New York's famed Guardian Angels patrolled Central Park on Sunday for the first time in over two decades.
Back in their heyday, the unarmed anti-crime watchdog groups was a Central Park staple. Wearing their signature red jackets and berets, its members patrolled the park and keept crime at bay, says founder Curtis Sliwa. Now he Mayor Bill de Blasio cannot keep New York safe and its time for his men to become active once again.
"If the mayor won't let the cops do their job, then we, the citizens, will have to go back to guarding our parks, streets and subways, " Sliwa says, according to the New York Post.
The Guardian Angels claim crime is up 26% in Central Park this year. In contrast, Mayor de Blasio says the park is absolutely safe, according to FOX News.
In 1992, mobster John Gotti was charged with ordering the kidnapping and shooting of Sliwa but the city's prosecutor gave up after four dead locked juries. Soon afterward the Guardian Angels took a few years off of their Central Park patrols, according to Yahoo! News, but they continued to have a presence in and around Brooklyn and the Bronx.
The Guardian Angels were succesful and popular in the 1990s but the group's reputation took a hit when Sliwa, the now 61-year old founder, admitted to fabricating some of his escapades.
Now they are back and happy to be serving their community again – and ready to begin patrols and, if necessary, citizen's arrests.
