photo by Mark Barber
It turns out that the controversial Auckland Santa event, was organized by the online skateboard magazine Muckmouth in their forums.
This comment was left on our previous NZ blog post by one of that event’s organizers:
Hello from Auckland, New Zealand, the international home of Santarchy!!!
Despite the moodiness on national radio over here, I assume you lot are stoked at the free publicity!
Santarchy in Auckland has been going for 6 years over here, and rather than being clueness idiots, we are hunky and sensible and it was more a case of a few bad eggs poisoning the eggnog…
There was some major misreporting and chinese whispers. Breaking bottles and urinating under a bridge, became throwing rocks at buses and urinating on cars from an overpass.
The ‘organisers’ as they were, saw little in the way of crime other than one santa attempting to board a foreign vessel by scaling 20 metres along a rope 60 feet in the air. The difficulty and motor skills involved in this task alone should be a defense in itself of being “drunk†and “disorderlyâ€.
We expect to be fully vindicated by a documentary screening on Sky One in New Zealand on Christmas Eve.
We would certainly appreciate a little more unity and understanding between Santas and ask not to be judged on the behaviour of a few.
Lots of love,
Santa!
As expected, it looks like the media blew this way out of proportion.
UPDATE 1: The Radio New Zealand interview is now online
UPDATE 2: STUFF article on Auckland Santas has more accurate reporting
You are just a load of drunken “Wankers” Get a life.
After hearing their side of the story from the Auckland New Zealand Santa’s it seems that “the press” in typical haste to sell condoms, soft drinks & Christmas ornaments by any sensationalistic means necessary went off half-cocked and slandered the poor Kiwi-Santa’s. It doesn’t sound as though these Santa’s did anything much worse than we ever did in our glorious, sophomoric prime! Good on ya, Santa! Good luck with your bail fund – keep us posted.
I guess we’ll have to wait until the truth comes out. The MSN news piece made this sound to a pretty bad thing that took place, where on here you state “was more a case of a few bad eggs poisoning the eggnog…”, and that the worse thing that happened was one santa trying to board a cruise ship illegally. What about the news of the security gaurds who had to be taken to the hospital after being attacked by the samts when the guards stopped this guy from scaling the ship? If that’s true,…then this is absolutely horrible, and all involved should receive jail sentences!
i took part in the auckland santarchy, that is true security gaurds did get treated for small cuts but what was failed to mention that it was after they took to one santa and reindeer that was there leaving reindeer waking up in hospital the next morning not knowing what had happend with a neck brace and bad neck injurys…
Well i have just read a report by the BBC… i think it is hilarious! I has no hope for christmas this year but you guys have filled me with christmas spirit because after all this is what christmas is really about… mindless vandalism and petty theft.
Appreciate hearing the other side of the stories, but would much prefer to do so without the unthinking racist idiom. “Chinese whispers” somehow mean dishonesty? Please.
“A group of 40 people dressed in Santa Claus outfits, many of them drunk, went on a rampage through Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, robbing stores, assaulting security guards and urinating from highway overpasses, police said Sunday.”
dang media, always ragging on the good guys…
Nice to know the santas were actually well behaved.
In answer to Techno Santa, “Chinese Whispers” doesn’t mean dishonesty, and I don’t think it’s racist.
“The telephone game, also known as Chinese whispers and whisper down the lane, is a game often played by children at parties or in the playground in which a phrase or sentence is passed on from one player to another, but is subtly altered in transit.”
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_whispers
Its great to see that you guys at Santarchy.com changed your tune when you saw the other side of the story.
Those kiwi santas werent all angels but some of the reports were ludicrous. It has been really interesting watching the story spread and witnessing the behaviour of the world’s press.
It goes to show you should question everything you read, especially on the Internet.
You are bunch of criminals!!!
hmm. “chinese whispers” … it’s probably just a throw-back to less-PC times, similar to the “miss mary mack” rhyme that kids used to do (there were some rather non-PC comments in the rhyme–and i don’t know if they still sing that, or if it’s only in the States that they do this).
still, in Techno Santa’s defense, in the six months i spent living in Auckland, i noticed that many (and notice: i say many, not all) native Kiwis were terribly non-PC towards ANY Asians living there. but then, it might have just been the college crowd i was hanging around; but it was still kind of disturbing to hear people using racial slurs in the 21st Century. very naive of me, i know.
but all that aside, i love New Zealand and miss its country-stopping sport (long-live the All-Blacks –and Shortland Street, which is not sport, i know, but still …). and yay for crazy Santas! 🙂
Ha! I know exactly where that is in Auckland. I stayed at a hotel in the same block as that Santa. The strangest part about it all is that it’s summer down there. So you have this big giant Santa stuck on the side of Whitcoul’s and it’s like 80 something degrees.
I saw a small article in a Hawaii Newspaper about ‘Santarchy’ – made it sound like riots and mayhem occured – it included a statement from a ‘Santarchy Spokesperson.’
When I saw it IT MADE ME LAUGH SO HARD I ALMOST PEED MY PANTS.
I thought the group probably wrote up a great press release first, alerted the press and then went out and got drunk and did the santas on a rampage thing, and lazy media organizations quoted it because it was topical and sensationalist – which is all that’s needed to get in the newspaper really. It looked to me like a great media coup – like the story was mostly the work of a great satrical minds as a prank that was bait designed to get in the paper.
I wound up making copies of the article and sending them to my relatives in their Christmas cards. Thank you Santarchy!
Magnificent effort lads. Why can’t more people be this creative at Christmas?
I think they just wanted to get known and become a media hype but it seems that they have overdue it. I wonder if its really an intention or just a accidental situation, but I do agree that they should have not done it considering a lot of kids value the image of Santa during Christmas and they should have not ruin the image just because they are Santarchy.