Guardian Angels Volunteers Enforce Law Amid Budget Cuts, Other Gaps

As both temperatures and budgets across the country plummet, Guardian Angels volunteers have become a saving grace for the needy and crime stoppers for the lawless.

The citizen crime patrol group stopped a thief who was allegedly trying to steal a camera from two students on the Chicago Transit Authority's Red Line Tuesday, the Chicago Tribune reports. Three Guardian Angels detained the two robbery suspects before police arrived to make an arrest.

In Indianapolis, besides serving as crime watchers, Guardian Angels also give out blankets, hats and gloves to homeless people as the temperatures drop, Indianapolis's News 6 reports.

The red-beret-wearing volunteers gave CPR to a man who suffered from a drug overdose in a public bathroom in New Jersey. It's here -- with police cuts across the state -- that the Guardian Angels are out in full force. In places such as Camden, N.J. -- the second most dangerous city in the country -- a group of the red-beret-wearing volunteers recently had their tires slashed after a six-hour shift, Angels founder Curtis Sliwa, tells Reuters.

"It's the Fallujah of the United States," said Sliwa, a reference to the Iraqi city where U.S. soldiers battled insurgents. "And because no one seems to care, we've basically written off Camden. But that's not the American spirit."

The group's reputation and work have come into question in the past because of failures to do background checks for a criminal record, listed as a requirement on the Angels website. But many feel indebted to the volunteers, according to Reuters.

"In Camden, for every resident who offered a sneer or an aggressive gesture, there were three more who expressed gratitude."

Comments

[brookmo]

11:07 AM on 02/12/2011

I don't trust police AT ALL! However, if anyone without any form of authority attempted to detain me for any reason they would have a real problem on their hands as I would consider it an assault and act accordingly PERIOD!

[AndyWright68]

02:45 PM on 02/13/2011

So those whit authority have your permission to abuse you?

[AndyWright68]

07:34 PM on 02/11/2011

57 very good reasons to abolish the cops. http://wp.me/pXVCS-3

[XFilesTheTruthIsOutThere]

10:47 PM on 02/10/2011

I wish their branch here in Chicago in the late 80's early 90's hadn't shut down. I wanted to join their operation.

[Downix]

03:11 AM on 02/11/2011

Well, in Seattle we got an actual Superhero running around, tights, cape and all. It's amazing how such an odd fact changes the dynamic.

[AndyWright68]

08:59 AM on 02/11/2011

I would rather have these guys actually walking the streets and defending people from violence then bullies with badges abusing everyone into compliance with thousands of ridiculous laws and taxing everyone in sight with outrageous fines.

[Mondieu]

05:42 PM on 02/11/2011

Really?

[CptFreakout]

10:22 AM on 02/12/2011

It seems that all they do is pop you over minor smeg then hit you with fine's fee's and cost's that the average person cant afford and when you don't pay because you cant afford it they put a warrant on you . Does anyone even know all the laws and regulations ? the computer in the cop car's even gives them a list of other offences they then check for .

[dbishop76]

06:48 PM on 02/10/2011

I'm on the fence on this... I used to trust cops until the day I was arrested (after being pulled over for an expired tag) while my two children looked on, simply because I had forgotten my wallet that had my DL and insurance information in it. I even had an expired insurance card in the car and they could have called to verify it, but they chose not to. (Yeah, until that happened to me, I would have called BS and said there MUST have been something else..not so much)

Contrast that to the night I called 911 when I saw a man climbing over fences and into trees at midnight and it took them 45 mins to respond!

My recent experiences with law enforcement makes me believe that their job anymore is to raise revenue by popping people, not protecting and serving the public interest.

[Downix]

03:12 AM on 02/11/2011

They're the result of 45 years of "Cut the Police" "Gut the Police" "Budget Cuts" "Blame the Police". It's disgusting how much we've demonized those who are there to protect us. And also how they have been fed an "us vs them" mentality.

[AndyWright68]

09:04 AM on 02/11/2011

The fact is that they are not there to protect us. We have more cops and more heavily armed cops then ever in our history yet we have the highest rates of violence. Cops protect and serve the state, not the people.

[AndyWright68]

09:02 AM on 02/11/2011

If you research the pandemic of police brutality and the effects of bullies with badges using fear and intimidation on society you can't help but to believe the cops should be abolished.

[Mondieu]

05:44 PM on 02/11/2011

Do you belong in a gang? Is that why you hate the police?

[Leland Avants II]

04:41 PM on 02/10/2011

What more daangerous than power hungry cops?? Power hungry cop wanna be's. This is going to be disasterous.

[MartyJo]

10:00 PM on 02/10/2011

Be afraid ..... it's your @$$ that'll be in jail next.

[AndyWright68]

07:33 PM on 02/11/2011

They have a better success rate the bullies with badges.

[AndyWright68]

03:57 PM on 02/10/2011

Voluntaryism is the answer. This just proves how we do not need the cops.

[Mondieu]

05:45 PM on 02/11/2011

I suggest you pick up a book titled *Lord of the Flies* and read it before you make such a statement.

[AndyWright68]

07:25 PM on 02/11/2011

LOL! You base your life on novels. That's hysterical!

You should pick up a book, and history book will do, then read it.

[AndyWright68]

07:27 PM on 02/11/2011

*any not and

Focus on the 5,000 years of government failures, slavery, oppression, theft, human slaughters and collapse of empires. Enjoy!

[WTFbush]

12:36 PM on 02/13/2011

i disagree with the second part of your statement. i currently do not own a fire arm, but if there were no cops i would by several, i think that a lot of people would as well. there would be more shooting accidental and on purpose. look at how many times cops go to domestic abuse cases. do you think that there would be enough volunteers to do that? look at any riot situation, personally i would not want to be caught up in that let alone run into it....

i volunteer a lot in my community but not as a law enforcer...no way, not even if i was paid

[SouthernQ]

03:56 PM on 02/10/2011

The Guardian Angels have a mixed reputation. In many cities, police and politicians ...have worried about their sometimes aggressive tactics, their training courses in martial arts and their recruits, who may themselves be unstable. The Boston Globe last year interviewed a criminology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who noted there is no hard evidence the group has had an impact on crime or made people safer.

[kmichal2000]

03:37 PM on 02/10/2011

OK...so this is fine but the left has vilified "the minute men".
I wish there was consistency in people's views.

[dwhuston]

10:02 AM on 02/15/2011

The "minute men" have some seriously unstable people in their organization. Many of them are police or military wannabes that donn't qualify for either organizion.

http://www.alternet.org/immigration/140745/armed_radical_'minutemen'_kill_father_and_9-year-old_daughter_in_anti-immigrant_hate/

[StopMakingSense2]

03:20 PM on 02/10/2011

After we get rid of all our police and fire fighters because it's more important that the rich get richer they are going to need more volunteers than ever!

[AndyWright68]

03:58 PM on 02/10/2011

And we will have them. The cops should be abolished and over 75% of fireman are already volunteers.

[paxatman]

05:39 PM on 02/10/2011

Never work. Greed cannot govern. Never has, never will.

[MFS001]

02:43 PM on 02/10/2011

The only problem here is that they are unvetted, untrained, unlicensed, unregulated, unsurprised.. I understand they are trying to help but it's a recipe for disaster.

[SpreadthePanic]

03:10 PM on 02/10/2011

While police officers are vetted and heavily trained, because of the "thin blue line," the regulation and supervision (accountability) are often there in name only. Also, because of unions, veteran police officers are not held to the same physical standards and unethical behavior often goes unnoticed. While I am not saying that this group is the answer, I, for one, am getting sick of police brutality and the "above-the-law" mentality that many officers display. There are a lot of good officers out there, and there are lots of situations where I am glad that the police are there, but I also think that public safety and order is a responsibility that we all share.

[MFS001]

03:17 PM on 02/10/2011

I don't disagree with you.

[GraphicMatt]

03:40 PM on 02/10/2011

These guys have been around for how long? Since the late '80s if I am not mistaken? How many disasters have they been involved in since then?

[MFS001]

06:31 PM on 02/10/2011

There have been multiple issues and controversies with them.

[Montcalms Revenge]

02:37 PM on 02/10/2011

In the picture: is that Al Gore wearing the Angel's jacket and beret? Kinda looks like him...

[dbishop76]

06:41 PM on 02/10/2011

I thought the same thing...lol!

[MSaxe]

02:29 PM on 02/10/2011

Curtis Sliwa has done a remarkable job of organizing citizen police without resorting to vigilantism. He's one of the great people even if fallible.

[dkrypt]

02:28 PM on 02/10/2011

They are so much more respectful than NYC police. Maybe it's because they're not union.

[jtackeff]

03:59 PM on 02/10/2011

Maybe its cause there not cops, and don't carry weapons.

[AndyWright68]

04:02 PM on 02/10/2011

Of course. They are not trying to collect revenue or abuse the people into compliance with bs laws. They are focused on protecting the people and not the state like cops do.

[therealist2000]

02:23 PM on 02/10/2011

i thought the Guardian Angels like the Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Girl Scouts are America's way of training people in Fasc*ism.....

[GraphicMatt]

03:42 PM on 02/10/2011

Keeping people safe and giving out blankets to the homeless.....sounds like fascism to me. NOT!

[richardwb]

04:45 PM on 02/10/2011

Sliwa compares Camden, NJ with Fallujah in Iraq.
The u.s. military committed massive crimes against humanity in Fallujah, shamefully.
Is Sliwa promoting bloody war crimes as a good strategy?
Or does he just not know what he's talking about?

[RichardLowry]

11:42 AM on 02/11/2011

Please provide one single incident in Fallujah where you can document your claim that "The u.s. military committed massive crimes against humanity in Fallujah..."

Careful now, I am asking for facts, not a regurgitation of the wild claims you have read on the internet. Just a little help for you - The US DID NOT use depleted uranium in Fallujah, nor did they use white phosphorous to burn people. As a matter of fact, the city was nearly void of civilians during the November attack.