COURIER L 16 IFE, MARCH 20-26, 2020
HAIL MARY
Guardian Angels founder
Curtis Sliwa to run for mayor
BY ROSE ADAMS
Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the civilian
crime-fi ghting troop Guardian
Angels, announced his plans to run for
mayor as a Republican, claiming his
time on the streets makes him the perfect
person to lead the fi ve boroughs —
not some career politician!
“I’ve lived in the streets, I’ve lived in
the inner city, and I’ve been baptized in
the subways,” said Sliwa. “I understand
what people go through more so than
Scott Stringer, Eric Adams, Corey
Johnson, or anyone who has been rumored
to be a candidate.”
The Canarsie native founded his
vigilante watchdog group in 1979, enlisting
unarmed volunteers to patrol
the streets and subways wearing their
signature red jackets — and the organization
still boasts 150 local members,
Sliwa claimed.
If elected to City Hall, Sliwa says his
time at the helm of the Guardian Angels
would help him lower crime and
reinvigorate the city’s police force —
which Sliwa believes is caught up in nefarious
behavior.
“They’re not wearing their hats,
they’re constantly clustered up, sexting
or texting on their phones,” he said of
today’s policemen. “We need cops in the
neighborhood serving as a visual deterrent,
which they’re not now.”
Sliwa says his law enforcement priorities
include increasing police presence,
eliminating ticket quotas, encouraging
cops to patrol in small groups
rather than idling in large clusters, and
working to mend police-community relations.
The red-beret-wearing watchman is
also be a staunch advocate for rolling
back bail reform so that it doesn’t apply
to violent crimes — although he’s in
favor of eliminating cash bail for lowlevel
offenses.
“I’m the only candidate who’s been
locked up 77 times, so I know how the
system can screw the accused,” he said,
referencing his multiple arrests during
his time as an unregulated vigilante.
“No cash bail makes a lot of sense, but
we were promised it would be for nonviolent
crimes.”
Now, the advocate, who’s survived
an assassination attempt by mob boss
John “Junior” Gotti, enters an uphill
battle to replace the city’s lame-duck
chief executive Bill de Blasio — needing
to win both the Republican mayoral
primary in June 2021, and the general
election against the likely-favored
Democratic nominee the following November.
But fi rst, Sliwa will have to overcome
Silwa at his childhood home in Canarsie.
Photo by Caroline Ourso
his own host of scandals that
would surely be brought to light during
a citywide political contest.
In the Guardian Angels’ early years,
Sliwa faked six crimes so that the group
would gain publicity – a fact he admitted
and said he still regrets.
“It was wrong then, and it is wrong
now,” he told the Brooklyn Paper.
Former Angels claimed that Sliwa
also exaggerated the group’s membership
and staged many other crimes he
didn’t disclose, a 1992 New York Times
article reported.
Sliwa, however, maintains that the
allegations aren’t true.
“There’s no doubt there was six,” he
said. “There weren’t other incidences,
and I didn’t fake membership.”
In 2017, the watchmen was arrested
outside City Hall while attempting to
serve Bill de Blasio with court papers
for an alleged infraction of election
law.
Sliwa also made headlines for his
love affair with Queens District Attorney
Melinda Katz in 2013, when Sliwa’s
ex-wife sued him for funneling money
to Katz while they were still married.
Sliwa and Katz dated for a few years after
that, before splitting in an equally
public falling out.
Meanwhile, Sliwa’s ex-wife went on
to marry former Gov. David Patterson
in August after the ex-pol proposed to
her at a party hosted for them by grocery
store billionaire John Catsimatidis,
who is also considering a Republican
mayoral bid.