Cuomo blasts ‘dangerous’ and ‘illegal’ fireworks surge in New York City as July 4 holiday approaches
NY Gov Andrew Cuomo blasted the scourge of “dangerous, illegal” fireworks in NYC ahead of the July 4 weekend. Cuomo addressed the ongoing issue during his press briefing on Monday, saying at night “it sounds like the wild west” in the five boroughs. “Fireworks are dangerous and fireworks are illegal,” the Queens-born governor told reporters. […]
NY Gov Andrew Cuomo blasted the scourge of “dangerous, illegal” fireworks in NYC ahead of the July 4 weekend.
Cuomo addressed the ongoing issue during his press briefing on Monday, saying at night “it sounds like the wild west” in the five boroughs.
“Fireworks are dangerous and fireworks are illegal,” the Queens-born governor told reporters. “It sounds like the wild west.”
“I’ve never heard it like this before,” he added. “They’re disturbing people, they bother people and they are dangerous.”
Cuomo said the NYPD need to “enforce the law” when it came to this situation, which has escalated in areas like
He also said that although the state was helping local officials to enforce the law, they needed to do their part too.
The Sun reached out to the NYPD and the police department, who confirmed they had been contending with a surge in these illegal pyrotechnics in places like Brooklyn.
Residents in areas like Sunset Park have had sleep disrupted by booming fireworks, which are sometimes set off in the street.
Sergeant Mary Frances O’Donnell said from January 1, 2020 to June 21, 2020, there were a whopping 11,535 311 calls for illegal fireworks versus 54 during the same time period in 2019.
She revealed 4,559 of these 311 calls occurred in the borough of Brooklyn between June 1 to June 21, 2020.
Cops dealt with 13,315 911 calls for illegal fireworks from January 1, 2020 to June 21, 2020, compared to 1,007 during the same time period in 2019.
They said that 12,578 of these calls were received between June 1, 2020 and June 21, 2020.
As a result of this dramatic increase, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a Illegal Fireworks Task Force to address the illegal use, transport, and distribution of them.
This is comprised of made up NYPD officers, fire marshals, and members of the Sheriff’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
Addressing the surge in these incidents in NYC, Cuomo said: “I need the local government to take this seriously.”
The governor said he will endeavor to stop the fireworks from making there way into the state via places like Pennsylvania, after De Blasio also vowed to crack down on the issue.
“We’re going to start a huge sting operation to go and get these illegal fireworks at the base,” the mayor said.
Last week, a 3-year-old boy Adiel Rosario was injured by an illegal firework in the Bronx, according to local reports.
The New York Post reported that the rogue firework flew into an open window of his sixth-floor apartment in Highbridge shortly after midnight on Wednesday.
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“Sometimes there’s an opportunity to intervene, other times there’s not an opportunity to intervene,” de Blasio insisted at a press conference on June 25.
“We have to shut down the source, and then whenever there’s an opportunity to intervene, they should, but that’s not every opportunity. That’s just the truth.”
The news comes amid calls to defund the cops and widespread protests stemming from George Floyd‘s police custody death in Minneapolis on May 25.