hawaii

Stunning, perhaps, but we now have a City Council proposal allowing for more incendiary devices to be available legally during permit periods around New Year’s Eve and July 4. Bill 22 will be decided upon soon by the full Council, but the idea that we should add more lit up devices- even seemingly benign fountains, sparklers, and poppers- to the obnoxious already existing aerials- legal and illegal- seems nonsensical and counterproductive.

Obviously, it’s been extremely difficult for law/fire officials to apprehend scofflaws who ply their handiwork (as long as their hand-ies aren’t blown off). Neighbors begrudgingly tolerate cul-de-sac celebrations, wary of complaining on their neighbors. Dogs cower. And law enforcement cannot be everywhere at once. Sometime they’re too busy and thus cannot be anywhere as the rockets glare red.

Encouraging more smoke, noise, street strewn garbage, potential injuries, neighborhood angst, and enhanced fire hazards is incomprehensible. A councilmember suggested that the current fireworks ban is not working. Well, neither is the speed limit in lots of places, so should we simply abandon speed signs or increase speed limits? 

Another council member asked how to make it easier for HPD and HFD to go after illegal fireworks’ users. I’m guessing that having more “stuff” exploding and lit up won’t make policing any easier, as we’re all left to ponder what’s legal and illegal amid incessant smoke and noise. 

State House Bill 2193 (now in force) allows law/fire officials more leeway to inspect legal permittee’s homes, to make sure there are no illegal devices among the legal cache.  Perhaps we could offer $1,000 bounties for people to surreptitiously use their cell phones to report sonic booms and illuminating explosions in their immediate environs. They can then text the footage via a fireworks hotline, thus enhancing anonymous community patrols. The mere nagging suspicion among fireworks abusers that “someone” is watching/taping might curtail some of this semi-annual mess.

And please, enough with the false premise that usage of sky high, aerial devices is somehow a celebration or must-have for festive or religious reasons. If that’s the belief, OK, then simply restrict airborne exposure to specific religious sites and/or permitted, cordoned-off areas, not the current craziness where anything goes… anywhere.

Let’s snuff this suggested fireworks fiasco; there’s no justifiable rationale to add more obnoxious cacophony to simply appease amateur pyrotechnicians and opportunistic retailers. This idea is a dud that’ll make policing even more futile.

Think about it…