A man making anti-Santa remarks is charged for public intoxication and breach of probation

Nov 22, 2012 07:42 GMT  ·  By
A man making anti-Santa remarks is charged for public intoxication and breach of probation in Canada
   A man making anti-Santa remarks is charged for public intoxication and breach of probation in Canada

The city of Kingston, Ontario holds a Santa Parade every year, trying to keep the spirit of Christmas alive. This Saturday, November 17, police in Kingston even arrested a man for trying to ruin the holiday joy.

The incident occurred on Princess St., where a man started yelling in front of the children present at the parade that Santa was not real. Kingston police took the issue very seriously, as many expressed their concern and their fury over his statements on Twitter and Facebook.

“It irritates me when things like this happen … let a kid be a kid,” Twitter user Kim V posted, following the anti-Santa outbursts.

It appears the Grinch who “looked like a set of devil horns protruding from his head” had been drinking heavily, and he was in violation of his terms of parole. Metro reports that he was arrested on public intoxication charges and breach of probation.

“It was pretty despicable that someone, during this time of the year, would tell kids Santa isn’t real — which of course we would argue,” Kingston police spokesman Constable Steve Koopman says.

Families were concerned that the unidentified 24-year-old's disorderly behavior would affect their children negatively.

“Arrested an intoxicated Grinch for trying to yell at kids that Santa’s not real! So misinformed. His heart must be many sizes too small!,” Koopman adds.

According to Koopman, officers went after the man for his loud, at times obscene remarks, which he made in a public environment while drinking, in a place where parents take their children.

“We’re not trying to be the morality police or the ethics police,” he explains, in a report by Digital Journal.

“Some people have been saying 'We didn’t know police arrested for [what they say is] telling the truth.' Some [of] us may disagree with that. In all honesty, he was disturbing everyone there on the thoroughfare, he was disturbing the families, obviously disturbing the children. We felt it very necessary to take him off the street and think the charges were warranted,” he argues.