Posted on 06/19/2006 8:10:58 AM PDT by dead
Undercover NYPD cops are cracking down on New York buyers of illegal fireworks by staking out Pennsylvania vendors - and, for the first time, seizing the cars of people who travel out of state to get their Fourth of July fireworks.
So far this year, cops have seized 30 vehicles belonging to New York ers as they return home from Penn sylvania after buying fireworks there, and have arrested 60 people, according to a report in New York magazine this week. The report says undercover cops have been watching Pennsylvania fireworks vendors and looking for New York license plates. The heightened enforcement comes after Mayor Bloomberg's law-enforcement officials noted an increase in illegal fireworks set off during last Fourth of July on Staten Island.
One Pennsylvania merchant, Bill Weimer, told the magazine that he asks New York police to quit taking pictures of his customer's license plates and leave his stores but that they go across the street and "give off that New York cop attitude."
In an odd twist, New Yorkers - who are barred from possessing fireworks in their home state - can legally buy them in Pennsylvania, which prohibits sales only to its own residents.
A law-enforcement source told The Post yesterday that the NYPD also has confiscated hundreds more cases of fireworks this year compared with last year. More than 1,000 cases have been seized to date, as against 150 last year...
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Let's get these killers off the street before another life is lost to firecrackers and bottle rockets! [/sarcasm]
If I was a taxpayer in New York right now I would be going crazy with the outrageous ways money is being spent. They have enough problems within their five boroughs to keep law enforcement busy for several lifetimes...but they instead deploy police hundreds of miles away to catch people with children's noisemakers? Wow.
~ Blue Jays ~
So you can buy fireworks in Pennsylvania, but only if you are not a resident. Nice.
And if they need a "how to" manual for doing just that, they can consult with the Sheriff of Cecil County, Maryland. He has for years has been doing just that to Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board agents who camp across the Maryland line looking to ID Pennsylvania drivers purchasing liquor in Maryland. Pennsylvania defends its Socialist liquor sales system every bit as vigorously as New York defends its anti-fireworks system. And, lest my current home state of Maryland appear morally superior to my old home state of Pennsylvania, Maryland cops regularly set up camp just over the DC line to spot Maryland commuters who stop on their way home to buy fireworks at the big stands on New York Avenue.
Yeah, it's crazy. My brother lives in the Poconos and when I go to visit, there are fireworks stands with some cool stuff, but you have to prove that you don't live in the state to buy anything.
But what happens if you are an illegal alien and you have illegal fireworks in your car?
____________
2 wrongs make a right, so they go free.
(Under New York City law, city residents were technically required to pay the city sales tax on anything they purchase out of state and bring into the city for their own use.)What do you mean, were? When I did my state taxes for 2005, I had the choice of choosing their arbitrary out-of-state-purchase assessed tax or slogging through a byzantine calculation that required my having receipts for such purchases.
We're talking about a solution in need of a problem here. How many people are genuinely affected in a negative nature by backyard fireworks? That would be like Iowa State Troopers being deployed to Indiana to find some firecrackers in someone's trunk. Not worth the $$$$$.
~ Blue Jays ~
"but they instead deploy police hundreds of miles away to catch people with children's noisemakers? "
Well, I think it's stupid, too, but we're not really talking about children's noisemakers here.
Fireworks, other than the usual "Safe and Sane" variety, are illegal here in Minnesota. I'm less than 20 miles from the Wisconsin border, where all fireworks are legal.
The City of Saint Paul has essentially given up on enforcing fireworks laws, so it's opened up a big mess in residential neighborhoods.
You needn't go to a big fireworks show in Saint Paul to see fireworks. Large mortar rounds with the same huge aerial display are pretty common in my neighborhood. Bottle rockets are kid's stuff. My wife and I sat on the front lawn in lawn chairs last July 4, and watched a fireworks show done from many front yards that rivaled the big one down on the Mississipi River.
I can't imagine how much money these folks spent on fireworks.
There was another reason to be outdoors, though. I had my garden hose on with a nozzle on it the whole time. I extinguished three burning skyrockets that landed on my roof from my neighbor's yard on the street behind me.
In NYC, folks fire these fireworks off from the tops of their buildings. Could be a big problem, I'd think.
Still...confiscating people's cars seems a bit much.
Of course, it could be a Federal Crime, too. Transporting explosives without a permit across state lines. BATF might be interested.
How would the founding fathers have reacted if the British confiscated the horse and carriage of colonists for minor infractions? It certainly would have been considered an intolerable act and IMO is theft. It is also unequal punishment since the penalty for someone driving a old rust bucket is less than that for someone with an Escalade. This legal car theft cr*p is a growing trend and has got to stop. If they can take your car today they can take your house tomorrow.
In Ohio, you can buy fireworks, but only if you sign a form that says you will be shooting them off in another state! Crazy!
Regardless . . . if you decided to use the "byzantine" method and entered $0 for out-of-state purchases (or had several thousand dollars of such purchases and only entered a small fraction of them), how could they possibly enforce the law?
That's pretty much the way the fireworks business runs, at least in this are of the country. New Yorkers go to PA to buy fireworks, Pennsylvanians go to Ohio. It's not a coincidence that these stores are located near state lines. Rather it's a hypocritical system whereby the states get the sales tax revenue, but still look like they prohibit the items.
SD
Go to South Carolina and your "jaw will drop" at the types of fireworks available there.
Mayor Bloomberg probably is looking for "Straw Purchasers" of out-of-state fireworks, and has undercover cops making buys from "Rogue Fireworks Vendors" so he can call the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco, and Fireworks) down on them, too.....LOL.
I will admit I broke the law . I live in Zoo Jersey where EVERYTHING is illegal and bought fireworks in Pa. ( cheaper than S. Carolina ) I can't understand how I am leagally able to buy ammunition which will definately KILL YOU and not but a firecracker .Every year the Gestapo shows TV clips of an M-80 blowing up a watermelon and saying " This can happen to you!!!" Well, M=80's are banned by federal law and firecrackers aren't .
The bottom line is that the insurance companies are behind restricting citizens from celebrating our Independence from oppression while in other countries you can walk down the street with an AK and discharge it into the air at will .
They cancel each other out. Who wants to confiscate a 63 Rambler?
AMNESTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Gimme "Risky and Mad" -- so long as it's shot off way out in the countryside. Howitzer fireworks and dense building don't mix.
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