De Blasio says stopping illegal fireworks displays is not priority for NYPD
Going after the people setting off dangerous fireworks on city streets just isn’t a priority for the NYPD or FDNY, Mayor Bill de Blasio reiterated on Thursday — a day after a 3-year-old boy was injured by an illegal firework in the Bronx.
“They have many other things, particularly the NYPD dealing right now with other profound challenges,” de Blasio said after being asked about the danger posed to the public by the unlawful fireworks.
Top among those challenges, de Blasio said, was the recent surge in gun violence across the city, which he called the Police Department’s “Job One to address.”
“That’s what I want NYPD focused on first and foremost,” he said.
De Blasio’s remarks came a day after 3-year-old Adiel Rosario was struck by a firework that flew into an open window of his sixth-floor Highbridge apartment at around 12:15 a.m. Wednesday. The boy, who was watching fireworks from the window with his sister, was burned and required stitches.
Illegal fireworks activity has skyrocketed in the city this past month, and residents at the Anderson Street apartment building where Adiel was injured said they have been tormented by pyrotechnics all week.
“There are four guys who pull up right here every night around 1 [a.m.] and unload boxes of fireworks right here,” said one resident, Carlon Hosten, 21. “They go from 1 to 4 with 20-minute breaks in between, so you start to go back to sleep and ‘boom!’ ”
Hosten said the illegal activity continues — even as police drive by in marked cars.
Still, de Blasio doubled down on his crackdown on the suppliers of the fireworks — and not the users — amid growing outrage from bleary-eyed residents fed up with the nightly explosions and largely ignored calls to 311 and 911.
On Tuesday, he said it wasn’t a “good use of police’s time and energy” to go after the users.
Adiel’s father, Jesus Rosario, has disagreed, saying officials should be going after the pyros. No one has been charged in the incident that wounded his son.
On Thursday, de Blasio said police would intervene to stop fireworks displays when they could.
“Sometimes there’s an opportunity to intervene, other times there’s not an opportunity to intervene,” he said.
“We have to shut down the source, and then whenever there’s an opportunity to intervene, they should, but that’s not every opportunity. That’s just the truth.”
De Blasio was also asked about a video that emerged over the weekend and appeared to show firefighters and cops in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, standing around during a massive illegal fireworks show.
“The videos don’t tell you the whole story,” the mayor said, “as per usual in life.”
“I have faith in the professionals of the FDNY and NYPD that they’re going to make decisions based on the fact at hand and obviously based on protecting people’s safety.”
Additional reporting by Lia Eustachewich