NYPD Blows Up 5,000 Pounds Of Confiscated Fireworks (VIDEO)

The 4th of July is a special holiday weekend for all Americans, but perhaps more so for the NYPD bomb squad. That's because each year they get to blow up all the fireworks the department has confiscated in a grand, fiery spectacle.

This year they gathered 5,000 pounds of confiscated fireworks and detonated it -- on Youtube, no less.

It is illegal to buy or sell fireworks in New York without a permit, so those who are caught can get fined or arrested. From the Staten Island Advance:

Since 2005, NYPD undercover squads have been targeting fireworks shops in Pennsylvania. Cars with New York plates are followed until they cross into New York -- often on Staten Island -- where the occupants are arrested. Their cars and cargo are impounded.

"We want everyone to enjoy the Fourth in the city, but fireworks in the hands of an amateur are extremely dangerous and illegal,” said Mayor Bloomberg.

But more importantly, ka-boom:

Comments

[Max Shaw]

04:16 PM on 07/06/2011

Why not just add these to the officially sanctioned fireworks displays?? This seems like a complete waste.

[dhinds]

07:42 PM on 07/05/2011

Although careless use of fireworks can sometimes lead to accidents, losing your vehicle over them seems like a heavy price to pay for being patriotic on July 4th.

Was it a New York State or NYC law that allowed this to happen?

[bynddrvn5]

06:46 PM on 07/05/2011

NYPD trolling for New Yorkers in other states?

Ridiculous expenditure of resources.

[TheSarge]

04:49 PM on 07/05/2011

Illinois does this also, and I thought about the law as I ignited 400 bucks in illegal fireworks on my uncles farm. But I have to admit the cleanup was hell! lol

[ZippoDee]

12:47 PM on 07/05/2011

They should do this from a barge out by Liberty Island. The city's payin' for it - why not?

[cojaye]

10:30 AM on 07/05/2011

Would have been more spectacular if the destruction took place at night. Could have added to the festivities. One question: Did I hear or read that an NYPD person took the video and loaded it on You Tube?

[Max Shaw]

04:17 PM on 07/06/2011

I just asked the very same thing. Seems like a compelte waste of perfectly good fireworks....

[goode88]

10:23 AM on 07/05/2011

Seems like they do more work making sure fireworks stay out the city then drugs.

[WasteNJ]

09:26 AM on 07/05/2011

Booooooooooooooooo!

[badman400]

06:12 AM on 07/05/2011

Permit? Banned? Thank God I live in a free state.

[ptrgamb]

05:59 AM on 07/05/2011

BOOM goes the dynamite!
Why are the folks from Pennsylvania going to Staten Island? Are they lost?

[diva362171]

05:24 AM on 07/05/2011

They could've spread them out more! Reminds me of that one scene in the movie "Dutch".

[diva362171]

05:23 AM on 07/05/2011

That's a little flashy, isn't it?

[Konrad Klean]

11:22 PM on 07/04/2011

The regrettable part of this is that the city should have ponied up a couple extra bucks and had these fireworks shot off professionally over the weekend, before the Macy's fireworks' show. At least that way it would have benefited someone other than the families of the cops who no doubt took tons of the stuff home with them.

Then again, that would have required common sense and sympathy for the people of the city. Things that the NYPD isn't all that famous for.

[Kellygobraugh]

01:34 AM on 07/05/2011

"A couple extra bucks"? Come on. Let's get real. To shoot off these fireworks professionally would have required permits, paying a professional to launch the fireworks, supplies to launch them, police to cordon off the area from spectators, insurance, marketing; the list could go on and on. These guys are just doing their job.

Why do you immediately jump to conclusions and assume that the cops took home illegal fireworks to their parents? They could lose their jobs, for god's sake. Get real.

The NYPD do an amazing job of keeping our city safe and secure. Most of them are underpaid and they don't criticism like yours.

[Konrad Klean]

01:43 AM on 07/05/2011

Permits can be established annually considering the destruction of these fireworks takes place every year. This event is ordinary modus operandi for the city police. Never mind that marketing is unnecessary during the holiday weekend as long as the display takes place in the proximity of a well traversed public area such as Battery park, Staten Island, or heck, Central Park

Now far as conclusions, there is no jumping involved. Police officers taking evidence which will be destroyed such as these fireworks, or in many cases weed is so routine that they joke about it in bars. I've bartended in a number, and yes, the cops always had the best weed.

You need to stop jumping to conclusions yourself by the way, considering that nowhere have I suggested that they don't keep the city safe and secure. Unless you happen to be a black man driving away from a strip club the night before your wedding, or an immigrant black man who reached for his wallet to show the I.D. which was demanded of him.

I guess you're right though. If you discount the brutal murders of at least two black men by police officers who were later cleared of wrong doing, and another pair which in all likelihood raped a drunk young woman in her apartment, the NYPD is doing a swell job.

[Wake Up Call]

10:28 PM on 07/04/2011

Yet fireworks are for sale in most countries throughout Europe and Asia every day of the year. Enjoy your "freedom" day celebration.

[Sandra Reay]

11:12 PM on 07/04/2011

Yes, they are you are right. As is flying a kite on the beach, having a bbq on the beach, drinking a beer outside. All things I have seen the police confiscate (the kite from two 8 year old boys). Not me though, I'm too afraid of the NYPD.

[Ralph DeMattia]

10:26 PM on 07/04/2011

Show us what the damned cops did with the OTHER 15,000 pounds of confiscated fireworks that they took home!