Dear Editor:
The Hoboken Police Department issued a press release after this past weekend’s Lepre-con event. It should come as no surprise to those of us who reside in Hoboken that the event resulted in 432 calls for service, the issuance of 54 summonses for disorderly conduct, 16 motor vehicle summonses and 35 ambulance calls. In addition, two Hoboken Police Officers were injured and remain out of work due to injuries sustained in an assault. According the press release, multiple law enforcement agencies were deployed during the event with more than 200 police officers working to remain order.
The first thing that came to my mind after reading the press release was how lucky it was that no one that I knew had a medical emergency or that there was not some other emergency in Hoboken last Saturday that required the valuable resources used to police an event that was sponsored by a private promoter and many local bars who directly benefit by the flocks of drunken revelers. Events such as Leprecon and Santacon place a huge burden on our City at the expense of taxpayers. It is my understanding that the event promoter charges a fee to participants that allows entry and special discounts to various bars around town. The City should ask the promoter to include in the ticket price a service fee that should then be turned over to the City to defray the costs of overtime and additional resources.
In a day when such companies as Ticketmaster charge a $10.00 fee for a ticket purchaser to print his or her own ticket for a performance, there should be no objection from the Promoter or the participants to the added service charge necessary to defray the City’s expenses related with a private sponsored event.
Cynthia Celentano Maguire