It's Time To Legalize Limited Use Of Fireworks In The City Of Lub

I'm glad we have a sense of priorities here.

Is The City Of Lubbock Brain Dead?

Somehow people in Lubbock think if they move things across an imaginary line from the city to the county, that we'll all be protected. At one time booze was outside of the city limits. After the location of Players/Baby Dolls closed in 2005 strip clubs were pushed to outside of the city limits. Fireworks are still outside the city limits, but surround the town like ants that found a dead grasshopper. The idea that a little distance is going to keep any of these things from being popular, or from being brought into town is ridiculous.

The Police

Stuck in the middle of all of this is the Lubbock Police. They have to deal with the very worrisome crime rate in the Hub City and probably have about zero time to deal with fireworks complaints. They are asking again for you to not clog up 911 with fireworks calls and instead make your complaints to Crimeline. My thought is, if you're complaining you want it to be stopped quickly, and I don't see your complaint being treated as a priority. People love fireworks, I love fireworks, and no one is going to stop fireworks, so the focus just needs to be on safety.

The Solution

In the past I've seen the hard working folks with Lubbock Fire Rescue actually patrolling the streets in fire trucks looking for problems and putting a bit of a pause on celebrations. That, to me, makes a little sense. It certainly didn't stop the barrage of fireworks in my area, but it at least slowed them for a bit. I still believe that the ultimate solution is to have a "safe-period" when fireworks are allowed. I'm thinking an ordinance that says fireworks are okay between something like "dusk and 10 p.m.". I don't believe any more or any less people will fire fireworks, but LFR could have "all hands on deck" at that time, and the police could focus on people who are outside of that time frame. The stands, in that they still have quite a bit of flammable stuff in one place would stay where they are, but we could stop making criminals out of people who want to celebrate the 4th in town. Anyways, it's just an idea, because just saying, "No" is not working, not even a little bit.

Oh, and Happy 4th Of July!