Hoboken SantaCon leads to arrests, injuries, and a petition

HOBOKEN — On Saturday Dec. 16 Hoboken was flooded with men and women dressed as Santa, his elves, and reindeer during the annual bar crawl in the Mile Square City known as SantaCon.
According to tweets from Hoboken’s Chief of Police Ken Ferrante, the day resulted in bars being closed down due to over occupancy and at least 17 arrests, 55 people transported to the local hospital, 32 moving violations issued, and 52 tickets issued for drinking and urinating in public.
According to the tweets “one officer was punched in the face, one was spit on and one had blood get onto her hands. No victims or suspects sustained serious injuries even though there were many fights thru day & night!”
Mayor-elect Ravi Bhalla said he would explore ways to end the bar crawl in the future and urged people to sign a petition asking bars not to participate.
He tweeted “Enough is enough with SantaCon – in addition to exploring legislative options, please consider signing this petition which we will deliver to the participating bar owners, letting them know this event is NOT acceptable in Hoboken.”
The petition had 446 signatures as of Monday morning.