Boredom, sound waves, police? The US fireworks mystery and its many theories
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Version 0 of 1. Thousands of complaints about the noise have been called in from Ohio to Aurora to California, Boston to New York The summer has arrived with a bang, literally, across the country this year as thousands of complaints about fireworks have been called in, from Ohio, to Aurora, to California. In Boston, complaints went up 64-fold compared to last year, meanwhile in New York, 12,582 calls have been to the 311 line regarding illegal fireworks since 1st June this year, in comparison to just 17 for the same period last year, according to the city’s open data source. New Yorkers wanted to get their frustrations across to Mayor Bill de Blasio last night, and drove to his residence in Manhattan in protest. Despite living in “the city that never sleeps”, they honked their horns into the early hours outside Gracie Mansion chanting, “We don’t sleep, you don’t sleep.” On top of the ongoing noise disturbance, it is likely adding more anxiety to an already very anxious moment due to a pandemic and ongoing protests against police brutality. Add that to the fact that that no one seems to know what the reason for the increase in nightly explosions is and, of course, theories have bubbled up across the internet, trying to nail the reason for the surge. Here are a few. It’s the sound waves, bro Some have surmised that fireworks have not increased, it’s just that people are hearing them more. They point to the fact that cities are experiencing a lower level of background noise at the moment due to the pandemic, resulting in sound traveling further and faster. But with a scattered approach to shutdown orders across the states, and with eye-witness reports showing fireworks going on into the early hours, that theory likely can’t tell us the whole story. Retail fireworks for shows are being sold off In a number of places experiencing heavy numbers of complaints, there is a blanket ban on the sale of fireworks. Some experienced fireworks technicians have pointed out that the fireworks seem too professional and expensive for the average punter, and so, with mass gatherings held off in some of these cities for quite some time, people have begun to speculate that retailers are selling fireworks on some sort of black market. Retailers of course dispute these claims – but there is a boom in legally purchased pyrotechnics. The police are just messing with you A conspiracy theory is not quite complete without involvement from high-up government officials, and, of course, the police. To be fair, if the police are involved, it wouldn’t be the first time that US police have engaged in dodgy tactics to spy on protesters and to surveil black people in particular. So as fireworks task forces are being set up across the country, some are speculating the fireworks are a manufactured spectacle, hoping to encourage people to feel they need the police again – or even as an attempt at psychological warfare. These claims are currently unsubstantiated. Others have claimed that police are willingly ignoring complaints to prove their worth after weeks of protests and calls to defund police departments. The NYPD said it has made eight arrests and seized a few dozen fireworks since the noise complaints began – meanwhile, some have questioned why police are unbothered by the issue when it is on their own doorsteps. New York firefighters were also caught on film setting off fireworks in a Brooklyn neighborhood last night. But it is not clear that police have necessarily been lax in their approach. Buzzfeed reported this morning that dozens of police arrived in riot gear to quell fireworks in Brooklyn on Monday, threatening arrests. Or maybe people are just bored The New York Times ran a reported piece over the weekend, attributing the fireworks to a mixture of boredom, relief and protest across New York. Everyone from kids in the streets to firefighters have been seen setting off fireworks, following months of shutdown across the world, widespread protests, mass unemployment and unusual working hours. So, it could also just be that. Of course, that begs an even more important question: can’t people just go back to playing Animal Crossing, instead? |