If you’ve been annoyed during the evening, or awakened in the middle of the night with the sound of fireworks, you are certainly not alone. At first, I thought it was just me, so I started talking to family and friends all over the country, and this seems to be a nationwide problem.

Albany Mayor Kathy Sheehan has also noticed the uptick in firework activity. She asked residents to volunteer to go door-to-door to talk to people about the negative impact of illegal fireworks. She says, “Whether it’s during broad daylight or 3 a.m., fireworks have a negative impact on the quality of life of our neighbors. Illegal fireworks can burn or seriously injure people and start fires in buildings, create debris in our parks and neighborhoods, and disproportionately impact infants, seniors, people with PTSD, and pets.“ Sheehan is seeking to ban all sparkling devices permanently.

So then I started researching this a little further. I came across a theory that doesn’t seem far-fetched to me. There’s this theory out there that the powers that be are using the banging sound as a psychological weapon. The thought is, if people become familiarized with the sounds every night, they will just become used to it. At that point, the sound of gunfire or artillery would be just thought of as fireworks.

If you think back, it was shortly after the protests and the calls to disband police departments that the firework sounds began. Also, think about it, these are not just backyard fireworks. These fireworks are the real deal. So it doesn’t seem like kids in the backyard, who have been cooped up for months. These are real fireworks. Who can even afford these fireworks? Where do they come from? How are they getting to Albany and the surrounding areas? It doesn't make sense that this same problem is happening everywhere.

Back in the 1980s, a liberation group called Move was located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. During that time, one of the strategies police used against them was to blare loud noise throughout the night. If you know anything at all about Move, you know that they had a lot of friction with the police. The Philadelphia Police Department eventually dropped a bomb on them, on Mother’s Day in 1985.

I told you about Move as an example. I have no personal knowledge, or anything other than internet theories. But what if the government is using what sounds like innocent fireworks as a form of psychological warfare? I hope that’s not the case but it seems like it could possibly work, remember life is stranger than fiction.

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