By: Denis Cyr
With NYC returning to normalcy, and July 4th around the corner, the streets are alive again, and people are celebrating, however fireworks re driving many people crazy ad a crackdown has begun.
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a large-scale, multi-agency crackdown leading up to the July 4 holiday.
Several large busts have been made already.
ABC 7 reported: In the first bust, approximately $3,900 in fireworks were confiscated from 24-year-old Christopher Haripershad, 27-year-old Steven Haripershad, and 30-year-old Christopher Haripershad.
They are charged with reckless endangerment and unlawful dealing with fireworks.
Meanwhile, three unidentified individuals were similarly charged in a separate bust that resulted in roughly $4,100 worth of fireworks being confiscated, ABC 7 reported.
Since the formation of the anti-illegal firework group on June 9, the coalition of law enforcement entities responsible for getting fireworks off city streets has arrested 31 people “for a variety of offenses related to illegal fireworks”, Sheriff Joseph Fucito said during Mayor Bill de Blasio daily press conference, NY Post reported.
“Here in the Bronx, fireworks are a yearlong affair, I’m used to it, there is some concern for safety, fires and what not, however I think there are far more larger fish to fry on the streets, the shootings, the knife point robberies, the illegal motorcycles driving on the street, the coke dealers on the corner, I’m not worried about fireworks”, a corresponded from the Bronx, told TJV.
“You can’t traffic fireworks and have unregistered vehicles,” Fucito said. “It all starts adding up.”
According to the sheriff, the task force has made 73 fireworks confiscations, which have included anywhere from 50 to 2,000 smaller items each, NY Post reported.
“We’re trying to target as big as loads as possible,” Fucito told The Post. “Some of these are for commercial sale. Some people claim it was for themselves.”
Old time New Yorkers remember that before former Mayor Giuliani addressed the fireworks situation; NYC was a “war zone” on July 4th. “I remember the M80, those are like as powerful as dynamite, going off, I remember hoodlums blowing up mailboxes with those dangerous things, it’s kind of tame today compared to the 1970’s”, a Brooklynite told a TJV reporter.
NY Post reported:
311 complaints lodged by Big Apple residents fed up by the noise of the explosives are up by a whopping 902 percent in the first half of 2021, according to the NYPD
“We are well into now the summer in New York City. It is happening, amazing, wonderful things are happening out in the streets of our city, a sense of celebration, a sense of hope and possibility. Those are the things that are coming back in New York City, but what we do not want to come back in New York City is illegal fireworks,” Mayor de Blasio said at a press conference on the fireworks busts.
