SantaCon kicks off with hopes of less naughtiness
The annual costumed pub crawl featuring a horde of drunk Santas on the streets of Manhattan got underway Saturday with a lesson on their constitutional rights to freely gather.
Civil liberties lawyer Norman Siegel addressed the SantaCon crowd in Times Square about the government's right to reasonably regulate an event that New Yorkers have complained has gotten out of hand in past years.
The annual holiday flash-mob-meets-party fell this year on the same day as a planned protest over killings by police, prompting organizers to try to rein in the rowdiness.
SantaCon organizers retained Siegel to advise on the do's and don'ts of public gatherings and instructed participants to stick to bars that welcome them and party inside instead of on the streets.
