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Topic: Blowing up 'phone boxes

Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 10-23-2003 01:51 AM

We always get firework-related aggro around this time of year. 5 November in Britain is Guy Fawkes' Night, in which firework displays are held to commemorate a failed attempt to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605 by a group of terrorists who were trying to undo the Reformation and restore Catholic rule.

So fireworks are widely sold in newsagents, supermarkets and the like throughout October, and each year you hear of people doing stupid things with them. But this year, the morons have plumbed new depths. In York, the local yokels have been buying up cheap 59p Chinese fireworks, extracting the gunpowder from them, filling up jam jars and, err, blowing up 'phone boxes.

From the local paper:

quote:
Phone box blasts tally rises to seven

by Lucy Stephens

TWO phone boxes were blown up last night in further fireworks attacks in York.

At 8.20pm yesterday, a resident in Burton Stone Lane described a bang loud enough to move the mirror on her wall as a phone box exploded outside.

Police have issued descriptions of two youths in connection with the incident, opposite Macs video centre.

One was wearing dark clothing and a dark baseball cap, and the other was wearing a dark hooded top.

Julie Wiseman-Howard, 31, who lives four doors away from the phone box in Burton Stone Lane, said shattered glass from the explosion had reached the end of her driveway.

She said: "It was so loud, the mirror on my wall moved.

"There was glass all across the road, right up to our driveway.

"It's ridiculous. I don't know where they get these fireworks from. It is a bit scary, too. You don't want to come home to this after a hard day's work."

Earlier in the evening, at 7.55pm, a phone box was blown up in Westfield Place, Acomb, leaving glass all over the road.

In another incident, at 7.20pm, staff at the Star of Bengal restaurant in Burton Stone Lane saw a gang of three of four youths pushing fireworks through their letterbox. They managed to disarm the fireworks before they exploded.

Sergeant Andy Farrar, of York police, said: "This seems to be a bit of a fad at the moment. "

Seven phone boxes have now been targeted across the city.

Cyclist Martyn Miller was hit by the door of a phone box which exploded in Melrosegate, Tang Hall.

Phone boxes in Tang Hall Lane, Hull Road, Bell Farm Avenue were blown up over the weekend, and on Monday there was a further incident in Murton.

Link to story...

Guy Fawkes ended up being hung, drawn and quartered. I wish we could do the same to these yobs!

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Randy Stankey
Film God

Posts: 6539
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Registered: Jun 99

posted 10-23-2003 08:19 AM

I'n not above putting the odd "M-80" in a mail box and stuff like that but this seems over the top. Seems like things are getting more and more destructive all the time.

Whatever happened to the old "Can of shaving cream in the deep freeze" trick?

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Hugh McCullough
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 147
From: Old Coulsdon, Surrey, UK
Registered: Jan 2003

posted 10-23-2003 11:41 AM

Leo said

quote:
Guy Fawkes ended up being hung, drawn and quartered. I wish we could do the same to these yobs!

I believe that York had it's own unique version of execution.
The fellon was slowly lowered into a large vat of boiling oil.
They were literally fried to death.

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Gerard S. Cohen
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 975
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: Sep 2001

posted 10-23-2003 05:35 PM

Leo,
New York City had a similar problem for decades, made more complicated by John Gotti, a Mafia leader, who for years provided fireworks every Independence Day in his neighborhood, plus the traditional Chinese New Year Dragon Dance fireworks celebration in Chinatown.

The toll of injuries continued for many years, but was substantially reduced by a recent get-tough mayor, Rudy Giuliani,
a former Federal Prosecutor, who jailed many mafiosi.

First the sale an importation of fireworks was banned, and the use of fireworks prohibited except by licensed pyrotechnical engineers in licensed public displays, limited to only one or two in the whole city.

John Gotti and many of his gang members were arrested, found guilty, and given long prison sentences. His neighborhood was
vigorously patrolled, and trucks entering the city, as well as warehouses, searched and illegal fireworks seized and destroyed by the Fire Department.

The civic leaders in the Chinatowns reluctantly agreed to the restriction, but I believe the present mayor is attempting
to relax the ban slightly for the Chinese New Year, with pyrotechnical safeguards in place.

The loss of eyes, fingers and lives has been diminished in New York. May the same be witnessed in "Old" York as well.

Gerard

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Ken Layton
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1452
From: Olympia, Wash. USA
Registered: Sep 1999

posted 10-23-2003 05:51 PM

Those idiots who blow up the phone boxes don't even realize that the phone contained within may be desperately needed in an emergency situation. Someone's life may depend on that phone being there and in operational condition.

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Phil Hill
I love my cootie bug

Posts: 7595
From: Hollywood, CA USA
Registered: Mar 2000

posted 10-23-2003 06:26 PM

Ken, that may be true. But most public phones have been removed around here. It seems that the cell phone biz has caused the cutback and they are no longer profitable.

BTW: I think all public and cell phones, even the de-activated ones, must be able to call 911 for free.

>>> Phil

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Carl Martin
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1424
From: Oakland, CA, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 10-24-2003 04:18 AM

in my experience most european public phones do not take coins which makes them useless in an emergency situation unless you are prepared. i don't normally use public phones and wouldn't bother to carry a phone card. especially when passing through somewhere as a tourist. running around with all my luggage trying to find an english-speaking tobaccanist to sell me a phone card at a denomination much greater than what i need for my emergency phone call, well it sucks. if i'd had some explosives i might have been tempted.

carl

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Daryl C. W. O'Shea
Film God

Posts: 3977
From: Midland Ontario Canada (where Panavision & IMAX lenses come from)
Registered: Jun 2002

posted 10-24-2003 04:29 AM

What phone company charges for an emergency call (911, etc.)? [Confused]

In Canada, if a pay phone asks for money to dial 411, 611 or 911, it's got a faulty line card that needs to be replaced.

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David Rigby
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 134
From: Chorlton, Manchester, UK
Registered: May 2002

posted 10-24-2003 04:46 AM

Gerald said: "First the sale an importation of fireworks was banned, and the use of fireworks prohibited except by licensed pyrotechnical engineers in licensed public displays"

That's precisely what needs to happen here and has been said time and time again. When will the government get around to it?!

David

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Leo Enticknap
Film God

Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000

posted 10-24-2003 06:06 AM

Here here! Anyone who wants to see fireworks can go to a display organised by people who know what they are doing. Without wanting to be a killjoy, I think the risks involved in selling fireworks to Joe Public outweigh the benefits of responsibly organised private firework parties.

As for 'phone boxes, the mobile 'phone revolution has caused a massive reduction in them: you only really see significant numbers of well-maintained ones in areas where mobile reception is bad or non-existant, and the only ones which still take coins tend to be in 'policed' areas such as pubs and railway stations.

As for the blowups, I forgot, of course, that Guy Fawkes was actually born in York - less than 300 yards from my flat in fact! The building in question is now a pub, which Oliver Cromwell would not have approved of one bit. Maybe the reformist plotters planned to bring down the government from 'phone boxes (the seventeenth century being before the mobiles were invented) and the ghost of Fawkes has come back to take revenge! [Roll Eyes]

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Thomas Procyk
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1842
From: Royal Palm Beach, FL, USA
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 10-26-2003 02:35 PM

quote:
What phone company charges for an emergency call (911, etc.)?

Well, BellSouth does. Kind of indirectly, though:

Emergency 911 Charge: Your local government asked you to pay a small charge each month to help provide for emergency service in your community ....$0.50

So I guess you're not charged per-call, but you're charged...
My next 911 call will be worth $12. I'll be glad it's there, though! [Smile]

=TMP=

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