Me and my group watched a documentary on Tuesday about gang violence in New York and how a group called the Guardian Angels found a way to combat it. I learned about a group called the Guardian Angels. The Guardian Angels were a group that patrolled the streets in NYC. These Guardian Angels were led by a guy named Curtis Silwa who put his life on the line day in an day out for the Guardian Angels.
When Curtis started off out of adulthood working at a McDonalds in the 1970’s. Murder and Crime was up a whopping 325% and the streets and subways were absolutely filled with gang members. When Curtis got robbed at this McDonalds, he decided he was going to make a change. He told all of his fellow employees to get weapons and the next time they get robbed, to fight back. So they did and they ended up succesful. Curtis saw the potential of this and decided to start a non-profit organization called the Guardian Angels.
When the Guardian Angels started patrolling the streets, they were despised by the government but loved by the people. The police would arrest and kill the Guardian Angels because they were vigilantes. However, the Guardian Angels kept going and that’s how they are a group today. But they had trouble with a separate gang called the Gambino gang.
This gang was lead by people named John Gotti Jr. and John Gotti Sr. One night John Gotti Jr. stabbed a man 46 times but everyone kept silent besides one man. That one man told many people that he stabbed another guy but soon he was found murdered. Everyone kept this all on the low but Curtis Sliwa found out about this story and he exposed Gotti Jr. on his radio show. Eventually, Gotti Jr. had enough so he attempted to kill Curtis Sliwa when he took a taxi to his office. Curtis was shot multiple times in the torso and jumped out the car and was bleeding out on the road. However, he was saved in time to survive with only a few scars.
This shows how dedicated Curtis was to the Guardian Angels and that the Guardian Angels was a super big group that helped mitigate gang violence in NYC. The documentary left me with questions, how can someone like me get involved with mitigating gang violence in NYC? How can I support the Guardian Angels?
