By Tate Delloye as published at DailyMail.com October 16, 2020. Re-posted with permission of Curtis Sliwa. Read full story here.
Photo Credit: Adam Gray/SWNS for DailyMail.com
A night with the Guardian Angels: Legendary vigilante who once survived a mob hit by John Gotti says NYC has turned into a ‘muggers delight’ under Mayor de Blasio and claims the the Big Apple is returning to the ‘Fear City’ he knew in 1979
- DailyMail.com goes on patrol with Guardian Angels founder, Curtis Sliwa in NYC’s tony Upper West Side neighborhood as crime skyrockets from the mayor’s $1billion budget cut to the NYPD
- The Guardian Angels began patrolling the area in July after the Mayor de Blasio moved 730 ‘mentally ill and emotionally disturbed’ homeless persons into luxury hotels throughout the neighborhood
- The veteran crime fighter and shock jock radio host delivers a blistering attack on Mayor de Blasio, calling him ‘a sanctimonious hypocrite’ and says Governor Cuomo is ‘a very vengeful spiteful guy’
- Sliwa says the money-strapped police are doing nothing to curb the squalid living conditions and reports of public defecation, urination, masturbation, brazen drug use and aggressive pan handling
- He draws comparisons to NYC in 1979 when he first founded the Guardian Angels to combat the city’s unprecedented wave of violence while he was working at a McDonalds in the Bronx
- Sliwa plans to run for Mayor of New York City as a Republican in the 2021 election to replace Democrat Bill de Blasio – who he says is ‘drunk with power’ and calls ‘he calls ‘a little fascist’
- He pleads with New Yorkers to stay in the city as many have already fled to the suburbs, ‘the city will be different but will still have all the excitement that you wont get in ‘Leave it to Beaver-land”
New York City is on the ropes and it is déjà vu all over again for Curtis Sliwa, 66, and his crime fighting red beret vigilantes.
Shootings were up by 127% for the month of September and the year-to-date murder rate has increased by 34%. With stores and small businesses shuttered, unemployment has swelled past 20%; and along with a mass exodus of New Yorkers headed for the hills and the suburbs – the Big Apple’s fabled skyline is now a vista of hallowed out office towers.
It’s all another day at the office for the bombastic, outspoken, Brooklyn born founder of the Guardian Angels. He’s been New York City’s cornerman ever since 1979 when he created the volunteer safety patrol group during a time when the Big Apple was dubbed ‘Fear City’ by law-enforcement from an unprecedented wave of violence that swept through the city.
But in July of this year, Sliwa found himself hitting the pavement in his own backyard, the Upper West Side, amid growing concern by locals who reported an uptick in crime since the city moved 730 homeless into makeshift shelters during the COVID-19 crises.
Since its founding over 40 years ago, the non-profit organization has spread to over 130 cities in 13 countries. In the process, Curtis Sliwa has been hailed as a hero and local legend for his rapid fire zingers as a shock jock host on talk radio that rails against everyone from progressive-liberal Democrats like A.O.C (whom he calls ‘All Out Crazy) to President Trump, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Governor Cuomo and every other career politician, which he says are ‘fakes, phony, fraudulent, fugazis.’
Now Sliwa has his sight set on running for mayor in the 2021 election as a Republican. After four decades of patrolling the streets, Sliwa says he has the credibility, institutional knowledge and gunshot wounds (from when John Gotti ordered mob hit on his life) to prove his devotion to the City of New York.
Over the course of an evening while on patrol through the Upper West Side, the mayoral hopeful tells DailyMail.com exactly what he means when he says that he will give the city ‘a much needed colonic.’
