On Tuesday night, the Guardian Angels fought against looters in the East Village of New York City as the looters targeted a Foot Locker store.
Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa stated, “We ran inside and started throwing guys out the door. There was loot on the floor,” adding that the 25 or 30 looters fled from the store but then returned with a bigger mob, some of whom brandished aluminum baseball bats and brought lock cutters and backpacks with tools to pry off plywood.
Sliwa continued, “Once they were inside, they summoned others with their smartphones. It was like flashmobbing or a hail of locusts.” He estimated that by 10:25 p.m., the mob of looters included roughly 300 people, the New York Daily News reported. Sliwa said the looters targeted the Foot Locker and a McDonald’s.
Calling the fight an “all-out battle,” Sliwa added, “They were hell bent on getting through us and getting to the McDonald’s, and we just held our ground,” adding that someone hit him with a ball peen hammer, breaking his jaw. His colleague, Aram Sabet, according to Sliwa, was hit in the eye with a metal device used to break windows. “Forty-eight stitches, injuries to the eyebrow, left sinus is shattered, nose broken, I got a chipped tooth,” Sabet said, as ABC News reported, adding, “He also lost sight in his left eye.”
Despite the fact that the Angels reportedly detained some of the looters, Sliwa said that when police arrived they made no arrests. He commented, “The police were in the distance, but they weren’t confronting them or making arrests. The cops weren’t aggressive. They didn’t collar anyone. They were like chasing tornadoes, but never catching them. They kept telling them to go home.”
Sliwa pointed out that New York Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have not deployed the National Guard, which Sliwa favors. He said, “Too bad Cuomo and de Blasio weren’t here to see this. When the sun goes down, the streets are left to the looters and the thugs.”
In March, Sliwa, who is a Republican, announced he was running for the mayoralty of New York, telling New York Post, “I am the only candidate with the onions to take back the city. I have the street cred. I have bled in the streets. I’ve given seven lives. I have two left. I’ll use them for the City of New York.”
He tweeted, “I am the anti-de Blasio candidate. The part time Mayor ‘Dope from Park Slope’ has single-handedly destroyed our city. Roll with Sliwa through the subways & streets & you’ll see why I’m the only one who can #SaveOurCity.”
I am the anti-de Blasio candidate. The part time Mayor "The Dope from Park Slope" has single-handedly destroyed our city. Roll with Sliwa through the subways & streets & you'll see why I'm the only one who can #SaveOurCityhttps://t.co/pDQ0nGTb0a via @nypost @karol #mta
— Curtis Sliwa (@CurtisSliwa) March 9, 2020
Citing the city’s new bail-reform law, which has been blamed by the NYPD for the city’s rising crime rate, Sliwa stated, “It took us a long time to crawl out of the belly of the beast of the 1970s through 1990s. Bill de Blasio and the Democrats are bringing us back in.”
Sliwa said he would get rid of the mayor’s security detail, add more police, bring back “pro-active” foot patrols and encourage more organizations like his own to cooperate with the NYPD. The Post added, “He also wants to keep open and refurbish Rikers Island and thwart plans to open jails in the boroughs, as well as opening more psychiatric facilities to aid mentally ill homeless people — calling it an ‘absolute sin’ to leave them in the streets.”
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