Who Are The Guardian Angels?

It started because one man was fed up with all the crime and danger in his neighbourhood.

That’s what possessed the night manager of a local McDonald’s in the Bronx, New York to start using his free time to patrol some of the most dangerous areas of N.Y.C. in the early morning darkness.

Curtis Sliwa simply couldn’t stand the way his city had deteriorated.

It was 1979 and it appeared cops simply couldn’t cope with the escalating violent crime rate in the Big Apple.

So Sliwa came up with an idea to take back the streets with a concept that was as simple as it was risky.

He recruited 13 volunteers who would patrol the subways, sidewalks and streets of the city overnight, trying to stop the criminal activity that kept so many in fear inside their own homes.

The group called itself the “Guardian Angels” and their distinctive red berets instantly identified them as the good guys in a situation where spotting a hero wasn’t always easy.

They were controversial right from the start. Sliwa’s group didn’t carry weapons and were armed only with the determination to make a difference and some self defence training.

They were involved in many close calls, and somehow thrived, despite the violent situations they often found themselves in.

Sliwa himself survived an assassination attempt in 1992, managing to kick his way out of a stolen cab despite being shot in the back and both legs.

By then, the Angels’ founder had parlayed his fame into a full time morning radio gig on one of New York’s biggest stations, and his rants against former mobster John Gotti are believed to have inspired the hit.

The incident only added to his reputation.

His group’s mission was to act as the extended eyes and ears of the police, but at first the authorities didn’t welcome the extra surveillance.

The Angels met severe resistance from law enforcement and government, who complained about untrained vigilantes making their jobs tougher.

But the group persevered and expanded, eventually establishing branches across the U.S. and around the world, including South America and the U.K.

An attempted foray into Toronto in the 80s fizzled, with the resistance from city officials and the lack of the same urgency not being felt here.

But that was before the Boxing Day shooting and a 2005 summer filled with gun violence.

The non-profit Angels have since won the respect of many in Manhattan, and their safety programs are now required courses in both the New York and New Jersey school systems.