The O.C. Register is reporting that the Cty of Garden Grove has opted to go with my suggestion, and punish those who use illegal fireworks instead of going after the non-profits who sell safe and sane fireworks. Well done!
For some reason, Janet Nguyen voted against this reasonable measure. Kudos to Mark Rosen for seeing it through to its conclusion.
I hope that the Santa Ana City Council will follow suit. Garden Grove will be charging violaters $1,000 each. Santa Ana should do the same – but I hope the City of Garden Grove actually spends some money telling their constituents about this. It would not be fair to only tell English speakers about it.
Santa Ana could probably make up their budget deficit in one night by enforcing a similiar law. In fact they ought to pay folks a bounty for reporting violators. It is easy to take their picture and call the cops. Violators are doing something that could burn down neighbor’s houses and hurt their families. They ought to pay a serious price for that.
I also think that those who use the safe and sane fireworks but do not clean up their mess ought to also be fined. That behavior is inexcusable.
Art
You keep talking about a plan that has absolutely NO chance of working. If calling PD or Fire when we witness the use of illegal fireworks worked, I wouldn’t have a problem on my street,
Let me give you the drill
You call
A nice person takes all pertainent info, location, description of perp,
sometime later, it could be 10 minutes or two hours a 50 foot long hook and ladder truck sneaks up to investigate.
There can be as many as 30 people standing around the immediate location. Let me describe the the average perp
5’10” male
brown/black hair buzz cut
white T shirt jeans
teens to twenty something
OK Art, you find him, and follow through with your plan
It takes 15 seconds to throw a cherry bomb into the back of a passing truck, or to light bottle rockets one after another and then disappear into a dark alley when a car shows up.
Also, what we can’t seem to get through to you and others is, safe and sane fireworks are neither in the hands of an idiot
Thank goodness reason prevailed.
Outlawing legal activities instead of finding ways to address the issue is just bad public policy.
I’m glad to see that the scofflaws using illegal pyrotechnics will have to pay for the enforcement of the fireworks laws and families and decent people will still be allowed the safe and sane displays.
Art –
Good luck actually catching somebody!! In Santa Ana, illegal fireworks are a prioriy 5 call….the bottom of the food chain. And then when they do come out, they will have to physically witness the crime taking place.
A. How many people are going to be stupid enough to light an illegal firework in front of a cop?
B. Is a single cop going to run into a crowd of 30 drunk people & chase the person who actually lit the firework?
C. Enforcing this law is going to be about as easy as enforcing the law that says to not remove the mattress tag.
Good luck fining people who dont clean up their mess. How do you prove whose mess it is?
In theory, your ideas are good. In the real world, they are impossible to enforce.
You seem to have lost all common sense recently: “It is easy to take their picture”. Yeah, like that would stand up in court.
You say the city “ought to pay folks a bounty for reporting violators”. The city is OVERWHELMED with complaints every first week of July. Reporting violators is not the problem. Catching them and proving guilt is the problem.
Your sense of reality has been distorted since your move to the left. Kind of like when you PERSONALLY blame Bustamante for some dumb kid tagging your neighborhood. Like Bustamante put the can in the kids hand and told him to do it. Get a grip man!!!!
Art,
Common sense is offensive to some of those on this blog; ignore them!
Illegal fireworks? Only recently I replaced an old roof with one “TILE.” I reside in a “beach city” where “The Police” have no reputation for “helpfulness,” but they can put rounds into bodies faster than a cuisinart can puree!
Neighbors in this upscale community regularly have “parties” and “fireworks” that might even be “missiles!” This is a threat to a lot of roofs that are not TILE. Phone calls are ignored .. response is unlikely .. but FINES are always welcome to defray the COSTS of this “force?”
When have you seen “black and whites” on freeways lately? Motorcyle cops are even more rare. And the accidents and pile ups because of reckless driving so encouraged in absence of any “sanction?”
Your logic undoubtedly challenges the witless!!