:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/44314612/Santacon-2012-in-London-0172.0.0.jpg)
The unstoppable anonymous organizers of SantaCon, who have forged ahead with their sloppy bar crawl despite being banned everywhere from Bushwick to the Lower East Side, have just hired the high-powered civil rights lawyer Norman Siegel to represent them. According to one organizer, who spoke to Gothamist under conditions of anonymity, SantaCon was only ever supposed to be "art in public space," not brawling in the streets, urinating on the sidewalk, and flipping off small children. Unfortunately, there are a lot of bros out there who never got that message.
So Siegel (who also recently represented the "Ebola nurse" Kaci Hickox) has signed on to help SantaCon "transition" into an event that won't have every community board and police department up in arms. They are apparently "looking to change a lot this year," and are looking into alternative "parade and festival-like options" for next year and beyond. It's not clear what kind of changes will actually happen this year, but SantaCon has started a #dontscroogesantacon campaign on Twitter, sending out urgent messages such as these:
Love Santacon? Then don’t Scrooge it up with piss, trash, violence, or vomit. #dontscroogesantacon
— santacon (@santacon) December 8, 2014
Fighting, vandalism, littering, or public urination will SHUT DOWN SANTACON. Don’t be that Santa. #dontscroogesantacon
— santacon (@santacon) December 8, 2014
Jolly Santa Good. Wasted Santa Bad. #dontscroogesantacon
— santacon (@santacon) December 10, 2014
We'll find out how successful this campaign was soon enough, since SantaCon hits the streets this Saturday.
