Fireworks Persists as Police Continue to Refuse to Respond

New York - The boom and glitter of a fireworks display lit up the sky in Boro Park Sunday night, yet another in nearly three weeks of illegal pyrotechnics that is spooking kids and disturbing people’s sleep.

As every night since June 1, police have refused to respond to complaints, continuing a slowdown in protest of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s new pro-protesters policies.

It comes as firework complaints across the city rose by an astronomical 236-fold this month compared to the same period last year. There were 6,385 calls to the 311 register about fireworks, up from just 27 during the same three weeks in 2019. Disaffected blacks and youths have been setting off the displays as part of their protest against cops.

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams claimed at a press conference Sunday afternoon that the materials used in the fireworks are not cheap rockets but high-quality displays. He suggested it was imported by gangs as a means of disquieting the city.

"This is not the simple firecrackers and little small toy-type rockets, but it was very elaborate," Adams told the Gothamist. "That in itself is raising a high level of concern with me." He said that a firework went off as he was passing. “It shook the car. It blinded me for a moment,” he said.

Most of the fireworks happened in Crown Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Flatbush, although there were displays across the city.

Adams has a uniquely liberal solution to the problem — talk to the fireworks artists.

“This is a nonviolent act, so those three numbers that we always dial — 911 — get over that,” Adams said. “We have left the place of 911 being the response for everything in our city. ... Maybe we should talk to them before they do something wrong, maybe we should say ‘good morning’ to them. Maybe we should say, ‘Hello, how was school? Do you need a summer job?’”