(Photo: Scott Lynch)
Was SantaCon naughty or nice this year?
According to the commanding officer of the 9th Precinct, the annual Red Menace was on jolly good behavior by the time it reached the East Village.
“A lot of people obeyed the law this year,” Captain Vincent Greany said last night during a community meeting at the Ninth’s station house. “We had extra coverage and worked with the business owners. A lot of the bar owners took care of their own businesses.”
Asked by B+B if there were any arrests related to the pub crawl, Greany said there were two arrests for disorderly conduct. “I don’t know the exact location. We also wrote a number of summons.” For what? “Public urination and open carrying” of booze, plus “disorderly conduct,” he said.
Christmas decor at the East Village station house. (Photo: Mary Reinholz)
Greany’s account of the purported two arrests conflicts with other sources at the NYPD, one of whom said there were no arrests at all connected with the SantaCon event Dec. 10. He noted, however, that two people were taken into custody in the 7th precinct and released with a summons in connection with “using a sound device.”
(Photo: Scott Lynch)
Presumably, he was referring to two anti-SantaCon protestors who were cuffed by cops outside the Flatiron building. One had reportedly shouted at the hard drinking revelers with a bullhorn.
The NYPD spokesman said police also handed out 145 summonses during SantaCon 2016.
Greany said that this coming weekend, there will be extra police coverage in New York and around major East Village “attractions” in the wake of several presumed terrorist attacks abroad.