Business

Despite Threats, No Fireworks Tickets


The GUARDIAN sympathizes with local police and fire officials in Boise when it comes to the dangers of illegal fireworks, but even after promises to crack down on violators, it seems no tickets were issued despite more than 300 reports of illegal fireworks over the July 4 weekend.

Idaho law is without any teeth on the issue of illegal fireworks–generally described as “aerial fireworks with an explosion.”

Dealers sell the big boomers and require customers to sign a worthless document saying they will not be used in Idaho.

Comments & Discussion

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  1. Guess I’m the exception. If it wasn’t for the neighbors setting off their “illegal fireworks” it wouldn’t be the fourth. I’m old enough to remember when we could buy all kinds of fireworks and set them off without about a bunch of fuddy duddies complaining about them. And no, we didn’t blow our fingers or any other part of out bodies off or burned the neighbors house down. We set off skyrockets, roman candles, M-80s, and all kinds of assorted fire crackers. To my neighbors who set off all those “illegal fireworks”, thank you.

  2. Brian e Vermillion
    Jul 9, 2019, 8:31 pm

    You’re incorrect, the law has teeth but without any enforcement it is worthless. The situation in Nampa is completely out of control and if you call the police they will politely say ” we’ll put your complaint in line”, knowing that there’s no chance of responding in a timely fashion. If they do show up the complainer is the one who is questioned, id’d etc. No city council member has the testicular fortitude to “ruin” peoples celebrations on the fourth. Besides, the animal shelter charges 109.00 for every stray they pickup and return to the owner.

  3. Deep Midnight
    Jul 10, 2019, 6:57 am

    Geo you are not the exception, so don’t worry. No one cares about this issue except the police, their minions, and those will not stop at calling the police over fireworks in order to control how you live; because you know these sorts of people know what lifestyle is best for everyone.

    Some are concerned about fires but the statistics on the matter are kind of low.

  4. Like many things in our life it is very easy to pass a law or say we are really really going to enforce this law. But enforcing a law is much harder if not impossible. All you have to do is take a drive downtown. Electric scooter that are very popular now. How can the police enforce the rules? https://www.bird.co/safety/ Drinking or being drunk… I’m seeing a bike bar driving party goers to all the bars downtown. And blocking the streets with the bike bar as they drive around.. https://www.pedals-pints.com Speeding… just take a drive on the freeway at the speed limit and hope you don’t get run over by the folks going 90 and in a big hurry. Very little enforcement. Only time people slow down is when they see a police car.

    Unless we want a police state I think the police will only enforce the important laws. But our solons need to be careful about the laws they pass and think about how will it be enforced.

    When they allow illegal fireworks to be sold outside of the city limits of Ada County how can you expect the police to arrest everyone that are shooting them off.

  5. Organized Theft
    Jul 10, 2019, 10:24 am

    Editor, don’t give them any excuses to take more taxes. The three democrat/libs running Ada county just announced the desperate need to take more of our money from prior years. The money will not be used for the stuff they say either because two of them have a long list of Bieter projects to waste money on.

    Never gonna stop fireworks. It is disappointing to need to stay home just in case.

  6. I don’t like the fireworks just because one night of noise is hard on the dog… so we leave town or I can medicate him. But the ones the neighbors have can (and do) last for a long time. Ok, if you don’t sleep with your windows open or if you are a heavy sleeper and don’t have a dog who doesn’t like the sound.

    Organized Theft…. when will they have want less taxes, cut spending? You sure have your name spot on!

  7. Well, I guess all you ‘fireworks encouragers’ have never stood on the Bench and watched the fires blazing across the foothills. If you had, you might just feel differently about this. I’ve lived in Boise since 1970 and have seen quite a few disasters over the years. That’s just one reason why wood shingles are no longer allowed on homes — they burn really, really fast. Once, I even saw a fire engine go up in flames. With even a slight wind, horses in their barns or even in their pastures will also burn to death. If you want to see fireworks blasting off, then go someplace where it is professionally displayed !!!

  8. Accountability
    Jul 10, 2019, 10:19 pm

    Organized Theft – thanks for the update on the tax issue covered last night. Have not had a chance to hear the status. Seems like the County and the City both loved the idea of growth – for the fun stuff that can be done with all the new revenue – all the while simply forgeting that more people means more issues, more homeless, more crime, fires, dead bodies to house, etc. That costs money too – but none is left because it was all blown on the fun & sexy stuff! Or was this all intentional, all the while knowing the “clawback” of taxes is always a backstop?

  9. Organized Theft
    Jul 11, 2019, 8:26 am

    So, smarty-pants, What happened to the enormous amounts of money they already have? How did this crisis develop? Like irresponsible children they blew the wad and now they want more. To get more they make it sound like they are taking it for important responsible stuff. Otherwise the parents will say no. It’s a trick. A shell game. I know exactly what I’m talking about you fool. And yes they are Bieter Bots doing what they are told. You help them by making irresponsibility look so complicated. It’s theft.

  10. Great picture!

  11. As mentioned in a MSM piece last year, Idaho’s fireworks law is a lot like this:
    Imagine the Idaho Legislature passing a law allowing sales-stands in any Albertson’s parking lot (or Dollar Store in our cheap towns) to temporarily sell marijuana for 2 weeks in April.
    But,,,, the buyer has to sign a document stating they will NOT USE the marijuana in Idaho and will instead take it out-of-state to actually use it.
    Would any GOP legislator sign on to that? LOL!
    Yet, they can’t apply that same principle to their fireworks laws.

    The fine for a fireworks violation -misdemeanor.
    Using fireworks in August – a $100 fine.
    Possession of 4 oz of marijuana – a FELONY.
    Possession of a plant not affecting anyone else- BAD.
    Possession of fireworks that is guaranteed to impose harm or inconvenience (noise and fire) on someone else- no big deal… legal.
    btw the SALE of paraphernalia is a felony subject to $30,000 or 9 years.
    Sale of aerial fireworks expected to be used within Idaho- perfectly legal.

    Conclusion: Our state is being run by idiots!

    And then there are comments like the above, ‘the statistics on the matter are kind of low’.
    Well, the cost of the 2016 Tablerock fire is not low! $400,000 and we TAXPAYERS pay for that ‘statistic’. That’s a fact!
    Idiot citizen voters = idiot representatives.

    Statistics don’t matter when it’s YOUR house. https://www.eastidahonews.com/2017/07/fire-caused-by-fireworks-burns-2-pocatello-homes/

    As to Porcupine’s comment of enforcing the “important laws”.
    Again, IF IF IF it is your house or property damaged- that is a VERY important law! Enforcing that law would have to be one of the easiest to do so. Easy to see! It’s usually not a 1 time use. And lots of help reporting violations. No excuses coppers!
    and fire depts can also enforce Idaho’s existing fireworks laws– instead of sitting in the fire station.
    BPD certainly likes to enforce the DUI laws ($$) and that can be truly difficult. I think the two violations (and text/driving) are similar- VERY risky! Not so probable to cause harm -but then it does, the harm can be most severe. When outcomes of offenses are similar,,,, enforcement, and punishment should be similar.

    light em if you got em!

  12. Deep Midnight
    Jul 11, 2019, 6:15 pm

    Ha Ha, I loved reading Organized Theft’s comments. I felt the same reading possibly a different comment made by DB. Its sure pretty, what that person wrote, and it sounds nice too. The only problem is they sound like a liberal; why do they always accuse the rest of us of being stupid or unable to think about our words prior to posting?

    Reading it, it looks this person thinks the rest of us are rednecks; which with the sun and the amount of manual labor that still needs to be done this season, we probably are.

    To DB, I would challenge you to get a real job; hand to mouth, salt of the earth type. You might then meet people who you once deemed as dumb rednecks, and maybe you will see that we are not.

  13. Maybe the state should allow POT stores to open in Idaho and customers would sign a release that they would blow smoke towards Oregon or Washington!

  14. Deep Midnight
    Jul 13, 2019, 5:33 pm

    Easterner, a statistic is the number of times a firework causes a fire, not the amount of damage that fire creates. The amount of damage a fire creates is up to too many variables and therefore is a made up fact which you have morphed to fit your argument.

    I hardly think my comment qualifies as a reason to call me an idiot. I am glad to know you think everyone but yourself is an idiot though; you a liberal?

    I see a whole lot of this one minded non-speak coming from liberals which is very passionate Ill grant you but ultimately filled with nonsense. The trouble is, you folks are just too angry over nonsense facts, but you have plenty of conclusions about those facts…which usually its that everyone but yourselves are idiots.

    You dont seem like you have many friends. Maybe one day you could come over for a day of manual labor in the sun and Ill give you a few beers. Nothing that soothes the wounded soul better than hard work and a cold drink. We could BBQ. I find all 3 things especially conducive to calming people down and creating a community instead of calling people idiots.

    EDITOR NOTE–I try to filter out the name calling, but Eastie seemed to be referring to the legislature, not an individual. Nice offer on the beer and BBQ.

  15. Just a general comment. There is a large difference between stating that comments are misinformed and calling people “dumb rednecks” as Organized Theft has pointed out. I merely suggest that you take the time to educated yourself before going on an “all taxes are bad” tirade without any real specifics. I don’t like paying the government any more than anyone else, but somethings are necessary.

    As for being liberal, I think not. If I had my way our government would function to perform only the services that are not economically viable for private-sector to perform, and nothing else. That said, I think that social welfare programs could be more efficiently conducted through churches, charities and the like, not the government. Frankly, I think there should be no exemptions to taxation, and taxation should be fiscally constrained to only the necessities. I could go on, but I do not have time, as I am far more than keyboard warrior that spouts on about everything that I do not understand. Again, a call to all educate yourself on how the system currently works, and then organize people to change it. That my fellow commenters is how you get real change.

  16. Organized Theft
    Jul 22, 2019, 8:08 pm

    So, smarty-pants, What happened to the enormous amounts of money they already have?

  17. Organized Theft, why don’t you go and figure that out rather than spouting one-sentence name calling. Most of the budget and expenditure information is available online, some agencies, you may have to submit public info requests. City of Boise will likely throw out some legal reason indicating that it would cost you money to obtain that information because of legal review, which is BS. I would advise any and all reading this that review is needed for all government agencies spending as they all likely have varying degrees of slush-funds, but what we are missing in this discussion is the lack of legal reporting by our Urban Renewal agencies, which do not have to seek public input in their budgeting or spending practices, which needs to change.

    I agree with your sentiments against wasteful spending and understand they are well-founded, especially when you see City of Boise saying they can forego financing the library and just pay cash and then GBAD stepping in and saying they can kick out 15 million for the project too. Those are fat sums of money that they are slush-funding by taking the maximum allowable amounts of budget increases each year which compound like a giant snowball for all of us taxpayers to bear.

  18. Organized Theft
    Jul 23, 2019, 7:20 pm

    Dude-Bro, You are so full of over-educated self-important crap. It’s way simple. They took money for important stuff and spent it on unimportant stuff. Now they declare an emergency for important spending as if they never had enough.

    Got no idea why you’d want to cover their ass, butt you do. Please shed light on your super smart motives.

  19. Again with generalizations. Organized theft is less than organized. I guess if my giving specifics is over-educated and self-important, then guilty as charged. As for covering up for them, yeah right… You would do yourself well by understanding the budgeting process used by these agencies. Often times they do not spend the money they take in during a budget year, that in which is not spent is called fund balance, which can be carried forward in perpetuity to use on things on the Library or any number of other pet-projects. Having large balances carry forward is how they can all of the sudden just pay cash for something as large as the library project. In case you are living under a rock I have not seen nor heard of any “important” city expenditures being cut so that they can cry that they need more for the next year. In fact, the City of Boise never cries that they need more, they just take it and then run a press release on how tax rates will decline even with their massive budget increases, when truth be told the tax rate can decline, but your taxes may very well increase. It is just a feel-good spin that they are allowed to get away with due to people being uninformed about the process.

    It would be nice if more of the media would pick up on Dave Frazier’s informative and honest news, it would be a refreshing change for a very dishonest and ignorant press that most people currently are basing their opinions from.

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