Seized, unexploded device. Photo by BPD.
Boston Police report four teens were arrested yesterday on charges they shot off fireworks at Summer and Arch streets and on Washington Street near Milk Street yesterday afternoon.
The alleged leader of the dumbass pack, a 16-year-old from Quincy, who police say fought the law and lost, was arrested and brought down to A-1 to be booked as a delinquent for throwing, secreting, launching or placing an incendiary device. Police say he had an unexploded firework in his backpack.
His three pals were caught and released - with summonses to appear in court on the same charge.
According to police, around 3:25 p.m.,
Officers assigned to District A-1 (Downtown) responded to reports of a large explosion in the area of Summer Street at Arch Street in Downtown Boston. On arrival, officers spoke with several concerned citizens who stated that a group of teenagers had been observed igniting some sort of incendiary device in the crosswalk of the intersection. As the officers were investigating on scene, they heard the sound of another large explosion coming from the area of Downtown Crossing. The officers quickly responded to the area of 335 Washington Street where they observed firework debris in the street. While on scene, officers were approached by witnesses who stated that four teenage males had utilized a black cylinder to launch fireworks in the street before fleeing on foot and entering a nearby business. The officers then entered that business and located four juvenile suspects matching the provided descriptions, ultimately recovering the black cylinder from a backpack while arresting the suspect, later identified as a 16-year-old male from Quincy. The suspect was placed in custody following a brief struggle at which time the officers recovered an unexploded firework from his person.
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Comments
Wait...
By eeka
Sat, 05/21/2022 - 11:18am
We always get told the city doesn't enforce firework laws and won't even go out and ask people to stop shooting them off for the entire months of June and July while people are trying to attend classes, sleep, not to have their trees and roofs catch on fire, etc.
Do people have to live downtown to be protected and served from firework nonsense all summer?
Hold on there ...
By adamg
Sat, 05/21/2022 - 11:19am
They're shooting off fireworks on crowded streets (even if not as crowded as in the Before Time). That's a bit different than shooting off fireworks on an otherwise empty basketball court.
C'mon, it's not like they were having Roman
By MC Slim JB
Sun, 05/22/2022 - 2:00am
candle fights in hockey helmets with metal trash can lids for shields.
(To Adam's point, my friends and I only did that on fairly empty suburban side streets. It was a more PSA-free time.)
Where did I say empty basketball courts?
By eeka
Sat, 05/21/2022 - 12:05pm
The people here shoot them in narrow streets, in parks, in crowds, and allow pre-teen children to detonate them. Burning shit lands on roofs and trees. The city won’t do anything whatsoever.
But if it’s downtown they’ll not only ask them to break it up, but apparently will send cops and charge them with serious crimes.
Daytime with witnesses.....
By Pete Nice
Sat, 05/21/2022 - 12:08pm
The two major factors the kids were caught. The other was the fact that the kids stayed in the area.
"Daytime witnesses"?
By Rob
Sat, 05/21/2022 - 4:35pm
"Daytime witnesses"?
It's a crime or a menace in daytime, but not at night?
Witnesses - which apparently does not include those of us close enough to the scene to see it happening and our houses being hit, and call the police?
It means
By Pete Nice
Sat, 05/21/2022 - 5:34pm
Police get a call about fireworks downtown during the day. They go and 4-5 random people tell them how many kids, where they are, what they look like, etc. Then the police go find them. Kids can try to run but it’s gonna be easier to find them and stop them.
Nighttime fireworks calls come in with people saying “kids are lighting fireworks at the park”. Police show up to the park and there are 40 people there hanging out with no description of offenders. Some kids run away, some kids pretend to run away, some stand there and watch.
Before 1985 cops would stop any kid near the house and search them. That doesn’t happen anymore sorry.
When I lived in Allston
By AP
Sat, 05/21/2022 - 12:14pm
We had these jackass neighbors across the street who would shoot fireworks off at my building from the street. They'd also sit in their living room, flinging lit fireworks out the window at pedestrians.
Whenever we called the police, all they said was, "If you can't buzz us into the building we can't do anything." Then they got angry with me for saying I didn't live in their building, I lived across the street.
Fortunately their landlord didn't renew their lease.
Annoying fireworks neighbors
By anon
Sat, 05/21/2022 - 1:04pm
In my East Boston neighborhood there are people who set off fireworks and firecrackers continuously from 11 PM to about 4 AM for weeks before and after July 4. Absolutely no consideration for those of us who have to work in the morning. You'd think they'd get bored of it after a while if nothing else, but they just don't. And for those in the more genial suburb-type areas, please don't suggest we "have a talk with them". That doesn't work around here quite the same way it does in Wellesley or Newton.
dont high five gg allin if
By kARL mX
Sat, 05/21/2022 - 2:19pm
dont high five gg allin if you dont wanna get some poop on your hand
Nope
By anon
Sat, 05/21/2022 - 6:13pm
Disturbing the peace with fireworks in a residential neighborhood at 3 AM is still disturbing the peace, regardless of location. Why is it more acceptable in an East Boston residential neighborhood than it is in a Winchester residential neighborhood? Does my dog detect a whistle?
By the way, +1 for GG Allin reference. I used to see him at Cantones in the 70s.
I remember GG from the time he tried to
By MC Slim JB
Sun, 05/22/2022 - 4:29am
ruin a Live Skull show at Local 186 by physically attacking the band, taking a flying tackle at the stage that broke the bass guitar and a big chunk of the drum kit. Thalia and company bravely recovered and muddled on through, but that profoundly stupid, evil act of aggression took the air out of the room.
Imagine being proud of taking a dump on stage, wanting to be remembered for it, and succeeding. No tears here when he checked out from an accidental overdose at 36. Allin was a hateful, witless, obnoxious troll: a human stain, entirely antithetical to the meaning and joy of the punk rock ethos. RIP, by which I mean: rest in pointless, juvenile lulz, asshole.
To his point, during the
By anon
Sat, 05/21/2022 - 12:40pm
To his point, during the crazy COVID summer of splosions someone was lighting off fireworks on top of a building on Tremont in the South End all day long. Big fiery explody things detonating at roof deck and tree top height and they never stopped it. Went on from about noon till 4am. It was roughly around where Whaling in Oklahoma was practically across from the fire station and nothing was done. I have no idea why that was allowed to continue for so long and how nothing caught fire.
I wish my neighbors would use the basketball court for fireworks
By anon
Sat, 05/21/2022 - 3:38pm
There is one only a block away. But instead, they do it on a crowded one way street, or in their back yard. One year they managed to hit a neighbors house, which led to a confrontation, and cops.
Good times.
Kids being kids
By anon
Sat, 05/21/2022 - 2:43pm
Its not that kids behavior has changed it is just that kids today are better armed with mortars,hand guns, explosives, laptops etc when they create malicious mischief downtown.
Pathetic "justification" Number One
By ralphie
Sun, 05/22/2022 - 3:32pm
in the "How dare the police actually enforce the laws" playbook.
There's an ongoing fire hazard advisory
By Ron Newman
Sat, 05/21/2022 - 5:32pm
showing up in weather forecasts, because of the continuing lack of rain combined with high winds. Not a good time to be setting off illegal fireworks.
Somehow I don’t think they care
By BostonDog
Sat, 05/21/2022 - 7:38pm
.
If you lived in Chinatown
By anon
Sat, 05/21/2022 - 9:07pm
If you lived in Chinatown this sort of thing happens. When I first moved there I called the cops cuz i hear loud booms and assumed it was shooting. He said “it’s chinatown.” Lots of stuff goes on in Chinatown that is not tolerated in other neighborhoods. Piles of duck heads in the sidewalk, conch shells collecting vermin, even hosing the blood from the live chicken place from the inside to the gutter. Cold tea. Rotten four-eyed fish in the tanks in the window. Seen it All with my own eyes
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