It all started on Fordham Road, but it didn’t end there.
Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa walked the strip he first patrolled three decades ago as a teen, exchanging smiles and hugs with passersby as he led his crew on a patrol last week.
Sliwa, now 56, saw the area decay as a night manager at a McDonald’s in 1979.
“I used to keep the bathroom door locked,” he said. “Hookers would come in to turn tricks, dope fiends to shoot up. It wasn’t safe anywhere.”
Realizing the lack of police presence, he formed a group that launched Feb. 13 that year to protect the area and subways and make citizen’s arrests if needed.
They donned bright red jackets and red berets that became their trademarks, with metal handcuffs and police radios clipped to their belts. And Sliwa, outspoken and never at a loss for a sound bite, has been in the media spotlight ever since.
“I remember them from when I was a little girl walking around these streets – they always made me feel safe having them around,” said Pamela Deckard, 41, who grew up on Loring Place.
“They always make the Bronx proud; they really helped control the gangs that were running around here.”
Since their start, the Guardian Angels have expanded to 15 countries, with crews as far away as Japan and South Africa. Last month, members launched a patrol closer to home – Camden, N.J.
“Camden is now what the South Bronx was in the late ’70s,” Sliwa said. “It’s Dante’s inferno over there. Gangs, drugs and no police anywhere to be found.”
Layoffs recently slashed the size of the Camden police force from 400 to 200 officers. Sliwa’s Angels now have 40 members helping out in the area.
“Half the citizens of Camden are grateful,” Sliwa said. “The other half – the criminals – want us out. They slashed our tires last week and were ready to torch the car.”
The Guardian Angels were not always welcome in the Bronx, either. “McDonald’s fired me for being a vigilante,” Sliwa said. “[Then-Mayor] Ed Koch tried to bully me. Police unions thought we were jeopardizing their job security.”
Sliwa had admitted to faking some heroic subway rescues, including thwarting a mugging and rape. In 1980, he falsely claimed he was kidnapped by transit cops.
Last week, Sliwa – now a radio talk show host – walked past an NYPD Mobile Command Center near Bryan Park on E. Kingsbridge Road – a spot where thugs used to beat victims with bats and nunchakus.
Now, the problem is guns, said Angels member David Torres, 47.
“We have a great relationship now with the police,” Torres said. “Years ago, they just used to hate seeing our colors. We were trying to fight crime and we were the ones getting arrested. Now, we work together.”
Jamel Purnell, 6, a first-grader at Public School 83, walked alongside the Angels patrol with his mother and stopped to talk with Sliwa.
“I want to help people,” the little boy told the veteran crimefighter, with a grin across his little face.
“Fordham Road has improved tremendously since we started …. We’ve come a long way since running on the Mugger’s Express,” said Sliwa, referring to the No. 4 train that runs through the area. “There are still pockets of crime that are out there and that’s why we’re still here.”
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