Mysterious NYC Fireworks
For the last few weeks, massive fireworks have been going off every single night in NYC, sometimes until 3 or 4am. They started around Puerto Rican Day and haven’t stopped since. In an attempt to figure out what’s going on, I met this group of Bushwick locals and received permission to document their nightly ritual of lighting fireworks.
They’ve been buying fireworks secondhand from a store in Pennsylvania. This group is relatively responsible, watching for cars and wrapping up as soon as they run out of fireworks, which tends to be before 10pm. Sometimes, they even watch tutorials on YouTube to properly light the fireworks. Most have never lit off fireworks until this summer, so they’ve had a few amateur mistakes, misfires, and sketchy encounters.
While it’s impossible to speak for everyone involved in this trend, I suspect most of the city’s amateur pyrotechnics are just like these guys – bored and opportunistic. The more groups setting off nightly fireworks, the lower the risk of getting caught. Yet the innocence factor changes as the night gets later. 9pm fireworks are innocent fun; 3am fireworks on a weeknight are another story.
Conspiracy theorists suggest these late night fireworks are a city-led effort to destabilize communities protesting police brutality with sleep deprivation and/or desensitization to loud noises. I can only comment on what I’ve personally witnessed, but The Atlantic wrote an op-ed about these theories that’s worth reading.
My deepest sympathies to all the light sleepers out there.
