New York City Council Member Peter Vallone Jr. proposed a bill Tuesday that would either ban or tighten regulations on costumed characters in the city, CBS New York reports.
The legislation comes after a recent physical confrontation between a man dressed as Cookie Monster and a 2-year-old boy brought attention and scorn to the growing number of costumed street solicitors in Manhattan.
The councilman told CBS that he introduced two separate bills to combat the problem.
One would require anyone appearing as a costumed character to register the character and provide a permission slip proving that the character has been licensed. The other bill would go further to ban costumed characters outright.
“Clearly, the situation can’t continue to exist the way it does, and the laws we already have don’t deal with the situation,” Mr. Vallone, a Democrat, said.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.