A number of New York City officials have reached out to SantaCon attendees and organizers, asking them to be “proactive” in this year’s Santa themed bar crawl.
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Santas came by the hundreds, reindeer formed a kick line and oversized elves cavorted with saucy Mrs. Clauses as a police helicopter circled overhead. “An organization that brings over 25,000 people to our neighborhoods should show us respect by sharing its routes with community boards and local elected officials and working together with us well in advance to determine how we can mitigate the negative impacts of this bar crawl on our local communities and small retail businesses, whose annual sales depend heavily on this time of year”.
Police logged a total of two arrests and 85 summonses for disorderly conduct, open alcohol containers and other offenses during SantaCon in 2012 and 2013, when some Santas got into street fights seen in online videos.
Siegel said last year’s SantaCon counted no arrests or summonses; police said they had no information on any. As thousands of Santa-suited merrymakers prepare to hit the city’s streets and bars Saturday, Dec. 12, 2015, organizers say they’re taking steps to deter naughty behavior.
Everyone there is “willing to dress up, drink, meet people, and have fun”, the 29-year-old photographer said by email.
Deterring naughty behaviour… A sign professing no love for Santacon hangs in the window of a bagel shop.
MTA police officers at Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station in New York City and train stations on the route will be enforcing the liquor restriction, according to a news release.
However, many bars and even entire neighborhoods are banning the event from their area, in order to get rid of the nuisance. And SantaCon’s lawyer, Norman Siegel, said Saturday the group aimed to self-police anyone who got out of line.
“We are in trying times all throughout the world, and to have to expend more resources on an event like this, at times, it’s frustrating”, O’Neill said. It has ballooned in size to thousands of people and now is coming at a time of heightened concern about security and public gatherings.
NYPD highlighting SantaCon is not a green light to do what you want.
“It incorporates family values, if you seek them out”, said Steven Lambert, who said the Manhattan family would skip the bar scene and be home by noon.
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The event originated in San Francisco more than 20 years ago as a boozy, tongue-in-cheek protest against the commercialization of Christmas.
