Germany Says ‘Happy Diversity New Yea…and Duck!’

Sparklers for New Year seem so quaint and old-fashioned anymore.

The remnants of a simpler, more innocent time when people who lived somewhere could get together as friends and fellow countrymen and revel in the recent past while anticipating a – hopefully – bright future with the coming of December 31st.

Festively watching the year roll over and looking ahead to being able to – as a notorious Vice Presidential candidate’s wife was immortalized saying – ‘Turn the page.’ 

Yes! Gwen TURNING THE PAGE! pic.twitter.com/KbOguBX44C

— Dave Gordon 🇺🇸 🇮🇱 (@D_Gordzo) October 29, 2024

Oh, that’s so supergreen – I swear to God, it’ll never get old.

Anyway.

Celebrating New Year’s is a tradition that spans cultures and continents, but public parties often look the same, be it in Dubuque or Dubai.

BIG BADDA BOOMS

Sometimes things do get out of hand. Safety is paramount with explosives, you know, as some unfortunate souls in Hawaii found out when they went cheap and tried to make their own big time fireworks. 

It ended tragically, the incident becoming literally the poster child for, ‘Folks, don’t try this at home.’

A deadly accident has Hawaii officials pleading for an end to amateur fireworks shows

In recent years, occasions large and small — parties, Super Bowls, mixed martial arts fights, even Thanksgiving — have provided a reason for residents across Hawaii to set off illegal fireworks.

The increasingly sophisticated displays, loved by some and loathed by others, are so prevalent that some people consider them part of the state’s culture. They have rattled neighborhoods of tightly packed houses, started fires, terrorized pets and knocked a light fixture off the ceiling of an Associated Press reporter’s home, where it narrowly missed a child and shattered on the floor.

Each New Year’s Day, Honolulu officials publish a list of fireworks casualties from the night before, typically a litany of burns, shrapnel wounds or amputations. Sometimes there are deaths.

But none of the damage has matched Tuesday night’s tragedy, when a lit bundle of mortar-style aerials tipped over and shot into crates of unlit fireworks, causing a rapid-fire series of blasts that killed three women and injured more than 20 people, including children.

The very first year we moved here, the drunk knuckleheads down the street bounced bottle rockets off of our garage wall for the better part of the night. major dad couldn’t go out to hurt someone because it was like a war zone – I was scared he’d get shot on the way.

A few years ago a family in the neighborhood thought they’d put away all the spent fireworks correctly, as they’d dumped them all in a 55-gallon garbage drum. What they didn’t do before they tucked it up next to the house was fill it with water and put the lid on.

The fireworks reignited during the night. The flames reached up into the garage soffit and spread from there through the house.

They were lucky to escape with their lives.

The world is unfortunately chockful of mah-roons, inadvertently or otherwise, who make mistakes that many times end tragically.

Then there are the malevolent ones. 

In Germany’s New Year’s case, the ‘immigrant youths’ in a ‘troubled’ section of a city purposefully turned a celebration into chaos and destruction.

I’d never heard of a ‘ball bomb’ before – have you?

I tell ya, kids these days…

In one of the “troubled areas” of the Schöneberg district of Berlin, youths deployed a “ball bomb” mortar firework, which produced a tremendous explosion that blew out all the windows of an entire apartment building. However, there were mass arrests, totaling over 400, and over 600 police investigations across the city in a night of firework chaos.

The house that lost all its windows was on Belziger Strasse at the corner of Haupstrasse, which also experienced damage to the facade. Police are reporting that certain groups are gaining access more and more often to massive “ball bomb” mortars that produce tremendous explosions.

The blast left 36 apartments temporarily uninhabitable, with a spokesman from the fire department describing a “battlefield.”

“Many apartments are no longer inhabitable. There are four injured people, two of whom had to be taken to hospital,” he said.

The ‘youths’ also enjoyed a festive evening of target practice, using apartment windows as their aiming point.

Clever kiddos. If only someone would build them a youth center to keep them off the street.

🇩🇪🧨 A firework rocket was launched at a private home in Berlin, shattering a window.

The Berlin police department reports they are investigating the contents of this video. pic.twitter.com/r5rxoAJu5J

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) January 1, 2025

The Alternativ for Germany (AfD) party leader, Alice Weidel, called it ‘civil war-like conditions’ in some Berlin districts, but you know how those right-wingers love to exaggerate. Always overreacting.

JUST IN: 🇩🇪 More footage from New Year’s attacks in Berlin, including police being targeted and arson attacks on vehicles.

AfD co-leader Alice Weidel said in response: “Civil war-like conditions in the usual Berlin districts: attacks with ball bombs, 15 injured officers and 390… pic.twitter.com/jjQwY0GFkK

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) January 2, 2025

…“Civil war-like conditions in the usual Berlin districts: attacks with ball bombs, 15 injured officers and 390 arrests. The citizens who just want to celebrate are also paying the price for the migration policy on New Year’s Eve.”

This does look kind of ‘civil war-ish,’ so I won’t be cracking on Weidel for saying so.

Some people are taking things too far with the fireworks in Berlin

🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/tGRcvIddiG

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) January 1, 2025

…In another incident at Berlin-Tegel, a suspected ball bomb detonated in the middle of a crowd. According to a Berlin fire department spokesman, eight people were injured, two of them with life-threatening injuries, including a 7-year-old boy who underwent emergency surgery for life-threatening injuries

Mainstream media doesn’t report about it but NYE turned into hell and ”The Purge Night” in parts of Western Europe.

Youth gangs used powerful fireworks to attack the police in Berlin last night.

13 policemen wounded, 1 seriously. 390 arrested. The fireworks are more like bombs. pic.twitter.com/XC6lXA5o2b

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) January 1, 2025

Classically, German police spoke the woke even as the country erupted in pockets of immigrants terrorizing the natives.

This sort of thing is ‘macho behavior’ from these ‘disadvantaged youths,’ and we – the authorities – just won’t stand for any more it.

YOU BOYS, STOP THIS RIGHT NOW – SAFETY FIRST

…However, there were attacks all over the country — not just in Berlin. In view of the emergency services being targeted, the police union (GdP) federal chairman Jochen Kopelke said “I can no longer tolerate this macho behavior on the streets and in social media. Time and again, there are young men from socially disadvantaged areas who think they control the streets.”

He is calling for swift action against these criminals, saying “in Leipzig, Munich, Cologne and Hamburg, we were targeted and injured. This must have swift and noticeable consequences for the perpetrators and also have noticeable effects on the left-wing extremist scene.”

That should do the trick.

🇩🇪 Detached fingers, deaths, and hundreds detained: Germany rings in 2025 with fireworks and violence

Five people were killed and over a hundred injured due to mishandling fireworks during New Year’s celebrations in Germany. In Berlin alone, 330 individuals were detained on New… pic.twitter.com/dILGzIyBly

— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) January 2, 2025

…Five people were killed and over a hundred injured due to mishandling fireworks during New Year’s celebrations in Germany. 

In Berlin alone, 330 individuals were detained on New Year’s Eve, with 30 police officers injured. One officer required surgery after a firework struck his leg. 

 “We’ve never seen anything like this. Someone mistook New Year’s for war,” commented Berlin police.  

 An entire apartment building in the Schöneberg district had to be evacuated after a firecracker explosion. The blast shattered windows, destroyed storefronts on the ground floor, and rendered the building uninhabitable.   

Additionally, several parts of the city were flooded due to a burst pipe, leaving residents without water on New Year’s Eve.

Someone needs to talk to whoever that was at the Berlin police who said that.

They sound like a right-wing extremist  AfD voter.

You know how dangerous those people are.