Image courtesy of Denny Müller on Unsplash

Something stinks, and that something is the roll out of a half-baked plan months after the problem was identified. On June 17, Mayor Bronin announced via 311 that the City of Hartford created “dedicated numbers” residents can call and text to report fireworks. It’s on those complaining to provide specific addresses.

The mayor might need a new watch because his timing is way, way off.

Those outside Hartford may find it implausible, but fireworks season here is not merely a few weeks before Independence Day, with the ruckus winding down at that time.

HartfordData shows that fireworks began setting off Shotspotter on March 4, 2020. This first report came in at 8:17 PM near 26 Shultas Place. Through June 9, the gunshot detection equipment would be activated at least 21 times because of explosives loud enough to register. These happened everywhere from Allen Place to May Street to Mark Twain Drive to Franklin Avenue.

Compare that to 2019, when the first round of fireworks did not activate Shotspotter until June 5. Again, from January 1, 2020 to June 9, 2020 Shotspotter has been triggered at least 21 times by fireworks. During the same period in 2019, it was activated once.

With that said, those fireworks in 2019 did not stop until September 15, so let’s not be fooled into thinking people give up their noisemaking on Independence Day.

What we know is that data is always incomplete, that noise complaints (a different category) are made and documented publicly without any extra information (loud music? dog barking? lawnmower? fireworks?) Those calls for service would tell us when someone was irritated enough to call the cops, but without that, what we know is that the explosives started before the shutdown. We also know that people were never forbidden to leave their homes during the shutdown and that there healthier ways to “blow off steam” that don’t piss off the neighbors, many of whom were considered essential workers.

Unlike previous years, people have been setting off illegal fireworks nightly, for hours. The excuse offered has been either (1) boredom, or (2) the big display has been canceled, but at some point we have to call bullshit. We’ve all seen the equivalent of numerous grand displays by now this season. As for boredom, find a hobby that doesn’t involve igniting explosives during a fucking drought. Want to run around lighting off boombooms? Go live out in the sticks.

And let’s be real about this, these are grown ass men, not just kids and teens. Though, there are also kids lighting off bombs in the wee hours of the morning. I watched this last night on my own street. A cop (who I did not summon) happened to be coming around the corner and caught the person in the act. While I don’t know what was said to this individual from the officer who was inside the cruiser, that person went inside and ceased nonsense for the rest of the night. That was at 12:15 AM. Multiple loud displays were happening on the same block for the last five hours at that point.

Sorry, not sorry. Sleep deprivation makes people cranky.

You don’t have to listen very hard to hear many other city residents saying that the City has been slow to respond and that the recently announced effort has been accomplishing next to nothing.

What took the City of Hartford months to pretend to do anything? We can’t blame this inaction on the calls for defunding the police, because that movement did not really start up until the beginning of June. It took a whole lot of kvetching on social media for the Mayor (who does not allow himself to be tagged on Facebook anymore — a bad look for a politician) to take any action.

On the one hand, this looks non-responsive.

And on the other, the timing is off again, as the last few weeks have been filled with almost daily protests demanding that police be defunded and given fewer opportunities to interact with the public. Specifically, the call has been to dispatch police to deal with violent crime, but refrain from relying on cops for work that they have not been trained to do.

At a time when people were asking for alternatives to policing, Bronin introduced a strategy, if it can be called that, which involves the police. It’s said they will focus on education and seizure of fireworks.

Look, action is necessary on this, and personally, I would not be opposed to involving the police in certain circumstances — such as repeated calls to an address or when someone is repeatedly setting off what are essentially bombs. But having police as the first responder? You’re putting residents in a tough place between continued loss of sleep, and on occasion, serious concerns over potential fires, and summoning an armed officer who might opt for punishment instead of conflict resolution.

Meanwhile, there are reports that police are receiving 200 fireworks complaints per day. It takes no imagination to see how this will be used to justify a larger police budget, but I would ask how the police allowed the situation to get to such a level that this many people are irritated? Is the role of the police to prevent problems or simply punish? I would think the former is more valuable.

This is not the first year people have been annoyed by juvenile antics. Why don’t we hear more about the damage? According to the National Fire Protection Association, around 19,500 fires were started by fireworks in the United States in 2018. Over the years, there have been house fires started by fireworks in Hartford, including on Sisson, Chestnut, and Seyms. This isn’t merely an issue of property damage. Who wants to be displaced? In early March a person died in a fire on Charter Oak Place when a resident threw a hand sanitizer Molotov cocktail elsewhere inside the building during a domestic dispute. Most (59%) forest, grass, and shrub fires are caused by fireworks. Consumer fireworks sent 9,100  people to emergency rooms in 2018 in this country. Back in October 2018, a teen picked up what he thought was just litter on the road. The homemade explosive injured the boy, blowing off two of his fingers.

Why do we act like this is nothing more than harmless fun?  Who pays for all of those damages? Why are police the ones entrusted to educate?

Would it make more sense to send around Hartford Fire Department employees to do that education, as they are apt to firsthand see both the fires and the injuries resulting from fireworks gone awry? Can they confiscate the fireworks? Why not have a few mixed teams go around together? Let the fire department do the talking and provide education, and provide another layer of oversight for if/when the police decide to issue fines or make arrests.

This whole situation raises other questions.

Why aren’t people better informed about the health and environmental impacts of fireworks?

Why is there so little empathy for others? In a city where gun violence is a regular occurrence on some blocks, you would think there would be more outcry about making noise that can trigger PTSD. You’d think people would have enough self-preservation to not actively piss off their neighbors day-and-night after day-and-night.

Living close together requires more, not less, respect for other people. That means being reasonable about the noise you create and it means, as a leader, being reasonable about how and when you respond to those who refuse to be responsible.

Headline image courtesy of Jairo Alzate on Unsplash