The Guardian Angels: Law and Order and Citizen Policing in New York City

Abstract

This article explores the rise of the Guardian Angels, a community patrol organization founded in 1979 in New York City by Curtis Sliwa and composed mainly of black and Latino youths. The group emerged in an era of economic restructuring coupled with a rising fear of crime. The Guardian Angels merit attention because of their peculiar relationship to the rise of law and order politics. They demonstrate that the fear of crime was neither the monopoly of the white middle class nor merely a construction of politicians. Black and Latino Guardian Angels were agents of community crime control who drew on existing customs of self-determination and distrust of the police. Ultimately, however, the activities and the rhetoric of the Guardian Angels contributed to the rise of a conservative discourse that justified the strengthening of the police state, anxiety about crime, and the gentrification of neighborhoods.

Exploring the Contribution and Relationship to Policing and Community Safety of Volunteer Street Patrols

“…International examples such as the US Guardian Angels raise questions around the motivations of patrollers and actions they are willing to take. This US example is often referred to as a vigilante movement, established and managed for citizens to be self-proclaimed peacekeepers to address crime and incivility on the streets of several US cities (Kenney, 1986;Pennell et al, 1986;Hillyer, 2017). Bullock (2014) offers a comprehensive analysis of street or citizen patrols and suggests that UK examples of VSP, namely the Street Pastors and Street Angels, consist of volunteers who participate to help address those in need within the night-time economy through supportive interventions and their presence on the street having a deterrence effect.…”

The Politics of Vigilantism

“…First, vigilantism may shift public perceptions and attitudes. In the US, for example, Hillyer (2017) argues that the “activities and the rhetoric of the Guardian Angels 20 contributed to the rise of a conservative discourse that justified the strengthening of the police state, anxiety about crime, and the gentrification of neighborhoods” (p. 886). Similarly, in Latin America, Caldeira (2000) and Caldeira and Holston (1999) argue that vigilantism undermines the rule of law and normalizes the idea of extra-judicial punishment of alleged criminals.…”

Watching and Seeing

“…Christina Hanhardt (2013) considers the gay (primarily White cisgender male) community's call for "safe streets" (and the emergence of accompanying community patrols) during urban decline, as caught between the need to physically protect LGBTQ people and space in response to rampant homophobia (and a careless police force), and the municipal government's support of gay-led gentrification at a time of depopulation and capital flight from New York City. Other work points to the ways that volunteer patrols intersect with dominant discourses, such as that of law-and-order politics which expanded the reach of the carceral state, and an extension of the "responsibilizing" discourse of neoliberalism-the State encouraging volunteer forms of security and surveillance without the economic responsibility of expanding state agencies (Hillyer 2017;Super 2016). This work also suggests that volunteer patrols, in doing the work of policing, may also exist as vigilante groups, engaging in forms of racial profiling and xenophobia without institutional accountability (Bénit-Gbaffou et al, 2012;Hillyer 2017;Super 2016).…”

“…Other work points to the ways that volunteer patrols intersect with dominant discourses, such as that of law-and-order politics which expanded the reach of the carceral state, and an extension of the "responsibilizing" discourse of neoliberalism-the State encouraging volunteer forms of security and surveillance without the economic responsibility of expanding state agencies (Hillyer 2017;Super 2016). This work also suggests that volunteer patrols, in doing the work of policing, may also exist as vigilante groups, engaging in forms of racial profiling and xenophobia without institutional accountability (Bénit-Gbaffou et al, 2012;Hillyer 2017;Super 2016).…”