So, if you live in the city, (unless it’s some rich, most likely very white, enclave) you are hearing A LOT of fireworks going off all night long. Every night. Today while listening to NPR on my way to work I heard a report detailing this phenomenon in Salem, MA. Directions were given during the report about “Salem’s crackdown on fireworks scofflaws” on how to file a police report about all these damn fireworks.
I live in Jamaica Plain, between Hyde Sq and Jackson Sq. Fireworks are rampant. It’s crazy. Boston police received 1455 calls for fireworks in the first week of june. They received 22 in the same week last year! I mean, fireworks are crazy by their nature. I don’t mess with them because I love my fingers and face (my fingers more than my face if I’m being honest) and fireworks just aren’t worth it, to me. To each their own however. And at this time each is setting off lots of their own fireworks.
In Jamaica Plain, land of many yuppie whites, but not yet completely overrun (though the 20 year trend is a sad story), I’ve been catching whiffs, clouds really, of some real nasty privilege regarding all these damn fireworks. Oh look here’s something from the Jamaica Plain fb message board I check in on sometimes…
And here’s a public service announcement (found in the same forum) urging people to call the police on folks setting off fireworks:
Here’s my public service announcement about this trend: STOP CALLING THE COPS ON PEOPLE SETTING OFF FIREWORKS. The folks touting these measures, and calling the cops, are some of the same people who have been outraged over police brutality of late and who’ve been feigning support for Defund The Police efforts, or at the very least, efforts for police reform. But as soon as they feel a small measure of discomfort, what do they do? CALL THE COPS. How is this not getting through: THE POLICE ARE NOT THE ANSWER. THE POLICE ARE NEVER THE ANSWER. If someone is firing off fireworks right outside your house and you have a problem… go talk to them.
As far as I am concerned these fireworks are a continuation of the massive protests we’ve been seeing all around us. Even if these actions are not a wholly conscious protest, the aim behind them by the people setting the fireworks off is to remind you that they are HERE. That they EXIST. And perhaps to purposely make you a little uncomfortable as a reminder of the discomfort that they live with possibly all the time, and at the very least the discomfort that all Black people live with all the time and which we need not let fade into the background again. Do I feel bad for the people with PTSD whom these actions are affecting? I do, and I’m not sure what to do about this factor. Do I feel bad about people whose dogs are scared of the fireworks? I feel bad for the dogs yes. Dogs are alright with me, but their humans?? If they can’t deal I suggest they start making plans to move out of the city where they’ll find it to be much more quiet. THIS IS THE CITY. Living in the city is not about peacefulness, in fact this idea and philosophy is a huge existing problem in this city of Boston and directly correlates to the whack nightlife and cultural suppression of Black, and working people that we find here.
My wife and I aren’t calling the police. Our young kids are not being kept up because we turned on a goddamn fan to drown out the noise. We have some real problems in this town, but fireworks are not one of them. I’ll conclude with this: YUPPIES GET OUT OF MY TOWN.
I have lived in Mission Hill for 15+ years. My call to the police about the fireworks a few weeks ago was a concern about the risk of fire. The 3 family that used to be next to my house, (I was told after I moved here), burnt to the ground because of a student in the adjacent house had been throwing fire crackers out of their attic window. The person telling me the story had lived here over 20 years (at the time), and she pointed-out that the closeness of the houses and the fact that they are constructed of wood are big factors that make it easy for fire to spread from one building to the other. It also worried my imagination that we’d normalize the sounds of the cherry-bomb kind and not recognize the sound of a gunshot when someone needed us to. Lastly–it terrifies the domestic and non-domestic animals (several skunks, possums, squirrels, raccoons, & birds are members of our neighborhood), and similarly, when you see how it startles someone struggling w/PTSD, or how it disrupts the sleep state they were finally able to enter (& then makes it difficult (again) for the person to get back to sleep) AND you do not know it is part of BLM–but think it is probably just the college student-neighbors letting off steam re:quarantine and it will dissipate–and you hope it will rain tonight so those spraying sparks or some wacky cherry-bomb doesn’t light anyone’s home on fire.
So, finally I find out & understand the fireworks are a way to keep the urgency of BLM on everyone’s radar; I can understand & I can live with that–but the PTSD’d people among us come in many colors & many ages, they are already carrying sooo much. This makes their struggles more difficult. I am sure that is unintended. I just wonder if there is room to take that into consideration.
He doesn’t seem interested in the problems fireworks are causing for many people, and not just white people. Does he think people of color think the fireworks are fine? They are experiencing the same problems white people are–kids awakened or scared, pets terrified, sleep disrupted night after night, PTSD issues made worse, etc. He’s so busy declaring his oneness with what he thinks is a black issue, supported by the black community, he has abandoned his common sense, if he ever had any.
Great article. I have been in JP over 40 years. I love the community and I feel I can approach my neighbors setting up fireworks and tell them to move along to another place if bothered by them. I do so in English and Spanish. I am also an elder now and get their respect. Get to know your neighbors of color and your neighbors of any color. Talk to them, invite them to your house. They are not a nuisance, don’t make them invisible. Maybe it’s easier for me. I grew up in Cuba and Miami in working class communities where windows were open and sounds were always blasting. If you hear loud music at a neighbors at night, you don’t call the police. You go over and join them. Luckily when I bring out the drums or play loud music in my yard my neighbors join or enjoy from their porches. Yay, for living in the city and enjoying our community, engaging in activism and staying true to ourselves.
Peace
Good to see that even as a 40 year old Dan Shea doesn’t really care about anything except getting drunk and partying.
If yoU DOn’t likE IT mOvE to WeYmOUtH
Interesting interpretation Steve G.