Three months after the Guardian Angels promised to step up their presence in the city's transit system, some members of the self-proclaimed crime-fighting group appear to be harassing subway riders over political disagreements, according to video and witnesses.
Demonstrators who gathered at the Stonewall Inn for a weekly Trans Liberation march told Gothamist they noticed at least eight of the red-jacketed vigilantes "stalking" the rally on Thursday. While that event dispersed without incident, an argument on the train between demonstrators and two Guardian Angels later escalated into fisticuffs.
Patrick Bobilin, a former State Assembly candidate who runs the Upper East Side Mutual Aid group, said that the two men became angry after a passenger next to him accused them of "targeting homeless people and farebeaters."
"I took out my phone as the Guardian Angel starts to approach us," Bobilin told Gothamist. "He's getting in my face, so I put up my arm and leg to maintain six feet [for social distancing]. He performs some kind of karate kick on me. This other guy stands up and [pushes the Guardian Angel], and then the taller Guardian Angel squares up to punch him."
"A woman reading a book had to intervene," Bobilin, 37, added. "They were doing the same kind of violence that they're supposedly called on to prevent."
Inquiries to the Guardian Angels were not immediately returned.
The group — founded by Curtis Sliwa in the 1970s to fight, and sometimes invent, crime in the subways — has sought to burnish their image as a pro-law enforcement organization in the wake of this summer's George Floyd protests.
In November, Sliwa announced that they would have a larger presence in the subway system, as part of an "intervention program for emotionally disturbed persons." They also recently began patrols on the Upper East Side, in response to the arrival of a new homeless shelter.
Some New Yorkers say that the group's efforts have long been detrimental to marginalized communities. "They’ve always targeted the queer community," John Blasco, a Lower East Side District Leader, wrote on Twitter. "Always!"
Blasco told Gothamist he recalled the group harassing people near the Christopher Street piers in the early 2010s, in some cases holding young kids for alleged quality of life crime until the police arrived. "How do they get away with citizens arrests? Because they have a relationship with the NYPD, that’s how they get away with it," Blasco said.
Bobilin said he didn't file a police report on Friday, and an NYPD spokesperson did not respond to inquiries about whether they were investigating Thursday's incident.
