So much for holiday cheer.
Cops have been urging local bar owners to not open their doors to the boorish brood of Saint Nicks that descend on Manhattan in an annual bar crawl known as SantaCon, police said at the Midtown North community council meeting.
“Having thousands of intoxicated partygoers roam the streets urinating, littering, vomiting and vandalizing will not be tolerated in our neighborhood,” read a letter penned by Lt. John Cocchi that was sent out to around 30 bars throughout the precinct. “It is my recommendation that you do not sponsor this event in any way.”
The annual event, consisting of hundreds of drunks dressed in Santa suits roaming from bar to bar, has been terrorizing communities around the borough, and making the holidays a nightmare for Midtown residents.
The outcry from residents in the precinct led cops to start the anti-SantaCon campaign, trying to get local bar owners to see it their way.
“Every single bar that I sent an email to, almost all of them have responded back that they’re not going to sponsor this event,” Cocchi said at Tuesday’s meeting. “I don’t think they’re going to have a place to go in our area.”
Lt. Cocchi said that SantaCon organizers had been planning on hosting a massive after party at local club, Stage 48, who hosted the rowdy bunch last year. But the club decided to not extend a return invitation to the event’s organizers after the request from the NYPD.
“The managers of the place and the owners got my letter, they understood and they turned them down for the party,” he said. “It was going to be a huge after party.”
This year’s SantaCon is scheduled for Dec. 14, but organizers have not announced what part of the city they will be coming to, but Lt. Cocchi said they are possibly looking to come to Brooklyn, where they have yet to wear out their welcome.
“They’re not disclosing whether they’re going to be in Brooklyn or Manhattan right now,” he said. “They’re going to wait until a couple of days before the party because they don’t want people trying to close it down.”