Last Updated on December 23, 2021
Potentially complicating the Christmas holiday – at least for German children – St. Nicholas was apparently detained by the police during an “unregistered protest” sparked by Germany’s rigid and scientifically loose COVID-19 restrictions.
Fascinatingly, it was originally reported that Santa Claus was arrested for not wearing a face mask.
Internationally accredited fact checkers were soon on the case, however, and they determined that the jolly man from the North Pole was actually detained for attending an “unregistered protest” sparked by COVID-19 restrictions that the man known for generosity, apparently, thought were an infringement on the Christmas spirit.
They also reported that the man dressed as Santa Claus refused to give his name.
Lol the German police are arresting Santa for not wearing a mask this is the insanity that we have reached pic.twitter.com/EZBkhf2ZEA
— Luke Rudkowski (@Lukewearechange) December 13, 2021
FactCheck.org explains:
Mask-wearing is currently required both indoors and outdoors — wherever social distancing cannot be maintained — in Stralsund due to high infection rates in the area. But the individual in the Santa suit wasn’t arrested for not wearing a mask. He was briefly detained, not arrested, for potentially violating a law against unlawful demonstrations, the police said.
The Stralsund police issued a Dec. 14 statement saying that the man in the costume was one of 65 protesters expressing “their opinions against the current Corona measures and a vaccination requirement” in Stralsund’s Old Market at an unregistered protest. That is a criminal offense under the nation’s Assembly Act, also known as the Assemblies and Elevators Act.
The police statement revealed that the individual “refused to give his name” and was accompanied to a patrol car to determine his identity.
In other words, an anonymous man dressed as Santa Claus and protested the German COVID-19 policies and was briefly detained by police officers but refused to give his name, even as he was dragged away by police officers.
Fact checkers believe it is very important for you to know, however, that Santa was not arrested.
It remains uncertain whether Christmas remains on schedule for the children of Germany, and National File could not find a press contact for the German man dressed as Santa Claus, or for the real Santa Claus.
We were also unable to definitively prove that the two are not the same individual, meaning that the German police could have detained the authentic Santa Claus.
This is a possibility that the internationally accredited fact checking experts at FactCheck.org, it would seem, chose not to consider.
