Here’s what Mayor Marty Walsh says is behind the uptick in illegal fireworks
No, it doesn't have to do with people missing out on the Esplanade's Fourth of July celebration.
Related Links
Mayor Marty Walsh has a theory behind why so many people are buying fireworks and setting them off nightly throughout the city, and it doesn’t have to do with missing this year’s Fourth of July display on the Charles River Esplanade.
Instead, the mayor believes it has to do with companies “coming into Massachusetts and preying on [customers].”
“I think it’s companies taking advantage of people, whether they’re being sold out of the back of a van, or people going across the border, those companies that sell the fireworks are being completely irresponsible and quite honestly taking advantage of people in my opinion,” Walsh said during a Thursday press conference.
The mayor was answering a question posed by the media regarding whether the epidemic of illegal fireworks that have exploded across the city for weeks has to do with people making up for missing out on the Independence Day celebration.
The mayor’s comments come on the heels of Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey sending a cease-and-desist letter to Phantom Fireworks — which has stores in New Hampshire, where the devices are legal — in an attempt to keep the company from advertising its wares to Massachusetts residents.
“Phantom Fireworks knows its products are illegal in Massachusetts, yet we are hearing that residents are getting their advertisements in the mail,” Healey said in a statement, according to the Associated Press.
The company’s chief executive Bruce Zoldan said that at the company, “we always follow the law.” However, he says the company’s ads note that the devices are illegal in Massachusetts, and that some customers plan to use them in New Hampshire, or other places where they’re legal, according to The Boston Globe.
“We find it ironic that Massachusetts, the birthplace of former U.S. president John Adams, the author of the most iconic fireworks quote in American history, is the only state in the U.S. that totally bans the use of consumer fireworks,” the company said in a statement in response to Healey’s letter, as reported by the Associated Press.
Walsh said there’s been fireworks in the city in the past, but “not to the magnitude of what it is today,” noting that the companies are selling them “based off of greed” and are “taking advantage of the situation.”
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com