Drones Used by California Cities to Patrol for Illegal Fireworks and Issue Fines (sfgate.com)
- Reference: 0178297312
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/07/06/2228207/drones-used-by-california-cities-to-patrol-for-illegal-fireworks-and-issue-fines
- Source link: https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/california-drones-illegal-fireworks-20629637.php
"A number of California cities, including Sacramento, have begun using drones to locate people shooting off illegal fireworks."
> From Wednesday to Saturday night, the Sacramento Fire Department's special fireworks task force patrolled the streets with unmarked cars and drones, focusing on neighborhoods where they've had prior complaints. Task force officers and the drones took photos of the illegal activity, and within 30 days the property owner where the fireworks were used could receive a fine in the mail...
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> This year, Sacramento upped the fine to $1,000 for the first firework, $2,500 for the second and $5,000 per firework after that. If you lit a firework on city property, such as a park or a school, the fine goes up to $10,000 each. There's no limit to how many fines you can be issued... This year, a number of cities across the state announced they would be using drones to find scofflaws, among them Indio, Riverside, Hemet, Brea and towns in Tulare County...
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> Fox40 reported on Saturday that around 60 citations were being prepared in Sacramento, with more likely on the way as fire officials review surveillance footage.
Last year for illegal fireworks, one Sacramento-area resident [2]received a $100,000 fine .
[1] https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/california-drones-illegal-fireworks-20629637.php
[2] https://www.kcra.com/article/elk-grove-100k-fine-4th-of-july-illegal-fireworks/62012193
tyrannical (and revenue raising impulses) (Score:3, Informative)
> “If we see multiple fireworks being used at a single property, we can stack the violations based upon how many fireworks they're using,” SFD Fire Marshal Jason Lee told KCRA. “So, it could be thousands of dollars per location.”
> It’s no idle threat. Last summer, Elk Grove officials announced they’d used to a drone to bust one resident, who racked up $100,000 in fines. This year, a number of cities across the state announced they would be using drones to find scofflaws, among them Indio, Riverside, Hemet, Brea and towns in Tulare County.
yeah... that's some good proportionality there. this is 80's drug war level logic...
(and no i don't do fireworks, and yes i live in low-density urban neighborhood where there are massive amounts of fireworks legal and otherwise and there are remnants of fireworks on my car, the driveway and the roof. so i agree it's annoying and possibly dangerous, but this kind of enforcement for something SO widespread is beyond obnoxious.)
These people are almost as bad as the southeast US "civil forfeiture" cops that just confiscate people's cash and sometimes cars of people who drive through w/o even charging them w/ any crimes, let alone convicting them. (https://www.cato.org/cato-handbook-policymakers/cato-handbook-policymakers-9th-edition-2022/civil-asset-forfeiture-reform )
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
So, even with drones, you still have to have officers out there... so, no reduction of manpower, no saving on the gas bill for those cars, and you have to have expensive drones for each car. Yeah, fining people for each firework seen could probably offset the massive debt they have from handing everything to the illegals.
Re: (Score:1)
> yeah, fining people for each firework seen could probably offset the massive debt they have from handing everything to the illegals.
What?. U got a source for your nonsense?
Re: (Score:1)
Yeah, you mean what I have... what about rent? Food stamps? I could certainly benefit from having my driver's license and a car, both given to me, so I can find a decent job so I can pay my taxes like a good lil' American. And, Medicaid (medical assistance) helps... I have a cast on my foot to fix an issue (find out Friday how much the surgery took care of and all that), but the dentists covered by Medicaid (according to the provider list) don't want to accept it.
If I had the money to go to college for w
Re: (Score:3)
> And, Medicaid (medical assistance) helps...
For now. It isn't 'the illegals' who are cutting it.
Re: (Score:1)
Gwt the fuck out of here, you lying racist sack of shit.
> Deportations and Immigration Limits Threaten California Families, Economy
Your first source.
> DHS Exposes Sanctuary Jurisdictions Defying Federal Immigration Law
Your second source.. bye, garbagr human being.
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
Funny how I never said anything about any races, and I'm still a racist.
I've worked alongside some of the ones who came here legit, and I've dealt with illegals getting the handouts... I never had any racist crap toward either of them.
So... just because one source says one thing, and the next one (not sure what happened with the one that didn't get hyperlinked... not sure what the site actually supports as far as like HTML or any coding) says something else... you should take what each says in equal step, a
Cheaper than officers driving (Score:1)
All over the city when they hear a boom, or see a flash of light in the sky, driving over there, then they are gone. Plus the drone can pinpoint with GPS where it is.
Next: Illegal Fireworks Used To Down Drones (Score:2)
This is American, darn it! The answer is more explosives. What was the question again?
Re: Next: Illegal Fireworks Used To Down Drones (Score:2)
The question is how to make anti-aircraft fireworks.
I had always wanted a reason to do this, I guess now there is one.
Re: (Score:1)
Of course... celebrate our Independence Day with cheap Chinese fireworks!
Re: The entire state could sink into the Pacific (Score:1)
Californiaâ(TM)s economy is the 4th largest economy in the world. So the tax revenue to fund all of the welfare states, which are majority Republican, would be in trouble. California, which used to be its own country, could secede and be just fine, thank you.
Re: (Score:2)
> California, which used to be its own country, could secede and be just fine, thank you.
There is no legal mechanism for a state to secede from the union, never mind unilaterally. One can argue about whether or not this was intentional.
Re: The entire state could sink into the Pacific (Score:2)
No, Texas can (maybe) legally split into up to five new states as long as one is still named Texas (assuming its original admission terms from 1845 still apply and weren't superseded by the terms of its readmission in 1870). Neither it nor its hypothetical child states can legally secede. [1]https://www.smithsonianmag.com... [smithsonianmag.com]
[1] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/more-150-years-texas-has-had-power-secede-itself-180962354/
Re: The entire state could sink into the Pacific (Score:2)
True. We fought a Civil War over that one. What I was trying to convey, is that California could be on its own and do just fine, whereas most states could not.
Re: (Score:2)
Except the hundreds of millions in federal tax dollars they pay, the massive chunk of agriculture, you know the unimportant things.
City property. (Score:3)
> ...within 30 days the property owner where the fireworks were used could receive a fine in the mail
...
> If you lit a firework on city property, such as a park or a school, the fine goes up to $10,000 each.
Who are they fining in these cases if they are doing this covertly and not getting ID from the perpetrators?
I lit some Come git some. (Score:1)
Hey City. I lit some fireworks at Valley Oak. Lovely city property. Nice bathrooms and everything.
I hope your drone got a good shot of nothing-useful-to-cite-me-by you taxpayer-money wasting shitheads.
I'll even help you out. I was wearing a Dodgers championship cap. Hope your drone got a good pic of that.
Losers. The ones without talent work for government and spend taxpayers' dollars and accomplish nothing.
At least Trump is meeting is goal of "removing brown people." Following the law or the constit
A poem by Howard Nemerov (Score:2)
Because I am drunk, this Independence Night,
I watch the fireworks from far away,
from a high hill, across the moony green
Of lakes and other hills to the town harbor,
Where stately illuminations are flung aloft,
One light shattering in a hundred lights
Minute by minute. The reason I am crying,
Independence Day (Score:3)
Americans: Fireworks are illegal? Fuckoff, I'm lighting them in the street then.
Worse: some dumbass caused a fire near LA by buying professional show grade fireworks without knowing how to use them.
If he had access to a fireworks store (like I shop at in New Hampshire) he probably would have just bought those.
I buy consumer mortars and those are *plenty* big for home use.
Much kudos to the Chinese who make very reliable pyrotechnics at quite a fair price. I only spent $160 this year despite the tariffs.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm happy our local PD and FD look the other way despite pretty much every firework being illegal in our state. Pretty much the entire 4th of July Weekend is usually open game. Just don't do anything stupid and you're fine. Start a fire? Sure then you get a fine. Someone lose a hand? That's a fine. Shoot them off safely and responsibly... Fuck right off.
Some cities have started cracking down. And exactly what you described happens instead.. we've seen people launching them FROM CARS (Roman candles and such)
Re: (Score:2)
I guarantee you he would have still bought the professional grade stuff because why would he waste his time on that week consumer shit when the pro grade is out there?
It's a lot easier to say sure go ahead and legalize fireworks when you are in New Hampshire as opposed to drought stricken California.
Never mind the fact that the stuff you're describing could just as easily start a large fire. I don't think he realized what the Southwest is like it really doesn't take much the whole bloody region is b
Deterrance (Score:2)
The point of the fines is to get people to stop shooting off fireworks given the enormous fire danger. Unfortunately you only get fined if you are caught. So this story is threatening people by making getting caught a reasonable possibility.
We live in country where there are people who do things illegal and figure they will just pay the fine if caught. Its just a cost. Some of those people are rich enough that they can afford to risk a very high fine to have a little fun.
So you have to make it more likel
I'm ok with this... (Score:1)
California doesn't deserve to participate in the freedom festivities. I'm sure the state needs all the money it can get from it's citizens. You know, to give them all the social services it gives to those in need.
Re: I'm ok with this... (Score:2)
California gives more money to the feds than it takes back in services or funds, dumbass
A hole in their plan (Score:2)
People often walk 100 feet down the street from their residence. Who gets fined post facto when the illicit fireworkage was in the middle of yhe road, eliminating the possibility of conclusive attribution to one residence? What if they were on public land, like at a park or in a parking lot?
Illegal fireworks (Score:1)
There's so many problems here and this is what they're concerned with.
Re: (Score:2)
If it's a fire issue they're concerned with, they should have the drones surveilling the power company operations, and arsonists. That's were ALL of the bush fires stem from.
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Also, they could be used to stop some power hungry lunatic from fomenting an insurrection on federal property.
Re: (Score:1)
You have groups like Greenpeace that won't allow the power company to cut the trees down.
Re: Illegal fireworks (Score:1)
This isn't Australia we're talking about, it California. Yes, fireworks cause fires in the city. Do you somehow think the urban areas are surrounded with just miles of bare dirt?
I grew up in a state where fireworks were legal, and really regret not being able to enjoy fireworks with my kids. But I understand how our entire state is a tinderbox in the summer, and I've seen the fires started as a result of fireworks, including in my own front yard as a result of kids using them a block away, and something lan
Re: (Score:3)
I think they're happy to do something about arsonists. But as for the power companies with the way the voters work they can't do shit about them. Every time anyone tries to regulate the power companies just spend a ton of money buying off politicians and people get distracted by moral panics and vote for those politicians instead of anyone that would actually take control of the power companies.
Remember it doesn't do any good for you to put up all those drones, what the power companies are doing isn't i
Re: (Score:2)
It's a serious problem in some communities, especially in fire-prone areas.
Re: Illegal fireworks (Score:2)
Fines. Itâ(TM)s about the fines.
Re: (Score:1)
It's about the fines, and also about pushing just that much more toward a totalitarian state. They (the notorious They) don't realize they're pushing society toward a phase change, or that it's not in Their best interests to gain power in this manner.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
> Oh that fat $200 fine really makes a dent in department funding.
TFS says the fines start at a grand. If it was up to me, the punishment would be mandatory community service instead of a fine, that way it still sends a message to wealthy folks that they're not above the law, and doesn't disproportionally harm some low-income person who picked the wrong way to celebrate the 4th.
Of course, here in Florida setting off "illegal fireworks" is like going 10 MPH over the limit on the highway - technically illegal but rarely enforced.