of protest and unrest and some coordinated with times I'd expect a party. I have no way of crossreferencing that with what people are experiencing in other cities to say "oh yeah it's a little hectic over here but something truly weird is going on where you live" so I'm just reporting that it seems a little hectic over here.
posted by atoxyl at 1:29 PM on June 21, 2020

well, just as a data point - i've seen some increase in kalamazoo, but not anything real remarkable - and it seems to be decreasing
posted by pyramid termite at 1:32 PM on June 21, 2020

If there's no disbelief as to what's happening, then I'm mystified as to why nobody on here seems curious about the how and why and who and where of it.

I really don't want to believe in conspiracy theories.

I equally strongly WOULD like to know

(a) who is setting them off in these black and brown neighborhoods (is it kids? adults? civilians or are there more fire departments involved in addition to the one documented/exposed by NY Post?)

(b) why they're doing it on a schedule, and for so many weeks, and why only in black and brown neighborhoods? (is it really all just covid-related boredom which white people are peculiarly incapable of feeling but get some melanin and it's BAM BAM BAM? Send out reporters and ask a few questions, I beg.)

(c) how they are affording all these fireworks (remember: it's hours every night for a month), how much is it actually costing them, (talk to a dozen people who have been setting off the fireworks, write down their numbers)

(d) where they're picking up and storing these incredibly large supplies? where did they find a supplier? (the only reports we do have indicate that the fireworks are being offered to folks while they're walking the streets: if that's become common, it's weird as fuck and even more worthy of investigation)

There is just so much that's really strange about all this, so much that's crying out to be investigated. But this thread is full of "Eh, this is normal, nothing to see here," which is ... difficult for me to understand.
posted by MiraK at 1:32 PM on June 21, 2020 [10 favorites]

sounds about white

Also to be honest my bias reading MeFi specifically is... kind of the other way around, i.e. that there are a lot of white people in gentrifying areas who are easily perturbed by ruckus. This isn't really a response to the original Twitter thread and it is undoubtedly actually unfair to many in this thread so I'm just gonna acknowledge that.
posted by atoxyl at 1:34 PM on June 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

My friends have posted videos of fireworks literally hitting their bedroom windows. It is not normal, it is not merely the byproduct of a horde of NIMBY Karens (though they are loud & proud), and it is not happening only in black and brown neighborhoods. It definitely is weird that it started in earnest in concert with the George Floyd protests, but maybe that was just the catalyst for an extended catharsis.
posted by grumpybear69 at 1:40 PM on June 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

MiraK, part of what’s going on here is some of us live in neighborhoods where it’s common to hear scattered fireworks every night from mid June to mid July, and it’s also common for new people in the neighborhood every summer to demand the fireworks stop and say they are unacceptable, dangerous, “this wasn’t what I expected when I moved here,” call the police etc, which is a classic gentrification complain response. That’s the norm in lots of gentrifying neighborhoods. So many of us are used to hearing this from new white neighbors and rolling our eyes.

What the Twitter user in the FPP, and some other Mefites (especially in New York it seems like) are saying, is, no, I’m not new to my neighborhood, I’m not some gentrifier, and this stuff this year is substantially different, and look, here’s some evidence that at least some authorities have been involved in setting off firework.

I think in part because the post title asks a question, a lot of people have been responding with their own local experiences, and if my experience is “things are pretty much the same as usual except more people are setting them off in the middle of the street now that the parking lot on the corner got turned into a condo building,” it comes across as contradicting other people’s theories about the conspiracy. But I definitely don’t mean to contradict other people telling their personal experience about their own neighborhood and who might be behind it in their area.
posted by sallybrown at 1:45 PM on June 21, 2020 [7 favorites]

And if we had competent & professional police, perhaps they could be finding out who's setting off them off & going to talk to them, and perhaps people might consider talking to them because they wouldn't be afraid for their lives & the lives of everyone around them. Then maybe, if let's say it is just unusual boredom, we could find out where they're being supplied from & if anything illegal was happening there, it could be shut down. And maybe if the whole career of journalism wasn't being defunded every day, we could have actual reporting happening.

So even if this isn't being done on purpose, we still don't have access to the tools we specifically invented & the jobs we hired people for to help us solve this problem.
posted by bleep at 1:47 PM on June 21, 2020 [10 favorites]

"Only in black and brown areas" simply ISN'T TRUE.
posted by PhineasGage at 1:54 PM on June 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

And on top of that imagine if the populace had been supported in any way while we had to shelter in place, people wouldn't feel the need to act out like this, if that's what's happening.
posted by bleep at 1:54 PM on June 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

So many of us are used to hearing this from new white neighbors and rolling our eyes.

right, sallybrown, that's a great way to articulate the precise point of disconnect. I was calling it "disbelief" earlier, but it's more like people who live in places where the firework activity is the same as previous years (predominantly white, it seems) are parsing the complaints in OP as "ugh, here goes Karen again" when actually most reports are coming from neighborhoods most affected by protests, which are black and brown, and it's really NOT Karens complaining.

"Only in black and brown areas" simply ISN'T TRUE.

Due to the stunning lack of curiosity from reporters about this, I'm having to rely on my impression of the apparent and/or claimed race of people who are dismissing this as normal, people who are saying "Eh this is the same as usual," and those who are saying, "Yes my neighborhood has been bonkers." If anyone has better sourced data or whatever that my impression is wrong, I'd love to see it. This really needs investigation.
posted by MiraK at 1:57 PM on June 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

On the cop front, here is an account of one Philly redditor with a cop on their block who is setting off fireworks.
posted by grumpybear69 at 1:59 PM on June 21, 2020 [6 favorites]

The Times is reporting that fireworks complaints are up 8000% over last year, which I think is a strong indication that whatever's happening isn't the same kind of thing that happens every year.

They managed to interview one guy setting them off, and documented a couple people who have been injured in apparent fireworks accidents, but the reporting still leaves a lot of unknowns imo.
posted by grobstein at 2:02 PM on June 21, 2020 [15 favorites]

Thanks for acknowledging that, atoxyl. This next bit isn’t specifically directed at you, just your comment made me think of this: Consider that many of these communities are ones in which “is it gunfire or fireworks?” is a question you have to ask, and that makes it go beyond just “ruckus.”

There was a mass shooting three blocks from my apartment earlier this year. While gunfire is not common in my neighborhood, it’s happened enough times that my brain assumes gunfire and I have to wrestle the panic back long enough to listen for the crackle and go, “Oh, okay, just fireworks.” And I don’t even have PTSD or live in an area where gun violence is particularly common. For many people, this is not the same as loud music and raucous parties and there’s a reason the phrase “psychological warfare” was used. Fireworks may hit differently for communities where gun violence is not an abstract—even if it’s not intentional, the psychological effect may still be worse for predominantly black and brown communities.

Also... despite the claim that people are just bored and want to make some noise, I’ve heard zero uptick in people blasting loud music. Which seems cheaper and more accessible than fireworks, especially with a bunch of people still at home. So, you know, the boredom explanation is plausible, sure, but so is the idea that POC are being targeted using something that goes beyond just being a nuisance. There’s not conclusive evidence in either direction so I don’t know why we’re dismissing “cops trying to disrupt communities of color” out of hand.
posted by brook horse at 2:06 PM on June 21, 2020 [9 favorites]

Everyone in this thread is agreeing there is an unusually early, big, and frequent barrage of fireworks. Some here are saying "Hmmm, maybe there is a malicious conspiracy" and "There is no conclusive evidence against it."

Others of us look to basic human psychology, the impossibility of disproving a negative, and Occam's razor and say "Yup, folks have been cooped up, public fireworks shows have been cancelled, fireworks suppliers are cutting prices, and many folks remain riled up as part of the wave of righteous protests," and we see no reason to doubt that this fully explains the boom (sorry for the bad pun) in recent local fireworks.
posted by PhineasGage at 2:11 PM on June 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

(To not abuse the edit window)

And that would be one HELL of a continent-wide conspiracy for agents provacateurs to do this in neighborhoods (predominantly POC AND predominantly not) all over North America.
posted by PhineasGage at 2:14 PM on June 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

Even as early as the start of June, fireworks manufacturers were projecting higher sales. From the Slate link from my earlier comment at the top:

William Weimer, vice president and general counsel of Phantom Fireworks, a large national retailer, estimated that his company’s sales are up 15 percent across the country, most notably in the Northern states. July 4 falls on a Saturday this year, timing that has historically been associated with higher sales. But even after accounting for that, Phantom’s sales are much higher than expected. Weimer, who lives in Youngstown, Ohio, also told me, “What’s most surprising to me is that they’re also using them earlier.” I asked him how he knew that. “The same as you,” he said. “I hear more in my neighborhood.”

Industry roundtable event from June 3 (video, Facebook, ugh)
Also, apparently you can buy fireworks online now?? why???

Atlas began offering online sales during the pandemic, and retail sales are currently up 28 percent from 2019. Pelkey estimates that online sales now account for 24 percent of Atlas’ gross retail revenue. These online sales may be helping retailers to reach new customers—perhaps even ones who live in cities in Massachusetts, the lone state that still outlaws the sale of all types of fireworks.

So far in this thread, we've seen reports of organized consistent fireworks in New York. Normal-ish stuff other places. Maybe Boston, Philadelphia. Not much here in Memphis; more of "loud cars going up and down the street". Anywhere else? (This seems like the kind of thing a shared Google doc or something could help nail down.)
posted by Huffy Puffy at 2:18 PM on June 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

I don't like the "youth" assumption. In our city (Boston) some of our city councilors had an open forum about the fireworks problem, and it was clear (as clear as a collection of anecdotes can prove) that it was not just youth involved. Kids aren't the ones driving to Michigan with a U-Haul and reselling armaments that aren't available in the nearest states that sell fireworks (NH).
posted by mrgoldenbrown at 2:20 PM on June 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

I guess I'm not so sure conspiracy is so far-fetched. Couldn't it be both? Cheap fireworks/close to 4th of July, AND in some places the police and/or white supremacist groups who are super pissed their authority is being challenged have decided to terrorize Black people any way they can? We've all seen reports of the thousands of cops who belong to far right groups. Who would be surprised if the talk on some of those boards wasn't instructions on this sort of mission?

And if some of the posters say it is louder than normal, CONSTANT, and ongoing, doesn't that sound more coordinated than random? The far right in this country is filled with lunatics. And many of those wear a police badge so yeah, I'd believe it. Particularly in the absence of a better explanation. I'm not saying it's definitely true because I have no idea. But it's certainly plausible, and fantastically horrible. Goddamn.
posted by Glinn at 2:21 PM on June 21, 2020 [6 favorites]

Neither Occam's Razor nor human psychology are good reasons to dismiss an 8000% increase in fireworks-related complaints as totes normal, no investigation necessary.
posted by MiraK at 2:25 PM on June 21, 2020 [10 favorites]

Others of us look to basic human psychology, the impossibility of disproving a negative, and Occam's razor and say "Yup, folks have been cooped up, public fireworks shows have been cancelled, fireworks suppliers are cutting prices, and many folks remain riled up as part of the wave of righteous protests," and we see no reason to doubt that this fully explains the boom (sorry for the bad pun) in recent local fireworks.

Sometimes it's a good idea to do the ol' college try on proving a negative, even if it's not strictly possible, because otherwise you just end up believing whatever hypothesis seems most normal to you, and (1) the most normal theory is not guaranteed to be true (even if it is usually true), (2) your sense of what's normal isn't guaranteed to be accurate.

Like, it's one thing to say, "There is no evidence that could conclusively eliminate the possibility that this is a conspiracy," another to say, "Therefore, there is no reason to be minimally curious and check if there's any evidence that this is a conspiracy."

Weird occurrences sometimes have weird explanations, and if we rule that out in advance, we're gonna be wrong sometimes.

The Times story includes several paragraphs quoting various people to the effect that, "Oh no, because the NYPD is so busy / being treated so unfairly, it can't take care of quality of life issues, and this nightly bombardment is the result." This could certainly be true, of course, but it's also an instance of an extremely convenient narrative that the NYPD has been pushing through all its public mouthpieces for weeks. So, like, given how little we know about this still-unfolding story that is way out of the norm, I think subversive explanations are still on the table.
posted by grobstein at 2:27 PM on June 21, 2020 [7 favorites]

They managed to interview one guy setting them off
Who says he is doing them in part as a sign of defiance toward the police, if people don't want to read the article.


Not much here in Memphis; more of "loud cars going up and down the street"

Speaking of this, the thing that has seemed notably different to me this year here in downtown Calgary is an increase in loud cars and especially loud motorcycles. Is that something that people elsewhere are experiencing?
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 2:31 PM on June 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

So far in this thread, we've seen reports of organized consistent fireworks in New York. Normal-ish stuff other places. Maybe Boston, Philadelphia. Not much here in Memphis; more of "loud cars going up and down the street". Anywhere else?

I thought about starting a google form but I feel like there's so many fucking bad actors in this country that there would be no way to verify or trust the results.

But do consider this AskMe I posted on June 11 (almost 10 days ago), with no mention of conspiracy theories or theories of any kind, has 50 answers from all over the country.
posted by bleep at 2:44 PM on June 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

The Slate article cited in reply to that AskMe post is clear and direct.

I think I will save my tinfoil to use for the July 4th BBQ...
posted by PhineasGage at 2:56 PM on June 21, 2020

A single slate article whose these is basically "People want to buy them we guess?" doesn't do it for me, personally.
posted by bleep at 2:59 PM on June 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

That article had less reporting than this thread does, lol.
posted by MiraK at 3:01 PM on June 21, 2020 [7 favorites]

this year here in downtown Calgary is an increase in loud cars and especially loud motorcycles

Can confirm an increase in Ottawa in what sounds like street-racing, as well as herds? flocks? of motorcycles, sometimes in the afternoon but mostly in the evening after dark. It has begun to decrease a little with the start of reopening in Ontario and more other traffic on the roads.
posted by heatherlogan at 3:18 PM on June 21, 2020

My sister in Denver has taken her horse and left. It's costing thousands and she doesn't know if she can home again this summer but there's no option. Well, there is an option but she's not willing to continue watching her horse be traumatized and injuring itself every evening.
posted by ezust at 3:24 PM on June 21, 2020 [6 favorites]

Sounds like a citizens’ data project. If someone had the time maybe they could FOIA the gunshot detector data from the (many) various cities that use them (including the sounds not categorized as gunshots) and compare year on year etc.

They use these tools to promote fear. Use these tools for the public interest.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 3:24 PM on June 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

Huh. There have been a bunch extra here in JC lately...a cluster of really big pro ones really nearby the other night. If it happens again I will definitely go out and try to track it down. This IS a weird situation, but it has been a LOT of fireworks lately. On the other hand there are usually some fireworks going on during the summer anyway, but we are up at least 50% from normal.
posted by sexyrobot at 3:42 PM on June 21, 2020

This is not something I've seen in were I live, probably because it's a downtown area. This thread is weird and interesting news to me.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 3:53 PM on June 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

I live in a rural area. We get fireworks starting around this time of year every year - there's a reservation nearby with several fireworks stands, so it's a Thing That Happens.

This year, though...I started hearing them sporadically starting two weeks ago.
posted by Tailkinker to-Ennien at 3:54 PM on June 21, 2020

Sounds like a citizens’ data project. If someone had the time maybe they could FOIA the gunshot detector data from the (many) various cities that use them (including the sounds not categorized as gunshots) and compare year on year etc.

I doubt you could get hold of the raw recordings. Shotspotter takes the position that that data is proprietary, and non-gunshot recordings seem like they might implicate privacy exemptions to public records laws. However, there have been successful public records requests for Shotspotter incident data. Here's an example from Oakland. I'm not sure if New York has received or complied with any requests like this.
posted by grobstein at 3:58 PM on June 21, 2020

Around the time the protests started id say a month ago my white christian evangelical neighbors aimed a firework at me as i came up the driveway. They had been shooting them over my trailer that day. I nervously asked them what they were doing and the guy grinned in an unnerving smile and said "it's the fourth of july." I asked them to shoot them off a different direction and the woman said she already was, as i walked off she said "im tired of their SHIT" maybe referring to my roommate who gets drunk and screams a lot. Fun times. People like this are why i have social anxiety tbh.
posted by Valued Customer at 3:59 PM on June 21, 2020 [11 favorites]

I'm pretty sure that fire departments - leaders and line alike - are canny enough to realize that they don't share a class interest with the police at this point.

Surely you're kidding. Firefighters and cops are both on the Axis of Toxic Masculinity.
posted by notsnot at 4:14 PM on June 21, 2020 [6 favorites]

Mod note: folks, small friendly note. We're not asking you to agree but please keep the ableist language out of here. Thank you.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 4:18 PM on June 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

Surprised no one has linked yet to X's classic ode to these annual pyrotechnics.
posted by PhineasGage at 4:23 PM on June 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

I would just like to know why people are setting off visual display fireworks before dusk. Such a waste.
posted by srboisvert at 4:43 PM on June 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

South Philly, and its a lot more than normal. It really sucks.

West Philly has been getting hit for ages.

For the longest time, the official "explanation" was the "looters are blowing up ATMs" which after week 5 of this shit, was clearly patent nonsense. People photographed sonic warfare military trucks in west philly, though some said that the type of tech those carry are not typically designed for explosion sounds.

West Philly is especially upsetting due to demographics and the memory of when our pd literally dropped a bomb on a neighborhood (MOVE, 80s)

idgaf if you think this is normal boredom shit or cheaper fireworks - maybe someplaces that's true. In philly, something else is going on.
posted by lazaruslong at 4:57 PM on June 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

if you are interested in learning more you can google #phillyexplosions for much more info
posted by lazaruslong at 4:59 PM on June 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

In my distant-suburb-of-SF town (Antioch) local social media has been filled with people asking "What's up with all the fireworks?" There does seem to a a lot, and they seem bigger than ever before. It's hot and windy here and I'm a might concerned about fires. But to have this pop up on Metafilter? Interesting.
But "concerted psyops campaign to destabilize troublesome populations?" seems waaaayy out there. Nothing in this town has ever been that organized. And we aren't important enough for anyone to bother subverting anything here.
Still, there sure are a lot of fireworks.
posted by cccorlew at 5:03 PM on June 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

After extensive research I'm leaning towards the theory that people are generally jerkoffs
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 5:15 PM on June 21, 2020 [9 favorites]

Consider that many of these communities are ones in which “is it gunfire or fireworks?” is a question you have to ask, and that makes it go beyond just “ruckus.”

where I'm coming from is just - my experience is that those are the places where illegal fireworks tend to happen in urban areas anyway, for the same reason that they are places where other nuisance crimes happen

honestly the big issue I have is that people like a week ago were like ACAB DEFUND THE POLICE and then when the rubber meets the road -- when the time comes to actually apply the lessons you should have learned -- the response is just to once more be intensely resistant to the idea that cops could be misbehaving.

well again I think it's less that than - for what some of us have encountered the simplest explanation is "kids misbehaving," and thus the non-police, anti-authoritarian response is not to treat it as a big deal. But again I don't claim to be able to rule out that the situation in, say, NYC, is on a different level.
posted by atoxyl at 5:28 PM on June 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

At the same time this is what police should be for, and in other countries where they don't go around murdering anyone they see fit to with no consequences, this is maybe something they could actually help with. There's either some reason this is happening, or, though more unlikely, no reason, either way we deserve to understand what's going on.
posted by bleep at 5:45 PM on June 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

I have no problem dismissing the conspiracy theories out of hand because of Occam's Razor: the simplest explanation is that a combination of boredom, a high level of general stress and agitation, and abnormally low prices due to demand disruptions equals people shooting off fireworks.

There are a host of other social, political, and economic stresses working on people now. I have little doubt in my mind that the protests were sustained as much as they were by displaced frustration and anger that found a way to ground after George Floyd's murder at the hands of cops. Displaced anger about the shithead in the White House, serious economic anxiety (not the "economic anxiety" dodge of whisper-racism, but actual economic anxiety), and letting off fireworks every night becomes A Thing. A trend that reinforces itself by its very visibility.

Fireworks every night is a relatively benign way for a country full of depressed, scared, angry people to freak out.
posted by tclark at 6:07 PM on June 21, 2020 [7 favorites]

Another twitter thread: big professional shows are cancelled; fireworks dealers are unloading whatever they can, sometimes without regard for legal requirements, to whoever will take it; the market's all out of balance because of the pandemic; fires result.

So basically the reason people keep setting off fireworks every day is the same reason people keep trying to sell me cheap restaurant-quality duck breasts and fish.
posted by zachlipton at 6:14 PM on June 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

lazarauslong: People were definitely blowing up ATMs. One got bombed two blocks from my house. There's been all sorts of shit going on. The fireworks, opportunistic moves by organized crime, probably some psyops stuff. Those LRAD trucks can make really loud sounds but I'm not sure they can do explosions. But who knows? Anyhow, there is no One Thing that is happening. At least the ATM attacks have stopped.
posted by grumpybear69 at 6:16 PM on June 21, 2020

The fireworks have been essentially nonstop every night since early April here in Miami. Sometimes it's the people next door, sometimes the ones across the street, sometimes farther away. The only thing unusual is it starting earlier than normal and being more frequent than usual.

I farking hate the free for all, but calling the cops never seemed like an appropriate response, no matter how freaked out the dogs get. I have seen them roll through the neighborhood shortly after someone sets off a few M80s more than once, though, so I'm pretty sure it is confusing the shit out of ShotSpotter.
posted by wierdo at 6:18 PM on June 21, 2020

Mod note: A few comments removed, this needs to not turn into a public fight. I'm gonna ask folks to try and give stuff that little bit of room for benefit of the doubt even on a topic where folks have good reasons to be feeling on edge and worn out. tclark, I get that you're trying to contrast with other more outlandishly violent possibilities, but I think "benign" in this context lands pretty poorly and sorta academically distant given people have been talking about being pretty upset and personally affected by all the explosions. Please take more care to not abstract a concretely traumatic experience as a "this is easy to explain" sort of thought experiment.
posted by cortex (staff) at 6:51 PM on June 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

Thanks for bringing this up, an internet friend was just complaining about fireworks, and this was an interesting thing to pass on to them. I'm far away from major cities, so haven't experienced it, but my frequent-fireworks-using rural neighbors have moved on to target practice in the woods and i am so tired of hearing guns, guns, guns.
posted by mittens at 6:52 PM on June 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

I just saw a massive plume of black smoke from West Philadelphia, followed by many fire truck sirens. This is also an area where lots of fireworks are going off. One thing I worry about is these stupid-ass fireworks lighting someone's house on fire, which in a packed area like Philadelphia can take out an entire neighborhood.

Also the fireworks I'm watching are seriously professional-grade.
posted by grumpybear69 at 6:54 PM on June 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

I don’t feel like I know enough to decide one way or the other whether this is the result of a conspiracy or just an organic outcome (although I do feel like I know enough to not rule out the former possibility a priori), but I’m quite sure that every self-satisfied invocation of Occam’s Razor in this thread is an abuse of the concept. Besides its being merely a heuristic and not an epistemological law, and besides its application being tailored to hypotheses in the realm of the physical sciences, it merely suggests that the explanation with fewer assumptions is to be preferred. Every explanation here that invokes it hand waves at ill-defined and under-informed notions like “basic human psychology” alongside speculation about our general emotional state, which involves to my eye significantly more assumptions than the statement that the authorities are feeding this. That’s just on technical terms, but what’s worse is that the deployment of Occam’s Razor here, if it’s coming from any place of genuine knowledge of what it means, implies that the notion of coordinated malfeasance on the part of American law enforcement is an afactual assumption to be done away with in some nominally reasonable accounting of what’s going on, and that’s plainly bullshit. Like I said, I don’t feel confident making a judgment right now, but I certainly won’t be using such pretentious, incoherent and frankly wrong arguments as I see here to guide my opinion.
posted by invitapriore at 6:56 PM on June 21, 2020 [11 favorites]

grumpybear69 yeah, that's why they are even super illegal to set them off!!!! In Philly, it's illegal to set off fireworks within 150 feet of an occupied structure (read: house for sure) so like some embers landing on the roof of a row home is a serious threat. But just no one cares and the cops don't enforce. I really hope everyone is okay in west philly. There were some powerful video testimonies from people around when MOVE happened who are very upset about the ongoing psychological distress from all of this, ATMs / fireworks / psyops / cops.
posted by lazaruslong at 6:58 PM on June 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

My neighborhood is a semi-rural lakeside community with a bunch of rentals. Tourists have hurdles if they come to Maine and my neighborhood is way quieter than usual, fewer cars, fireworks are rare. I went for a walk last night @ 11, it was blissfully quiet.

When fireworks became legal in Maine (due to very heavy lobbying from fireworks vendors) there were times when it was ridiculous, constant fireworks, strings and strings of firecrackers. I kind of understand why it's fun, but it takes a toll.
posted by theora55 at 7:04 PM on June 21, 2020

I just saw a post on Twitter from someone who actually located and spoke to some fireworks-setter-offers and has some interesting info that seems to back some answers up. The full post is here, but some excerpts:

I did a bit of research and found out that fireworks are really inexpensive right now. Also, there is a hobbyist movement where people make custom packages by combining off-the-shelf products in a chain.

The poster talks about how they tracked down two sites of firework-setter-offers the other night, and politely but firmly asked them to stop. One guy (who was one of the hobbyists) at first protested ("c'mon, it's Saturday!") but then apologized and stopped. The other group was a bunch of teenagers, who apologized and stopped.

However, they describe seeing a third setter-offer - a couple people who drove up somewhere in a car, set something off, then quickly gathered up the detritus and drove off. Which is....weird.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:05 PM on June 21, 2020 [7 favorites]

firework-setter-offers

fireworkers?
posted by paper chromatographologist at 7:10 PM on June 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

[Using Occam's Razor to dismiss this] hand waves at ill-defined and under-informed notions like “basic human psychology” alongside speculation about our general emotional state, which involves to my eye significantly more assumptions than the statement that the authorities are feeding this.

Yeah, I'd really like to know what is this simpler explanation for an 8000% increase in setting off fireworks? Fireworks have not become 8000% cheaper.
posted by MiraK at 7:21 PM on June 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

This thread (including a post only two above), and the many other sources that have been linked to, are filled with specific examples of how and why individuals all over the country are setting off an uncommonly large and earlier-than-ever barrage of fireworks. One can choose to ignore the wealth of specific information that is cited in this very thread, but that still doesn't provide a bit of actual information in favor of the "psy ops by cops" theorizing presented in the original post and favored by some folks commenting here.
posted by PhineasGage at 7:34 PM on June 21, 2020

The people talking about psy-ops conspiracies seem to have forgotten that other countries also exist, and that some of them may not have enhancing America's internal stability as their top priority.
posted by heatherlogan at 7:35 PM on June 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

Well, free money and free time, for one. Proponents of UBI like to say that people will spend it on foreign language lessons, and bettering themselves, but people will also spend it on alcohol and fireworks (and shares of Hertz). Especially since eviction moratoriums mean rent money not longer has to be spent on rent. The pandemic has upended society and are everyone's tired of being cooped up and on top of non-essential businesses being closed, bars/clubs have also been closed for months. In the BC era, some people's lives used to revolve around going out and being out four or more nights a week. Where's all of that energy gone? Online video calling is a poor substitute, and the night owls haven't all picked up hiking as a wholesome day hobby instead.

For Oakland, a FOIA request for ShotSpotter data has been filed to get some numbers in order to do a quantitative comparison between this year and the past two years, which will put to rest the debate over the number of fireworks being launched compared to last year (for Oakland, anyway).

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, even (especially) in these extraordinary times. I don't think it's impossible that the police or a different governmental agency is running a psyops campaign (especially given the police riot post
on also up on the Blue right now), but it seems improbable. Considering the Iran-Contra affair, it's also possible that both are true - that it's a psyops against the poor for choosing to not pulling hard enough on their bootstraps in order to have more money to live in a more expensive neighborhood AND that the perpetrators are mostly local young adults who live in said neighborhood, but being supplied by the government. Personally that strains credulity, but then, so did the Iran-Contra affair.

If the unaccounted for CARES act money went to corporations that manufacture fireworks, who are turning around and selling them in poorer neighborhoods, would that still count as a government run psyop?
posted by fragmede at 7:35 PM on June 21, 2020 [3 favorites]

Ah. It's that time of night again. Every couple minutes, another one or a string of them go off, and it's going to continue for hours. Always the same loudness, too--I never hear it further away, muffled in the distance, or alarmingly closer (though it's already pretty alarmingly close). But I don't know how fireworks sound travels, so.

I'd still like to see an explanation for why, if people are so cooped out and want to party, there's not also a rash of people playing loud music at all hours of the day. I'm not saying I believe the psy ops explanation, who fucking knows in 2020 at this point. But I really do wonder why it's only fireworks, and not any of the other nuisances that generally pick up in the summer.
posted by brook horse at 7:42 PM on June 21, 2020 [4 favorites]

oddly, I've noticed a decrease in two areas of Michigan. Flint is usually rife with fireworks/ weapons fire. I think folks have other things going on. Another aspect I see is family of our vets speaking out/ confronting against excessive fireworks.

They generally don't like them.
posted by clavdivs at 7:43 PM on June 21, 2020

Can confirm multiple fireworks going off every night all through the west side of Buffalo, NY every night from 6-7pm usually through 11, sometimes 2am. I hear it’s happening in suburbs and rural areas too. Not normal. More, louder, nightly, and Big. My dog is a freaking wreck.
posted by Riverine at 7:50 PM on June 21, 2020

Yeah, I'd really like to know what is this simpler explanation for an 8000% increase in setting off fireworks? Fireworks have not become 8000% cheaper.

Well, there has been an 8000% increase in fireworks complaints, which does not correlate to an 8000% increase in setting off fireworks. I don’t think it’s that hard to imagine there is a significant increase in people setting them off and people that normally would not complain, complaining because they are stuck at home 24/7 and on their last nerve.
posted by Automocar at 7:55 PM on June 21, 2020 [6 favorites]

I'd still like to see an explanation for why, if people are so cooped out and want to party, there's not also a rash of people playing loud music at all hours of the day.

There has been in my neighborhood, though it has been offset by the suspension of the weekend burlesque shows in my next door neighbor's backyard. In that sense, it has been more of a shift in timing than an increase in loud music. The lone exception being the other white folks who are being forced to work from home, who sound like they are running a late-90s radio station of their very own several afternoons a week now. All my other neighbors are still going to work every day.
posted by wierdo at 8:10 PM on June 21, 2020

If you are the kind of person who would be entertained by setting off fireworks, and other entertainment options are closed to you, and fireworks become cheaper, and fireworks become more plentiful, and it becomes obvious there's no risk of punishment or even harassment from authorities, I would expect firework usage to go way up. And each evening you hear them going off is like an advertisement, promising that you too can get in on the action.

Cops setting them off is I suppose possible, but I'm having trouble really seeing why they'd approach it that way. The logistics of them keeping them going six hours each evening for weeks seems a lot of work and risk for harassment they typically do other ways.

Selective non-enforcement OTOH is something they boast about, so certainly that's a thing.
posted by mark k at 8:18 PM on June 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

At the same time this is what police should be for

Certainly one of the things that finally penetrated my brain thanks to the activism and protests is how silly it is to have an armed response to something like kids setting off fireworks. So I'd say no, this is not something police in the US should be for.
posted by mark k at 8:22 PM on June 21, 2020 [11 favorites]

I can't believe how many people are finding this remotely credible. I suppose it's possible that some weird outlier in some small town stirred some shit up with these tactics. But many of the rest of us live in places with actual frequent gunfire. Fireworks are pretty welcome for me at this point.

The pop pop started a little early in DC this year, but really feels like "shit's cheaper; more reasons to make noise" is a perfectly reasonable explanation. Also, if you haven't noticed, the senate is doing their damndest to fuck us over right now. One thing we're allowed to do is fireworks.

The idea that the cops have anything to do with it is frankly laughable. Give me some evidence that that's even possible, or get lost. We know what the cops are good at, and this kind of concerted organized movement isn't that.
posted by aspersioncast at 8:23 PM on June 21, 2020 [4 favorites]

Not a huge fan of being told on MeFi or anywhere to provide my labor to give you evidence or get lost. I think I'll not get lost, thanks so much.

Feel free to read this Twitter thread or google #phillyexplosions. You can actually choose to research a question yourself before you tell your fellow mefites to educate you or get lost.

There's photos of LDAR trucks in West Philly, there's first hand reports of actual cops setting off firworks, there's first hand reports of grown adults getting out of a car, setting off fireworks, then getting back in and driving away, there's many many cases where the locus of explosions are within a block of police precints. For fuck's sake. There's a middle ground between the strawman of National Seekret Police Conspiracy and Cops Are Fucking With Us In A Multitude Of Ways When and Where They Can. I'm so fucking over the casual submissiveness on display here, christ. Feel free to skip the thread.
posted by lazaruslong at 8:48 PM on June 21, 2020 [15 favorites]

Yeah I mean, I don’t know what’s going on with these fireworks, but it’s 2020 and I don’t really think anything is impossible. Hell, if aliens showed up tomorrow, gave us a cure for COVID, then left, only to come back 6 months later to vaporize the planet, in order to fuck with us, I would not think that outside the bounds of possibility at this point.

The year is not even half over!
posted by Automocar at 9:07 PM on June 21, 2020 [5 favorites]

Speaking of this, the thing that has seemed notably different to me this year here in downtown Calgary is an increase in loud cars and especially loud motorcycles. Is that something that people elsewhere are experiencing?

A bit. Gas is cheap. Roads are quiet and lots of people with loud motorcycles are able to ride when they wouldn't normally be able to. Also a ride in town (where people can hear) is more SIP acceptable than normal cruises that venture into unbuilt up areas so maybe more time is being spent in occupied areas even if the actual volume of ridership hasn't changed.

I'd really like to know what is this simpler explanation for an 8000% increase in setting off fireworks? Fireworks have not become 8000% cheaper.

The 8000% is a single source; numbers I've seen are more in the 150-200% range. Even takening that number as correct it is for complaints. If people are used to (IE: don't bother reporting) say a 100 firework events per day and incidents increase 15% combined with a 10% increase in volume could easily result in a massive increase in complaints despite a relatively modest increase in events. Especially considering people are home more.

In a country that had, the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis, MKULTRA and COINTELPRO I can't be 100% dismissive of the conspiracy theory of country wide, coordinated psyops campaign. But IMO it really seems more likely that some subset of the population likes loud bangs and is bored and frustrated. Some of those guys are even going to be cops. Especially because the payback for the cost in material and human resources seems totally disproportionate and pretty insignificant.
posted by Mitheral at 9:08 PM on June 21, 2020 [6 favorites]

casual *dismissiveness what a weird typo sorry
posted by lazaruslong at 9:12 PM on June 21, 2020 [1 favorite]

I'm in Philadelphia, in a neighborhood that is both very white and very embarrassingly newsworthy about it. People here LOVE fireworks, and have the entire decade I've lived here. Baseline fireworks level is very high, I can sleep through just about anything now. I'm generally fine with it, you get used to it and it can be kind of fun.

This spring though, it's been very extra. It's midnight right now, and people have been lighting fireworks off in the park since before it was dark out. Huge professional fireworks and extra loud fireworks, for days now. I think the last few days have been the same group of people (3-4), as they seem to be getting better at coordinating them more like a professional show over time. Last night they woke me up at 2 am. The last time something did that it was the oil refinery exploding. This is too much fireworks. Cops have driven by and done nothing, but that's also normal and something I'm fine with during the usual fireworks frequency. The people stopped while the park ranger was there closing the gates, started back up again after.

The street I'm on is popular for loud music in cars, and huge roving groups of dirtbikes, ATVs and motorcycles. Hate the sound but the people are having fun so whatever. It's not as pronounced as the increase in fireworks but, as an example, in the course of writing this comment it sounded like a dirtbike crew went by and, separately, a car with extra loud music. So I think noise making is extra popular right now.

That said, whatever was going on during the curfew was weird, and I don't think can be explained just with the ATM explosions. It was like we were being shelled, plus helicopters.
posted by sepviva at 9:22 PM on June 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

'Way upthread Homeboy Trouble mentioned China and how Lunar New Year was effectively cancelled there this year. This could very well be a factor, and now I understand why fireworks are cheaper and more readily available in the US, given a market flooded with oversupply.
posted by Rash at 10:04 PM on June 21, 2020

Gothamist says firework complaints in NYC are up 230x from this time last year, and the Brooklyn Borough President held a press conference saying he believes "there is a clear pathway of illegal fireworks into the city". (Though note that NYC's 311 system didn't allow complaints to be filed online until late June 2019.)

Some nice links in the article: an ad from a fireworks store 90 minutes out of the city offering 3 for 1 deals and curbside pickup, a video of three separate after-midnight fireworks displays a few blocks apart, fireworks launched from the building behind an NYPD precinct.
posted by ectabo at 10:06 PM on June 21, 2020 [2 favorites]

Ironically, tonight has been the quietest fireworks night here in Miami since the George Floyd protests began. I heard a few off in the distance a few hours ago, but that was all.
posted by wierdo at 10:17 PM on June 21, 2020

Funny, same experience in SF tonight - much quieter. Although it's a Sunday night...
posted by PhineasGage at 10:25 PM on June 21, 2020

Just as I loaded this thread, there was a big firework boom in the distance. I would like not to have another night comforting the dog, please.
posted by RakDaddy at 10:44 PM on June 21, 2020

I live in Brooklyn. There was a shooting about a month ago that involved our downstairs-most neighbor (we're on the top floor)--as in, my spouse heard the neighbor shouting for someone to call 911. For the past 2-3 weeks, it has been goddamn Firework City out there. So fuck yes this is giving me constant anxiety, and fuck yes I'm absolutely taking the conspiracy theory seriously.

Also these are loud fuck-off booms that once woke up our entire house at 2 in the morning. We have a 4-year-old who is slowly becoming terrified of sleeping in their (street-facing) bedroom because the booms are so relentlessly loud. And we've lived here for at least 5-6 years; this is absolutely not week-of-the-4th nonsense, which happens around the 4th, not a solid month earlier.

I currently cannot sleep, because my room is also street-facing and I keep waiting for another boom to go off and wake up everybody. (That was two nights ago. Last night, there were a bunch of kids running around pointing fireworks at everybody, across the street from us and down one house. I want to live in a pit somewhere until like September.) Every single fucking night from 7:30 PM to 2 AM for weeks, like clockwork. No way that's just boredom and low low prices.


Though I do note that the psych warfare out there has been turned down a bit tonight. Only one or two of them were literally in front of our house! Novel.
posted by XtinaS at 11:28 PM on June 21, 2020 [6 favorites]

Hm. Here in NW Detroit, we have definitely had a TON of fireworks going off. They really kicked off in earnest right around the start of the protests, and for at least the first night I was worried that it might be an assault like Minneapolis has seen. This is a quiet, friendly, middle class 80% Black neighborhood. The Detroit Rebellion and tanks rolling through neighborhoods like this (and including this) is not far from anyone’s minds in thinking about police/State response. But the consensus on Nextdoor and Facebook and on the street is that fireworks are cheap and people are bored; I think the prevalence eggs them on. Now there are raging Nextdoor wars between “Call the Police/Why Can’t the Police Do Anything?” and “For the love of God, please do not call the police on this behavior”. Predictably, the “Call the Police/Think of my poor dog” side is pretty uniformly white new neighbors. I am a white new neighbor too, and we have wrestled with our role in gentrification so, so much, but this seems fucking obvious to me. When my wife and I moved here, we vowed never to call the police into the neighborhood short of a home invasion, robbery, or stolen car. We diligently report derelict property and graffiti and the rest to the Community Council, which works with the city. If you call 911, there is a fair chance that one of our neighbors will get harassed, assaulted, detained, or killed by the response. Doesn’t seem very neighborly to me. If the 7th Precinct is setting these things off, that wouldn’t really surprise me and it sucks. But if it is psy ops, we’re not going to fall for it.
posted by skookumsaurus rex at 4:41 AM on June 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

A show of force in West Harlem this morning, with fireworks barely audible over the sirens.
posted by notquitemaryann at 5:53 AM on June 22, 2020 [3 favorites]

Cops in riot gear in Flatbush.
posted by grumpybear69 at 6:32 AM on June 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

Like, just let people have fun, man

These things have been going off nightly literally half a block from me from around 10pm to around 4am with a pretty regular cadence, for a week and a half or more. I'm more than happy to let people have fun; I'd like to get a full night's sleep once in a while.

The people setting them off don't even seem to be having fun: I wandered over to check out one group lighting them, and they were sitting around doing something else, with the fireworks launching from the middle of the street, to which they were paying no observable attention. Fun!
posted by kenko at 6:50 AM on June 22, 2020 [5 favorites]

I was chatting about this last night with a group of friends and heard two (anecdotal) experiences of people who drove out to new hiking spots during covid to get out in nature and picked up fireworks from roadside stands on the way back because they thought it would be “fun to try.” These people hadn’t set off big fireworks before and didn’t consider how it might come across to neighbors, whether it was safe, whether it was legal, etc. Set them off after dark in city neighborhoods and were surprised at the force of them (...yeah). An angle (of stupidity) I hadn’t considered before.
posted by sallybrown at 7:41 AM on June 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

I'm not sure how that Twitter thread substantiates anything? There are also a shitload more loud cars and motorcycles rolling around; are the cops doing that too?

I'm sure it's possible that there are cops doing this somewhere, but the idea that there's some sort of organized effort in urban areas really needs substantiation.

In NE DC there are literally vans just off-loading tons of nice fireworks cheap, in the grocery store parking lots. People are bored. We have had crazy-ass fireworks going off for months now. I'm honestly not even sure it's more than usual (Memorial Day through late July there are always fireworks here), but everyone is home, all the time, to notice it.
posted by aspersioncast at 7:46 AM on June 22, 2020 [5 favorites]

So, I just went on an errand for my boss that took me on a walk around my neighborhood. Part of it took me through a nearby park - and I saw dozens of boxes sitting out on the grass, each one a spent box of fireworks. Most of them are what appear to be "repeaters", which that site defines as "multi-shot aerials with a single fuse."

There were easily about forty such spent boxes scattered throughout that park. I was stunned - partly because I live so close I'm surprised I didn't hear more than I have been.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:49 AM on June 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

An LOL via Matt Yglesias: "American Pyrotechnics Association says we need a fireworks bailout or else the one-off cancellation of July 4 celebrations will create permanent bankruptcies throughout the industry."
posted by PhineasGage at 8:01 AM on June 22, 2020

Yeah, it sounds silly, but it's really no different from other seasonal/entertainment industries that are on the brink of collapse.

In this case, I'd also specifically want the skilled/experienced professionals to remain in the industry, rather than trying to reboot it with new talent in a year or two.
posted by schmod at 8:13 AM on June 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

I'm not sure how that Twitter thread substantiates anything? There are also a shitload more loud cars and motorcycles rolling around; are the cops doing that too?

West Harlem at 3am, nine hours ago.
posted by lazaruslong at 9:07 AM on June 22, 2020 [9 favorites]

Damn, they're doing BOGOs on large scale fireworks boxes for $25 each. For like $200 you could have 16 boxes of high-grade near-pro fireworks. No wonder.
posted by grumpybear69 at 9:10 AM on June 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

Welcome to the party.
It was worse here in Outer NYC/North Shore Long Island in April-May. Big Bada-Boom

Sort of calmed down in June.
posted by xtian at 10:10 AM on June 22, 2020

With all of this, I wonder if there is an uptick in fireworks-related wounds. Because people doing dumb shit with fireworks often results in lost digits, blindness, or worse.

Plus, fire season hasn't even started in the US yet, so that will be fun if this continues.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 10:14 AM on June 22, 2020

I also live in Philly, in a pretty diverse neighborhood. We have definitely noticed more fireworks, basically every night. For a while there were also helicopters circling (well after the protests had become peaceful and daytime) so if anything this feels slightly calmer.
posted by n. moon at 10:35 AM on June 22, 2020

In West Harlem last night (link: twitter video), 50+ police vehicles showed up and drove very slowly in a procession around the neighborhood with their sirens on and horns blaring ... at 3 am... for 30 minutes.

Someone in the neighborhood called the police to ask wtf was happening:

"I just spoke to an officer Graham at the 32nd Precinct (Comm Affairs) (link: twitter status) who said officers were sent from multiple precincts to respond to a complaint of between ‘1000-2000 people’ at 141st & Frederick Douglass Blvd...
..."when pressed about whether there were any arrests (link:twitter status) at this huge gathering (that I never witnessed!) she had no information, nor did she have an explanation how having 50+ police vehicles with their sirens blaring for half an hour at 3:00AM over ten blocks solved the problem"

Residents of the neighborhood report that there had been continuous and very loud fireworks from 7 pm to 1:30 am... and then at 3 am, this.
posted by MiraK at 11:23 AM on June 22, 2020 [7 favorites]

This whole thread distilled into one Vox article: "Why it feels like there are a lot more fireworks this year."
posted by PhineasGage at 11:47 AM on June 22, 2020

Another WHITE article with zero reporting and just ~kind of a hunch~ that PoC should STFU and stop overreacting. No, sorry, there is a real need to investigate here. It should not be difficult for reporters to find and interview a bunch of people who did set off fireworks.

(It should not be difficult. If it is difficult, that in itself is extremely suspicious.)

Let's hear the reasons of the actual people on the ground who are setting these fireworks off.

And in the meantime, please stop with the gaslighting language. It doesn't "feel like" there are more fireworks this year, clearly, even the article says in its first sentence that there ARE. But headlines like that serve the overall WHITE purpose of calling PoC crazy for the sin of perceiving reality. That headline calls into question the veracity of PoC reporting their lived experience.
posted by MiraK at 11:54 AM on June 22, 2020 [17 favorites]

Here's some real reporting, or at least good beginnings for real reporting. All links are to twitter statuses.

"I talked to the kids on my block tonight. They told me they bought *professional grade fireworks* from a random white man in a black SUV. What they showed me were GIANT, parade level fireworks. Those aren't easily available in NYC. Should have cost $300+ ...for $20."

My husband saw a black SUV on Quincy in BedStuy selling loads of big fireworks for cheap. There were people lined up to buy them.

I just watched people set off industrial strength fireworks right in front of some cops, and a block and a half away from the precinct. The precinct must hear the explosions and notice they’re louder than usual. The cops watched the display, and pulled off when it was over.

I have not seen one viral video of some knuckleheads showing off or bragging about fireworks. Presumably, they spent hundreds of dollars on professional grade fireworks for 8 hours a night over the last two weeks and NO ONE MADE VIDEO OF IT? The hood brags about EVERYTHING on social media, but not this? The radio silence is almost as deafening as the actual fireworks.

An investigative journalist asks for tips. A few hours later, he says: Just to summarize: people have seen them being set off AT police stations, by cars that come into neighborhoods set them off and then leave, by people walking into the middle of the street alone, setting them off, collecting the shells and then running away from the area.

posted by MiraK at 12:42 PM on June 22, 2020 [15 favorites]

THANK YOU MiraK.
posted by lazaruslong at 12:57 PM on June 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

Here's a couple of stunning pictures of cops in West Harlem at 3 am June 22. (Twitter link) Recall that they were doing a procession with honking and full sirens. (Link to mefi comment upthread) The police comms officer said they were responding to a gathering of 1000-2000 people in this exact intersection. But all you see in the picture are battalions of cops.
posted by MiraK at 1:12 PM on June 22, 2020 [6 favorites]

A fireworks expert weighs in about the type and quantity of fireworks being set off in NY: "These are illegal fireworks" and "There is no way it's just some kids doing this" and "This is something much bigger, and we should all be a little more skeptical about what's happening."
posted by MiraK at 1:53 PM on June 22, 2020 [11 favorites]

(Dear MiraK: I platonically internet-love you.)
posted by XtinaS at 1:58 PM on June 22, 2020 [3 favorites]

I'm a long-time DC resident. I think a conspiracy theory isn't really supportable for this, but I'll be honest and say I hadn't given this much thought other than to notice "hey there are more fireworks than usual".

For the first time in my memory, I received a Phantom Fireworks ad in my mailbox about a week ago. I've never bought anything there, so I'm not sure why they'd have my address.

I live between the White House and U Street, which is where the protest has been going on for quite some time. There have always been some fireworks going off in June around here, and there do seem to be a few more this year. A lot of streets have been closed off for the protests. There's been a lot less traffic generally. So I think it's just easier to set off fireworks. There are also a bunch of kids who ride those really noisy motorbikes and/or trikes around here, more now than usual. Those bother me more than the fireworks actually, but I'd have done the same thing at that age.

Last night, I was walking home from the waterfront. There are tons of new condos and apartments there, right near the Nats ballpark. It's an expensive area. But it's surrounded by lower-middle class and poor neighborhoods, pretty much. Anyway, I was walking home, and I saw a black guy in his 40s maybe, with two young kids, probably his own. They were on a school sports field. He was watching his kids shoot these little fireworks that went maybe a hundred feet in the air before bursting into a small sphere of sparks. They were all very relaxed and it seemed like a nice family outing. This was before the sun had completely gone down. There wasn't any criminal behavior there, just a family enjoying some fun in their solitude. As I walked up the empty streets, I heard larger and louder firecrackers going off, probably M-80s or whatever. No one was driving on the streets, so it wasn't really bothering anyone.

Because of the protests, there's just a lot more pedestrian stuff going on all over the place here.
posted by me & my monkey at 1:58 PM on June 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

Tangential: lots of Philly folks here!
posted by grumpybear69 at 3:00 PM on June 22, 2020 [3 favorites]

I wonder if it's become a way to own the libs, like rolling coal.
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:19 PM on June 22, 2020

Sorry, I didn't finish that thought. I'm not saying that it's all just a few people fucking around, that doesn't make any sense. But I wonder if it spreads through some people seeing talk of it and thinking "that's a great idea," beyond anything that is organized.

I live just north of Seattle and haven't heard it here, and the few friends I've asked here haven't either. I'm not on Next Door and our local Facebook group got shut down by trolls, so if there's a local "what's that noise?" discussion I'm missing it.)
posted by The corpse in the library at 3:24 PM on June 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

I wonder if it's become a way to own the libs, like rolling coal.

Not in Oakland, dude.

I'm assuming it's mostly cheap fireworks flooding the market, and people with more time on their hands than usual. That's really enough in itself.
posted by suelac at 3:27 PM on June 22, 2020 [3 favorites]

Yes, North Seattle here as well, and I'd say we've had less than in previous years.
posted by Windopaene at 3:33 PM on June 22, 2020 [1 favorite]

They're all in Capitol Hill - either to annoy the protesters and destroy CHOP, or because they are annoying protesters and CHOP should be destroyed to get rid of them, depending who you ask.
posted by bashing rocks together at 4:20 PM on June 22, 2020

We've had this experience in Chicago for decades. Cheap fireworks from Indiana vendors provided under the aegis of several connected Indiana occult groups who have conspired to put a hex on Chicago. The Hoosier Damn!
posted by Chitownfats at 4:50 PM on June 22, 2020

Can confirm they're on Capitol Hill, more than usual for this time of year, but not non-stop.

I'm a few blocks from CHAZ/CHOP and neighbors have already been traumatized by the standoff, by gas and flashbangs into the early morning.
Four nights ago we had fireworks going off until late, including in Cal Anderson.
Three nights ago we had fireworks and then a shooting at 2:30 am, in Cal Anderson.
Two nights ago we had fireworks at 3 am at or near Cal Anderson.
Last night we had fireworks and then a shooting in Cal Anderson. And then more fireworks at or near Cal Anderson.

That last item in particular is a hell of a thing. People are dumb, so it could just be casuals. But given the circumstances and that extremists in both aisles are in the area, the idea of there being political motives holds weight as well. Chaos has predictable effects.
posted by tychotesla at 6:32 PM on June 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

Here in Chicago, and I'm just going to note that tonight is the first I've noticed fireworks going off during a rainstorm. Maybe we're all primed to notice things more, but I've lived in this neighborhood for 5 years and in the city for near 20, and think I would remember hearing fireworks in the rain and thinking "why?"
posted by onehalfjunco at 6:55 PM on June 22, 2020

NYC had a bit of a protest action last night - frustrated by Mayor Bill DeBlasio seeming to ignore the fireworks disturbance, a number of people turned up at mayoral residence Gracie Mansion and all started honking their horns at midnight. "If we can't sleep, you won't sleep."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 3:48 AM on June 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

More beginnings of real reporting:

I went out to investigate this last night, a homeless man selling fireworks to other homeless in Skid Row told me that truckloads are being given out in Compton and Inglewood in Los Angeles every night.

>> Truckloads? For free? How did you find out about this?

Yes. This is what an unhoused/tent-dwelling individual told me. He approached me to sell me fireworks and I asked him where he got them. He said there are tons of them available in Compton, Inglewood, and DTLA. Flooded into the homeless population and going off constantly.

-------------------

Last night around 9:30 in port richmond, a black Dodge Charger drove by, dropped an explosive in a corner storm drain, and left. It blew up louder than a transformer blowing, and the drain smoked up the block and smelled of gunpowder. Neighbors all gathered outside.

-----------------


Bronx checking in here - they finally stopped for the night. We actually went out around midnight to look for whoever's setting them off - and the weirdest thing is we couldn't find them.

> I’m in Harlem - the people doing it on my block do not live here. They drive in and park around here, and I’ve seen them get in cars and leave when they’re done.

>> I live in Harlem and the culprits were caught. A group of older gentleman. They left the block and began setting them off elsewhere

>>>I saw the same thing in BedStuy at 1AM . Fireworks lit in the street on McDonough then drove off.

--------------

I can tell you that I live one block from a police station and nightly four locations set off fireworks all within a 2 block radius of the station. If it's not the police they are going out of their way to not stop it since one location is on their street

---------------


I live about 10 blocks from the Oakland police station. Every night in the same general vicinity. It’s a hit and run job. They’re gone before anybody could spot who it is.

-----------------

I specifically saw this happen on my block in Harlem, a mix of just youngins shooting some of the cheap firecrackers which I’m used to and then randomly the very large professional type right next to my building and no evidence of it later.

-----------

I live in Rogers Park (Chicago) and this has been a constant since the protests started. Incessant booming noises. Neighborhood consensus seems to be it's police

> Lakeview here. I was wondering about the consistency of it. These are mortars that aren't that easy to buy. I used to get them from a professional and you need a pipe or tube at least to set them off. Dangerous and not like lighting a few firecrackers in the alley

-------------

The trend on Twitter seems to me to be:

- Folks who think it's just people being off steam from being cooped up only have theories, they have not seen anything suspicious and have not investigated to make sure. We do not have any evidence to say this is all harmless and nothing to worry yet. Nobody has been able to find legal suppliers who corroborate sales, find who is setting off fireworks on schedule every single night for weeks and ascertain that they were just bored and doing this for fun, make sure that they obtained it legally and for a cheap (not free) price from non suspicious sources, and so on. We have no evidence that this is nothing to worry about.

- On the other hand there are suspicious trends are emerging from eyewitness accounts and people walking around their neighborhoods asking questions.

(a) there are now multiple sightings of "hit and run" fireworks by people in vehicles, combined with the difficulty in finding ANYONE who is setting these off at all, including nobody bragging on social media. This is... not how normal people use fireworks. Fireworks are about joy and celebration, not skulking and secrecy. Indeed, smaller "fun" firework setters have not been hard to track down or see!

(b) police are not responding even to illegal fireworks on their street or very near them - quite possibly as part of their blue flu campaign, as payback

(c) many of the fireworks are illegal, per casings found and by the opinion of that fireworks expert. There is cause for concern and a need for investigation wrt how so many illegal fireworks have made their way into poorer, blacker/browner neighborhoods in so many cities in USA

(d) there are isolated reports of fireworks being obtained for free or near-free. Needs more investigation.

(e) there are isolated documented cases (not mere reports) of police and fire departments setting off fireworks
posted by MiraK at 4:49 AM on June 23, 2020 [7 favorites]

In addition, the fact that this is isolated to certain neighborhoods in certain cities is REALLY weird. Are people in the suburbs or whiter neighborhoods or rural areas less unemployed, less cooped up, less frustrated, less interested in joy? How is it that we have very consistent claims of "psychological warfare" from certain areas so over the country but everyone else is not seeing anything unusual?

In my town, I haven't heard a single weird firework. Heck I haven't even heard a normal-for-this-time-of-year firework yet. This is a lower middle class but very white neighborhood I live in. I work with a mutual aid group here and I know that six people on my street alone are on unemployment having lost their jobs (which means they're getting the $600 a week too). We have a cheap fireworks tent selling the same shit to us right here within our neighborhood too but no cigar.

But just 4-5 miles away, in a predominantly black and quite poor neighborhood, they're having the same psychological warfare levels of fireworks every night for the last three weeks. I've seen it and heard it from within. It's unfuckingbelievable. I'm shaken by the sheer difference in our experience.
posted by MiraK at 5:05 AM on June 23, 2020 [6 favorites]

In addition, the fact that this is isolated to certain neighborhoods in certain cities is REALLY weird. Are people in the suburbs or whiter neighborhoods or rural areas less unemployed, less cooped up, less frustrated, less interested in joy? How is it that we have very consistent claims of "psychological warfare" from certain areas so over the country but everyone else is not seeing anything unusual?

A lot of the reports in the askmefi thread were from people in suburbs saying that firework use was up around them. Anecdotally, in my city it seems like people from predominantly white neighborhoods or suburbs are complaining about fireworks as well. It seems like firework use is up across the country and it seems like a lot of that is due to the factors people have cited in the thread.

Does that mean that there's nothing else going on that is targeting predominantly communities of color? No, and thank you for the roundup of links above about reports from LA/NYC/Chicago.

It is more plausible to me that police could get away with something like this within the overall context of fireworks being an issue right now in many, many communities. I think I was initially quick to dismiss this argument because I was experiencing lots of fireworks in my own community but not an amount that raised red flags for me.
posted by geegollygosh at 7:15 AM on June 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

I don't think this is a psy-op. I don't think this is a conspiracy. I do think this is police and police-sympathetic assholes doing it to "own the libs."

Yesterday I was awoken by my dog at 5am barking. Granted, he barks both at fireworks and barks at the other dog when he's bored and wants to play. But I decided, what the heck, I'll take him outside and hopefully burn off a little energy so that I can go back to sleep.

It's bright out at 5am here in Boston. Sun's just coming up, but yeah, well past prime fireworks time. And I'm still hearing, and occasionally seeing, a LOT of fireworks.

Y'all have been going on about Occam's Razor, so here's a question: who is going to be up at 5am in Boston to incinerate $200 work of fireworks in the daylight? Teens? Drunks? No, my money is on the racist suburban blue-collar* workers who give Boston such a bad name that black athletes literally dread coming to play sports here.

I fucking guarantee you that more often than not when fireworks are going off at the odd hours of the morning here on the Roslindale/Mattapan line, it's fucking Dave and Sully having a laugh, knowing that if they get caught, the worst case scenario is a finger wag, and more likely than not, a wave and a thumbs up from the cop as he sees their thin blue line bumper sticker and nods in agreement.

*nothing against blue-collar work. Just a stereotype, because the white-collar racists perform their hatred in other, more insidious ways.
posted by explosion at 8:12 AM on June 23, 2020 [5 favorites]

Newsflash: de Blasio wants to crack down on fireworks suppliers. I can't tell if this is fantastic or a disaster - I have seen both views on Twitter. Sincerely interested, MiraK, in your view...
posted by PhineasGage at 10:55 AM on June 23, 2020

IDK what you expect me to say, PhineasGage. "Fantastic" would be: this task force responding to noise reports, investigating suppliers, arresting illegal firework sellers, inquiring into FD and police inaction/complicity thus far, transparency to the public about everything they uncover, and accountability for all culprits including FD law breakers, police who failed to respond, and police officers who disturbed the peace with more noise... all without terrorizing Black and brown neighborhoods, without brutalizing Black and brown people.

Is this even a possibility? I'm sincerely interested to know what leads you to think it is.
posted by MiraK at 11:55 AM on June 23, 2020 [4 favorites]

Mod note: One comment deleted. I’ve emailed the user and banned them for 24 hours due to the ongoing pattern.
posted by loup (staff) at 2:00 PM on June 23, 2020 [9 favorites]

Not that the cops are super-good at optics, but busting black people for illegal fireworks this time of year always makes for some bad optics.

Here's a WaPo article from today about the uptick: https://wapo.st/319cb4T
posted by aspersioncast at 2:35 PM on June 23, 2020

So,what exactly is the conspiracy here? Does it really need to be said that Twitter posts are very poor evidence?

Is it so hard to believe that regular people (idle cops and fire fighters, too), people who generally like fireworks, antsy and stressed with current events, have the time and resources and inclination to indulge significantly more this year? Is it so hard to believe that everyone else, also antsy and stressed with current events, are primed to thing something sinister is going on with the spike in fireworks this year?

Another WHITE article with zero reporting and just ~kind of a hunch~ that PoC should STFU and stop overreacting. No, sorry, there is a real need to investigate here. It should not be difficult for reporters to find and interview a bunch of people who did set off fireworks.


FFS, Why is it necessary to wave away every actual news article because WHITE v PoC? FWIW, I'm an actual real life POC, and some of the posts here are sounding like they're working pretty hard channeling their inner Karens.
posted by 2N2222 at 7:33 PM on June 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

some of the posts here are sounding like they're working pretty hard channeling their inner Karens.

Neither the poster in the OP (Son of Baldwin) nor I should be described as Karens. Please take a step back and reflect on why the mere suggestion of calling for investigation is making you so angry and hostile towards me. There is no excuse to attack me personally. There is also no excuse to call ordinary people liars when they report their day to day experience on twitter.

---------------------------------

To get back on topic:

The angle which many are missing here is, it doesn't even matter whether there is a conspiracy behind the fireworks or not. The outcome was always going to be more cops - as the deBlasio announcement today showed. Now 40 law enforcement officers - 12 FDNY officers - have been authorized to conduct "undercover buys" and "sting operations" .... right in the middle of a movement aimed at defunding police.

There have been other conspiracy theories before that sprung up when Black and brown neighborhoods get targeted like this for harassment, disenfranchisement, and other direct harm. Some have turned out to be true and others have not. But THE EFFECT ON BLACK COMMUNITIES IS THE SAME REGARDLESS. Whether there really is a Legit Tinfoil Conspiracy(tm) or not, the end result is devastation, damage, and displacement of PoC. Always.

Why does this devastation being rained on Black and brown people's lives and homes and neighborhoods NOT merit any investigation by reporters? For the life of me I can't understand why it threatens people so for me or Son of Baldwin to say, "This smells fishy, we need to find out what's up."
posted by MiraK at 12:44 AM on June 24, 2020 [6 favorites]

700% increase in 911 calls regarding fireworks in Chicago. We always have tons in the summer. This is something more. It's a stretch at this point to assume it's some people having a little more fun than normal.
posted by tiny frying pan at 5:35 AM on June 24, 2020 [5 favorites]

Why is this only happening in the US? Why is it not happening in all those other countries that had lockdown periods and presumably suspended fireworks shows in the meantime and found themselves with a surplus of fireworks? Or is the fireworks market already at baseline sooo much bigger in the US than any other country?

If it was only that people are letting off steam and fireworks are more available we would see more of this around the world... or am I missing something?
posted by bitteschoen at 7:52 AM on June 24, 2020 [6 favorites]

Or is the fireworks market already at baseline sooo much bigger in the US than any other country?

In many European countries fireworks are completely illegal to purchase (by non-professionals), or are sold only for a few days before specific holidays.
posted by bashing rocks together at 11:16 AM on June 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

Also the case in many parts of Canada. Where I live non-professionals can only buy fireworks for 30 days before Canada Day, Halloween, and New Years. You need a permit from the city or regional district to buy them in the first place. They'll only issue a permit if you have permission from or own land of a minimum size (I think it's .4 hectares as that is the trip for rural where you can own livestock but it could be smaller) where you intend to setup the fireworks display. And your permit specifies which day you are having the display.

There is some illegal activity but it rarely rises above scattered roman candles. There certainly isn't any of the window rattling KaBoom variety; I'm not even sure if non-professionals can buy that sort of thing.
posted by Mitheral at 11:28 AM on June 24, 2020

A lot of people here are actual real life POC too.

Yeah IDK whether it's tacky to say this in response to PoC who throw their non-whiteness around as a weapon to unwittingly shut down other PoC by assuming we are white? but for the record, I'm brown. That's one of the reasons why it was so offensive for 2N2222 to call me and Son of Baldwin (who is Black)"Karen."
posted by MiraK at 1:20 PM on June 24, 2020 [3 favorites]

Imagine how people actually named Karen feel, especially POC named Karen. I'm not happy with this new, derogatory use of a perfectly nice name shared by a lot of perfectly nice people. I look forward to its demise.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 5:42 AM on June 25, 2020 [1 favorite]

Imagine how people actually named Karen feel, especially POC named Karen.

POC named Mohamed, Abdul, Shaniqua, and Jose have been suffering the same othering based on their own names for much longer, Karens may have to wait their turn. Especially the white ones.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:06 AM on June 25, 2020 [8 favorites]

In many European countries fireworks are completely illegal to purchase (by non-professionals), or are sold only for a few days before specific holidays

I know that each country has different laws but I had assumed from reading about this odd phenomenon that it was illegal in the US too, at least in terms of big pro level fireworks, illegal to set them off in the street with no permit etc. Apologies if I misunderstood. I'm still a bit confused actually as to the legality aspect...
posted by bitteschoen at 7:10 AM on June 25, 2020

bitteschoen, the jury is out on pro-level fireworks being set off. There are many people who are convinced these are pro grade fireworks, but they're lay people who think louder/fancier = pro, and that's not a reliable opinion. There are two fireworks experts who have spoken to the media AFAIK and they disagree with each other: one of them says they heard definitely pro-grade fireworks, and the other said she hadn't heard any pro-grade fireworks, though she had heard illegal fireworks. It could just be they live in different areas of NYC and didn't hear the same fireworks? Either way, we just don't know yet what types of fireworks are being set off in terms of pro grade vs. not.

Even without being pro-grade, certain grades of fireworks are illegal for sale in certain states in the US. There are by now a number of credible reports of illegal-for-sale-in-New-York fireworks being set off on the regular in New York. That I don't think there is any controversy about -- most of the fireworks being set off in NYC are indeed illegal for sale in NY. It's possible that people acquired them legally by driving over the Pennsylvania, where these fireworks are legal, and bringing them back home? But we are in the midst of a pandemic and out of state travel is only now, this week, starting to pick up to usual levels in the NY-Penn corridor. Four to five weeks ago, which is when the firework issue began, we were still in lockdown.
posted by MiraK at 7:48 AM on June 25, 2020 [2 favorites]

I'm still a bit confused actually as to the legality aspect...

Among other sources, American Pyro publishes an annual State Fireworks Control Laws page which has detailed listings for each state.
posted by Rash at 8:10 AM on June 25, 2020 [1 favorite]

It's possible that people acquired them legally by driving over the Pennsylvania, where these fireworks are legal, and bringing them back home?

New Jersey also significantly loosened their regulations back in 2017.

bitteschoen, one way to think of it is that each U.S. state has their own ability to regulate if and how and by whom fireworks can be sold and purchased, and if and how and by whom fireworks can be set off. So you could have bordering states with completely different laws, which might mess with the more safety-focused state being able to keep fireworks out. (Like we also see in gun regulation.)

(I can’t get over the magazine name American Pyro!)
posted by sallybrown at 8:17 AM on June 25, 2020 [1 favorite]

There was what sounded like an explosion or a building falling down early last night- but then closer to 10pm pacific I think someone set off one of the big boys literally a block from my house because the whole ground shook and the windows rattled. Car alarm symphony went off all down the block. The frequency of booms is tapering off- but the fireworks that are still going off are either the pro-shit or just the m-80s. We've had some very hot days lately and as we go into summer I am decently worried about the fire risk.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 9:43 AM on June 25, 2020 [1 favorite]

In our neighborhood, every summer the joke is that newcomers are constantly asking "fireworks or gunfire?" on the Facebook page because they can't tell the difference.

This year it's "exploding transformer or fireworks?" And it started much earlier and is much more frequent than ever before.

I'm torn about the conspiracy angle. One, I'm a sucker for a good conspiracy. Two, whomever is setting off these fireworks is running around the neighborhood in order to not get caught by the locals (not the cops - we don't want them involved if we can avoid it.) And it seems too consistent and persistent to just be bored teens.

However, we go for regular drives out of town to the wildlife refuge and pass Phantom Fireworks every time. In past years we'd assume all their business was mail-order or something because the parking lot was always empty until the week before the 4th. This year there have been ten or more cars there every time we've passed for the past month. So...
posted by charred husk at 10:11 AM on June 25, 2020

I had assumed from reading about this odd phenomenon that it was illegal in the US too, at least in terms of big pro level fireworks, illegal to set them off in the street with no permit etc.

Actually setting off large fireworks in a city street is illegal everywhere in the US, AFAIK. But buying them and setting them off in a rural area, or buying small ones and setting them off in the city, is legal to some degree in many many places (and "illegal but nobody cares" in even more), which means there is a big existing consumer market for legal fireworks that can very easily be used illegally. It's like the difference in how easy it is for teenagers to get cigarettes vs heroin, even though both of them are "illegal".
posted by bashing rocks together at 4:05 PM on June 25, 2020 [3 favorites]

The State of New Jersey loosened its restrictions on fireworks a few years ago, as sallybrown mentioned, but individual municipalities within the state can still ban them outright, just to give you an idea of how ridiculously fine-grained fireworks laws can be.
posted by mollweide at 6:59 PM on June 25, 2020

I reckon this thread has run its course, but I'm just popping back in to say that I'm sorry to have participated in the drift of this thread toward "grar fireworks" and away from the topic of targeted harassment of black and brown communities, and I think the reasons for that drift would bear some reflection.
posted by Not A Thing at 8:34 PM on June 25, 2020 [1 favorite]

Continuing the trend of being odd, I heard precisely zero fireworks tonight, until about 2:30 in the morning when someone let off quite the salvo down the street. (I was only asleep for about an hour between 12 and 1 and the dogs didn't wake me, so I'm pretty sure I didn't miss any)

After drifting back off to sleep, I had a dream involving being inadvertently branded on the forearm with a hot "Chef's Choice" ramekin after being chased around by some person who felt the need to dispute the authenticity of some thing I had been carrying despite having no possible reason for involving herself in a thing nobody but me was involved in. Apparently the interrupted sleep (more from music, loud minibikes, and personal shit than fireworks) is starting to get to me.
posted by wierdo at 2:25 AM on June 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

Aymann Ismail of Slate spent A Night with the New York City Fireworks Crews and got their take on the conspiracy theories and fireworks (in addition to some great pictures).
posted by sallybrown at 1:11 PM on June 30, 2020 [5 favorites]

How interesting that all these reports of incessant fireworks stopped immediately, nationwide, after Son of Baldwin's thread went viral... in the 2 weeks leading up to the 4th of July!

Did the prices on fireworks suddenly increase? Did everyone suddenly get depression at the same time and lose their alleged celebratory mood? Or perhaps did everyone wake up the next day and feel miraculously at peace with the quarantine...? Did formerly rude/thoughtless people all around the country have a touching change of heart all at once, because of Twitter? Now suddenly nobody even wants to celebrate 4th of July?! (In the upstate NY neighborhoods near me where fireworks plagued residents, things have been much more quiet than previous years - which makes sense because none of the real residents can afford fireworks this year.)

I'm interested to know what all the people who were proposing these theories about cheap fireworks and people letting off steam etc. believe happened. Why did the fireworks stop?
posted by MiraK at 3:51 PM on July 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

It never stopped in my neck of the woods. I mentioned I live in a fairly fireworks heavy neighborhood most years, this year was just way worse way earlier and I agreed with the conclusion that something was way fucky about that- especially the types of things getting set off. Unfortunately around July 3rd it picked up WITH A VENGEANCE and we had three separate groups of folks setting off what looked to my eyes as the pro shit literally a block west, east and south of me. For two days. It was... a lot. It seems to have died down now. But the window rattling booms have stopped now that the 4th is over. It is very possible in my area that it wasn't entirelypolice fuckery (or that was only part of it) and the tweet storm had an added bonus of getting the non-cop bored kids to knock it off lest they be thought of as stooges. Definitely the loudest 4th I've ever had in my entire life of living in my neighborhood. But I think the initial report of PD and FD selling and setting off crap was more an East Coast thing- with some bonus Oakland CA fuckery- In (my neck of) SF it was an amplification of an existing trend.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 4:04 PM on July 6, 2020 [3 favorites]

the fireworks in my neighborhood have been absolutely incessant for a month, and the only difference between the 5^th and the 3^rd is that on the 3^rd the fireworks started at 9:00 am and on the 5^th they didn't really start up in earnest until 2:00 pm.

on the 4^th itself it sounded like the neighborhood was under attack — incessant big bomb explosions mixed in with the little machine-gun pop-pop-pop firecrackers, also incessant — from midafternoon until a bit past dawn. at first i felt most bad for the dogs, then i realized that probably there are a nonzero number of refugees and veterans in this neighborhood who must be reliving trips through hell.

i don't know whether or not the cop fireworks conspiracy is true but nevertheless it is really really satisfying to be able to shout "fucking cops" every time a string of the big motherfuckers go off. it is much more satisfying to hate all of the cops instead of hating some of my neighbors.

also sometimes i shout fucking america because i am fucking done with this fucking country. fuck this place.
posted by Reclusive Novelist Thomas Pynchon at 4:48 PM on July 6, 2020 [2 favorites]

Why did the fireworks stop?

Did the fireworks stop, or did the discussion move on for various reasons including that it's 2020 and there's what would have previously been a year's worth of things happening in a week? Were there actually fewer fireworks going on, correlating to the lower level of reports? Or did people move on to talking about other things, the way we unfortunately keep doing?

Here in Oakland, the Fourth was miserable but at a level I find consistent with previous years' experience combined with what's been suggested about more people having more time to set them off, more fireworks being available, and people trying to make up for the lack of official municipal shows.
posted by Lexica at 4:55 PM on July 6, 2020 [4 favorites]

Same here: in predominantly black and brown neighborhoods as well as predominantly white neighborhoods in this city, the pace of fireworks stayed pretty steady each night through the Fourth. And at least a few folks must have run out of matches by the holiday, because there were even some barrages on the night of July 5th.
posted by PhineasGage at 5:15 PM on July 6, 2020

The fireworks have not stopped, an in fact an hour ago I got a big BOOM that rattled the windows and scared the dog under my desk again.

The fireworks on the 4th in my neighborhood were probably 30% more than in previous years, but the runup to the 4th and the aftermath were both really a lot.
posted by suelac at 5:15 PM on July 6, 2020

My neighborhood’s stopped on the 5th. The grand finale on the 4th was an absolutely giant whizzing column of sparks thing that a bunch of teenagers put in the middle of a one-way street underneath a bunch of old trees, arms length from cars on either side. Luckily nothing caught on fire. Sadly DC had one death of a man who was setting off fireworks and was severely injured.

This CNN article says the boom in fireworks this summer was so big that we’re about to run out any day now: “As the coronavirus pandemic continues, consumer fireworks sales, including sparklers and firecrackers, have more than doubled. But imports from China, which supplies more than 90% of the world's fireworks, stalled earlier this year, and industry leaders expect a supply shortage in coming days.”

So, peace-and-quiet lovers, your time is now!
posted by sallybrown at 5:30 PM on July 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

The 4th was a fucking nightmare of both fireworks and neighbors playing music like they were running a damn dance club. Both started in the morning and went on until well after midnight.

The early fireworks did let up some before the 3rd, but were still more frequent than in most years, just not as annoyingly so. It ceased being a constant barrage and was just the occasional racket.

Since about 3AM on the 5th, it has been eerily quiet, though still punctuated by very occasional fireworks, but no more mortars. I think everyone here set off all the really big stuff on the 4th.

..and as I was writing this comment, someone started setting off mortars again pretty close by. They set off a couple, then quit while the cops were prowling around and now is setting off more since the police dispersed.
posted by wierdo at 6:41 PM on July 6, 2020

Ours continued pretty steadily up until the 4th, scattered on the weeknights and heavy on the weekends. On the 4th itself, I had a very good view as someone only a block or two over set off what were very clearly professional level shells, to the general appreciation of the people on our street, since the actual San Jose display was cancelled. There was another huge one in the distance a mile or so away in that direction that I could see, and the guys in one of the apartment buildings were setting off big ones as well, though only treetop high rather than the giant sky works of the other two. And from all directions was the sounds of other displays. There's been light fireworks the last couple nights, though nothing like the 4th.

So, no, around here it did not stop.
posted by tavella at 9:22 PM on July 6, 2020

On the 4th, I was driving out in a fairly rural area of unincorporated King County near Seattle. There are a lot of fireworks stands out there and, in years past, they typically have been sleepy affairs with a few customers but, not this day. They were absolutely packed with people and I could see the product tables were mostly bare.

That night, there didn't seem to be many more fireworks set off than last year but the crowds at the fireworks stands was definitely not normal.
posted by bz at 11:00 PM on July 6, 2020 [1 favorite]