New York's Guardian Angels forming Wilmington chapter

A throwback, red-beret-clad, crime-fighting troop wants to help ease violence in Wilmington.

The Guardian Angels are recruiting volunteers for a Wilmington chapter to combat shootings that terrorize some Wilmington neighborhoods, according to the organization's founder, Curtis Sliwa.

The Brooklyn-based non-profit came to prominence in a crime-plagued, 1980s New York City where its volunteers, outfitted in bright red jumpsuits and military-style berets, became a common sight seeking to deter and intervene in crime across tough neighborhoods and the city's subway system.

Through the years, the organization branched out to other cities and developed a reputation for crime-fighting and controversy with some seeing them as a useful, hard-edged neighborhood watch and others deriding the group as publicity hawks.

"People think Delaware is just the state of wealth and the state of the Fortune 500 company, but they have a lot of poverty, a big inner-city in Wilmington and a lot of the problems that are directly attributable to drugs from some of the bigger cities around," Sliwa said. "Now it has escalated to where you are dealing with constant shootings ... We are best known for going into these high crime areas and dealing with this to help suppress the gunfire."

Sliwa and four other Guardian Angels in their trademark red, roamed Fourth Street near the Adams 4 Shopping Center on Sunday speaking to residents. Last week, a man was shot twice in the Adams 4 parking lot. There have been 78 shootings killing 18 people in Wilmington so far this year. Last year, there were 114 shootings that killed 23.

"I remember these guys from growing up in New York in the '70s," said West Center City resident Jacklyn Alexander. "It has been a rough time in Wilmington with all the shootings. These kids out here have no guidance. I believe (the Guardian Angels) can do some good. They serve and protect just like the cops."

Marcos Velez, 44, known as The Punisher, will be the Angels' point-man in Wilmington. Velez was born and raised in Wilmington, then left and volunteered for more than a decade with the Angels along the Eastern Seaboard before returning to Delaware three years ago.

"I came back in 2012 and realized the crime was so high because there are so many gang members and a lot, a lot of really bad activity. These kids are being used by top drug dealers," Velez said. "I thought why not start something here."

Sliwa said the Angels primarily serve as a big, red deterrent on city streets, but the volunteers are also trained in first-aid and make citizen arrests if they catch someone in the act of a crime. Velez is recruiting volunteers from Wilmington to undergo a three-month training period covering self defense, crisis management and the rules for making citizen arrests.

"We are not Hessians. We are not mercenaries. We are not sending people in from Philly or Baltimore, New York or (Washington) D.C. to patrol here," Sliwa said.

Sliwa said in other cities his group acts as "tactical-air support" for other anti-violence citizen groups who don't have the training to intervene on the street. There are several such groups already working in Wilmington.

The leaders of the Angels' Baltimore chapter will help oversee the Wilmington outfit and Velez said he hopes to bring some of the change he's seen the Angels make in other cities.

"When we were in D.C. neighborhoods with high crime, there was 24-hours, consistent patrolling," Velez said. "They reduced crime and drug dealers moved away. They moved away from the corners and people were able to hang out on their front porch without worrying about being shot."

This isn't Sliwa's first trip into Wilmington. Before his organization branched out to Baltimore and Philadelphia, he was called to a public meeting at Wilmington's Riverside Housing projects during the height of the crack-cocaine crime wave in the '80s.

"When I visited Hilltop and the East Side neighborhoods, I was trying to explain ... that if local people got involved it would help prevent most violent crimes from taking place," Silwa said.

But city administration and law enforcement officials gave Sliwa's group the "flea-bag treatment" and he was "run out of town," he said.

Discussions about community policing and the prevalence of foot patrols have become a regular feature of city politics. Sliwa said his organization can provide manpower where paid officers are not available. On Sunday, a Wilmington Police officer patrolling West Center City stopped to speak with the Sliwa.

"I remember these guys from their time in New York," said Sgt. Walter Ferris, who was asked whether he thought the Angels could make a difference in the city. "If they are not contributing to crime and not hindering us, why not?"

The Angels organization has gone through ups and downs through the decades. In the mid-'90s, the organization's reputation was marred when Sliwa acknowledged fabricating tales of some of the Angels' early exploits.

But Sliwa's station has put in him real danger. In 1992, he was nearly killed in a kidnapping and shooting. Prosecutors claimed the hit was arranged by mobster John "Junior" Gotti, but four juries came back deadlocked before the effort to charge Gotti was dropped.

The Angels now have some 5,000 members in 18 countries, according to Sliwa. He said some 150 members still patrol in Brooklyn and the Bronx and recently made headlines when they returned to patrolling Central Park in Manhattan.

Sliwa is also a daytime talk-radio host in New York where the local media have covered his personal life and political bends. His star still appears to hold some glow in Wilmington as multiple passers by on Fourth Street stopped their cars to take photographs with him.

"Hey I remember you doing this back in Camden back when you had black hair," said one resident to the graying Sliwa, who turned 61 this year.

He said his organization has evolved through the years to include more programming and focus on young people. He said the crime problem has improved in cities like New York, but their mission is still an effective one.

"Unfortunately, I am at a point where I saw such a miraculous recovery in cities, I began to think 'wow, we're going to maintain,' " Sliwa said. "But then this summer has been such a horrific explosion in violent crime."

To get involved visit: www.guardianangels.org

eporting from the Associated Press contributed to this article.

Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com. Follow @Ber_Xerxes on Twitter.