Fireworks - why are they still a thing?

[landobroken]

Sorry to be a party pooper - but!

Surely they are horrendous for the environment?

Surely there are more environmentally-friendly options to replace them?

They're awful for pets, cost a flipping fortune etc etc. god knows how much the London NY show costs for example....

Not a party pooper by any stretch but I see people calling out things bad for the environment/COL all the time and yet this....

Anyway I'll go back to my scrooge self now 😅

Or that the police are blind and deaf and have never heard of the myth before 😁

Unless they're special fireworks that only druggies can see and hear?

Hmm. Drugs. Seriously. In many areas drug dealers (the bigger fish - not your street corner dealer) have firework displays to indicate a "shipment" has arrived, and they often compete with each other as to the biggest / best displays. I used to live in an area where this happened, and it was the police that told me what it meant.

It's not a myth. The police know who the dealers are. They know where they live. Catching them (assuming they want to) with incriminating evidence is an entirely different matter. Letting off fireworks isn't strictly illegal (it kind of is at certain times, but they actually do have better things to do than chase firework displays). But you carry on believing its a myth.

I live in an area where some migrating bird species stay during winter (geese, cranes, lapwings and so on). Some people go into the fields where these birds stay at night and chase them off with fireworks - not just on New Year’s Eve but all winter long at various times. During the past couple of weeks, some youths have gone into the little forest next to where I live and used firecrackers attached to cans of hairspray. Calling the police is useless because they are hopelessly understaffed.
More and more people are calling for a ban on fireworks but at the same time, people who buy fireworks spend more money on them - 1000€ is not uncommon.

I don't think anyone should be allowed to buy fireworks to let off in their private gardens. They should be reserved for larger events, bought only with a permit and with safety precautions in place.

Tbh most local and or small fireworks displays are pretty disappointing, especially,if you've seen much larger and impressive displays elsewhere.

Many places are starting to adopt drone displays instead although I assume these are more complex to set. I know, for example, some Disney theme parks are trialling them, and obviously some of the big events for new year and the king's coronation, have used them really effectively.

X*is
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Always good to chat to a poster who leads a 100 ethical life. You sound like you have a book in you.

I didn't claim anything about my intelligence but people who have a garden the size of a postage stamp and let off huge fucking fireworks when there's incredibly high winds are not clever. And it's not just domestic pets that get distressed either.

We'll need to agree to disagree about the ethics of having a puppy, you make it sound like surrogacy. I'm pretty confident that fireworks aside I'm going to put 100% into being a great dog owner with a happy pooch. Thanks for your concern though x

You are kidding, right? 🤣🤣

Nope!

Honestly, just no! 🤣

What do the dealers think the police actually do with this 'indication'?

Sit in their cars eating doughnuts and admiring the lovely free display, completely unaware that it's drug related? 🤦‍♀️

I think she was being sarcastic

What you've written here makes absolutely no sense whatsoever 😳

If the dealers have just let the entire neighbourhood (and surrounding areas) know that they've picked up drugs, how would catching them be difficult?

And have you never heard of plain clothed police?

Stop
Ahhh I missed that. It's probably because I'm not as clever as I think

Great username btw

I also need to know the logic between going out and buying a pack of fireworks and putting on a display to announce the shipment versus simply making calls on your burner phones

I also need to know why you think that “shipments” of drugs arrive irregularly at a drug dealer 😭

literally the smallest knowledge about how drug dealers work would debunk this. Like watching 24 hours in police custody. Or a quick google

God there's been so many threads complaining about fireworks this year - why is everyone so miserable? It's nearly always because of dogs.

Maybe people should have less dogs? I also find them incredibly annoying but what can you do 🤷‍♀️

Or they could just wear some headphones

Yeah, as sad as that is, it isn’t a reason to ban fireworks.

Yeah, those people need to develop their own coping mechanisms, rather than expecting to just ban fireworks altogether.

Are they environmentally friendly? How do they manufacture the drones? I could imagine that process is far worse than making fireworks but happy to be wrong. I’m just not keen on sweeping statements with gaps in them.

I love fireworks and in all my years of pet ownership never had a cat that batted an eyelid or a dog that even vaguely cared. Watching Dunkirk on tv was louder. (Caveat - I have a gun dog so maybe that’s the difference).

It’s true about the drug dealing signals.

Round here when some low grade weed comes in the dealers wave sparklers around. Ketamine is Catherine Wheels nailed to trees. Cocaine is announced by Roman Candles. Smack is rockets.

A huge shipment of all sorts of drugs arrived once. The neighbourhood was lit up like New Year at the London Eye.

I hate them our dog was so scared on bonfire night she opened the door (border collie/husky cross so way too smart and pushed the handle) jumped or climbed out of the 6 foot fence and kept running until she hit the road and was knocked down. She now only has 3 legs and we have to keep her in the boiler house because it locks every weekend from about 4.30 and for weeks around every holiday so the kids can still get in and out.

WTF 😭so let me get this right, you’re a heroin addict who needs to score to the tune of £300 a day to stay alive yet you have to wait through the life threatening seizures, looking out the window until the rockets go off? Then you drag your half dead body over to the dealers, buy a days worth then go back home and do it all over again?

you really think that’s how drug dealing works?

im sure you’re having us on. No one would believe that

Some people like fireworks, some people don't and there are a whole range of opinions in between the two. It isn't binary.

Liking fireworks implies nothing about someone's position on an arbitrary scale of intelligence nor does it imply anything about social status.

What does imply a lack of any form of decency in a person is coming on a forum and saying someone who enjoys something you don't is in some way 'lesser' than you are.

Licensed displays only.

The general public randomly setting explosives off on residential streets is not on.

This. It’s classist, racist and disablist. What awful people they must be to think like this. They’ll be first in line when the new nazi party is being recruited

Agree with licensed displays to music - a lot more interesting.

They need banning for Mr semi detached from Croydon with a garden the size of a postage stamp and the biggest fecking rocket he can purchase from Lidl, mostly fuelled by Stella.

I wish I felt like this. I just see the same 10 shapes I’ve seen my whole life.